Expanded access: CVS and Walgreens to sell abortion pill
Monday, March 4, 2024—CVS and Walgreens will start filling prescriptions for mifepristone, one of the drugs to end pregnancies, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the coming weeks with plans to expand this access where the medication is legal.
Individuals will be able to buy the pill at some Walgreens stores across the country within a week according to a spokesman for the company. Representatives from the chains did say they wouldn’t be dispensing mifepristone in states where the law was “unclear.” It remains to be seen if this includes Kansas, where Attorney General Kris Kobach pressured Walgreens into not dispensing the drug last year, even though it was legal in the state.
While Walgreens will sell mifepristone in its stores, it will not sell it by mail. As you may know, abortion medication by mail has been under scrutiny since the overturning of Roe V Wade. Mifepristone has also been at the center of a major legal battle between anti-abortion activists and the FDA with SCOTUS set to hear the case later this year.
Read the full story on NPR.com.
Stick and stones: Names won’t hurt me, but they will piss me off
Monday, March 4, 2024—There is one legal abortion clinic left in the state of Wyoming and today the Wyoming House and Senate passed a bill that would significantly regulate surgical and “chemical” abortions there. Yes, you read that right. Chemical. Forget what the bill would entail, this article refers to MEDICAL abortions as CHEMICAL abortions. Can I have a collective “WTF?” There is no such thing as a “chemical” abortion. It’s a made up term to make abortions sound scary and dangerous! USA Today is supposed to be a credible news source and instead they are using terms propagated by anti-abortion activists and politicians. Talk about having an agenda…
Read the full story on USA Today.
J'aime les femmes: France makes abortion a “guaranteed freedom”
Tuesday, March 5, 2024—Women’s rights activists were exuberant after French lawmakers did what US democrats are finding to be impossible: enshrining a woman’s right to abortion. The bill was approved in an overwhelming 780-72 vote, making France’s position on abortion crystal clear and casting shade on the United States, where politicians are rapidly diminishing abortion rights. This bipartisan move by French lawmakers, the first of its kind in the world, sets an example for all nations and, IMHO, makes France the leader in women’s rights.
Over 80% of the French population supports abortion and was in favor of enshrining the freedom in the constitution. Sarah Durocher, a leader in the Family Planning movement, said Monday’s vote was “a victory for feminists and a defeat for the anti-choice activists.”
Read the full story on NBC.com.
O-MG! The Opill is coming to a store near you
Tuesday, March 5, 2024—Don’t want to put the pill through your insurance? Can’t take time off of work to go to the doctor? You can soon find an over-the-counter birth control pill in the family planning section of your drugstore, convenience store, and supermarket. Opill is a 98% effective progestin pill that doctor’s have been prescribing since 1973—it’s just now that a panel of experts ruled the directions are clear enough that people can use it without the assistance of a physician.
A month's supply of Opill will cost around $19.99. A three-month supply costs about $49.99 and six months will run you about $89.99.
Read the full story on NPR.com.
International Women’s Day brought a major win in France while the U.S. saw defeat
Friday, March 8, 2024—France celebrated International Women’s Day in the most apropos way: by inscribing the right to abortion into its Constitution. This powerful message is in the deep contrast to that of Republican’s during the last night’s State of the Union address, who sat silently while he boomed through his goals for reproductive freedom.
France sees abortion as a matter of healthcare, while Republicans see it as a political decision. Marches and protests in Europe and Asia today expressed just how women are in gender hell. There are significant salary differences, professions dominated by one sex, and wide range of equality problems. And that’s not the worst part.
The LA Times reports, “UNICEF released a report on International Women’s Day revealing that more than 230 million women and girls around the world have undergone genital mutilation. [It says] the number has increased by 30 million in the past eight years.”
“We’re also seeing a worrying trend that more girls are subjected to the practice at younger ages, many before their 5th birthday. That further reduces the window to intervene,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
Read the full story on the LA Times.
“A” is for abortion—or is it for avoidance?
Sunday, March 10, 2024—Reproductive freedom was the main theme of Biden’s SOTU address, but he never actually said the word and abortion rights advocates are none too happy. After all, it’s abortion that’s being fought over and driving his supporters to the polls. People don’t make an appointment to have a “reproductive freedom,” they make an appointment for an “abortion.” People flee their states because of “abortion” bans, not “reproductive freedom” bans. And by avoiding the word, it sends a clear message that he is uneasy with the idea, not good when the election may hinge on his support of it.
Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, which manages abortion clinics in Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico and Virginia, told the Associated Press, “Abortion is what we provide and what people are being denied. People don’t call us for a reproductive freedom appointment. They don’t ask for a bodily autonomy visit or a choice procedure. They call for abortion care, and abortion is a professional medical term for the health care we provide. Avoiding the word just shows the power of the historical stigma around abortion.”
Biden’s aides believe that the issue of reproductive freedom has moved beyond abortion to include IVF and birth control, but critics do not agree. Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to restore Roe v Wade and defended the FDA’s approval of mifepristone and supported getting pharmacies certified to dispense the drug. This is all tremendous, but he needs to be explicit in his support of abortion, especially because he has created ambiguity in the past.
During a Maryland fundraiser last year for his reelection campaign, he said: “I’m a practicing Catholic. I’m not big on abortion. But guess what? Roe v. Wade got it right.” With statements like this floating around, you might say he needs to use his pulpit to preach abortion’s good word.
Read the full story on AP.com.
Can’t ban abortion? Let’s legalize harassment.
Monday, March 11, 2024—Dorothy wouldn't have gone back to Kansas if it was her home today. The State Constitution protects bodily autonomy, making abortion bans illegal, so the Kansas House passed a bill on Thursday, “requir(ing) abortion providers to ask every woman receiving an abortion a list of 11 intrusive, personal, private questions,” according to Clay Wirestone of the Kansas Reflector. The bill was the work of the state’s leading anti-abortion group, Kansans for Life. The 11 questions can be found in their original text here or below as paraphrased by Wirestone:
Will having a baby interfere with the your education, employment or career?
Are you unable to provide for the child?
Do you already have enough, or too many, children?
Is your husband or partner abusive to you or your children?
Does your husband or partner want you to have an abortion?
Do you not have enough support from family or others to raise a child?
Is your pregnancy the result of rape?
Is your pregnancy the result of incest?
Does this pregnancy threaten your physical health?
Does this pregnancy threaten your mental or emotional health?
Would your child have a disability?
There were four questions that were originally on the list and then removed. The optics would have been too terrible—as if the optics now are great.
Do you not feel mature enough to raise a child or, if applicable, an additional child?
Do your parents want you to have an abortion?
Do you not want others to know that you had sexual intercourse or became pregnant?
Do you fear that you would neglect or abuse an unwanted child?
Women can refuse to answer the questions, but the law instructs that refusals be recorded. And a woman’s answers can lead to judgment from lawmakers on women’s lives and sexuality. In other words, she’s damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.
Read the full story on the Kansas Reflector.
The sexual education of teen boys
Thursday, March 14, 2024—With laws on abortion changing rapidly, there’s a lot of talk about how young women and girls are impacted by this legislature. But more than ever, we need to educate young men and boys about abortion and what it means for them. If there’s a bright side to the overturning of Roe, it’s that it’s a teaching opportunity. But only if parents step up and educate their sons about the female body, sexuality, sex, pregnancy, love, respect, chemistry and communication. Parents need to explain to their sons what really occurs during an abortion, and that they don’t get to decide whether or not the woman they got pregnant has an abortion or not—that’s her choice alone.
Read the full story on yahoo!life.
Veep makes historic visit to Planned Parenthood
Thursday, March 14, 2024—Vice President Harris visited an abortion clinic in Minnesota today, the first visit of its kind for any President or Vice President. The visit to Planned Parenthood shined a spotlight on the administration’s support of reproductive rights and women’s healthcare. Harris has been extremely vocal about her position on abortion since Roe was overturned, a stance that will be critical in this year’s general elections.
During this historic visit, Harris spoke with two dozen healthcare workers and called the attack on people’s reproductive rights “outrageous and in many instances just plain immoral,” according to ABCNews.com. She questioned how leaders can think they are in a better position to know what’s in a person’s best interest, and said we need to be a nation that trusts women. This angry woman agrees and thinks the country could take a lesson from Minnesota, which protected the right to abortion in its Constitution last year.
Dr. Sarah Traxler, Planned Parenthood North Central State’s chief medical officer, called Minnesota a "bastion of access for abortion care,” but added that the new abortion landscape is difficult and puts both patients and providers at “severe risk.” To this, Harris says she’s certain the Democrats will win back the House and Congress will pass a bill to codify Roe. (Author’s note: Let’s hope so, or Cheetos Face will ban abortion throughout the country.)
Read the full story on ABCNews.com.
Women are being robbed all because they’re… well, women.
Saturday, March 16, 2024—March 12th was Equal Pay Day and just another reminder that women get the short stick in this country. This time, it’s the workplace that I speak of, where, in 2024, women only earn 84 cents for every dollar men earn. According to the National Women’s Law Center, based on this wage gap, women, regardless of their race or ethnicity, would lose $399,600 over the course of a 40-year career. Depending on a woman’s skin color, that loss could climb into the millions. And if we don’t do anything to stop this, a woman starting her career today will most definitely will lose a million dollars in salary compared to a man, compromising her ability to provide for her family, build personal wealth, get an education, and put away for retirement.
Also startling is that this statistic is the same as last year’s and only one penny up from 2022, according to Christian F. Nunes, the president of National Organization for Women. In fact, there has been little to no progress in improving this situation over the last three decades. This graph from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the only time the gap closed was when men’s salaries were flat between 1979-1994; that there was no time when women’s salaries actually grew. Which is total bullshit.
Want to know what else is bullshit? Women are more likely to graduate from college, but they still will receive less pay. Even if they have an advanced degree. And if a woman is black or hispanic, she will experience the greatest penalty, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
There is no easy solve for this problem, but the state of New York is on the right track. In January 2020, it passed a labor law prohibiting any employer from asking a job applicant their salary history. This includes compensation and benefits. And it’s this type of legislation that will help lead to equal wages.
Let’s hear it for the girls
Wednesday, March 27, 2024—All the distressing news that’s been filling my inbox has been interrupted by The Skimm and some much-needed ways to celebrate women all month long. From starting a women-authors-only book club to celebrating your friends’ work wins to watching women’s sports, these feel-good ideas have me wanting to pour a glass of vino and call my bestie for a quality catch-up session.
If you haven’t read The Skimm’s roundup, you should and can here.
Another reason to hate Florida
Thursday, April 4, 2024—By now, you know about Florida’s 6-week abortion ban, but let’s talk about it anyway. First of all, a 6-week ban may as well be a total ban. How many women know they are pregnant at 6 weeks? Or can find a clinic to perform an abortion before they are 6-weeks or even get the funds together to pay for an abortion before that point? And let’s talk about who this is really going to impact: marginalized groups. Their lives and health will be at risk. They will be tied to abusive partners. They will be forced to drop out of school. They will become impoverished.
Women in Florida will now be forced to travel out of state for abortions, but it’s not just them who are impacted by this ban; women throughout the South have been traveling to Florida for care and nowhere in the Southeast can absorb this number of patients. In other words, we have a public health crisis.
Now the good news: Florida does not want this ban. And they will have a chance to weigh in on how they feel about abortion rights at the ballot box. Amendment 4 from Floridians Protecting Freedom seeks to protect abortion rights in the state’s constitution. While this measure requires 60% of the vote to pass, recent polling shows 62% of voters support the measure—including a majority of Republicans. And that was before the ban, which royally pissed people off.
Florida abortion advocates think this is going to be a shit show for Republicans. Let’s hope so. And let’s hope this anger drives more Floridians to the polls — to vote for Biden.
Read the full story from Jessica Valenti.
Is this the Handmaid’s Tale?
Tuesday, April 16, 2024—Tennessee, a state where abortions are banned without exceptions, has just one-upped itself. The state senate just passed a bill making it a crime to help a minor seeking an abortion unless you are their biological parents. This means a person can’t speak to them about abortion, drive them to get an abortion, pay for their abortion… you get the idea. The bill will also give biological parents of a pregnant minor the right to sue a person for “wrongful death of an unborn child.”
Now this is wrong for so many reasons, but the worst is that a minor who is a victim of incest could potentially need permission from that parent to work with another adult to get an abortion. This very idea is sickening. While the law claims to protect parents’ rights, it doesn’t take into account the rights of the minor. But is that really surprising—especially in Tennessee?
Vague language in the bill also makes it so unclear that even a conversation between a minor and a grandparent could be considered problematic. One has to wonder if this bill is really in anyone’s best interest or just another way for Tennessee’s politicians to assert control over the population?
Read the full story on the TennesseeLookout.com.
Back to the future
Friday, April 26, 2024—After the Arizona Supreme Court instituted an abortion ban from 1864, Democrats and few key Republican allies have introduced legislation to repeal the ban. If the senate passes the repeal next week, the state will go back to having a 15-week ban, far from ideal. As you can imagine, Republicans who voted to kill the total ban are in the hot seat. And women in the state are burned, regardless of this potentially small improvement.
Attorney General Kris Mayes and Governor Katie Hobbs, who would sign the bill, has launched a website to keep Arizonans up to date on the status of the ban and repro rights in the state. The 1864 ban has left millions of women and doctors unclear about what their rights are and this site aims to provide information and resources to these individuals.
Learn more about AG Mayes & Gov. Hobb’s initiative here.
A beacon of light
Sunday, May 5, 2024—Arizona has repealed its 1864 abortion ban (Woohoo!), and while this means a 15-week abortion ban is now in effect, voters could restore abortion rights in the state in November through a pro-choice ballot measure. Hurrah! Republicans hope having a 15-week ban will calm things down a bit, because that’s when most abortions happen anyway, right?? Umm, no.
Support for abortions after the first trimester has jumped nearly 10 points in the last few years, according to Gallup. Gallup also reports that 25% of women and 33% of 18-34 years old believe abortion should be legal throughout pregnancy. America is pro-choice and Republicans should be very, very scared. What’s happened in Arizona is a sign of that’s to come. The proof is in the numbers, which indicate that voters are going to come out to support reproductive rights.
Jessica Valenti beaks them down here.
These numbers tell the story
Friday, May 17, 2024—Rape often leads to pregnancy. That’s just an understood fact. But what is not commonly known is that rape resulted in 64,565 pregnancies in 14 states with near-total abortion bans since Roe was overturned. A team of researchers published a study in medical journal JAMA showing that of the thousands of women and girls who became pregnant from rape, few (if any) obtained in-state abortions legally, suggesting “rape exceptions” fail to provide survivors with the abortion access they require.
This study did not look at how many of the pregnancies resulted in birth, but did point to an earlier report showing “10 or fewer legal abortions were reported per month in each of those states.”
This astounding study reported an estimated 519,981 rapes associated with 64, 565 pregnancies in states that ban abortion during the four to 18 months after the bans went into effect. Of those pregnancies, 58,979 occurred in states with no exception for rape. Nine of the 14 states the study looked at have a total abortion ban with no exception for rape. In the remaining five states of Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, and North Dakota, survivors must report the rape to the police to be able to access abortion services. Research shows only 21% of victims do this.
My personal findings on the above should be no surprise: rape exceptions are a joke! All abortion exceptions are a joke! Any abortion ban is a total abortion ban, so don’t believe anything you hear to the contrary. And I’m too angry to write anything else on the matter.
For more on this study and the researchers, visit Time.