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RNC Approves Platform That Would Give Rights to Fetuses, Endangering Abortion, IVF

The 19th, July 8, 2024

The Republican Party on Monday adopted a “Make America Great Again!” policy platform ahead of its national convention that does not call for a federal ban on abortion, but supports states establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all American citizens. If established by legislation, fetal personhood would have the practical effect of prohibiting abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Its impact could become national if courts affirm state-level laws that extend the application of the 14th Amendment to fetuses. The platform, released ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, adopts a states-centered approach to protecting or restricting reproductive rights, including abortion. It states: “We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those rights.” The 16-page document, approved by the Republican convention platform committee and circulated by Trump’s campaign, goes on to say that Republicans “will oppose Late Term Abortion” – a political term not used by doctors to refer to abortions in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy – while “supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF.” The platform does not call for a national legislative abortion ban or for Congress to set a gestational limit or other restrictions on the medical procedure. In extending 14th Amendment rights to fetuses, though, it follows a path the anti-abortion movement favors to achieve fetal personhood. Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted. Fetal personhood bestows the same rights currently reserved for people to embryos from the moment of fertilization. The GOP platform said the party supports “mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).” It does not explain how they plan to support IVF while also supporting fetal personhood policies that would render it illegal.

Texas Gave Anti-Abortion Centers $5 Million in 2005. The Budget’s Since Ballooned to $140 Million.

Jezebel, July 9, 2024

Before the Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade in 2022, state governments poured money into anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, which claim to provide resources to struggling pregnant people or new parents, but actually target, harass, and lie to potential abortion seekers to dissuade them from having abortions. In states that have since banned abortion, CPCs, which often don’t employ actual medical workers, continue to receive millions in state funding, even as many require clients to attend Bible study to receive benefits like free diapers. But according to a new ProPublica report, in Texas, that state funding is being severely mismanaged. In 2005, the state allocated $5 million to its Alternatives to Abortion program, which has since been renamed Thriving Texas Families – today, the program receives $140 million. The program, which is run by four contractors, is “supposed to promote pregnancies, encourage family formation, and increase economic self-sufficiency,” per ProPublica. The contractors distribute the funding to subcontractors operating CPCs across the state. But there’s no transparency around what these millions are paying for, and CPCs can charge the state $14 for every single anti-abortion pamphlet they distribute. They can also charge the state $14 for distributing a single pack of diapers – even if the CPC obtained those diapers free of cost from a diaper bank. Since there are no restrictions on what the funding can or can’t pay for, some anti-abortion centers and their directors appear to be personally enriching themselves from this massive amount of state funding. One group, Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend in Corpus Christi, amassed a $1.6 million surplus in state funding from 2020 to 2022. Executive Director Jana Pinson said in 2022 that she would use these funds to build a new facility, but per ProPublica, the group doesn’t appear to be taking any steps toward this. “Unfortunately, this is something we’ve seen across a number of states pushing ‘Alternatives to Abortion’ programs,” Shireen Shakouri, executive vice president of Reproaction, which tracks CPCs’ tactics and funding, told Jezebel in a statement. “There is little verification or regulation of how the money is spent, and often minimal evaluation of whether the funding was actually effective in meeting the program’s stated purpose.”

Biden Administration Sends Sharp Reminder to Doctors About Obligation To Provide Emergency Abortions

CNN, July 2, 2024

In letters to health-care providers Tuesday, the Biden administration reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that pregnant people have access to emergency treatment, even if that treatment necessitates an abortion and the person lives in a state with an abortion ban. In the letters, US Department of Health And Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure reminded hospitals and provider associations of their legal duty to provide stabilizing medical care – or transfers, if appropriate – to all patients. The letters come soon after the US Supreme Court formally dismissed an appeal over Idaho’s strict abortion ban that had prompted at least one large hospital system to send some pregnant patients out of state via air transport to protect their health. Idaho’s ban criminalizes most abortions and does not allow a doctor to perform an abortion even if the patient’s health is in danger from the pregnancy itself, in most circumstances. The Biden administration argued that the law violates the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, also known as EMTALA. The 1986 law requires all US hospitals that have received Medicare money – nearly all of them – to screen everyone who comes into their emergency rooms to determine whether the person has an emergency medical condition, without regard for their ability to pay for those services. The law also requires hospitals, to the best of their ability, to stabilize anyone with an emergency medical condition or transfer them to a facility that has that capacity. Pregnant people were singled out in the law in 1989, after reports that some hospitals were refusing to care for uninsured women in labor. Congress expanded EMTALA to specify how it included people who were pregnant and having contractions. In 2021, the Biden administration released the Reinforcement of EMTALA Obligation, which says a doctor’s duty to provide stabilizing treatment “preempts any directly conflicting state law or mandated that might otherwise prohibit or prevent such treatment,” although it did not specify whether an abortion has to be provided. In July 2022, the Biden administration’s guidance clarified that EMTALA includes the need to perform stabilization abortion care if it is medically necessary to treat an emergency medical condition.

Support for Legal Abortion Has Risen Since Supreme Court Eliminated Protections, AP-NORC Poll Finds

ABC News, July 9, 2024

A solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban as a rising number support access to abortions for any reason, a new poll finds, highlighting a politically perilous situation for candidates who oppose abortion rights as the November election draws closer. Around 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s an increase from June 2021, a year before the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure, when about half of Americans thought legal abortion should be possible under these circumstances. Americans are largely opposed to the strict bans that have taken effect in Republican-controlled states since the high court’s ruling two years ago. Full bans, with limited exceptions, have gone into effect in 14 GOP-led states, while three other states prohibit abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before women often realize they’re pregnant. They are also overwhelmingly against national abortion bans and restrictions. And views toward abortion – which have long been relatively stable – may be getting more permissive. Likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has declined to endorse a nationwide abortion ban, saying the issue should be left up to the states. But even that stance is likely to be unsatisfying to most Americans, who continue to oppose many bans on abortion within their own state, and think Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to abortions nationwide, according to the poll. Seven in 10 Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a slight increase from last year, while about 3 in 10 think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

Arkansas Secretary of State Rejects Abortion-Rights Ballot Initiative

NBC News, July 10, 2024

The Arkansas secretary of state on Wednesday rejected an effort to place a constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights on the November ballot, saying organizers failed to submit some required paperwork with its signatures. In a letter to the organization behind the effort, Arkansans for Limited Government, Secretary of State John Thurston wrote that organizers did not submit statements that the group had explained various requirements about the signature-collection process in the state to its paid canvassers and did not identify those paid canvassers by name. “By contrast, other sponsors of initiative petitions complied with this requirement. Therefore, I must reject your submission,” wrote Thurston, a Republican. Rebecca Bobrow, a spokesperson for Arkansans for Limited Government, confirmed that the group had received the letter and was evaluating what to do next. “Our legal team is reviewing the letter from the Secretary of State. We will have more to say shortly,” Bobrow said in a statement. Arkansans for Limited Government announced Friday that it collected the signatures of more than 100,000 registered voters – more than the approximately 90,700 it needed before the deadline that day – to move forward with getting its proposal on the general election ballot. In his letter, Thurston said the lack of required paperwork affected 14,143 signatures, leaving the group short of the required amount. Arkansas is one of 11 states where organizers formally launched efforts to place pro-abortion-rights amendments on their fall ballots. The measures are officially on the ballots in six states: Colorado, Maryland, Florida, South Dakota, Nevada and New York. Organizers in four more – Arizona, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska – have submitted signatures, but further steps remain before those initiatives are certified to appear on the ballots. Nearly all abortions in Arkansas are banned under a 2022 state law that snapped into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The state’s law makes exceptions only for abortion when the woman’s life is at risk. The state Health Department has said zero abortions were reported performed in the state last year. And American United for Life, an anti-abortion-rights group, rated Arkansas as “the most pro-life state in America” this year.

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

More than half of Black women live in the 26 states w/abortion bans, including 2.7 million living on low incomes. Dobbs continues to threaten their health and economic security. Add the #WageGap, and financial security is even further out of reach. https://t.co/wJqXv1z919

— National Partnership (@NPWF) July 9, 2024

 

 

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Note: The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.