The Quickie: Iowa Special Session to Ban Abortion Begins Tomorrow
For Immediate Release: July 10, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: IA special session to ban abortion starts tomorrow, RSVP for our IA press call today at 12:30 ET, how attacks on trans health care hurt children, and abortion access decimated in the South.
**TODAY @ 12:30 PM ET: PRESS CALL ON PROPOSED IOWA ABORTION BAN. REGISTER HERE.**
TOMORROW: IOWA LEGISLATIVE SPECIAL SESSION TO BAN ABORTION BEGINS: Tomorrow, Iowa’s legislature will reconvene for a special session to ban abortion in the state. Anti-abortion lawmakers are expected to propose a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.
The proposed ban mirrors a 2018 law that has been permanently blocked by state courts. Despite this, anti-abortion politicians in the state are relentlessly attacking Iowans’ reproductive freedom.
Today at 12:30 ET, Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) and the Emma Goldman Clinic will host a virtual press conference discussing the impact of the proposed ban. Speakers include PPNCS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sarah Traxler, PPNCS President and CEO Ruth Richardson, and Emma Goldman Clinic executive director Francine Thompson. RSVP here.
Read more at Radio Iowa.
ATTACKS ON TRANS HEALTH CARE HURT CHILDREN: Last week, Bloomberg’s Lisa Jarvis explored how political attacks on gender-affirming care are hurting children around the country. In the past year alone, more than 20 states have moved to restrict gender-affirming care, especially banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. Gender-affirming care saves lives and is supported by all major medical organizations, but anti-trans politicians have once again politicized critical health care.
As Jarvis points out, bans on gender-affirming care are particularly dire since it involves routine care. If a trans child lives in a state with a gender-affirming care ban, one of their only options for sustained care is to move to another state entirely. This is only compounded by the lack of availability for care even in states where gender-affirming care is legal.
“These laws targeting a tiny portion of the population are putting kids at risk — physically, emotionally and mentally,” Jarvis writes. “As with abortion, it makes perfect sense for doctors and health care organizations to prepare to serve health care refugees.”
Read more at Bloomberg.
ACROSS THE COUNTRY: AN ODYSSEY TO GET ABORTION CARE IN THE SOUTH: CNN featured the story of 45-year-old Victoria, a resident of New Orleans, who had to travel from Louisiana to Oregon for abortion care. Louisiana is one of several states in the South that totally bans abortion, making it difficult for many to cross into the next state over to receive care. For many people like Victoria, they must travel across the country for abortion care. For pregnant people in Texas and Louisiana, the average travel time to the nearest abortion clinic is longer than seven hours and often several states away.
“It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through, from the moment of discovering that I was pregnant at age 45 to actually having to have to take time off work, travel across the country, do a meeting with a doctor, and then take the pills and then skedaddle back home and then go to work like nothing had happened,” Victoria told CNN.
Photo Illustration: Jason Lancaster/CNN/Adobe Stock/Getty Images.
Read more about Victoria’s story at CNN.