The Quickie: "It's Time to Call Abortion Bans What They Are—Torture and Cruelty"
For Immediate Release: June 14, 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: abortion bans are torture, massive increase in PPIL patients, and WY abortion provider talks anti-abortion violence and increasing abortion access.
“IT’S TIME TO CALL ABORTION BANS WHAT THEY ARE—TORTURE AND CRUELTY”: This week, human rights advocates Payal Shah and Akil Radhakrishnan penned an op-ed for The Nation, arguing that denial of critical abortion care has often qualified as a human rights abuse around the globe. Specifically, denial of abortion care has been found by international human rights committees and courts as violations of the rights to life, health, nondiscrimination, and freedom from torture and ill-treatment. Indeed, the UN Human Rights Committee has found denial of abortion care a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the United States has ratified; the United States is under review by the Committee this fall for compliance with the covenant. This covenant is just one of many international agreements and norms that abortion bans have violated. They write,
“Until these laws are repealed, anti-abortion policy-makers will continue to instrumentalize the US health care system to commit human rights violations. In contravention of scientific evidence, we are seeing cases of health care workers in the United States forced to be complicit in inflicting torture and ill-treatment on patients who are entrusting them with their lives… Acknowledging that abortion bans have led to torture and ill-treatment can be consequential for abortion law reform. For example, the UN Human Rights Committee’s decision regarding Ireland was recognized as critical in spurring a constitutional referendum that ultimately resulted in liberalizing the country’s abortion law in 2018.”
Read more at The Nation.
ABORTION PATIENTS AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF ILLINOIS INCREASE OVER 50% POST-DOBBS: In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) has experienced a 54% increase in abortion patients. PPIL’s data also reveals a disturbing trend: more pregnant people are forced to delay care and spend more money accessing care due to abortion bans in their home states. Abortions over 16 weeks gestational age now make up 13% of all abortions compared to 8% pre-Dobbs and the number of patients needing financial assistance to travel to PPIL for care has more than doubled. Twenty-five percent of PPIL’s patients traveled from another state for care compared to just 7% before the end of Roe, traveling from 34 different states.
PPIL anticipated the massive increase in need for care in Illinois, forming a partnership with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and expanding their own operation. Planned Parenthood Illinois Action (PPIA) also worked extensively with the state legislature to advance protections for sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion and gender-affirming care, as well as block anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
“Illinois is a safe haven in the Midwest because of the pro-choice champions in Springfield,” said Jennifer Welch, PPIA President and CEO. “Together with coalition partners, we passed a full suite of legislation that protects our patients and providers traveling from another state where there are bans and restrictions. We continue to fight for the rights of everyone to access the essential health care they need and deserve.”
Read more at Patch. Check out PPIL’s data here.
“IT’S NOT JUST THE FRINGE WHO ARE COMMITTING THESE VIOLENT ACTS”: This week, New York Magazine interviewed abortion provider Julie Burkhart, who just opened Wyoming’s only clinic to provide procedural abortions in the state. The clinic’s opening had been delayed after an anti-abortion activist set fire to the building while under construction. Burkhart discussed the violence perpetrated by the anti-abortion movement:
“Violence has been pervasive in this movement, unfortunately. We’ve had a number of physicians to front-office staff to security guards assassinated. Just this past 18 to 24 months, we’ve seen a number of arsons around the country focused on abortion-providing clinics, as well as other types of vandalism and threats to clinic invasions. It is pervasive, and I think for me, it’s just crystal clear that it’s not just the fringe who are committing these violent acts. It’s folks within the mainstream anti-abortion movement who through their actions, through their language, help to perpetuate this violence.”
Burkhart urged legislators to protect sexual and reproductive health care and make it more accessible:
“Elected officials can ensure that they are advocating for and working to pass the best possible policies that are going to protect people in their states. One is Medicaid expansion... And as far as reproductive-rights advocates, we see more and more patients who need funding. People are, as I’d mentioned earlier, having to travel further. They need access to transportation, lodging, food, child care.”
Read more at New York Magazine.