The Quickie: The Fragile State of Medication Abortion Access Nationwide 

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: the state of access to medication abortion, PPAF president talks hip hop and youth voter engagement, and our weekly state fights recap. 

THE FRAGILE STATE OF MEDICATION ABORTION ACCESS NATIONWIDE: While we await a ruling in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine et al v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration et al, a case that could compromise access to medication abortion across the country — even in states where abortion is protected  — access to medication abortion has already been severely limited. Right now, bans have eliminated some or all access to both procedural and medication abortion in 18 states. So far this session, 10 states have introduced bills restricting access to medication abortion — many in states where abortion is already fully banned. 

Read more here. 

(HIP) HOP TO THE POLLS: Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson joined MSNBC’s Into America podcast on Wednesday to discuss her past work with P. Diddy’s Vote or Die campaign and its impact on the 2004 election. She focused on the use of hip-hop music as a way to engage and inspire disillusioned youth voters:

“Puff’s message was that this is literally life and death. If we don’t actually engage in the game, they will continue to forget us. They will continue to essentially keep us in prison without jobs, without access to education to raise our families. And I think that is what people saw as an important entry point to the conversation.”

Alexis explained that by engaging young people of color, the campaign was able to secure the highest youth voter turnout in a presidential election since 1972:

“We would secure 10,000 registrations in a week. When you look at the data of who turned out, the youth vote increased significantly, and that was driven by an increase in participation among young black and Latina women.”

Listen to the full interview here.

STATE RIGHTS ROUND-UP: More than 225 anti-abortion bills have been filed in 41 states during the 2023 state legislative session thus far. 

Proactive efforts: 

• The Health Care Freedom Act passed the New Mexico House earlier this week and is now awaiting committee scheduling in the Senate. This bill would prohibit public bodies — including local municipalities — from denying, restricting, or discriminating against an individual’s right to use or refuse reproductive or gender-affirming health care.
• The Protect Access to Contraception Act has passed the Minnesota Senate Health Committee and been referred to the Senate Commerce committee. Other proactive bills moving in Minnesota include legislation that would require health insurance to cover infertility treatments and a bill that would limit the release of health care records in cases related to sexual and reproductive health.
• The Connecticut Human Services committee held a hearing this week on a bill to provide state financial assistance for some out-of-state residents receiving abortion care or gender affirming care in Connecticut.
• Lawmakers in Maryland heard testimony on legislation to codify protections for abortion in the state constitution. 
• Yesterday in Virginia, anti-abortion lawmakers blocked a resolution that would have forced the full House to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine reproductive freedom in the state. The amendment must pass the full General Assembly twice with an intervening election before it can go before Virginia voters, but anti-abortion lawmakers refuse to let their constituents consider the proposal.
• Montana lawmakers rejected an effort to bolster protections for abortion this week. The Montana House Judiciary committee also held a hearing on a bill that would provide a civil penalty of $500 for an individual who impedes or obstructs another person’s ability to access abortion care.

Defensive efforts:

• On Wednesday, Nebraska politicians advanced abortion ban LB626 out of committee, setting it up for its first of potentially three rounds of debate in the state’s unicameral legislature. Under this proposed law, doctors who provide abortions after six weeks or without an ultrasound could lose their license. LB626 would be enforced by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, which would create a panel of medical peers to review any allegations leveraged against health care providers. 
• Legislation to eliminate rape and incest exceptions from Wyoming’s currently blocked trigger ban has been assigned to the Senate Agriculture committee. The bill, which quickly passed the House earlier this month, would also remove what limited Medicaid coverage for abortion the state currently provides under the ban, meaning that even if someone in the state got an abortion to save their life, Medicaid would not cover the costs.
• On Wednesday, the Utah Senate Health and Human Services approved HB467,  legislation that, at worst, could amount to a total abortion ban in the state. The bill could shut down abortion clinics from operating after, at the latest, May 2024 and imposes additional restrictions on providers. It would also add further limitations to the exceptions in the state’s current abortion bans and has already passed the House. This week, the committee also passed an anti-abortion measure that adds new burdensome reporting requirements for provision of abortion to survivors of sexual assault. 
• A West Virginia bill that would require providers to share medically inaccurate information on medication abortion “reversal” was heard in a Senate committee yesterday. 
• In Kansas, the legislature moved several bills attacking abortion, gender-affirming care, and transgender youth through their first floor votes ahead of the legislature’s crossover deadline. The Senate passed a measure (SB 5) that seeks to ban telemedicine abortion despite a previous ban being blocked by the state Supreme Court. Lawmakers are showing their continued disregard for medical evidence and for Kansans’ support of abortion access. The Senate also passed SB96, legislation to boost donations to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers through tax credits.
• Three anti-abortion bills in Colorado have been defeated, including an abortion ban, a bill that would require providers to share medically inaccurate information on medication abortion “reversal”, and legislation that would force providers to administer medically unnecessary care and peddle misinformation on “fetal pain.”  
• Three anti-abortion bills including two proposed constitutional amendments were heard in the Missouri Senate Health and Welfare committee on Wednesday. Legislation to defund Planned Parenthood is also moving. 
• Anti-abortion bills were heard in committee this week in Montana, including legislation targeting Medicaid recipients who need access to abortion and a bill to force additional medically unnecessary requirements on physicians or physician assistants who provide abortion care. 

States continue to rapidly advance harmful legislation targeting LGBTQ+ communities, especially transgender youth: 

• The Mississippi Senate approved a gender-affirming care ban this week, sending it to the desk of Gov. Tate Reeves who is expected to sign the bill into law. The bill is extreme; targeting those providing care and those who “aid and abet” trans youth in accessing life saving gender affirming care.
• Tennessee lawmakers banned gender-affirming care for minors, sending a measure to Gov. Bill Lee for approval. The legislature also passed a measure that would ban drag performances in public places or with children present.
• The Kansas Senate approved a ban on gender-affirming care for minors (SB 233), while the House passed a ban on transgender youth playing school sports (HB 2238). 
• Two more extreme bills targeting gender-affirming care have been introduced and assigned to a Senate committee in West Virginia, where advocates are already fighting another proposed ban on care for transgender youth in the House. 
• The Indiana House Education committee passed a “Don't Say Gay” bill that would censor discussion of LGBTQ+ people in schools after also amending the bill to force schools to out trans students without their consent. The bill now heads to the House Floor. A ban on gender-affirming care for youth was also heard in the Senate Health & Provider Services Committee. 
• In Iowa, a “Don’t Say Trans” bill recently passed out of the full House Education committee and was amended to extend from K-3 to K-6.

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