U.S. Repro Watch provides periodic updates on news of interest on U.S. reproductive rights. Here are a few recent items you won’t want to miss:

1. Lawmakers in Missouri and Mississippi are working to keep abortion rights off the 2024 ballot by attempting to suppress democracy.

• In Mississippi, a proposal passed by the state House would ban residents from placing abortion initiatives on the statewide ballot. “They’re scared of the people and their voices, so their response is to prevent their voices from being heard,” Laurie Bertram Roberts, executive director of Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, told AP. 
• A proposal in Missouri would require ballot initiatives to win a majority vote in five of the state’s eight congressional districts in addition to a simple statewide majority. “This is how democracies die. We are watching it in real time,” said Missouri Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo. The proposal comes just days after a Missouri abortion-rights campaign launched its ballot measure effort aiming to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

Abortion on the Ballot: Seven Wins, No Losses Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, abortion-related ballot initiatives have been on the ballot in seven states—and in all seven states, voters sided in favor of abortion rights.

2. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled that banning Medicaid funding for abortion can be challenged in court as sex discrimination.

• The court ruled that a lower court must hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a decades-old state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortion care.
• Read more about the ruling—and other state high court rulings on sex discrimination—with the Center for Reproductive Rights’ “State Constitutions and Sex Discrimination” map and tool here.

3. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced plans to expand veterans’ access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).

• The revised policy is expected to expand fertility coverage to single veterans, same-sex couples, and married couples unable to conceive—provided that their infertility was caused by a service-related injury or illness.
• In a series of issue briefs—titled “Serving Those Who Serve?”—the Center and its partners address the challenges faced by military service members in accessing IVF and other reproductive health care. Read the briefs here.

Did you know?

The rate of babies born prematurely in the U.S. grew 12% from 2014 to 2022, with pronounced racial and age disparities among those who gave birth, according to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Black mothers were almost twice as likely as white mothers to give birth before babies reached full term, 12.5% versus 7.6% respectively. 

The report adds to the growing evidence of a maternal and infant health crisis in the U.S., which some experts expect will be exacerbated by abortion bans. The U.S. has one of the worst maternal mortality rates among developed democracies, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

Coming Up

March 26: U.S. Supreme Court arguments on the case threatening medication abortion.

• The lawsuit, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, was filed by anti-abortion advocates to challenge the FDA’s initial approval of the abortion medication mifepristone as well as the FDA’s more recent actions to increase access to the medication.
• On January 30, the Center joined partners in submitting an amicus brief in support of the FDA’s actions and warning the Court about the “patently unreliable witnesses” and “ideologically tainted junk science” used by the lower courts in their rulings.

April 4: Hearing in Tennessee’s abortion ban “medical exceptions” case.

• The hearing in the case, Blackmon v. State of Tennessee, will take place at the Tennessee Twelfth Judicial District Court at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET.

• The Center filed the case in September 2023, on behalf of women who were denied abortions while experiencing dangerous pregnancy complications.