U.S. Repro Watch, March 21

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. Medication abortion now accounts for 63% of U.S. abortions.

• According to the Guttmacher Institute, the use of medication abortion rose substantially, from 53% of all abortions in 2020 to 63% in 2023.
• 2023 was the first full calendar year since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022.
• The Guttmacher report was released just a week before the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could limit nationwide access to mifepristone, an abortion medication.

2. Despite abortion bans in 14 states, abortions increased in the U.S. last year.

• Another report by the Guttmacher Institute showed that overall, abortions in the country increased 10% in 2023 compared to 2020, marking the highest number and rate in more than a decade.
• Almost every state without a total abortion ban saw an increase, with the sharpest increase—37%—in states that border states criminalizing abortion care.
• “It is very possible that, while access was dramatically curtailed for people living in ban states, access substantially improved for residents of states without bans,” states the report.

3. An appeals court upheld a Texas law requiring minors to get parental consent for birth control.

• The law requires Title X-funded clinics to obtain consent from parents before providing birth control to minor children.
• The unanimous opinion by the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 12 mostly affirmed a 2022 lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk (who also attempted to block FDA approval of an abortion medication).
• Federally funded family planning clinics had been one of the only avenues for Texas teens to confidentially obtain birth control.

4. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it will cover in vitro fertilization treatment (IVF) for qualifying veterans who are single or in same-sex marriages.

• Prior to the announcement, the VA covered IVF costs for veterans with service injuries and conditions that affected their fertility—but only for heterosexual married couples. Those benefits will now be extended to all eligible veterans regardless of marital status.
• This policy change follows legal challenges last year that said the VA’s previous policies were discriminatory.

5. A new Mississippi law will allow earlier Medicaid coverage for pregnant people.

• Under the new state law, Medicaid will pay for outpatient medical care for up to 60 days for pregnant patients while their Medicaid applications are being considered.
• Processing Medicaid applications often takes weeks, delaying time-sensitive care for those needing prenatal services.
• Early prenatal care is critical in Mississippi, which has the worst rate of infant mortality in the U.S. The rate for Black infants is nearly twice as high as that of white infants.

6. A state judge in Montana declared three laws restricting abortion unconstitutional.

• The laws include bans on telehealth prescriptions of abortion pills and abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, as well as one designed to dissuade patients from having abortions.
• The decision cited a 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling that said the state constitution’s right to privacy includes a right to obtain a pre-viability abortion from the provider of one’s choice.
• The state plans to appeal the ruling.

Louisiana’s abortion laws are pushing back the start of prenatal care.

This is among the many findings in Criminalized Care: How Louisiana’s Abortion Bans Endanger Patients and Clinicians, a new fact-finding report by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Lift Louisiana, Physicians for Human Rights, and Reproductive Health Impact.

“Initial prenatal care in Louisiana is being pushed deeper into pregnancy, often beyond the first trimester when miscarriage is more common—purposely delayed to avoid the risk of miscarriage care being misconstrued as an abortion in violation of the bans,” states the report.

Read more about the report’s findings here.

March 26: U.S. Supreme Court arguments in the case threatening nationwide access to abortion medication.

• 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.
• An audio feed of the argument will be livestreamed on the Supreme Court’s website, and the Court is expected to post the audio of the arguments later that day. 

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

• The Center filed the case, Blackmon v. State of Tennessee, in September 2023 on behalf of women who were denied abortions while experiencing dangerous pregnancy complications. The hearing will take place at the Tennessee Twelfth Judicial District Court at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET. The Administrative Office of the Court will be live streaming the hearing here.

April 24: U.S. Supreme Court arguments in Idaho EMTALA case.

• In this case, Idaho v. United States, the Department of Justice is arguing that Idaho’s near-total abortion ban conflicts with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)—a federal law requiring hospital emergency departments to provide “stabilizing treatment”—since it prevents Idaho hospitals from stabilizing patients in need of abortion care. The lawsuit will decide whether Idaho hospitals are obligated to treat these patients.