U.S. Repro Watch, May 29

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:

Attacks on abortion medication continue. . .

1. States move to classify abortion medications as controlled substances and threaten companies mailing the drugs.

• The Louisiana governor signed a bill into law May 24 that reclassifies mifepristone and misoprostol—the two drugs used in medication abortion—as controlled substances and makes possession without a prescription a crime punishable by jail time and fines.
• The Arkansas Attorney General threatened companies mailing abortion pills to the state with a $10,000 penalty for each package sent. In 2023, the Department of Justice issued an opinion on medication abortion saying the U.S. Postal Service can legally send abortion pills by mail because the person sending the mail cannot know how the pills will be used.

. . . despite its safety and popularity.

2. Telehealth has become an increasingly common way to access abortion pills.

• In the last few months of 2023, nearly one in five abortions nationwide were medication abortions in which the pills were mailed to a patient after a remote consultation with a clinician, according to a new report from #WeCount, a research project led by the Society of Family Planning. This compares to just 4% in April 2022, when #WeCount started collecting data.
• In states where abortion is banned, 8,000 people per month are receiving abortion pills through the mail, the report found.
• Medication abortion is the U.S.’s most common method of abortion, accounting for 63% of all abortions provided through formal health care systems. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon release its ruling in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, a case that threatens nationwide access to the abortion medication mifepristone, including through telehealth.

Meanwhile, providers and advocates are fighting back against abortion restrictions. . .

3. Kansas abortion providers challenged a new law that forces them to report to the state patients’ reasons for having abortions.

• The lawsuit asserts that the new law—which takes effect July 1—violates patient privacy and directly interferes with Kansans’ right to make decisions about their own health care.
• The case was brought on May 20 by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood.

4. Voters in South Dakota and Colorado will get to weigh in on abortion rights this November.

• In Colorado, an amendment to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution will be on the ballot. The language would also repeal the state’s ban on public funding for abortion.
• In South Dakota, where abortion is currently illegal, advocates gathered enough signatures for a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access in the first trimester of pregnancy. The measure would allow some state restrictions after 12 weeks.
• Abortion rights amendments will also appear on ballots this year in Maryland and Florida. Similar ballot measure efforts are underway in Missouri, Arizona, New York and other states.

Since the Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion, there has been a significant increase in legislation restricting how sex education is taught in schools—especially in states limiting abortion access, according to data from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

2024 is already a record year for anti-sex education bills across the country, with at least 135 state bills introduced or currently active that would restrict what is taught in sex ed classes in public schools. Many of the bills ban discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity, and some prohibit information about contraception and instead emphasize the teaching of abstinence.

June 10: Hearing in Hawai‘i Midwifery Case

• Filed by the Center on behalf of Hawaiian midwives, midwifery students, and women who wish to grow their families, this lawsuit challenges the state’s midwifery restriction law, which prevents pregnant people from receiving pregnancy and birth care from trusted, skilled midwives. The hearing in Kahoʻohanohano v. State of Hawaiʻi will take place at the First Circuit Court on O’ahu.

Rulings Expected Soon in Two Supreme Court Abortion Cases

• The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon rule on two major abortion cases, each one threatening access to abortion care. One case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, could restrict access to a popular abortion medication. The other, Moyle v. United States/Idaho v. United States, could deny pregnant patients access to emergency abortion care.
• The rulings are expected before the end of the Court’s term this summer.