U.S. Repro Watch, September 5

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.

While the harm of Texas’s abortion bans becomes ever more clear . . .

1. Three years of Texas’s “vigilante” abortion ban, S.B. 8.

• Even before the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, it allowed Texas to ban abortion by refusing to block the state’s “vigilante” abortion law, S.B. 8. 
• S.B. 8, which took effect September 1, 2021, bans abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy, before many know they’re pregnant. The cruel law incentivizes Texans to turn in their fellow citizens—neighbors, family members and others—who helped their loved ones access abortion care.   
• S.B. 8 was a terrifying preview of the post-Roe reality we live in today, as pregnant patients are forced to travel hundreds of miles out of state for care; remain pregnant and give birth against their will; or wait until they’re near death before receiving life-saving medical care.  
• In 2022, the year after S.B. 8 took effect, infant deaths rose sharply in Texas—and the rise was directly caused by the enactment of the law, according to a recent study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study found that infant deaths in Texas increased by 13% and deaths from fetal conditions increased by 23%. “Congenital anomalies—birth defects that can include fatal conditions of the heart, spine, and brain” were the leading cause of death, reports the study. S.B. 8 contains no exception for fatal fetal conditions, which are typically diagnosed later than six weeks into pregnancy.

2. Two Texas women filed federal complaints against hospitals for denying them emergency abortion care for life-threatening ectopic pregnancies.

• The women were both repeatedly denied care by Texas hospitals for their tubal ectopic pregnancies—a condition in which the pregnancy implants in a fallopian tube instead of in the uterus. The condition can cause the fallopian tube to rupture, which can cause major internal bleeding and even death.  
• Because they were forced to wait so long for urgent medical care, each woman nearly died and suffered the loss of one of their fallopian tubes, compromising their future ability to have children. 
• In the complaints, filed with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on August 12, the Center for Reproductive Rights argued that the two hospitals violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care—including abortion care—to patients in medical emergencies. 
• The women’s experience is not uncommon, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal hospital investigations. The analysis found that more than 100 women have been turned away from hospitals in similarly dire pregnancy situations since the U.S. Supreme Court took away the right to abortion.

3.The city of Austin, Texas was sued for providing financial assistance to people seeking abortions out of state.

• City officials had approved an allocation of $400,000 in the budget to assist Austin residents seeking to travel out of state for abortion care. 
• An anti-abortion former city council member filed a lawsuit August 20, attempting to stop Austin from helping its residents and falsely arguing that the state’s abortion bans prevent funding out-of-state travel for abortions. 

4. The Governor of New Mexico launched a campaign to entice Texas doctors to move to the state.

• The “Free to Provide” campaign invites Texas physicians who feel they can’t provide proper care under the state’s abortion bans to relocate to New Mexico.
• In an open letter on August 4, Gov. Lujan Grisham wrote: “I know that legal restrictions on healthcare in Texas have created a heavy burden for medical practitioners… It must be distressing that a draconian abortion ban has restricted your right to practice and turned it into a political weapon.”  
• More than 14,000 Texans traveled to New Mexico for an abortion in 2023. The campaign aims to highlight New Mexico’s commitment to protecting abortion and all reproductive health care. 

. . . other states make progress on reproductive rights. . .

5. The Governor of Illinois signed multiple bills expanding reproductive rights.

• Signed by Gov. JB Pritzker August 7, one bill codifies EMTALA, the federal law requiring hospitals to provide abortions in medical emergencies.  
• Another bill bolsters Illinois’ interstate shield law, which prohibits state authorities from assisting interstate investigations into people receiving abortion care in Illinois. 
• The final bill signed prohibits discrimination against people for their reproductive health decisions, including abortion, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and fertility treatment. 

6. Citing Ohio’s constitutional amendment protecting abortion, a county judge blocked several abortion restrictions that would delay access to care.

• The laws blocked on August 23 combined to create a 24-hour waiting period for obtaining an abortion.
• In 2023, voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment enshrining the right to reproductive freedom.

7. Ten states are now set to vote on ballot measures to protect abortion rights in November.

• Arizona, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska recently certified ballot measures to protect abortion rights, joining Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota on the list of states where voters will weigh in on constitutional amendments that protect abortion in some way.
• Abortion-related measures have succeeded every time they’ve appeared on the ballot thus far, with voters rejecting attempts by extremist politicians to interfere with their personal health care decisions.
• Check the Center’s “Abortion on the Ballot” page for more news on 2024 abortion-related ballot measures. 

. . . but anti-abortion advocates push back on ballot measures.

8. Anti-abortion advocates work to prevent and discourage citizens from voting to protect abortion rights.

• Anti-abortion advocates filed legal challenges against state ballot measures protecting abortion rights in Nebraska and Missouri.
• The Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a bid to put an abortion rights measure on the November ballot.
• Florida’s Supreme Court decided to allow biased language to be used in all state materials describing the November ballot measure, including that the measure would negatively impact state revenues.
• The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a fetus can be referred to as an “unborn human being” in official election materials summarizing the measure.

New federal funding will improve maternal health.  

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $558 million in funding to improve maternal health on August 27. Funds will expand voluntary, evidence-based maternal, infant, and early childhood home visiting services for eligible families across the country and efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to address pregnancy-related deaths, including by expanding Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs).

MMRCs—multidisciplinary groups that convene at the state or local level to comprehensively review pregnancy-related deaths—play a critical role in understanding and preventing such deaths.

Reproductive care has deteriorated post-Roe.

A new congressional report based on a 10-month investigation found that OB-GYNs are increasingly seeing patients get sicker—and even dying—from pregnancy complications because they aren’t able to get abortion care soon enough.  

One residency program director recalled a case where a pregnant patient from a restrictive Southern state ultimately died from sepsis because, due to the state’s abortion ban, she was unable to get an abortion until it was too late. Another residency director expressed distress that they were forced to wait for a pregnant patient’s condition to get much worse after her water broke prematurely.

These accounts serve as further proof of the widespread harms abortion bans have on maternal health care.