Abortion rights roundup: June 23, 2023

This series is a weekly roundup of abortion news, covering various statewide laws and bans, those who stand up to them, and the ongoing push by anti-abortion conservatives to restrict abortion care and erase bodily autonomy. 

Saturday, June 24, 2023, marks one year since the devastating U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade and 50 years of precedent regarding abortion rights. Since that ruling, states with restrictive abortion bans have seen patients’ health care severely, and adversely impacted; numerous lawsuits over anti-abortion bills and laws; and a decline in applications to OB-GYN residency programs.

Since the American Independent Foundation launched its series on the state of abortion rights in the nation leading up to the year since the fall of Roe, we have profiled an artist in Montgomery, Alabama, whose work includes a sculpture dedicated to three enslaved women who were experimented on by a doctor without their consent; a transgender man who shared his abortion story; a prominent Colorado abortion provider who called the Dobbs decision a “throwback to another century”; and Cecile Richards, the former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The series will end after June 24, but we will continue covering abortion news as it breaks.

One year later: Good news out of Boston, as one of the nation’s top abortion rights lawyers is confirmed to be a federal judge.

On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Julie Rikelman to serve as a judge on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, Massachusetts.

Rikelman is a renowned reproductive rights attorney who has served as the senior litigation director for the Center for Reproductive Rights since 2011. Before that, she worked at NBC Universal as vice president of litigation.

As an attorney, Rikelman argued a number of high-profile reproductive rights cases.

In June Medical Services LLC v. Russo, she successfully challenged a Louisiana law that required physicians to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals in order to provide abortion care. The Center for Reproductive Rights argued that the law essentially blocked access to abortions and could unnecessarily impact the care pregnant people were getting. The law was declared unconstitutional in June 2020 and prevented most of the state’s clinics from closing.

Rikelman was also involved in much of the landmark Dobbs case, giving oral arguments before the Supreme Court in 2021.

One month after the decision to overturn Roe, President Joe Biden nominated Rikelman to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

One year later: Some states are spending millions on abortion care.

NPR reports that a combined total of $208 million has been set aside for abortion and contraception services by two dozen municipal and state governments in the last year — almost four times the $55 million spent by local governments on the same services before the fall of Roe.

In an interview with NPR, Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, said, “We’ve seen unrivaled action across states and localities at the municipal level to bolster access to reproductive healthcare, and especially around abortion, as a really immediate and direct response.”

One year later: Vice President Kamala Harris talks about a lack of empathy among anti-abortion groups.

“One of the issues on the topic of the Dobbs decision is … laws being proposed and passed that make no exception, Joy, for rape and incest. And I’m going to be explicit about what that means,” Vice President Kamala Harris told MSNBC host Joy Reid on Tuesday. “It means that so-called leaders are saying that after an individual has experienced such a crime of violence, a violation to their body, and surviving that, these so-called leaders would say to that same person, And the next decision you make about your body is not yours either. That’s immoral. That’s immoral.”

Harris added, “I think that one attribute of true leadership is to have some sense of empathy and understanding as opposed to judgment when people have had those kinds of experiences.”

One year later: Gallup poll finds that voters want candidates who agree with them on abortion.

According to Gallup News, 28% of registered voters say they’ll only cast ballots for candidates who agree with their opinions on abortion, just 1% higher than the percentage that said the same in 2019 and 2022.

The poll found that 33% of registered voters are pro-abortion rights and 23% are anti-abortion.

One year later: Virginia Democratic voters kick an anti-abortion candidate to the curb.

On Tuesday, Virginia state Sen. Joe Morrissey was trounced by former Del. Lashrecse Aird 69% to 31% in a Democratic primary in the 13th state Senate District. Voters were keenly focused on the issue of abortion. Morrissey considers himself a pro-life candidate and, in an Associated Press interview, said he would support Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 15-week abortion ban. Morrissey was the sole Democratic co-sponsor of S.B. 710, a bill that would have banned abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy and criminalized abortion after 20 weeks as a felony.

One year later: People are being forced to travel epic distances to obtain reproductive health care.

Reuters reports that when the last U.S. census was taken in April 2020, before Roe was overturned, 18,000 women lived over 300 miles from the nearest abortion clinic. After the Dobbs decision, that number skyrocketed to 16 million.

One year later: Wisconsin pharmacists could have the power to prescribe contraception under a new bill.

According to Madison.com, the Wisconsin Assembly passed a measure Wednesday that could give pharmacists the ability to prescribe birth control. The bill has to pass through the state Senate but has the support of Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

Assembly Bill 176 would permit pharmacists to “prescribe and dispense hormonal contraceptive patches and self-administered oral hormonal contraceptives to a person who is at least 18 years of age,” a summary of the bill reads.

“We are a bit concerned that they could come after contraception next. And so our bill would create a statutory right to contraception,” co-sponsor of the bill, Wisconsin Rep. Lisa Subeck, told the American Independent Foundation. “We believe that a right to contraception already exists based on previous cases and precedents, both in the U.S. Constitution, but also in our state Constitution.”

One year later: Black activists and organizations collaborate with lawmakers to introduce legislation that would protect access to abortion care in federal law.

The Hill reported that Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts on Thursday introduced the Abortion Justice Act, a bill that would decriminalize abortion care, remove barriers to access, and demand more federal resources for patients seeking to obtain an abortion, including funding for expenses such as out-of-state travel, child care, and lost income.

“This week marks one year since the Supreme Court overturned the will of the people and obliterated the right to abortion care across our nation,” Pressley said.

She added: “Since that day, coordinated attacks on our reproductive health care have continued, and it’s been escalated with devastating results. Our bill is practical. It’s technical. It’s also forward-facing and aspirational, unapologetically.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.