Abortion rights roundup: June 16, 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. 

GOP attacks the Department of Veterans Affairs, focusing on its abortion and LGBTQ policies.

House Republicans appear to be hellbent on blocking the Department of Veterans Affairs from allowing the veterans it serves to obtain funding for abortion care or gender-affirming care, including surgery.

The Hill and other outlets reported that the House Appropriations Committee voted on Wednesday 34-27 to approve an amendment to the department’s annual spending bill that would block federal funding for abortions or gender-affirming care in VA facilities. The amendment would also ban LGBTQ pride flags from being flown at the facilities.

The VA submitted an interim final rule in September 2022 allowing veterans and their beneficiaries to obtain abortion care in cases where the “life or health of the pregnant Veteran would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.” An attempt by Senate Republicans to overturn that policy failed in April.

Ohio is the front line of the battle to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions.

Two abortion rights groups, Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, are in a race to gather the required 413,000 signatures needed to get an amendment to the state Constitution under the heading “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety” on the ballot in November. According to Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, the amendment would mandate that “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.

All the signatures must be collected by July 5.

Anti-abortion activists in the state are currently running a $5 million television and digital campaign against the reproductive rights amendment.

One substantial obstacle for the abortion rights groups is Ohio Issue 1, a proposed constitutional amendment backed by Republican lawmakers, which will be considered by Ohio voters on Aug. 8. If it passes, it will raise the percentage of votes needed to pass a ballot proposal for an amendment to the state’s Constitution from a simple majority, or 50% plus 1, to 60%.

Abortion is currently legal in Ohio up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. A six-week abortion ban that passed in 2019 went into effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 but is currently on hold after a judge in Hamilton County issued a preliminary injunction against it in October 2022.

Two men, one an active-duty Marine, accused of firebombing a Planned Parenthood in Southern California.

Two men in Orange County, California, were taken into custody Wednesday on federal charges alleging they firebombed a clinic run by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in Costa Mesa, California.

According to a press release from the office of the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, and Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, an active-duty Marine stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, 50 miles south of Costa Mesa, allegedly attacked the clinic entrance with a Molotov cocktail at 1 a.m. on March 13, 2022.

Security footage captured two men wearing face masks and hoods throwing a device at the clinic’s front door. The clinic was forced to close the following day, the U.S. attorney’s office said, and 30 appointments had to be canceled.

If found guilty on charges of what the press release calls “using an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce,” the two men face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

A new Gallup poll shows record-high support for safe and legal first-term abortions

According to the results of a poll conducted by Gallup in May, 69% of Americans say abortion should be legal in a pregnant person’s first trimester, up from the 67% reflected in a poll taken after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Additionally, 37% of people polled said abortion should remain legal in the second trimester, and 22% felt abortion should be legal in the third or last trimester of pregnancy.

The poll also found a significant increase in the number of those who feel abortion should be legal at any stage, from 25% in 2019 to 32% in 2021 and 34% most recently.

Iowa Supreme Court ruling favors abortion care.

Abortion will remain legal in Iowa after the state Supreme Court voted on procedural grounds in a split 3-3 decision against reinstating a restriction on the procedure, the Associated Press reported Friday.

The court upheld a 2019 ruling that blocked a ban on abortion in the state after six weeks of pregnancy. Under current Iowa law, abortion is allowed up to 20 weeks.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.