Abortion rights roundup: June 30, 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. 

A setback in Wisconsin

Those in Wisconsin’s pro-abortion rights camp received disappointing news Wednesday after 22 state Senate Republicans voted against a Democratic amendment to repeal Wisconsin’s archaic 1849 abortion ban.

The vote was the first on the Senate floor in the less than a week since the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, which triggered the mid-19th century abortion ban that was on the books in the state.

“Women know how much bleaker their future will be if they can’t access abortion,” Democratic state Sen. Kelda Roys said prior to the vote, according to the Capital Times of Madison. “This abortion ban has to go. Women deserve better.”

Liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz will be sworn in on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in August, flipping the bench to progressive control for the first time in over a decade.

Michigan flooded with out-of-state abortion-seekers

Michigan has become a safe haven for those from states with abortion bans seeking to obtain abortion care since the fall of Roe. According to NPR Michigan, with data collected from Planned Parenthood of Michigan, the state has been visited by almost 2,000 out-of-state abortion seekers in the past year.

In November 2022, Michigan voters passed Proposition 3, enshrining the right to abortion in the state Constitution. But the state’s laws do contain restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period, and the requirement that minors have the consent of caregivers or obtain a court waiver before obtaining abortion care.

Pennsylvania’s advanced-care clinicians battling for the right to offer abortion care

Current law in Pennsylvania gives only doctors the legal right to perform abortions or prescribe medical abortion care. Now, nonphysician health care providers want to have those same rights.

Health care providers such as nurse practitioners say loosening the restrictions will give greater access to those traveling from out of state for abortion care, reduce wait times for patients, and increase new opportunities in the field of reproductive care.

“Imagine if we allowed midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to provide abortion. … And that was a big enough draw — which I know it would be for some people — in places where there aren’t currently any available options, and [clinicians] moved to those places,” Katrina Lipinsky, a certified nurse midwife who practices in the state told WHYY News.

On March 29, the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus’ Subcommittee on Progressive Policies for Working People, led by its chair, state Rep. Danilo Burgos, along with Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler and Dan Frankel, held a hearing with Planned Parenthood Keystone and Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates to discuss expanding legal rights for advanced health care clinicians to perform abortion care.

“Pennsylvania is surrounded by states enacting these bans. There are no longer any providers of abortion care in West Virginia, and Ohio is likely to follow. We have seen a 20% increase in the need for care in Pennsylvania in the past nine months. And we are doing everything we can to meet this need,” Dr. Sarah Horvath, the Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Keystone, said in her remarks.

The Indiana Supreme Court fails its state. But hope remains.

According to WRTV Indianapolis, Indiana’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state’s near-total abortion ban does not violate its Constitution.

However, the ban will remain unenforceable due to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana last year that challenges it on the grounds that it violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

In December, Marion Superior Court Judge Heather Welch issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, citing “sufficient evidentiary support that the religions to which plaintiffs and putative class members belong would guide its practitioners to seek abortions under particular circumstances based on testimony from leaders of these faiths.” Welch’s decision will be heard in September by the Indiana Court of Appeals.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.