The Assault On Reproductive Freedom Is Happening—Now What?
Years of complacency have exacted their price.
For years, the right has galvanized behind a so-called “right to life” cause. Labeled by liberals as a forced birth agenda, the right’s “pro-life” efforts never extended to opposition to the death penalty, nor support for prenatal, postpartum, or reproductive healthcare, nor to gun control, nor to programs to feed or house infants and children.
Pro-life? Hardly. It was an anti-abortion, anti-contraceptive, anti-sex education, misogynist agenda all along.
Despite warnings from pro-choice activists, American voters grew complacent. And so did U.S. Senators who should have known better when conservative, Federalist Society handpicked, often unqualified—Amy Coney Barrett had zero trial court experience before Donald Trump twice appointed her as a judge—Supreme Court nominees insisted under oath that Roe v. Wade was settled law that they would never overturn.
Yes, I'm looking at you Susan Collins.
Abortion had become a non-issue at the polls for many left-leaning voters. So now we find ourselves here, exactly where the “alarmist” pro-choice activists told us we'd end up.
Roe v. Wade is overturned and the “pro-life” candidates who made it into public office have shed their sheep's clothing to rabidly attack contraception access, in vitro fertilization, and access to any form of reproductive healthcare that doesn't produce a baby.
As of 2024, 14 states have enacted near-total abortion bans and four states—Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Iowa—banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Most people won't know they're pregnant until 8-10 weeks.
Red states have enacted or revived the strictest restrictions on access to reproductive healthcare they can after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Note that I didn't say abortion; their laws restrict much more than access to abortion.
People are being denied post-miscarriage healthcare. They're being denied healthcare for nonviable pregnancies, like ectopic pregnancies where the egg is fertilized outside of the womb in a fallopian tube, ovary, cervix, abdomen, or scar of a previous cesarean section.
There are only two possible treatments for an ectopic pregnancy, and neither results in a baby. The pregnancy can be terminated which leaves the pregnant person able to have children in the future.
Or the pregnancy can be monitored until the pregnant person is almost dead, at which point doctors can intervene and possibly save the pregnant person who will likely be left infertile or missing half or more of their reproductive system.
Guess which treatment the so-called “pro-life” states with strict abortion bans prefer.
Ectopic Pregnancies
In Texas, we're already seeing people denied care for ectopic pregnancies.
Let me repeat, there is no treatment for an ectopic pregnancy that will result in a baby. The womb is designed for the development of a fetus and birth of an infant. The fallopian tubes where almost all ectopic pregnancies occur are 4–5 inches long and 0.2–0.6 inches in diameter.
It's impossible for a fetus to develop there without rupture of all surrounding tissues and termination of fetal development. Ectopic pregnancies are strictly a terminate now or terminate later situation.
So what purpose does denying care serve?
There is no sane purpose to many of the restrictions enacted by red states in their abortion ban laws. Instead, they inflict unnecessary pain and suffering for the sole purpose of avoiding pregnancy termination—even in cases where termination is the only possible outcome.
Kate Cox, who was denied abortion care in her home state of Texas after her fetus had a lethal abnormality, had to leave her state to get the abortion she needed. During the DNC’s roll call of states on Tuesday night, she announced that thanks to that procedure, she is now pregnant again.
These laws require near-death situations before the required, universally accepted proper healthcare can be administered. This form of Russian roulette with people's lives is pro-life?
Post-Miscarriage And Stillbirth Care
In the unfortunate event of a miscarriage, two things can happen. The uterine lining and fetal tissue will all be shed, or it won't. In cases where it doesn't occur, doctors should prescribe medication or perform a procedure called a D&C.
A dilation and curettage (D&C) is used to treat an incomplete miscarriage by removing the remaining fetal and other tissues from the uterus. Because it removes fetal tissue, a D&C is defined and categorized medically as an abortion procedure.
People are being denied D&C after miscarriage.
As previously reported in my piece Miscarriage Care: The Collateral Damage of Abortion Bans and as stated by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), “surgical procedures and medication for miscarriages are identical to those for abortion and patients report delayed or denied miscarriage care.”
As reported in May by KFF—the leading health policy organization in the U.S.:
“While all state bans have exceptions for cases of life endangerment of the pregnant person, they do not necessarily account for the wide range of circumstances people may face when experiencing a pregnancy loss.”
“This has resulted in several cases of women experiencing health threatening situations with imminent fetal demise or in early stage of pregnancy loss, yet being unable to obtain medical treatment until their health declined to the point where their lives were on the line.”
KFF is a charitable organization governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by venerated former Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. Snowe made headlines for her condemnation of what the Republican Party was becoming in her retirement announcement in 2012.
She warned us, but too many people failed to listen.
In Louisiana—another red state that jumped at the chance that the overturning of Roe v. Wade presented, pregnant people were given “risky, unnecessary surgeries” and “denied swift treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies” according to a report titled "Criminalized Care: How Louisiana's Abortion Bans Endanger Patients and Clinicians” from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the Center for Reproductive Rights, Lift Louisiana and Reproductive Health Impact.
Under Louisiana's abortion ban, doctors face penalties of up to 15 years in prison, $200,000 in fines, and loss of their medical license if the nonmedical criminal justice system decides the care they provide a patient violates laws enacted by people with little to no medical training or knowledge.
Dr. Michele Heisler of PHR told NPR:
“We were stunned by just how much regular medical practice for pregnant people has been disrupted [in Louisiana].”
Dr. Nicole Freehill—a New Orleans-based Ob/Gyn—stated in the report:
“There are going to be deaths that didn't have to happen. There are going to be severe complications that didn't have to happen.”
The report detailed how pregnant people in Louisiana who experienced preterm premature rupture of membranes—when the "water breaks" early in pregnancy before the fetus is viable—were forced to undergo Cesarean section surgeries to empty their uterus and avoid infection instead of receiving a much less risky D&C or medication to induce passage of fetal tissue because those procedures are labeled abortion while a C-section is labeled pregnancy care.
Dr. Freehill remarked:
“Which is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous.”
“The least safe thing that we do, no matter if it's early in pregnancy or full-term at your due date, is a C-section.”
The United States is a for-profit healthcare and highly litigious country. Doctors—and the lawyers that represent their hospitals, clinics, and private practices—are running scared from their fates being decided by medically ignorant, unsound laws.
Another Louisiana Ob/Gyn who asked to remain anonymous stated:
“I want to emphasize that this is not what's in the best interest of the patient. This is what's in the best interest of the physician in protecting themselves from criminal prosecution.”
If a procedure or medication is labeled abortion care, it's only logical, sound business practice to avoid it at all costs.
Abortion Bounties
Texas law SB 8 enacted in 2021 gives private citizens the power to sue anyone who provides or "aids or abets" an abortion after six weeks and if successful collect a $10,000 reward.
The intent was to stop people from leaving Texas to seek the reproductive healthcare they were denied because of the state’s abortion ban. The government couldn't restrict citizens from traveling or directly punish them for actions outside Texas, so they decided to deputize the entire state.
Patients can’t be sued. Medical providers and others are the law's targets—including anyone from a Lyft driver who provides transportation to family members who provide money for the procedure.
Proponents of the law claim it absolutely is not a $10,000 abortion bounty.
Opponents point out it's a great tool for getting back at an ex-partner even when you're prohibited by law from direct contact with them. In other words, if you're a convicted abuser and/or have a restraining order against you and know your victim had an abortion, you can sue their support system for helping them.
Domestic violence shelters and advocates for survivors point to cases like the murder of Gabriella Gonzalez in Texas for what life is like after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Gonzalez left Texas to get an abortion in Colorado then was murdered by her abusive partner upon her return.
Under Texas law, her killer can earn $10,000 by suing everyone who helped her.
As The Nation pointed out:
“Homicide is the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the United States, and like other causes of maternal mortality and morbidity, it disproportionately affects women of color. Pregnant people are more likely to face intimate partner violence.”
“At the same time, those who have experienced violence by an intimate partner have a higher chance of unintended pregnancy [often due to sexual assault] and higher incidence of seeking an abortion. And according to the Turnaway Study, those who are denied abortion care are more likely to stay tethered to violent partners than those who are successful at terminating their pregnancies.”
It's a vicious cycle that abortion bans and bounties help perpetuate.
A Texas man filed a wrongful death lawsuit against three friends of his now ex-wife for allegedly helping his then-wife obtain pills used to induce an abortion. The man used text messages of support sent to his wife as his only basis for suing two of the women.
If successful, he could earn $10,000 and get revenge against his ex-wife by targeting and alienating her from her friends.
What Do We Do Now?
The United States is not currently a theocracy—a system of government in which religious leaders rule in the name of their God. But that's exactly what too many elected officials want, and they're no longer hiding it.
Members of Congress like Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proudly proclaim they are Christian nationalists. The current Speaker of the House boasts a Seven Mountains flag outside his office, a symbol associated with Christian nationalism.
The Heritage Foundation is a right-wing Christian nationalist organization and they've mapped out the next Republican presidency and Congress’ marching orders in their 2025 Presidential Transition Project—a.k.a. Project 2025.
Their plan calls for a national ban on reproductive freedom including an assault on access to contraception, in vitro fertilization, and programs that provide education and information like Planned Parenthood.
As Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis shared:
“On page 562, Project 2025 says that Donald Trump could use an obscure law from the 1800s to single-handedly ban abortion in all 50 states, even putting doctors in jail. Page 486 puts limits on contraception. Page 450 threatens access to IVF and page 455 says that states have to report miscarriages to the Trump administration. Page 451 says the only legitimate family is a married mother and father where only the father works.”
For Republicans, the future is about what they think Jesus and God want us to do.
For Democrats, the future is about protecting our freedom to choose for ourselves.
In November, the choice—if you want to preserve your right to make your own choices—is clear.
Vote up and down the ballot for Democrats or even progressive independents—like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and my own Maine Senator Angus King.
The time for complacency is over.
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Most of us are fully aware of what happened. So, taking a message from Madam Harris: DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. like what? Get out and vote women. You cannot rely on men to save your rights. Vote even if it means not telling your MAGA husband how you voted.
While the scenarios presented are true, surely most abortions, when they were legal, were not medical necesities, but for other legitimate reasons. It is a mistake to push these nonviable pregnancy scenarios; we are not wanting liberalized or less restrictive abortion laws, we want them to go away entirely.