The Quickie: Celebrating Abortion Providers

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: Celebrating Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, Iowa personhood bill advances, and a state fights roundup

CELEBRATING ABORTION PROVIDERS: Yesterday, March 10, was National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers. As the abortion access landscape across the country continues to shift, Planned Parenthood and our partners are grateful for the work abortion providers, staff, and volunteers do every day to support people seeking care and information. Doctors, nurses, and health center staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to every patient who visits a health center. Even in the face of continuing political attacks, Planned Parenthood health center staff are proud to provide abortion to those who depend on them for care. 

We are thankful for the staff who work to keep patients healthy and help ensure as many people as possible can access the full range of reproductive health care options — including safe and legal abortion. 

 

IOWA “PERSONHOOD” BILL ADVANCES TO STATE SENATE: Late last week, the Iowa House advanced a bill that would add “fetal personhood” language into state code by changing the existing language in Iowa’s laws from “terminating a human pregnancy” to the “death of or serious injury to an unborn person.” Iowa lawmakers and abortion rights advocates shared their concerns over the implications this could have for IVF.

“Iowans deserve better than the politics being played with their lives and futures at the Capitol. It’s shameful that House Republicans are spending their time and energy on reckless bills like this instead of addressing the health crises they’ve created,” said Mazie Stilwell, Public Affairs Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa, in a release. The bill now heads to the Iowa senate, where it is expected to pass.

Read more in The Hill.

 

STATE FIGHTS ROUND UP: Several states continue to advance dangerous “fetal personhood” bills. 

• Alaska: This week, a measure to allow patients to get a full year supply of birth control at one time (SB 27) will be heard in committee. The House version (HB 17) is awaiting a committee vote. 
• Alabama: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation to protect in-vitro fertilization (IVF) providers from civil and criminal liability, hopefully allowing IVF providers to resume services. The law however is overbroad in its sweep, potentially creating problems in the future for families relying on IVF, and it does not adequately address the full scope of the recent state Supreme Court ruling which deemed embryos “minor children” under the state’s wrongful death statute, regardless of whether the embryo has implanted in a person’s uterus or is cryogenically stored.
• Iowa: The Iowa House passed a measure (HF 2575) that would criminalize people for causing the death of an “unborn person,” furthering the myth of fetal personhood. The bill now goes to the Senate. 
• Idaho: The Idaho House reintroduced a ban on public funding for gender-affirming care (HB 668), including an exclusion for Medicaid coverage. 
• Indiana: The Indiana legislature approved a measure (HB 1426) that purports to expand access to postpartum long-acting reversible contraception, but excluded IUDs based on the myth that they cause abortion. In bright news: a measure attacking sex education (SB 128) died. 
• Kentucky: The Kentucky Senate approved a bill (SB 110) that would allow people to collect child support backdated to nine months before the birth of a child. The bill was amended to remove mention of “unborn children” but the bill sponsor made clear that his intent is to treat embryos as people under Kentucky law. The measure now heads to the House.
• Maine: Lawmakers advanced a measure to expand contraceptive access (LD 2203) that would allow self-administered methods to be available over the counter. 
• Mississippi: The Mississippi legislature hit legislative deadlines this week, with multiple bills dying in committee or being pushed along to hearings. 
  • A ban on abortion support for minors that would have criminalized people for assisting young people seeking care out of state (HB 713) died in committee. 
  • House and Senate versions of a measure that would codify an essentialist and harmful definition of sex and gender continue to advance. HB1607, SB 2753, and HC33 mirror a measure that died in committee (HB 1385) and would essentially eliminate any state recognition of transgender and gender non-conforming people’s existence. HB 1607 and SB 2753 also would ban transgender youth from participating in school athletics. 
• Missouri: The Missouri House approved a measure (HB 2634) to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving public funding, including via Medicaid. The proposal was heard in a Senate Committee last week. Both the Missouri Supreme Court and the Circuit Court of Cole County have previously ruled prior defunding attempts unconstitutional, though the legislature is now attempting to execute the defund in a different manner.
• Tennessee: The Tennessee Contraceptive Freedom Act (HB 1943), legislation to protect the right to contraception and IVF, died in committee.