The Quickie: "This Is Our New Normal": PPRM Meets Increased Demand For Care Post-Roe

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: Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains meets the demand for care post-Roe and a state fights round up.

“THIS IS OUR NEW NORMAL”: PPRM MEETS INCREASED DEMAND FOR CARE POST-ROE: In response to the fall of Roe, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) has risen to meet the needs of out-of-state patients seeking abortion as more states enact abortion bans. In the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs decision, wait times were around 28 days. PPRM has worked hard to reduce waiting times by training more staff and devoting a team to out-of-state patients.

Fawn Bolak, regional director of communications at PPRM explains “[i]f you’re a patient that’s seeking time-sensitive care, (a four-week wait) can be scary,” adding “[it]’s not reasonable for one state or a handful of states to provide reproductive health care for the entire country. …We should be very wary of getting comfortable in this environment.”

Read more in The Denver Post.

 

STATE FIGHTS ROUND UP: This week, Virginia champs killed abortion bans while Oklahomans geared up to fight even more regressive laws as their session started.

• Florida: A “personhood” measure (SB 476) that would allow individuals to seek damages in a wrongful death claim for the death of a fetus passed its first Senate committee this week, continuing to move quickly in Florida’s short legislative session. In good news: LGBTQ+ advocates stopped a measure to ban rainbow Pride flags from government buildings and public schools, colleges and universities (SB 1120) from moving forward in the Senate, just hours after it was backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. 
• Indiana: Turning their attention from eliminating abortion to eliminating trans existence, House lawmakers introduced a measure that would eliminate all legal recognition of transgender and gender nonbinary people in the state of Indiana (HB 1291).
• Kansas: Next week, several measure to undermine reproductive freedom will be heard in legislative committee: 
  • HB 2749 would require additional and stigmatizing abortion reporting that would require providers to ask and report patient reasons for seeking abortion and other medically unnecessary and invasive questions about their patient’s personal life.  
  • HB 2653/SB 425 would allow child support orders from the date of conception, a tactic used to further the myth of “fetal personhood.” 
• Missouri: While debating a measure that would ban Planned Parenthood health care providers from receiving state funding, including from the state Medicaid program (SB 1168), the Missouri Senate voted down an amendment to the state’s total abortion ban that would have provided exceptions for rape and incest. The unamended version of SB 1168 is quickly moving through the Senate toward approval and would decimate access to sexual and reproductive health care in the state.
• Oklahoma: Legislative session kicked off on Monday, with a bundle of bills attacking abortion access and already introduced. The measures include: 
  • A ban on medication abortion by mail (SB 1885) and a measure penalizing medication abortion manufacturers (SB 1816); 
  • A measure criminalizing support of young people seeking abortion (SB 1778), falsely dubbed “abortion trafficking” in an effort to mislead the public; and
  • Two measures that would penalize not just abortion providers but abortion patients, too. SB 1775 would make providing abortion a first-degree murder offense, punishable by death or life in prison without parole under Oklahoma law. SB 1729 would make all abortions homicide offenses and eliminate existing carve outs preventing the prosecution of abortion patients.
• South Carolina: House lawmakers introduced a Reproductive Freedom Bill of Rights (HB 3911) that would, among other provisions, establish a right to abortion; protect people who have abortions or experience miscarriages from investigation and prosecution; and require health insurers to cover abortion, permanent sterilization, and assisted reproductive care. 
• Virginia: House lawmakers stopped not one but two abortion bans from moving forward  this week, rejecting both a reason ban (HB 1184) and a total ban (HB 1364) in committee. The total ban was rejected unanimously across party lines. Proactive measures to protect people’s menstrual health data against disclosure related to criminal prosecutions (HB 78 and HB 1359) and bills aimed at limiting extradition  of abortion providers, patients, and helpers due to  out-of-state prosecution (HB 1539 and HB 1493) were sent to full committee votes. Meanwhile, champions for reproductive freedom are preparing for a vote on HB 404, a measure that would ban abortion providers — including Virginia’s Planned Parenthood health centers — from participating in state programs like Medicaid. That vote is expected next week.