The Quickie: Voters Say Bans Off Our Service Members

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: voters disapprove of anti-abortion restrictions in NDAA, OH repro freedom amendment to officially appear on Nov ballot, and MI sees massive increase in out-of-state abortion seekers. 

NEW POLLING: VOTERS SAY BANS OFF OUR SERVICE MEMBERS: Yesterday, Data for Progress released new survey results showing voters’ dissatisfaction with anti-abortion politicians targeting trans and reproductive rights in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Some of the results include: 

• 60% of voters agree that bills focused on military spending, like the NDAA, should not contain measures that target LGBTQ+ people, including majorities of Democrats (67%), independents (61%), and Republicans (51%) 
• An overwhelming majority of voters, 63%, believe trans service members should have access to medically necessary health care, including gender-affirming care. This includes a majority of Democrats and independents and a plurality of Republicans. 
• By a 17-point margin, 51% of voters oppose the proposed amendment that would prohibit the military from reimbursing service members and their dependents who must travel out of state to get an abortion. This includes 54% of independent voters. 
• Lastly, 55% of voters agree “a single senator should not take military personnel decisions hostage” to protest a government policy that does not align with their own beliefs, referencing Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s ongoing boycott of military promotions due to Pentagon policy allowing reimbursements for abortion care travel. A majority of independents (58%) disapprove. 

Read more at The Hill.  

OHIO REPRO FREEDOM AMENDMENT TO OFFICIALLY APPEAR ON NOVEMBER BALLOT: Yesterday, the Ohio Secretary of State announced that Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights submitted over 495,000 valid signatures from 55 counties, officially placing the reproductive freedom constitutional amendment on the November ballot. The coalition exceeded the 413,487 signatures from at least 44 counties required to make the ballot. New polling shows that voters support the amendment by an almost 2-1 margin.

“Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion free from government interference,” Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights Executive Committee members Lauren Blauvelt and Dr. Lauren Beene said. “Now that the petition drive is complete, we’re eager to continue the campaign to enshrine those rights in Ohio’s Constitution and ensure that Ohioans will never again be subject to draconian reproductive health care policies imposed by extremists.”

Before Ohioans can vote to protect their reproductive rights in November, on August 8, they will have to vote on an anti-democratic rules change to the ballot initiative process. If passed, it would raise the threshold for ballot initiatives to be passed from a simple majority to a supermajority of 60%. The August 8 special election is a transparent effort by anti-abortion rights politicians to thwart advocates’ efforts to protect Ohioans rights. Watch Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson discuss what’s at stake in Ohio on MSNBC:

Read more at Ohio’s ballot initiative at AP and The Hill. 

NEW DATA SHOWS OUT-OF-STATE ABORTION PATIENTS IN MICHIGAN SKYROCKETING: This month, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported that the number of out -of-state abortion patients in Michigan increased a whopping 66% between 2021 and 2022. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Michigan has emerged as a critical abortion access state not just for patients in the midwest, but for patients as far away as Texas and Florida. With neighboring Indiana’s total abortion ban likely set to take effect next month, Michigan abortion providers may see even more traveling patients. 

“The number of out-of-state patients that we’re seeing has tripled,” said Dr. Sarah Wallett, Chief Medical Operating Officer with Planned Parenthood of Michigan (PPMI). “Where it used to be fairly uncommon for us to see someone who lived out of state, now, it’s really routine… Every day that I am in clinic, I am seeing someone who has traveled from out-of-state.”

“There aren’t models to predict how people will travel, or where people choose to travel ... We know from the WeCount data that more than 24,000 people were unable to travel and either had to continue the pregnancy or got care outside of a legal, medical system,” Dr. Wallett said. “And that’s just the numbers we know about. This is a really unpredictable thing.”

Providers, too, are moving to Michigan from ban states to serve the rush of patients. PPMI’s Director of Abortion Services Dr. Gillian Schivone, who moved from Missouri after the state enacted a total abortion ban and restricted gender-affirming care, told MLive: 

“I wanted to be able to work in a place where I could take care of my patients in the best possible way, and also work for an organization that was actively supporting peoples’ rights to have an abortion, to get transgender care and was vocally supportive in working towards that.” 

Read more at MLive and Jezebel.