The Quickie: Abortion Blocked the 'Red Wave'
For Immediate Release: Nov. 15, 2022
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: abortion was the blockade to the “red wave,”repro rights champion Katie Hobbs wins AZ gov race, PP facility closures associated with increased severe maternal morbidity.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACTION FUND, NARAL, EMILY’S LIST RELEASE NEW MEMO: ABORTION WAS THE BLOCKADE TO THE ‘RED WAVE’: In a new memo released today, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL, and EMILY’s List analyze major takeaways from the 2022 midterms and the undeniable role abortion played in motivating people to vote. While results continue to trickle in, one truth is undeniably clear: when abortion is on the ballot, freedom wins.
Read the memo here.
REPRO RIGHTS CHAMPION KATIE HOBBS WINS AZ GOV RACE: Last night, major news outlets declared that Katie Hobbs will be the next governor of Arizona, defeating the anti-abortion rights candidate and election denier Kari Lake, flipping this key seat. Hobbs is a life-long reproductive rights champion who campaigned on the promise to protect Arizonans’ reproductive rights and access to life-saving health care. Hobbs’ victory is especially critical for Arizonans given abortion is currently banned after 15-weeks of pregnancy and anti-abortion politicians are still looking to enforce an 1864 total abortion ban.
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Read more at The 19th.
STATE-LEVEL RESTRICTIONS ON HEALTH CARE, INCLUDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLOSURES, LINKED WITH INCREASE IN SEVERE MATERNAL MORBIDITY: New research published in JAMA Pediatrics linked Planned Parenthood health center closures with a rise in severe maternal morbidity, further demonstrating the devastating impact of restricting access to essential sexual and reproductive health care. The cross-sectional study examined changes in state-level availability of reproductive health services, including Planned Parenthood closures, and data from 2009 to 2018 to measure severe maternal morbidity, an indicator of poor maternal outcomes and risk factor for mortality. Researchers estimated that closing 20% of a state’s Planned Parenthood facilities was associated with a 3.79% increase in severe maternal morbidity.
“The researchers identified laws that imposed abortion restrictions based on gestational age, requirements for abortion practitioners for admitting or transferring patients to nearby hospitals and restrictions on insurance coverage for abortion,” Healio said of the study. “Decision-makers creating future policies restricting reproductive health care should consider the implications for pregnant people, they wrote.”
The new study is consistent with past research showing the critically important role Planned Parenthood fills in communities: Data published in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2016 also found that access to Planned Parenthood services was associated with a lower high school dropout rate among girls and young women.