The Quickie: Nebraska Activists Ask State Supreme Court To Overturn Its Bans On Abortion and Gender-Affirming Care

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: Advocates in Nebraska appeal bans on abortion and gender-affirming care, PP Texas Votes Senior Advisor Wendy Davis discusses reproductive access with Teen Vogue, and PP debunks anti-abortion myths about late-term abortions.

NEBRASKA ACTIVISTS ASK STATE SUPREME COURT TO OVERTURN ITS BANS ON ABORTION AND GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE: On Friday, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and its medical director, Dr. Sarah Traxler, appealed the dismissal of their lawsuit against Nebraska’s abortion and gender-affirming care bans. The state’s 12-week abortion ban is already in effect, and the ban on gender affirming care for people under the age of 19 is set to go into effect on October 1. The basis of the lawsuit is that these bans, which were passed in a combined measure, violate the state constitution by including more than one subject in a piece of legislation.

“We will never stop fighting for the reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, and health of our Nebraska communities. We are doubling down on that commitment with this appeal,” Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which includes Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, said in a press release. “Planned Parenthood is dedicated to continuing to provide abortion care to the patients we can legally see within the 12-week limit and will continue to connect other patients in Nebraska with the resources they need to get to the essential care they so desperately need, wherever they may be. Every person deserves the freedom to control their body, health, and future — and that right shouldn’t be determined by your zip code.”

Read more at The Advocate.

WENDY DAVIS REFLECTS ON HER ADVOCACY IN TEXAS: A decade after her famous filibuster on the Texas state Senate floor to safeguard abortion access, Wendy Davis is still hard at work, now at Planned Parenthood Texas Votes. In a new piece in Teen Vogue, she reflects on the work of fighting for reproductive rights in Texas and nationwide. While identifying the long term challenges and consequences of Texas politicians’ hostility to abortion care, she notes that the consequences of banning abortion and not expanding Medicaid are devastating: “We also know that the [abortion laws] in place in Texas have a disproportionate impact on women of color, [and] women in low-income communities. The ripple effects in a state where we already have such a poor climate of healthcare will mean – and I believe the data is going to show it has already meant – that maternal mortality and morbidity in a state like Texas, where it was already so severe, is only going to get worse.”

Photo Credit: Erich Schlegel/Getty Images

But Texans are not satisfied with this reality, and as Wendy explains, they want more for their futures: “Young people give me hope. Truly. I was just looking at a poll that NBC did, and it showed that women ages 18 to 49, 80% of women in that age category support access to abortion and disagree with the Dobbs decision. And I'm relying on them and the work that our organization, and so many other organizations across Texas and across this country, are doing to energize, motivate, and turn out that vote. It is their future, their lives really, that they are voting for.”

Read more from Teen Vogue here.

 

“LATE-TERM ABORTION” IS A TERM MEANT TO MISLEAD: While the phrase “late-term abortion” is often peddled by those in the anti-abortion coalition, it is not recognized by medical and reproductive health experts. The term is ill-defined with some anti-abortion politicians using it to describe abortions occurring at- or even “post-birth” and others arguing the term includes any abortions after the start of the second trimester of pregnancy. 

The focus on abortions at later stages of pregnancy intends to confuse the public, who widely and increasingly oppose abortion bans, and ignores just how rare they are. Federal data shows that less than 1% of abortions occur at 21 weeks or later. Abortions in the third trimester account for even less.

It’s worth noting that the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which stripped the federal constitutional right to abortion and forces many people out of state for care, will likely lead to some abortions occurring later than they would have before bans and harsh barriers to access. Even so, experts say the majority of abortions still occur in the first trimester. 

Read more from The 19th* here