The Quickie: Reclaim Your Vote, Georgia

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: PPAF president rallies for reproductive rights champion Sen. Warnock, abortion bans with exceptions prevent survivors from receiving abortion care, and SC makes refilling birth control prescriptions easier!  

RECLAIM YOUR VOTE, GEORGIA: This weekend, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson joined the Reclaim Your Vote canvass launch alongside Marc H. Morial, president and CEO, National Urban League, Nancy Flake Johnson, president of Urban League of Georgia, LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, co-founders of Black Voters Matter, Melanie Campbell, president and CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable, Gerald A. Griggs, president of Georgia NAACP State Conference, Mayor Jazzmin Cobble of Stonecrest, and Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Alexis spoke to why Georgians must commit to voting, again —  despite efforts to suppress people’s ability to exercise their right: 

“I am here in Georgia because freedom runs through Georgia. Freedom is on the ballot.” 

“Right now in Georgia, there is a ban on reproductive freedom. And what that means is that there are patients everyday showing up in need of health care — they are showing up in a state that already has severe restrictions on health care, where only half of the counties have an OB/GYN, and where maternal mortality is among the highest in the states. Not only are women being denied access to reproductive freedom; we are sentencing them life or death situations. … So that is on the ballot. That is why we are here today.” 

ABORTION BANS WITH SO-CALLED “EXCEPTIONS” ARE A FARCE: SURVIVORS OF INCEST AND RAPE STILL CANNOT GET ABORTIONS IN BAN STATES: Last week, VICE reported on the case of a Mississippi teen who could not get an abortion in the state despite a so-called exception for survivors of rape and incest. The reason: all abortion clinics in the state have been forced to close as the result of the state’s abortion ban. So few patients can be seen under these exceptions that, even providing other health services, clinics are unable to keep their doors open. As a result, assault survivors must either travel out of state at great cost or carry the pregnancy to term. Exceptions to abortion bans have been labeled as “compromises,” but they are becoming more rare. Several states —  including Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas — already have total bans with no exceptions. 

Legal experts question the efficacy of exceptions, which are functionally irrelevant. The exceptions in some bans are often not straightforward to allow abortion providers to give legal care. In Georgia, for example, a survivor must file a police report before being able to legally receive abortion care. 

“What is the state's interest in a law like this, in really forcing minors who are raped to carry pregnancy to term?” said Jessie Hill, an attorney representing Ohio abortion providers in a lawsuit against the state’s ban.  

…

“We know that lots of victims of sexual violence don't want to report to law enforcement. That's one of the most underreported and under-prosecuted offenses,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said. 

According to 2018 polling, a majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal for pregnancies from rape or incest through the third trimester of pregnancy, making these bans out-of-step with what voters across the country believe. 

Read more at VICE. 

SOUTH CAROLINA ALLOWS PHARMACISTS TO REFILL BIRTH CONTROL PRESCRIPTIONS: Last month, South Carolina finalized regulations for the Pharmacy Access Act, passed in May, which allows licensed pharmacists to refill birth control prescriptions for people who have already been prescribed birth control by a doctor. Previously, South Carolinians needed to visit a doctor annually for a birth control prescription, creating a barrier for people with low incomes, people without health insurance, and people without easy access to a doctor. While implementation at pharmacies has been slow, advocates for health equity have hailed the regulatory change: 

“Giving women easier access to birth control is a long-term collective goal of so many groups. This is a great step forward,” said Vicki Ringer, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “We know that birth control is safe and effective with fewer side effects than acetaminophen and ibuprofen. So safe, in fact, that contraceptives are sold off the shelf at stores in 120 industrialized countries.“

“We know that many unplanned pregnancies occur between birth control refills,” Ringer said. “Eliminating that time lapse while women may be waiting for a doctor’s appointment should reduce the number of missed birth control doses and, therefore, reduce unplanned pregnancies.”

Read more at Statehouse Report.