The Quickie: Today at 1pm EST: VA and TN Affiliates Host Press Call on Expanding Title X Funding
For Immediate Release: Sept. 26, 2023
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: VLPP and PPTNM to host press call on expanded Title X funding, Ohio Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments on six-week ban, and a Missouri judge rewrites misleading ballot language.
TODAY AT 1PM EST: VIRGINIA LEAGUE FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF TENNESSEE AND NORTH MISSISSIPPI HOST PRESS CALL ON EXPANDED TITLE X FUNDING: Today, VLPP and PPTNM announced supplemental Title X funding, which will increase access to free or low-cost birth control for patients by expanding current programs from Virginia and Mississippi, into Tennessee. As the nation’s only federal program dedicated to providing affordable birth control and other reproductive health care to people with low incomes, Title X is a critical social safety net that can, and should, help ensure equitable access to essential health care.
At 1pm ET today, VLPP and PPTNM CEOs will discuss this announcement. Interested reporters can join here.
TOMORROW, OHIO SUPREME COURT TO HEAR ORAL ARGUMENTS IN SIX-WEEK ABORTION BAN CASE: Tomorrow, the Supreme Court of Ohio will hear oral arguments in the abortion providers’ case challenging the state’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The case came to the Supreme Court after the state of Ohio appealed a lower court order blocking the six-week ban, which had been in effect for three months last year after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The issues currently before the Court are limited to whether the state can appeal this order and whether abortion providers can protect their patients’ right to abortion care by challenging the ban.
Proceedings at the courthouse tomorrow will begin at 9 am ET. Live broadcast details can be found here. Abortion advocates and attorneys will be available at the court after the arguments to answer questions from the press.
MISSOURI JUDGE TOSSES OUT MISLEADING BALLOT SUMMARIES, APPROVES OFFICIAL TITLES: On Monday, a Missouri judge tossed out misleading summaries of proposed abortion rights ballot initiatives and approved the official titles, allowing advocates to proceed with a potential campaign in 2024. The ballot summaries submitted by Attorney General Jay Ashcroft — an unabashed opponent of reproductive freedom — contained lies about the scope of the measures and would have appeared before voters at the polls. The judge ruled that the summary must match the language of the measure itself, establishing the “right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraception,” as well as undoing the state’s total abortion ban.
Even before Dobbs, Missouri’s multi-layered restrictions made abortion a right in name only, especially for Black and Latino Missourians, LGBTQ+ people, young people, and people who are financially insecure. “For decades, Missouri politicians have held hostage the right to reproductive freedom,” Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri president Yamelsie Rodríguez said in a statement. “Now, as a path to building abortion access becomes clearer, Planned Parenthood recommits to centering those communities — and not just rebuilding the same system that left so many behind. Planned Parenthood stands ready to work with partners to build meaningful, lasting, and equitable abortion access for all Missourians."
Read more from the Associated Press.