The Quickie: TX Man Sues Three Women for Allegedly Helping his Ex-Wife Self-Manage Abortion

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.

Good afternoon, readers! We hope you’re surviving another devastating Daylight Savings.

In today’s Quickie: TX man sues 3 women for allegedly helping ex-wife self-manage abortion in first-of-its-kind lawsuit, PPFA discusses upcoming mifepristone ruling, CO repo rights champions move to further protect abortion and gender-affirming care, and our weekly state fights lookahead. 

TX MAN SUES THREE WOMEN FOR ALLEGEDLY HELPING HIS EX-WIFE SELF-MANAGE ABORTION: Late last week, the Texas Tribune reported that a Texas man filed a first of its kind civil lawsuit alleging that three women who helped his ex-wife obtain abortion pills in July 2022 are responsible for wrongful death. The man is seeking more than $1 million in damages, and is represented by Jonathan Mitchell — also the architect of Texas’s S.B. 8 abortion ban with the bounty-hunter enforcement mechanism — and Texas Rep. Briscoe Cain. 

“This comes as no surprise, but is no less infuriating and alarming,” Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement. “This is the world politicians in Texas and across the country have created — one where people can face legal consequences simply for supporting someone’s decisions about their own body. Every person in this country should be terrified that this type of harassment can happen under state laws, blessed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs. Planned Parenthood Action Fund refuses to accept this as the new normal — we will always fight back.”

This chilling development is the direct result of the dangerous policies championed by Gov. Greg Abbott and his supporters, and it amounts to state-sanctioned harassment. As Wendy Davis, Senior Advisor to Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, noted on MSNBC’s SYMONE this weekend: 

“The folks that fought really hard to overturn Roe v. Wade were never going to be satisfied with that outcome and instead now have turned to tactics like … seeking to intimidate and instill fear in people who are working to self manage abortion through medication abortion, or even to try to leave a state where abortion is banned and go elsewhere. They are not going to stop. The consequence of this, of course, is that it’s creating a public health crisis on the ground in states like Texas.” 

Read more at Texas Tribune and ABC. 

PPFA VP OF ABORTION ACCESS DISCUSSES UPCOMING MIFEPRISTONE RULING: Danika Severino Wynn, VP for abortion access for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, joined host Molly Jong-Fast on the Fast Politics podcast to talk about the impact on abortion access if a federal judge orders the FDA end its more than 20 year approval of mifepristone in an ongoing lawsuit. In response to a question about the false allegations by anti-abortion groups on mifepristone’s safety, Danika explained:

“It is unfortunately a case where we have politicians and decision makers in government making a decision about evidence-based research without the knowledge and training to do so. These are decisions that should be made between a person and their health care provider because we understand and know that that’s the best and safest way to provide care. And in this case, we have a situation where there is basically junk science that is being used to make decisions about medical care that’s incredibly personal. It is incredible that we are in this place in 2023 where we’re having to demonstrate over and over again that the literature and the research clearly show safety, yet there is a potential that one judge could make a decision for the whole country to remove a medication that is completely safe from the market.”

Listen to the conversation here (starts at 39 mins in).

COLORADO LEGISLATORS INTRODUCE PACKAGE TO PROTECT ABORTION ACCESS, GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE: Last week, reproductive rights champions in Colorado’s legislature introduced the Safe Access to Protected Health Care Package, a series of bills to expand and further protect Coloradans’ access to abortion, gender-affirming care, and other reproductive health services. The package would also protect out-of-state patients from prosecution or investigation. Some of the provisions included in the legislative packet include: 

• Mandating large employer health insurance plans cover the full cost of an abortion 
• Setting restrictions on how anti-abortion centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers, can advertise 
• Protecting out-of-state patients from prosecution or investigation, also known as a “shield law” 
• Proactively protecting gender-affirming care 

This legislative package builds upon the work that legislators did last session in codifying abortion rights via the Reproductive Health Equity Act. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Colorado has seen nearly double the demand for abortion care due to pregnant people traveling from out-of-state, making additional protections for pregnant people seeking basic health care critical in the state. 

Read more at Colorado Public Radio and Truthout.  

STATE FIGHTS LOOK AHEAD:

ICYMI: governors could sign these recently passed measures at any time. 

• Arkansas’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors (SB 199).
• Iowa’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors (HF 623/SF 5378).
• Kansas’s ban on trans girls playing school sports (HB 2238). Governor Laura Kelly has twice vetoed similar bills, and advocates are hopeful that a veto of this bill can be sustained.
• Utah’s measure to eliminate abortion access (HB 467).
• West Virginia’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors (HB 2007), which passed the legislature last Saturday.
• Wyoming’s measure to eliminate rape and incest exceptions in the state’s (currently blocked) trigger ban and the limited abortion coverage in the state’s Medicaid program (HF 152) and its measure to ban medication abortion (SF 109).

Proactive Efforts:

• Colorado lawmakers will hold committee hearings on the Safe Access to Protected Health Care package on Wednesday. The measures (SB 188, 189, and 190) include provisions shielding providers of and patients receiving abortion and gender affirming care from harassing interstate lawsuits and other targeted measures; closing gaps in insurance coverage for abortion and sexually transmitted infections, including coverage for travel for abortion; and regulating anti-abortion fake clinics. 
• New Hampshire lawmakers are likely to consider the Access to Abortion Care Act (HB 88) in the full House this week. 
• Several proactive bills continue to advance in Maryland, including legislation to codify protections for abortion in the state constitution.  
• New Jersey budget hearings begin this week, with advocates pushing lawmakers to maintain funding for reproductive health services.
• Washington lawmakers will hold committee hearings this week on several pro-reproductive rights bills including personal data protections (HB 1155), patient and provider shield provisions (HB 1469), and abortion coverage requirements (SB 5242). 
• On Tuesday, Tennessee lawmakers will hear a measure to require the state Department of Health (DOH) to seek federal funding for HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. Earlier this year, the DOH backed away from the federal HIV program, forcing community health organizations, including Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, to scale back this essential public health service.
• An LGBTQ+ non-discrimination bill will be heard in the Alaska House Labor and Commerce committee on Wednesday.
• Gov. Whitmer is expected to soon sign Michigan’s repeal of the state’s 1931 abortion ban (HB 4006), which is currently blocked by court order, and a measure expanding anti-discrimination protections to include gender identity and expression (SB 4). 
• New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham is poised to enact a measure protecting reproductive and gender-affirming care (HB 7).

Defensive Efforts:

• Florida lawmakers will consider a number of bills attacking sexual and reproductive health, LGBTQ+ rights, education, and democracy: 
  • Today, the Senate Health Policy committee will hear SB 254, a gender-affirming care ban. The measure would not only ban gender-affirming care for minors, but also change the state’s child custody and abuse statutes to include providing gender-affirming care to a child as grounds for removal of custody. It also would add significant restrictions for adults to receive care. Providers who violate the ban would be subject to penalties up to a third-degree felony. 
  • Also today, the Education Quality committee will hear HB 999, which proposes sweeping restrictions on higher education, including a ban on teaching critical race theory and related concepts like gender studies. 
  • Tuesday, the House Choice & Innovation subcommittee will hear HB 1223 (dubbed “Don’t Say They” by LGBTQ+ advocates), which codifies a binary definition of sex based on “reproductive function” and would prohibit educators from teaching about gender identity and acknowledging students’ expressed identity, name, or pronouns. 
  • Also Tuesday, the House Judiciary committee will hear HB 129, a bill to increase the threshold for passing ballot initiatives. 
  • On Thursday, the House Health Care Regulation committee could hear HB 7, the state’s proposed ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. 
• Tennessee committees will hear a number of measures impacting LGBTQ+ rights,  abortion access, and sexual health this week: 
  • On Monday, a marriage discrimination bill (SB 596/HB 878) will be heard in the Senate Judiciary committee. The measure, which passed the House last week, allows people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it — opening the door to discrimination against same-sex couples, mixed race couples, and couples where at least one partner is transgender or gender non-conforming.
  • On Tuesday, a ban on local government abortion funds — such as that established by the city of Nashville — will be heard in the House Local Government committee. The measure (HB 90/SB 600) passed its subcommittee last week.
  • On Wednesday, a measure banning insurers that cover gender-affirming care from participating in the state Medicaid program (HB 1215/SB 1339) will be heard by a House subcommittee. 
  • Also on Wednesday, a measure allowing private schools to ban or limit trans students’ participation in school sports (HB 306/SB 1237) will be heard in the Education Administration committee.
• Kentucky lawmakers may hear HB 470, a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, in committee on Tuesday.
• Several harmful bills are expected to move in Montana this week, including a so-called “born alive” measure (HB 625), legislation to define the right to privacy as not including the right to abortion (SB 154), and a bill to ban one of the most common methods of abortion (HB 721).
• The Alaska House Education committee is expected to consider a “Don’t Say Gay” bill.