Kansas Abortions Rise; Dems Worry Public Doesn’t Grasp Threat To Roe
The Kansas numbers show fewer people coming from Texas and Oklahoma in 2021 but more from Missouri. Meanwhile, Democratic pollsters, campaign operatives and candidates say the party needs to be more active to explain the stakes of an anticipated Supreme Court decision in June that could upend Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that made abortion legal across the country.
AP:
Abortions In Kansas Rise; Fewer Women Come From Some States
Kansas saw a 4.1% increase in the number of abortions performed in the state in 2021 compared with 2020, with more Missouri residents but fewer Oklahoma and Texas residents coming into the state to terminate their pregnancies. A preliminary report Tuesday from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment showed that 7,849 abortions were performed in the state last year. That’s 303 more than the 7,546 performed in Kansas in 2020. (4/26)
Politico:
Dems Grow Alarmed By Lack Of Fear Over Roe’s Future
For decades, Democrats insisted that Republicans would invite a major voter backlash if they took aggressive action to curtail abortion rights. Now, as a growing number of GOP-led states do just that, passing a slew of bills curtailing abortion with no exemptions for rape and incest, they fear that voters are uninformed or misinformed about the stakes. And they are sounding the alarm that more is needed to engage voters and warn them that the current slate of laws is just the beginning. (Barron-Lopez and Ollstein, 4/26)
In other news about abortion access —
Dallas Morning News:
U.S. 5th Circuit Officially Ends Abortion Providers’ Lawsuit On Senate Bill 8 Restrictions In Texas
As expected, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday formally ended a legal challenge against Senate Bill 8, Texas’ six-week abortion ban enacted on Sept. 1, which is considered the most restrictive abortion law since Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973. The federal challenge is remanded to the district court with instructions to dismiss all challenges to the law’s private enforcement provisions. The federal challenge was doomed after the 5th Circuit sent the case to Texas Supreme Court regarding a question on whether or not state medical licensing officials could reprimand providers who violate SB 8. The state’s high court said the law did not allow such enforcement. (Hollers, 4/26)
PolitiFact and Tampa Bay Times:
Crist Says He ‘Always’ Supported Abortion Access, But His Record Shows Inconsistency
The political career of U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democratic candidate for Florida governor, spans three decades, three party affiliations and multiple positions on sensitive issues. On April 12, Shannon Cake of WPTV in West Palm Beach quizzed Crist on his political evolution, specifically where he currently stood on LGBTQ rights and abortion. While Crist readily admitted that he had changed his position on gay marriage, he said his stance on whether women should have the right to obtain an abortion hadn’t changed. (Reyes, 4/27)
Reuters:
As U.S. Abortion Access Wanes, This Doctor Travels To Fill A Void
Inside Planned Parenthood’s Birmingham, Alabama, clinic, a quiet space with few windows and stock photos of the city lining the walls, a woman tapped her hand against her stomach as Dr. Shelly Tien performed a surgical abortion. Tien, 40, had flown to Birmingham the day before, and she would return home to Jacksonville, Florida, that night. A week earlier, she performed abortions at a clinic in Oklahoma. She’s among an estimated 50 doctors who travel across state lines, according to the National Abortion Federation, to provide abortions in places with limited abortion access. (Borter, 4/27)
Also —
The Hill:
Medication Abortion Can Be Dispensed Without An Ultrasound Or Physical Exam, Study Finds
Even more women could receive safe and effective prescriptions for medication abortion after a study found health care providers don’t need to perform an ultrasound or pelvic exam. Providers can safely lean on a patient’s medical history, eliminating the need for expensive equipment. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco studied about 3,700 patients with eligible abortions. Medications for abortions were provided without an ultrasound or pelvic exam, instead using a history-based screening, no-test approach to medication abortion care. (Ali, 4/26)
The 19th:
Clinic Escorts Saw The Assault On Abortion Rights Coming, But They’re Still Working
Oklahoma just made it a felony to perform an abortion. Before federal courts blocked the law, Kentucky became the first state in the country where clinics could no longer provide abortion care because of the number of legislative restrictions. Idaho is on the brink of banning the procedure after six weeks’ gestational age. Florida, West Virginia and Arizona are all primed to ban abortion after 15 weeks. And observers believe the Supreme Court could weaken — if not totally overturn — Roe v. Wade this summer. Clinic escorts — volunteers who help guide patients from parking lots often filled with protesters — aren’t surprised by this assault on reproductive rights, says Lauren Rankin, an activist, journalist and the author of the new book “Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America.” (Gerson, 4/27)
