Did you catch our conversation about abortion with writer and activist Jessica Valenti on the pod this week? If not, be sure to listen here for this important conversation.
Abortion is a hot topic in today’s political landscape and we all need to keep talking about it. For example, did you know that abortion bans drive an increase in maternal mortality?
A new investigation of federal public health data found that the number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor, or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care.
The Texas Legislature banned abortion care as early as five weeks into pregnancy in September 2021, nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — the case that protected a federal right to abortion — in June 2022. We’re just now seeing the impacts of that ban.
We’re saddened by what’s happening in Texas and if Trump wins in November, and Project 2025 goes into effect, this is what we’re going to see nationwide.
Make no mistake — Project 2025 wants a nationwide abortion ban.
They’re not content with overturning Roe v. Wade, they want to remove access to medication abortion nationwide by any means necessary. They would do this by weaponizing the long-dormant Comstock Act which was originally passed in the 19th century to restrict the types of things that could be mailed. They want to make the delivery of medication abortion by mail illegal, despite the DOJ, the courts, and Congress already making clear that the Comstock Act does not apply to legal abortion care.
And if that doesn’t work, they would have the FDA reverse approval of this safe and effective medication or they would turn to the EPA to apply restrictive regulations to medication abortion.
We’re already seeing this happen in states like Louisiana.
As of October 1st, two drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol, which are commonly used for abortions, postpartum hemorrhaging, and miscarriage management — have been classified as “controlled dangerous substances.”
Postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide, as well as in America. And do you know what is the first-line medical treatment for hemorrhage? It’s Misoprostol. Now that it’s considered a controlled substance, it has to be stored away from other medications in a securely locked cabinet. This will add minutes to treat a woman bleeding out after childbirth.
Dr. Jennifer Avegno, director of the New Orleans Health Department and an emergency medicine physician, said “As someone who treats emergencies all the time, minutes matter. And if you’ve ever watched a woman bleed out after childbirth, it is not something that you have the luxury of time to deal with.”
That’s right. Minutes can be a matter of life or death.
We will keep saying it — abortion bans don’t stop abortions. They kill women.