“None of this is by accident”: Reproductive rights advocates rail against Alabama IVF ruling
And experts warn these restrictions won’t remain contained in the Deep South.
The day started on a joyful note for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) and Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) as they welcomed Vice President Kamala Harris to Michigan, a moment Scholten, who turned 42 today, marked with a selfie inside the vice presidential limo.
But matters turned serious as the lawmakers and most powerful women in the free world turned their attention to the fallout from a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created through in vitro fertilization are considered children. Harris was in town on a previously scheduled stop for her reproductive rights nationwide tour.
“How did this happen?” Harris asked during a roundtable discussion with Stabenow, Scholten and other state leaders, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.). “When you look at the fact that the previous president of the United States was clear in his intention to hand pick three Supreme Court justices who would overturn the protections of Roe v Wade, and he did and that's what got us to this point today.”
Harris wasn’t finished:
And that same individual, the previous President of the United States, then openly talks about how he is proud of what has resulted, proud of the fact that doctors and nurses can be jailed for giving reproductive care, proud of the fact that so many young women in America now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers.
The Alabama high court decision had immediate ramifications for pregnant people in Alabama: Three state fertility clinics announced they would pause IVF treatments due to the legal risks to the facilities and their doctors. And abortion-rights advocates say these restrictions won’t remain contained in the Deep South.
“Yes, it’s happening first in Alabama because they had the most favorable conditions for this ruling to happen,” Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications and research at Reproductive Freedom for All, told me during a brief interview this afternoon. “But they’ve been trying this across the country for a long time. And obviously, the reason it feels and is more extreme and more rapid and more overwhelming post-Dobbs is because without that backstop of Roe. v. Wade, we no longer have protections against laws claiming that life begins at conception.”
Vasquez-Giroux added abortion rights aren’t the only freedoms under attack at this moment.
“This is all connected. None of this is by accident. It’s the same people who helped fund attacks on abortion that impact IVF and attacks on birth control and attacks on LGBTQ students and youth and attacks on voting rights,” she said. “It’s one big network of people who have the same aim, which is really to amass power and to control other people.”
It’s not just at the state level where anti-abortion advocates have fought to force fetal personhood language into law, despite GOP legislators claiming these issues should be resolved on a state-by-state basis. Congressional Republicans have introduced four this term. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has co-sponsored two of the three introduced in the House.
And as a government shutdown looms in eight days, House Republicans are delaying the appropriations process to fight for anti-abortion riders that have no chance of becoming law.
“The way I think about it is if you know how toddlers operate, a toddler can stop your entire day by refusing to put a shoe on or by throwing their mitten down on the floor 100 times,” Vasquez-Giroux said. “And that’s essentially how Republicans are functioning when it comes to abortion and reproductive health policy. They are willing to stand at the door and scream and throw their shoes out the window rather than be civilized and recognize that they represent the right percent of people who believe that all abortions should be banned everywhere forever. They’re not the majority and they’re finding ways to stop the eighty percent of us who agree that abortion should be legal and accessible because they know they can’t win.”
In fact, the anti-abortion movement has lost every statewide ballot measure on abortion since Roe was overturned. And the issue energized voters in such high numbers that Democrats held the Senate and only lost the House by five seats amid predictions of a red wave.
President Joe Biden, who called the Alabama court decision outrageous and unacceptable, is expected to speak about abortion in his State of the Union address next month. (First Lady Dr. Jill Biden invited Kate Cox, the woman who was forced to flee to another state for abortion care after she was denied care in Texas, to join her as a guest at the SOTU; Cox accepted. And Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) announced this week Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman who was charged with a felony following a miscarriage at home, will be her guest at the address.)
National Democrats and reproductive rights advocates predict this energy will carry through to November’s general election.
“The stakes of the 2024 election could not be higher,” Katarina Flicker, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement. “Republican Senate candidates have backed their party’s toxic agenda to take away women’s right to make our most personal choices about our health care and our families, and in November, voters will respond by rejecting them at the ballot box.”
Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez echoed the sentiment.
“With their latest attack on reproductive freedom, these so-called pro-life Republicans are preventing loving couples from growing their families,” she said in a statement. “If Donald Trump is elected, there is no question that he will impose his extreme anti-freedom agenda on the entire country.”
Vasquez-Giroux told me that you may not have a choice in this current environment whether or not someone will take your rights away, but you do have a choice in whether or not you fight back.
“Every single election is an opportunity for you to affirm your beliefs and to send people to the school board who believe in comprehensive sex education, and to the state legislature who believe in protecting your right to make your own decisions about your own body, and elect a president who has the most progressive record on abortion and reproductive healthcare in the history of our country,” she said. “Nothing is off limits. And everything that matters to us is up for debate. And they’re gonna have that fight whether we like it or not. And the only way that we can win is if we weigh in.”
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome to Once Upon a Hill, your twice-weekly guide to the obvious and obscure ways congressional politics shape your work and life. I’m Michael Jones and if you’re an AT&T customer, I hope the outage didn’t disrupt your day too much.
In the Know
→ The White House approved more than $1 billion in student debt cancelation for nearly 153,000 borrowers enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan six months ahead of schedule. This marks almost $138 billion in total student debt cancelation for almost 3.9 million borrowers through executive actions.
The SAVE program was created last summer after the Supreme Court blocked the president’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student loan debt for eligible borrowers. Under the program, borrowers who have been in repayment for at least 10 years and borrowed $12,000 or less for college are eligible for relief, including income-based repayment, monthly payment caps, and outright cancelation.
In addition to SAVE, the administration has taken steps to improve the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and provide relief for borrowers with longstanding debts.
→ The Senate Judiciary Committee announced it will hold a hearing next Wednesday on the deaths of incarcerated individuals in federal prisons. The hearing follows Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into the non-medical deaths of those in Bureau of Prisons care. Horowitz and Board of Prisons Director Collette Peters will testify during the hearing.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) requested Horowitz’s review of reports of abuse and the deaths of seven incarcerated men at Federal Correctional Institution Thomson, a low-security federal prison in Illinois, in 2022 as part of a larger report on deaths in BOP facilities.
The committee has held three previous BOP oversight hearings under Durbin’s chairmanship.
→ The Biden administration will announce tomorrow a new sanctions package against Russia to mark the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine and respond to the death of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died last week. Western leaders, including President Biden, have blamed President Vladimir Putin of Russia for Navalny’s death. (Biden met with Navalny’s mom and wife in San Francisco today.)
Biden on Saturday will participate in a video conference call with other G7 leaders and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine to discuss the group’s continued support for Ukraine and steps the leaders can take to continue holding Russia accountable. This is the third year that G7 leaders have convened in February to condemn Russia’s invasion and express solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
The sanctions package and G7 call come as the White House and members of Congress pressure Speaker Johnson to put a Senate-passed national security bill with billions of dollars in Ukraine aid up for a vote. Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from Avdiivka, a town in eastern Ukraine, due to running out of supplies.
White House officials say the sanctions package will be significant but have declined to disclose its key details.
→ The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it raised $9.5 million in January, bringing its total cash on hand to nearly $52 billion. The haul picks up where the DCCC left off in 2023 when it ended the year with a $20 million fundraising advantage over the National Republican Congressional Committee. Chair Suzan DelBene credited House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and a unified Democratic Caucus for a strong start to the year as it works to reclaim the majority in November.
Read All About It
“Why car insurance rates are soaring” by Marin Cogan: “You’re paying a lot more for car insurance than you were in 2020. Here’s why.”
“It’s been 30 years since food ate up this much of your income” by Jesse Newman and Heather Haddon: “Ongoing high costs lead food manufacturers and restaurants to keep prices elevated.”
“Some Arab voters aren’t just ‘uncommitted,’—they want Biden to lose” by Tinashe Chingarande: “‘[We want to make him a one-term president and [pair] his loss with the Gaza issue,’ one Arab American leader in Michigan said.”
“Three comforting lies Democrats need to stop telling themselves about November” by David Faris: “Let’s start with strategists saying Biden’s polls are nothing to worry about.”
“This GOP Senate hopeful’s self-made story has a a darker side” by Sam Brodey: “Bernie Moreno is running for Senate largely based on his business success story. But a lawsuit from an old employee is bringing into question Moreno’s version of that story.”
“Donald Trump can’t run away from Roe” by Molly Jong-Fast: “The guy most responsible for ending federal abortion rights now wants to make a ‘deal.’”
“Trump’s RNC takeover is on the verge of becoming a ‘purge’” by Jake Lahut and Reese Gorman: “From top to bottom, the national GOP organization could soon be rid of anyone seen as insufficiently MAGA.”
“Trump is preying on low-information voters” by Ed Kilgore: “Swing voters tend to be low-information voters, which leaves this crucial group vulnerable to Trump’s disinformation.”
“Poverty has soared in New York, with children bearing the brunt” by Stefanos Chen: “The share of New York City residents who could not afford basic essentials jumped dramatically in 2022, with one in four children living in poverty, a new report found.”
“Don’t build that e-commerce warehouse in my backyard, more communities say” by Peter Grant: “Consumers love next-day delivery but oppose the spread of logistics that make it possible.”
“Want a better society? Try better buildings.” by Alexander Nazaryan: “An obsession with luxury is transforming cities into bland, isolating landscapes. Architecture should be for creating community.”
“Can parents keep their sons from sliding to the right?” by Kathryn Jezer-Morton: “It might feel dangerous for parents to let their teen sons explore reactionary pseudo-ideologies, but no one should get canceled at the dinner table.”
“Anti-trans bills keep citing the New York Times” by Henry Carnell: “By any objective measure, the paper seems clearly devoted to advocating against this care.”
“Sam Alito launches broadside against marriage equality in homophobic juror case” by Mark Joseph Stern
“The empty Adderall factory” by James D. Walsh: “A drugmaker’s feud with the DEA is exacerbating the ADHD meds crisis—at a rate of 600 million missing doses a year.”
“Is running a top university America’s hardest job?” by The Economist: “Balancing a motley crew of interested parties is becoming nearly impossible.”
“Women’s sports are about to explode” by Will Leitch: “Transcendent stars like Caitlin Clark, eager fan bases and media interest are pointing to an unprecedented surge in the popularity of women’s sports.”
“How to give constructive criticism without making it awkward” by Alison Green: “Or even unpleasant.”
Can you solve loneliness? These startups are betting on it.” by Chavie Lieber: “Entrepreneurs focused on social connection are popping up around the country amid what medical practitioners are calling an epidemic.”
“‘Gut health’ has a fatal flaw” by Yasmin Tayag: “The obsession with digestion has gone too far.”
“Does beer before liquor actually make you sicker?” by Dani Blum: “We asked alcohol researchers to explain what will—and won’t—prevent a hangover.”
“Regina King is my president” by Zoe Guy: “And also presidential hopeful Shirley Chisholm.”
“What happened to baseball jerseys?” by Amanda Mull: “Fans are doomed to keep paying more for merchandise they want less.”
“TikTok is on the decline” by Nitish Pahwa: “I’m calling it now. Here’s what convinced me.”
“KitchenAid did it right 87 years ago” by Anna Kramer: “Modern appliances are rarely built to last. They could learn something from the KitchenAid stand mixer.”
“At 70, this Instagram influencer shows that it’s never too late” by Alix Strauss: “Lyn Slater, 70, was deemed the Accidental Icon by a college fashion student. She now has nearly one million followers on social media and is upending notions of aging.”
That’s all for now! Thank you for reading Once Upon a Hill. Browse the archive for past editions of the newsletter. If you’re enjoying OUAH, feel free to recommend it to others—word of mouth is the best way to grow the community.
Give the gift of OUAH to someone whose work or life would benefit from the scoops, interviews and analysis you get twice a week. You can also invest in a group subscription for your team or organization and save $20/per person on an annual subscription.
Did someone forward this email to you? Tell them I said thank you! You can sign up to get the firs half of each edition delivered to your inbox for free or upgrade to a paid subscription to receive the entire newsletter plus access to the full archive.