It has been a bad-news/worse-news kind of week for reproductive freedom in America. With the midterms weeks away, it is exponentially important to make these stories as public as possible, given the vast support for abortion rights among the electorate. Here is The Contrarian dispatch:
Executive Dysfunction. This week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed an expansive statewide law that would have further codified abortion and gender-affirming healthcare in the state. By refusing to sign the bill, he left open the possibility of future extradition of California doctors who prescribe and mail-delivery abortion pills to another state. Though there are some support mechanisms in place through a 2022 executive order Newsom signed, his failure to further enshrine protection into state law is more than disappointing. It is dangerous — and I dare say supremely bad politics, given Newsom’s assumed grander political aspirations. According to the Guttmacher Institute, California is one of 23 states (plus the District of Columbia) with some level of shield law protection related to reproductive health. It is a shame the state is no longer a standard-bearer. Louisiana is among the states that have tried to extradite California doctors for mailing abortion medication; Texas has passed laws to enable the same. Shocking, I know.
Abortion in State Courts. Did someone mention Texas? State Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton is being sued by the family of a San Antonio woman who died after being denied lifesaving care under Texas’s abortion ban. At 20 weeks pregnant, the woman was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a high blood pressure pregnancy condition that can be fatal. In her case, it was. The lawsuit alleges Paxton, in his official capacity, along with the woman’s doctors and the University of Texas Health Science Center, showed “deliberate indifference, discrimination, and medical mistreatment” — even after her condition worsened and she experienced seizures and blood clots — and “ultimately caused her horrific and tragic death.” (Notable sidebar: When former President George W. Bush and Sen. John Cornyn held a big Republican fundraiser earlier this week, they visibly excluded support for Paxton’s Senate race.)
In Oklahoma, two women denied care for nonviable pregnancies and forced to leave the state to obtain an abortion filed suit against state leaders. Oklahoma has among the strictest abortion bans in the nation; the lawsuit argues that state law violates pregnant women’s rights to life and liberty, substantive due process, and equal protection. Back in 2023, the Oklahoma Supreme Court recognized a right to life-preserving abortions, an important ruling on which to build.
Surrogacy at the Supreme Court. The high court weighed in for the first time on a high-profile surrogacy dispute in, yes, Texas. A surrogate fled there from Alaska to refuse an abortion of the fetus she was carrying for another couple, after a diagnosis at 20 weeks of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The couple, from California, wanted to terminate the pregnancy, which was their option in the contract. The baby was born prematurely six weeks ago, underwent open-heart surgery, and remains hospitalized. To be clear, this is both a tragic and legally thorny scenario without a real playbook to follow. I do not pretend to possess any special wisdom here. But I can say with certainty that the participation of the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion legal organization now serving as the surrogate’s counsel, and, yes, Paxton, makes it dark and diabolical. (Paxton has since withdrawn from the proceedings.) As CBS reported, Justice Elena Kagan rejected an emergency appeal from the surrogate, asking the the Supreme Court “to halt a California court order” granting parental rights to the biological parents of the child.
(Not) in the Drinking Water. The Trump administration recently announced the launch of a new national drinking-water study that will test for traces of mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs used in medication abortions, as potential pollutants. Of course, there is no scientific basis for the claim — or real rationale for the study at all. Perhaps that is why Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin indicated the agency will be looking at other chemicals, too. But the message is loud and clear: This is a major flex for the anti-abortion movement, which has pressed to curb access to abortion pills by any means necessary.
Travel Bans in Disguise. The United States might claim it doesn’t have travel bans, but, as Kylie Cheung wrote at Abortion, Every Day, they’re just hidden within other laws. A woman on six years’ probation for wearing a hoodie that had her boyfriend’s weed in the pocket was prevented from leaving her state with a near-total abortion ban, forcing her to carry her pregnancy to term. This woman had to seek permission from her probation officer to travel, and her request was denied. Already a mother, she knew having a second child while navigating the legal-judicial system and trying to work would be difficult. But the state made the decision for her — and extended her probation for missing breathalyzer tests while caring for her children and working. As Cheung wrote, “The devastating outcome more or less encapsulates all that [she] has faced at the hands of the state: county officials forced her to give birth—then couldn’t care less about her family or their circumstances, after the fact.”
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These roundups are not intended to cause Contrarians to wring their hands in despair. Rather, these stories remind us that attacks are happening in real time at all levels of government, and it is on all of us to stay aware and get out the vote in November. We can turn this tide.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law. She also leads strategy and partnerships at Ms. Magazine.
