You Can Now Get An Abortion In North Dakota (Legally, But Probably Not Realistically). Repro Rights Roundup!
Also, Missouri gets its abortion ballot initiative back.
North Dakota has one of the most draconian abortion laws in the country. Wait — let me correct that. North Dakota had one of the most draconian abortion laws in the country, right up until this week when a judge stepped in and said “Surprise! You can’t have your terrible abortion law, because it violates your state constitution!”
State District Judge Bruce Romanick struck down the law on Thursday, both on the grounds that it is “too vague” and that the constitution gives every citizen the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
BAM.
“The abortions statutes at issue in this case infringe on a woman’s fundamental right to procreative autonomy, and are not narrowly tailored to promote women’s health or to protect unborn human life,” Romanick wrote. “The law as currently drafted takes away a woman’s liberty and her right to pursue and obtain safety and happiness.”
Unfortunately, however, the last remaining clinic in North Dakota moved to Moorhead, Minnesota, back in 2022, so it’s not as though women there can run out and get a surgical abortion. (This is why it’s as important to fight for abortion access as abortion rights!)
That being said, it does mean that, at the very least, women whose pregnancies go terribly wrong or who miscarry will not have to risk their lives while hospitals wait for them to go septic before they can provide treatment, so that’s certainly a plus.
Well, He *Was* Asking For It
Nightmare person John McEntee — that former Trump staffer/Project 2025 guy who started his own right-wing dating site — thinks he is very clever. He posts all of these terrible TikToks meant to make us feel like we are on a soul-crushingly bad dinner date with him, in which he shares his terrible thoughts and asks what he thinks are big-time gotcha questions in hopes of owning the libs.
Recently, he made a video in which he ate what I am going to assume are chicken nuggets dipped in mayonnaise and asked "Can someone track down the women Kamala Harris says are bleeding out in parking lots because Roe v. Wade was overturned?" adding "Don't hold your breath."
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Well, it’s a good thing for him that he did not hold his breath, because if he did, he’d pass out while reading the nearly 20,0000 responses to his video, most of which were from women who experienced that and other horrors because they couldn’t get the medical care they needed, due to bad anti-abortion laws.
Notably, one of the women who responded was Carmen Broesder, the Idaho woman who just last year shared the horrors of the 19-day miscarriage she was unable to get treated for on TikTok.
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Broeder explained that she was given only one dose of pain medication in the whole 19 days, and was turned away from three emergency rooms that said they could do nothing for her.
“I blacked out in my hallway due to blood loss," she said.
It didn’t end after the 19 days either — as a result of what she went through, Broeder now suffers from Afib, or atrial fibrillation, a heart condition she will have to live with for the rest of her life. She explained that if she gets too excited or upset, her heart could just stop working. That sounds fun, no?
Scores of other women shared their horrific experiences in the comments on McEntee’s post.
“Hi! That would be me. 19 week stillbirth at home after going to 3 hospitals and begging my Dr for help for weeks. I now have an autoimmune disease triggered by the blood loss.”
“Ectopic pregnancy survivor. Sat in the ER while my doctor called her attorney to find out if I could receive medicine or if they had to wait till I bled internally to help me.”
“Does it have to be a parking lot? Does the location matter? Because it took me over three weeks to have a complete miscarriage because my hospital and doctors refused to perform a DNC”
“Me. I was forced to carry a dead baby for 3 months. I started to bleed out and that's when they finally gave me my DnC.”
“Me, I was 6 weeks when i was told there wasn’t a heart beat, fevers and bleeding for 3 months, everyone refused to help me due to the laws. living in Texas due to my husband being in the military.”
“Had a cyst burst inside my uterus while pregnant causing a mc. The on call doc said it's best to wait a week to see if it comes out naturally. Now I can have 0 children bc my uterus is gone.”
“My water suddenly broke and I went to the er, they sent me home. Started cramping and went back to the ER. I miscarried at 17 weeks in the restroom at the ER because I wasn’t deemed an emergency.”
The fact is, these horrific stories are not going to affect John McEntee, because if he had any sense of empathy to begin with, he would not have posted that video or, really, anything else he’s ever posted. The only response anyone is getting from any of these people is “It’s not the law’s fault! Doctors are just misinterpreting it!” which is bullshit. In order to not lose their license or land in prison, doctors have to wait until it’s an absolute definite that someone is going to die or lose a major bodily function before they do anything, which is generally not how actual medical interventions work. You want to do it before it gets to that point.
But don’t expect John McEntee to care.
Missouri Is Gonna Vote on Abortion!
After a whole lot of back and forth, the Missouri state supreme court has officially ordered Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) to allow voters to decide if they want abortion to be legal or not. Ashcroft has been ordered to “certify to local election authorities that Amendment 3 be placed on the Nov. 5, 2024, general election ballot and shall take all steps necessary to ensure that it is on said ballot.”
The order came just a few days after Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled that Amendment 3 be removed from the ballot on the grounds that the phrase “a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom” was just too vague a term for (stupid?) people to understand.
By the way, in case you were wondering … yes, he is Rush Limbaugh’s cousin.
So Is Nebraska! Twice!
Nebraska voters will have the opportunity to vote on two competing ballot initiatives, one from each side of the issue, the state’s supreme court ruled on Friday.
The first one — the good one — is sponsored by Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights groups, and will allow abortion up until viability and to save the mother’s life or health after that.
The second one — the bad one — will ban abortion after the first trimester with the usual rape/incest/medical emergencies exceptions.
The bright side of this, however, is that you will notice that even in Nebraska, they’re not even trying to straight up ban the procedure through a vote. They know that it’s not what the people want and they are watering that shit down in hopes of getting it through. It’s still not good, but it’s a good sign nonetheless.
Because we’re winning.
I am so glad you covered the McEntee thing, Robyn! That smug fucker really pissed me off, and the stories of Broeder and the many, many women like her deserve to be told.
Trans people, too. Statistically there are bound to be some, even though we haven't heard their stories yet. Rest assured, I'll write them up when someone finally has enough support to come forward as a trans/non-binary person who suffered from anti-abortion laws in one of these fucked up states.
"The women who are bleeding out in parking lots, they didn't want that."
NYTimes: This claim needs context.
Untreated miscarriages result in what are typically slow and painful bleeding events lasting days or weeks. This claim misrepresents the effect of abortion laws by portraying parking lots as a unique site of trauma, when in fact the bleeding takes place everywhere a woman goes throughout the process.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐘𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝟓,𝟒𝟓𝟖 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐨𝐬.