Abortion Providers on a Hit List and Two Abortion-Related Arrests: June 16 News Roundup

Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly roundup. Every Monday, we’ll send you a summary of the biggest stories about bodily autonomy. We’ll also include links to pieces that Garnet or Susan have published.

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We won't lie, the news is bleak. Let's dive in.

On Autonomy News

Later this week, Garnet will have a story about a mysterious organization that’s been contacting abortion clinics and funds, offering “concierge” service—for a hefty fee. Is it a scam, an anti-abortion scheme, or some combination of both?

Federal news

This morning, the Supreme Court added two new cases to its docket for next term, which kicks off in October. In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, the Court will decide whether a group of anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” can challenge a subpoena from a state attorney general in federal court, or whether they need to go through the state court system first. Post-Dobbs, Democratic state AGs have increasingly taken aim at CPCs and their deceptive tactics, and this case stems from an investigation of First Choice by New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin. Representing First Choice is—you guessed it—Alliance Defending Freedom, the far-right Christian legal organization that wrote the law the Supreme Court used to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court also overturned a lower court’s decision upholding a New York law that requires health insurers to cover medically necessary abortions. The justices sent the case back to the New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) for reconsideration. Ending insurance coverage of abortion is a de facto ban for many people, and this move shows how the courts can upend access in states where abortion is legal.

In other ADF-related news, last week the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance a bill to repeal a 30-year-old law that protects abortion clinics from violence, passed in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. David Gunn. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act makes it a federal crime to injure or obstruct any person trying to provide or access reproductive healthcare and it protects abortion clinics as well as anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. During his first week in office, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen people convicted of violating the FACE Act and said his administration would only enforce it in the most extreme cases, such as murder. The bill now goes to the full House for consideration and faces steeper odds in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is the chairwoman of the House DOGE subcommittee (yes, really), announced she will launch an investigation into Planned Parenthood’s alleged “misuse” of federal funds (yes, really).

Extremism

Early Saturday morning, Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot at their home. Democratic Senator John Hoffman and his wife were shot and injured, apparently by the same assailant. The suspect, Vance Boelter, is an evangelical Christian preacher and security guard who had given sermons railing against abortion and LGBTQ rights. After police confronted Boelter and he fled on foot, they found a target list in his car, which reportedly included other Democratic elected officials and abortion providers and advocates, including Planned Parenthood leaders.

After an extended manhunt, Boelter was arrested Sunday night. His wife, Jenny Boelter, was detained on Saturday. Police found guns, ammunition, and passports in her car. Wired reports that a Facebook profile bearing the shooter’s name “liked” the Alliance Defending Freedom’s page.

The National Abortion Federation, which tracks violence against abortion providers and advocates, noted in a statement that anti-abortion violence is not new, and “is yet another form of hate and fear-mongering inflicted by white supremacists and far-right extremists.” The GOP’s attempts to repeal the FACE Act, it added, are particularly disturbing in light of this incident.

Personhood watch

We learned of criminal charges in two abortion-related cases last week and each advances fetal personhood. That’s the dangerous legal theory which, if taken to its endpoint, would result in a nationwide abortion ban, every pregnancy loss being treated as a potential crime scene, and the end of IVF as we know it.

First, a Texas man was charged with murder after he allegedly gave his girlfriend an abortion-inducing drug without her consent, resulting in her miscarriage at around 6 weeks of pregnancy. The Texas Rangers charged Justin Banta with capital murder, the highest level of homicide, rather than other statutes like felony assault to induce abortion and assault of a pregnant person which were cited in a 2022 case of reproductive coercion. Embryos and fetuses are not people, and abortion—even a coerced termination—is not murder.

Then, Pennsylvania police charged a mom and daughter with “concealing the death of a child” after they reportedly ordered abortion pills and buried fetal remains in their backyard. A coroner estimated the fetus was about 20 weeks’ gestation and, while abortion is legal in Pennsylvania until the end of the 23rd week, the pair were reportedly turned away by a clinic that didn’t provide care to the legal limit. A police press release referred to the fetus as a “newborn baby” and some local news reports echoed that language. A fetus is neither a newborn nor a child.

Assaults on queer people

Citing pressure from the Trump administration, Children’s Hospital LA announced it will shut down its youth gender-affirming care clinic in July. It currently treats an estimated 3,000 patients. 

Relatedly, NOTUS found that a Department of Health and Human Services report on gender-affirming care, released last month, cites a retracted study: “Only about half of the report’s 850 citations link to peer-reviewed scientific papers. The other references are to news articles, blog posts, opinion pieces and books, including one authored by the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary, titled ‘Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means For Our Health.’”

And finally, as we flagged last week, the Southern Baptist Convention did indeed vote to advocate for an overturn of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage. The resolution it adopted also raged against “willfull childlessness,” gender-affirming care, surrogacy, declining birth rates, and Planned Parenthood.

Quick hits

• Planned Parenthood told States Newsroom that if the Republican budget reconciliation package that targets the organization becomes law, about 75 percent of its abortion-providing health centers across 12 states would be forced to close. It projects that, in total, 200 clinics would shutter across 24 states.
• A Gallup poll on abortion attitudes found the largest gender gap on the subject ever recorded, with 61% of women identifying as pro-choice compared to just 41% of men. Gallup said the chasm is widening because support is growing among women and slipping among men.
• A Nebraska anti-abortion group is working to put a total abortion ban on the ballot in 2026, two years after voters approved a 12-week ban. 

Supreme Court watch

It’s the second half of June and you know what that means: the justices are about to drop some bad decisions. The court is scheduled to issue rulings at 10am on Wednesday. We’re watching four cases that pertain to reproductive justice:

1. Whether states can kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid for non-abortion services (Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic)

2. A challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Depending on how it’s written, a ruling for the state could also impact care for adults. (US v. Skrmetti)

3. A challenge to the Obamacare-mandated expert panel that determines which preventive medical services should be covered without out-of-pocket costs. The plaintiffs specifically object to their health plans covering HIV prevention drugs called PrEP. (Braidwood Management v. Kennedy)

4.  Whether the court should lift a nationwide injunction blocking enforcement of Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship. (CASA, Inc. v. Trump)

Actual good news

The Montana Supreme Court struck down multiple abortion restrictions as unconstitutional, including a 24-hour waiting period, a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, and a ban on telemedicine for abortion pills. (All have been blocked from being enforced.) The justices cited 1999 ruling on the state constitutional right to privacy as well as an abortion-specific amendment voters passed last fall. (Unfortunately, anti-abortion activists also filed a lawsuit to try to overturn that amendment.)

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill that codifies minors’ right to receive contraception and prenatal care without permission from their parents, closing a gray area in the law.

Palate cleanser(s)

Last week was bad, so have two little treats.

I believe you mean “frog unborn babies”

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— Robin Marty (@robinmarty.com) Jun 12, 2025 at 12:32 PM