FDA Pick Called Abortion Pills ‘Dangerous,’ Texas Abortion Funds Head Back to Court: August 24 News Roundup

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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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Let’s dive in.

On Autonomy News

We mentioned John Oliver’s segment on fetal personhood last week, but the far-right agenda on this is even scarier than what you heard on the show. Susan explained.

@susanrinkunas Did you watch the @Last Week Tonight episode on fetal personhood? It’s even worse than on the show in one big way: anti-abortion advocates think the U.S. Constitution *already says* fertilized eggs are people. That would mean a national ban and also rope in certain kinds of birth control. Overturning Roe v. Wade was never the end. #reproductivefreedom #johnoliver #fetalpersonhood ♬ original sound - Susan Rinkunas

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Federal news

President Trump nominated anti-abortion physician Heidi Overton to be his new Food and Drug Administration commissioner after he forced out Marty Makary. Overton, who serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, has a long history of opposing abortion, calling it “corrosive” and celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She has claimed that medication abortion is "dangerous" and a “serious threat” to women’s health. That last bit is especially notable given that the FDA is conducting a bogus “review” of the abortion drug mifepristone as a pretext to end telehealth prescriptions and make abortion pills harder to access. Anti-abortion groups and Senator Josh Hawley are praising her nomination, which should tell you everything you need to know.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s attempted changes to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program while litigation continues. Rather than focusing on evidence-based strategies to reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among teenagers, the Trumpified TPPP would emphasize abstinence (a notoriously ineffective strategy), the importance of marriage, and the vaguely defined concept of “body literacy,” which for girls would involve learning to use fertility awareness-based methods of contraception—but no others. “Millions of American teenagers have sex,” wrote Judge Christopher Cooper in his opinion. He took the administration to task for failing to consider “the seeming logical impossibility of operating an effective pregnancy prevention program without some discussion of sexual activity.” He also said the government referenced “public health studies that appear either not to exist or not to support the propositions for which they are cited—a hallmark of AI-generated citations.” However, Cooper’s order didn’t restore any existing TPPP grants, the majority of which were canceled in June. Garnet has a related story coming soon.

Next Monday, six Texas-based abortion funds and one physician will argue at the ultraconservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that they should be able to sue state officials to ensure they won’t be prosecuted for helping people get legal, out-of-state abortions. The funds were concerned they could be investigated under pre-Roe abortion bans, which criminalize anyone who performs or “furnishes the means for” an abortion with sentences of two to 10 years in prison. The funds won a partial injunction against local prosecutors throughout the state in 2023, preventing them from enforcing the bans. But last year, the court dismissed the prosecutors from the case as defendants, leaving the organizations without protections.

The case has implications far beyond abortion care: Because the court presides over Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, its decision here will determine whether people and organizations in these three states can challenge what they believe to be an unconstitutional state law before they’re prosecuted under it. The following day, September 1, will mark five years since most abortions halted in Texas under the “bounty hunter” ban known as Senate Bill 8 (SB 8). The Supreme Court refused to block the law even though Roe was still on the books.

In a new lawsuit, an ex-federal prosecutor in Michigan is accusing the Trump administration of firing her for prosecuting people who violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act by blocking the doors of abortion clinics. Attorney General Todd Blanche terminated Sunita Doddamani with no notice in April. According to Doddamani’s complaint, the Department of Justice fired two other prosecutors involved in FACE Act cases that same day. The DOJ actually announced these firings on social media, saying it had “terminated the employment of personnel responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act who still remained at the department.”

As expected, Idaho appealed a federal judge’s ruling that found the state’s abortion ban violates the U.S. Constitution because it criminalizes providing abortions to protect the health of the pregnant person, including their mental health. The ban’s only exception is to prevent death. Voters will decide in November whether to repeal the law in its entirety. Attorney General Raúl Labrador asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the decision; the case will almost certainly make it to the Supreme Court eventually to determine whether the Dobbs decision allows states to ban this care. The lower court ruling could also provide a legal basis for litigants in other states to challenge bans that lack a health exception. Idaho is one of five such states: The others are Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

Far-right law firm Liberty Counsel is joining the disinformation campaign led by Students for Life, which suggests that mifepristone is in our drinking water. Its advocacy arm, Liberty Counsel Action (LCA), submitted a 65-page formal comment to the Environmental Protection Agency, urging it to add the drug to the list of publicly tracked water contaminants. The public comment window closes next Monday, August 31.

In a new pilot program, the Department of Defense will reimburse some active duty military members for sperm and egg freezing—up to $500 per year for sperm preservation, and $10,000 for eggs. The option will only be available for soldiers deployed to hazardous areas, or ordered to be away from a partner for 180 days or more. Anti-abortion organizations that would like to ban in vitro fertilization are, predictably, mad.

A new report identified 152 Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents with histories of committing sexual or physical abuse. Eighty-six percent of them were charged with or convicted of sex offenses, and more than half targeted children. Within days of the report’s release, a 153rd agent was arrested for breaking into an ex-girlfriend’s apartment.

State news

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the state’s new “shield” law, which protects patients and providers of reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care. It also includes a FACE Act-style provision that prevents people from physically interfering with or intimidating patients and providers.

A state court judge in Colorado said that a lawsuit challenging a parental involvement law limiting young people’s access to abortion care can move forward. Abortion provider Rebecca Cohen sued the state last year saying that the law—which requires minors to notify their parents that they’re having an abortion at least 48 hours in advance of the procedure—violates constitutional protections voters passed in 2024 and discriminates based on sex. Cohen sued Governor Jared Polis, the Colorado Medical Board, and the state of Colorado. The defendants had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, but he disagreed.

In related news, remember that Ohio judge who was really mad that the state’s 2023 reproductive freedom constitutional amendment meant he no longer had the opportunity to deny teenagers’ abortions? His lawsuit got dismissed by the state Supreme Court.

Former University of Kentucky athlete Laken Snelling pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and concealing a birth in connection with human remains the coroner called an “infant” found in her home last year. The manslaughter charge was added by a grand jury in March. Snelling’s guilty plea came as the result of a deal with the prosecutor’s office. She is scheduled to be sentenced to 13 years in prison in October. In court, Snelling said she was under emotional stress and went into labor unexpectedly. She previously told police that she passed out shortly after giving birth.

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Extremism

The baby at the center of the surrogacy media circus, who was born in Texas after gestational surrogate McKenna West relocated there from Alaska, has undergone the first surgery required to treat his rare heart defect. A lawyer for baby Rumi’s biological parents said his condition “remains critical and complex.” West, who is represented by Christian nationalist law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, claimed in a statement that Rumi’s parents are fighting in court to withhold medical care from him, which is not true. They are fighting for custody and the right to make medical decisions for their child, while West attempts to regain custody. Anti-abortion activists, and Attorney General Ken Paxton, refer to Rumi as “Baby Gabriel.”

MAHA devotees have latched on to the tragic case of Lindsay Clancy, using it to argue that access to antidepressants should be restricted. Clancy is currently on trial for killing her three children in 2023. She says she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and undiagnosed bipolar disorder, while the prosecution argues that she’s guilty of murder.

Elections

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, who’s seeking reelection in November, chose as her running mate a former Republican-turned-independent who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Former Mesa mayor John Giles said he voted for the state’s 2024 constitutional amendment codifying a right to abortion, even after saying earlier that year that he is “pro-life.” When asked about anti-trans ballot measure Prop. 318 that would ban trans girls from playing school sports, Giles said, “I don't believe in discrimination, and so that issue is really a red herring more often than not.” Hobbs won by less than a point in 2022, and if she was going to pick a former Republican for lieutenant governor, he seems like the least bad one.

Planned Parenthood’s political action committee will spend a whopping $600,000 in ads against Maine Senator Susan Collins. The campaign will highlight her 2018 vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who later voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Collins continues to say she doesn’t regret confirming Kavanaugh, but disagrees with his vote. She is apparently irritated that people even continue to bring it up and, yeah, it’s a big deal Susan. She faces Democrat Troy Jackson in November.

The Republican nominee for governor in Georgia is a billionaire named Rick Jackson. His charity has donated at least $14 million to anti-abortion organizations since 2013.

Autonomy News readers know this, but ProPublica highlights the fact that “Missouri Republicans Are Trying to Repeal Abortion Rights by Leaning Into Anti-Trans Sentiment.”

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Personhood watch

The leader of a Kansas hardline abortion “abolitionist” organization is calling on the state legislature to convene a special session in order to get a constitutional amendment on next year’s ballot that would define life as beginning at conception. Kansas voters resoundingly rejected an anti-abortion amendment in 2022, and this year, they shot down an attempt to make state Supreme Court justices elected rather than chosen through a merit-based process. That was an attempt to undermine the state’s courts, which have consistently ruled in favor of abortion rights.

The Catholic Church may have horrific stances on abortion, but it does reject at least one anti-abortion talking point: It believes that people have a “moral responsibility to vaccinate,” even if certain vaccines are derived from fetal cells. However, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier thinks he knows better: He recently threatened the bishops that run Catholic schools in the state for not permitting religious objections to vaccine requirements and said they could be disqualified from tuition vouchers and state scholarships. The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops responded in a delightful letter informing Uthmeier that such a demand violates their religious freedom rights.

First Amendment watch

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision, confirming that Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana can refer pregnant minors out of state for abortion care. The law that would have banned this was enacted in 2017, but never went fully into effect. The Court found that providing referrals and information about abortion is protected speech under the First Amendment.

Assaults on queer people

Transgender men in Kansas are using women’s bathrooms—as required by state law—as a form of protest. They call themselves the “SB 244 compliance crew.” SB 244 requires Kansans to use bathrooms that correspond to their sex assigned at birth in government buildings. This is the same law that invalidated the state IDs of trans people in the state. It went into effect earlier this year after the legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly’s veto.

Log Cabin Republicans, the largest gay conservative group, has officially dropped the “T” from the acronym LGBT. “We are an LGB advocacy organization,” wrote the organization’s president in an op-ed, “as our founders envisioned and as our moral center calls us to be.” Folks, your party wants to overturn marriage equality and cynically abandoning trans people won’t change that.

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Quick hits

The Trump administration has deleted at least 28 federal government datasets, and modified another 338 since he resumed office. Health-related data has taken the biggest hit by far. MAHA, indeed.
Teen boys are using Meta glasses to harass and bully girls in school.
Out of more than 18,000 teens who took an app-based questionnaire about relationship health, only 7 percent reported no signs of emotional or physical abuse.
A new study finds that hospitals in abortion ban states report providing criminal defense resources for doctors.
Another study finds that, after Dobbs, the number of people traveling to North Carolina from out of state for abortion care more than tripled.
The Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire is now Live Free Autonomy Collective.