This Week in Statehouse Action: Freedom, Baby! edition
or, Embryonic rights and Glenn Youngkin's Mojo Dojo Casa Arena
Okay yes my little “One-Act” thing ended up a bit longer than I originally intended, but once I started down that Tennessee rabbit hole, there was no stopping the avalanche of pique. Piquevalanch.
But there’s plenty more to talk about this week, so here’s another thing you can read if you want.
Or not!
Freedom is rad.
But freedom might end up as something of a dusty relic in states attacking reproductive rights.
Obviously the big abortion policy news this week was the Alabama Supreme Court (which, yes, is all-elected and yes, a couple of women signed on to this abomination of a ruling, somehow) deciding that any and all embryos are “extrauterine children” and will likely effectively end the practice of IVF in Alabama.
Some extremely smart people have written about this, and two explainers I super recommend are this joint from Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern and this deeper dive from Vox’s Ian Millhiser.
If you’d like to read this grotesque ruling for yourself, have at it.
[[screams internally about the Democratic Party having no organizational apparatus devoted to electing progressive judges]]
Anyway.
Here’s what Republicans in some state legislatures are up to in their ongoing war on women’s bodily autonomy.
In Kansas, where voters statewide soundly defeated a ballot measure that would have stripped residents of abortion rights in August 2022, state House and Senate Republicans are considering two new measures to undermine reproductive healthcare access.
One creates an all-new crime of “abortion by coercion,” a felony offense targeting anyone forcing a person to have an abortion.
But as introduced, the proposal defines “coercion” to include “facilitating … an individual’s access to a controlled substance,” which includes medicines that induce abortions like mifepristone.
So, by claiming they want to prevent patients from being coerced into abortions, Kansas Republicans might end up making it illegal to assist someone trying to obtain a medication abortion – a process much less risky for many women than surgical methods.
Another Kansas measure would force women seeking abortion care to undergo and view ultrasounds of their fetus.
As written, this proposal would force women to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds – since they’re very much a type of “obstetric ultrasound” – if the pregnancy is too early along for the gel-on-the-belly type to be effective.
And since this bill makes doctors who fail to administer ultrasounds by “whichever method … is best under the circumstances” guilty of a felony, they’re probably going err on the side of whichever method is least likely to send them to prison.
So, after a decade or so of dormancy, Kansas Republicans want to bring forced transvaginal ultrasounds back.
So retro!
Kansas lawmakers are also considering legislation that would force doctors to ask their patients for a ranked list of reasons they’re seeking an abortion and require medical providers to record demographic data on those folks for a statewide database.
Privacy is for suckers, I guess
As a reminder, while Kansas does have a Democratic governor, Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, so these trash policies could very well become state law.
In GOP-controlled Oklahoma, where a near-total abortion ban is already in place, legislators are also considering a measure that would force those who’ve undergone abortions – oops, I mean “pre-viability separation procedures,” which is a weird euphemism this bill invents – to be identified in a state database to which the government would have full access, because sure that’s fine and would never be used against them
The bill also straight-up bans medication abortions but is written in such a way that it also probably makes IUDs and the morning-after pill illegal.
Bonus! It also establishes embryonic “personhood” by establishing that life begins at conception.
Another proposed Oklahoma bill allows women who obtain abortion care to be charged with murder.
When Republicans say they have no intention of jailing women or doctors for abortions, THEY ARE LYING
Sadly, this is but a sampling of anti-abortion measures being pushed by Republicans right now.
But how about a little good news for change?
Up in Maine – where Democrats control the governorship and both chambers of the legislature – lawmakers are pushing to expand the state’s requirement that insurance providers cover the cost of prescription contraceptives to include over-the-counter contraceptives, too.
Also, in Virginia – where Democrats have majority control of the legislature but Republican Glenn Youngkin occupies the governor’s mansion – a bill that would protect folks traveling to Virginia for abortion health care or anyone in the commonwealth who provides or assists with abortion care from being extradited to other, shittier states (let’s be real, any state where someone can’t exercise full control over their bodies and medical choices is a shitty state) is close to passing the full legislature.
But will Youngkin sign it?
He might if he thinks it’ll help him get his precious Northern Virginia sports arena.
Speaking of …
Readers in and around DC are likely acquainted with Youngkin’s plan to steal the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards from Washington by luring them (and his buddy Ted Leonsis, who owns both teams) across the Potomac by building a multi-billion dollar sports and entertainment complex in Alexandria, Virginia.
But poor Glenn has a problem.
And her name is Louise Lucas.
State Sen. Louise Lucas is already both a legend and a legendary antagonist of Youngkin.
Over the past two years, she’s been the face of the Democratic-majority Senate’s work to block Youngkin’s legislative priorities (as passed by the then-Republican House).
After Democrats took the House majority in last fall’s elections, Lucas gets to share that work/fun with the lower chamber, but as both Senate President Pro Tem and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she’s still arguably the most powerful lawmaker in Richmond.
Quick aside: If anyone wants to debate if that distinction goes to her or the House Speaker, hmu! I’m honestly on the fence and would enjoy talking it out.
Youngkin’s push to build his Potomac party house for his old pal Leonsis is wholly dependent upon the legislature creating a “sports and entertainment authority” to issue the $1.5 billion in state-backed bonds to fund the project and diverting the state and local tax revenue generated by the sports complex to help repay that debt.
Lucas hasn’t been subtle about her skepticism concerning the project since Youngkin’s plan was made public back in December, and she even gave the proposed arena a fun nickname:
Glenn Dome.
Recently, she also effectively killed the plan dead by stripping provisions necessary to create the authority needed to build the arena from the Senate’s state budget proposal.
The sports complex proposal could still find its way to a Lazarus pit, though, so folks wanting the Washington teams to stay in Washington shouldn’t get too excited just yet.
The Senate budget proposal and the House budget proposal are different (the House’s still includes arena language), and both chambers will need to agree completely on a final budget bill before they send it to the governor.
So, the arena could be resurrected during the conference committee process.
And if the arena language isn’t in the final budget bill that goes to the governor’s desk for his signature, Youngkin could amend the budget to include it and return it to the legislature to pretty please approve this time.
The legislature then either accepts or rejects the governor’s amendments, but also they have to deal with the governor’s line-item vetoes of other budget provisions …
Anyway this is all a long way of saying that Glenn Dome is looking pretty rough but not, like, dead-dead, and Youngkin – who hopes will be his “legacy” for the commonwealth – may well be able to negotiate his way to his precious arena by giving Lucas and other Democrats what they want on other policy priorities, including reproductive rights, education funding, gun safety, workers’ rights, cannabis sales, and more.
The whole process will play out over the coming two months (or more, if disagreements between the governor and the legislature push things into overtime), so stay tuned!
Welp!
That’s a wrap for this week.
I appreciate you hanging in!
And I appreciate you.
So take care of yourself out there.
You’re important.
We need you.