Anticipating trouble, blue states vow to create ‘firewall’ against abortion • Oregon Capital Chronicle

Officials in blue states are vowing to build a “firewall” of reproductive health protections as they anticipate federal and state attacks on abortion access under the Trump administration.

“We are going on the offensive,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, told Stateline. “We are fighting an unprecedented war on American women and patients. State attorneys general, especially me and my colleagues who support abortion rights and reproductive freedom, have been building this firewall for some time.”

President-elect Donald Trump has said he will leave abortion access to individual states following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped away federal abortion rights.

But even in strong pro-life states like Connecticut and Massachusetts, lawmakers and other officials are already discussing ways to head off legal challenges from a variety of parties, including federal agencies under the Trump administration and anti-abortion lawmakers in conservative states.

“We are watching the interaction between protective states and the Trump-Vance administration, and what impact this administration will have on state laws and access to sexual and reproductive health services,” said Candace Gibson, director of public policy at Guttmacher . An institute, research and policy organization dedicated to advancing reproductive rights.

“It’s going to be an interesting time.”

Targeting abortion pills

Tong said one of his biggest concerns is that legislative efforts and legal challenges from anti-abortion lawmakers in red states could lead to nationwide restrictions on the drug mifepristone. It is one of the two drugs most commonly used in medical abortion, which now accounts for nearly two-thirds of all abortions.

“If you ban this, it will be nothing less than a nationwide ban on abortion,” he said.

Conservative-led states could follow the example of Louisiana, which passed a law in its last legislative session classifying mifepristone and the drug misoprostol as controlled substances. Both are used for medical abortion, as well as to treat other conditions such as life-threatening postpartum hemorrhage. Since the Louisiana law took effect, hospitals in the state have removed mifepristone and misoprostol from obstetric hemorrhage carts and instead stored them in password-protected cabinets outside labor and delivery rooms. Some doctors fear the move could waste valuable time in emergency situations.

Last week, Republican Rep.-elect Pat Curry filed a similar bill in Texas. Conservative North Carolina lawmakers rushed to pass legislation in 2023 over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto that included additional restrictions on abortion drugs. This law is mired in litigation.

But last month, Democratic attorneys general in 17 states and the District of Columbia asked a federal appeals court to uphold a ruling that North Carolina could not impose restrictions on mifepristone, which the F.D.A. US drugs is medically unnecessary.

Meanwhile, anti-abortion groups last week released a “Roadmap to Make America Pro-Life Again,” outlining their plans to reduce abortion access at the federal and state levels, including a focus on making mifepristone more difficult to access.

“We have a siege engine ready to overcome these legal walls that we will face in some state legislatures and legislative levels, as well as at the federal level,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of the anti-abortion group Students for Life, in media interviews. call last week.

Hawkins said legislators in nine states — Arizona, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming — will file bills aimed at the sale or distribution of drugs that can be used for abortions.

Arizona Rep. Rachel Jones, a Republican, said during a recent call with the media that she plans to target abortion pills in her fight against a new Arizona constitutional amendment protecting abortion access that voters approved earlier this year. month.

“There are other ways to encourage women to make a different decision before they even go to the abortion clinic, before they order the pill, to take away their ability to do it so easily by mail. – Jones said. She said she plans to speak to her legislative colleagues about how to combat the “big push” toward medication abortion.

Strengthening shield laws

A number of states have enacted “safeguard laws” designed to minimize legal risks for people who provide or access abortions. But only eight states—California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington—protect abortion providers from lawsuits regardless of where their patient is located.

For example, telemedicine providers in states such as California, Massachusetts and New York are prescribing abortion medications to patients in states where abortion is illegal. Shield laws attempt to protect these providers from prosecution.

Public defense laws have not yet faced major challenges, but they could, said Gibson of the Guttmacher Institute.

Lawyers in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Reproductive Justice Division are looking for ways to further strengthen the state’s protection law. With the Trump administration in office, they expect more efforts by conservative prosecutors and attorneys general to create legal challenges in anticipation of a friendlier federal atmosphere.

“My office, including through our Reproductive Justice Division, will continue to ensure that Massachusetts remains a leader in improving access to health care, protecting our health care rights, and eliminating disparities, while working in collaboration with my colleagues across the country ” said Massachusetts. Democratic Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in a statement to Stateline.

“Regional influence”

Officials in blue states are also strengthening protections for access to contraception, digital privacy and emergency abortion care in hospitals. In Maryland, for example, Democratic lawmakers passed a sweeping online privacy law in April in an attempt to limit how tech platforms and phone apps can collect and use consumers’ personal data, including reproductive health data.

Connecticut and Massachusetts are among states looking at ways to strengthen their laws to protect emergency reproductive care if the Trump administration rolls back current federal rules that say abortion is covered by the emergency hospital law known as EMTALA.

If the Trump administration says hospitals are no longer federally required to perform abortions as part of emergency reproductive care, it could even affect patients in a state like Connecticut, Tong said. For example, without state requirements, religious hospitals may refuse to terminate a pregnancy in situations where the patient’s life or health may be at risk.

Gibson said she expects more state lawmakers to introduce bills to protect contraception in upcoming legislative sessions. In Virginia’s last session, Democratic lawmakers passed a bill guaranteeing access to contraception, although it was vetoed by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Earlier this year, Massachusetts-based Campbell organized a task force of Democratic state attorneys general and others to work together on how to use shield laws and other legal and legislative tools to protect abortion rights.

“There has been an increase in conversations between policymakers in different states about collaboration,” Gibson told Stateline. “I think policymakers understand that these state bans on abortion access are not just state bans, they also have a regional impact.”

This article was first published by Stateline, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. If you have questions, please contact editor Scott S. Greenberger: (email protected). Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.