Shhh! Don't talk about abortion bans

Abortion opponents are trying to silence women's stories as “sanitary nuisances"

Just hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion became illegal in Ohio at 6 weeks LMP (last menstrual period), which is only ~3 weeks after a person becomes pregnant at implantation and only ~2 weeks after a person misses the expected start of their period. Three days later, “Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio.”¹

At the physician’s office in Ohio was a child who had just turned 10. Raped at age 9, the small patient was now six weeks and three days pregnant, just passed Ohio's six week cut-off for abortions. Shortly thereafter, the child and her parent arrived in Indiana, where Dr. Bernard was able to provide her abortion care, because Indiana's abortion ban had not yet taken effect.² Gerson Fuentes, 28, was later sentenced to life in prison for this child's rape.³

The Indy Star broke the story of this child rape victim being denied care in her home state because of Ohio's abortion ban, and millions of Americans were rightly appalled. Americans were likewise outraged by what happened next.

For the sin of merely sharing this child's plight with the Star, when she asked about it by a journalist, Dr. Caitlin Bernard found herself on the receiving end of a massive anti-abortion crusade against her. The virulently anti-choice Indiana Attorney General, Todd Rokita, hurled false accusations and epithets against the doctor on Fox News. Rokita even attempted to strip Dr. Bernard of her license to practice medicine.⁴ — All this for the simple act of speaking about the hardship that an abortion ban had caused a 10-year-old crime victim— as if talking about abortion bans was itself a crime.

An article in The Boston Globe, The latest antiabortion tactic: Silencing doctors, observed, “The Bernard case encapsulates two key developments: Doctors, many of whom had remained on the political sidelines, are becoming more active on the side of abortion rights, and conservative states are responding by cracking down on the flow of speech and information.”⁵ Because the American public opposed overturning Roe v. Wade, as well as states’ brutal abortion bans, it became a mission of anti-abortion groups to “silence the doctors who bear witness to the disastrous consequences of such cruel and unjust legislation.”⁶

While the anti-abortion campaign to silence doctors has successfully frightened some physicians out of speaking publicly,⁷ patients and families who have been directly harmed by abortion bans have continued to come forward to share their harrowing experiences, and media outlets have continued to report on these cases.⁸⁹

Because the anti-abortion movement was well aware that, if Roe were to be overturned, pregnant human beings would be harmed,¹⁰ several anti-abortion groups began a propaganda campaign before the Dobbs decision was released; overturning Roe, they insisted, would be beneficial to women, and obstetric care for pregnancy loss and complications would be unaffected by abortion bans.¹¹ They also held strategy meetings to train movement leaders and lawmakers how to answer questions from the press.¹²¹³

Following the Dobbs decision, as more and more atrocities came to light and doctors weren't sufficiently silenced, it became clear to anti-abortion groups that their preplanned messaging wasn't working. To ideologically inoculate “pro-life” Americans against the realities of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in states that banned abortion, anti-abortion groups and activists reverted to a familiar tactic: they insisted that every news story about post-Roe harms was a lie concocted by the media in cahoots with nefarious “pro-abortion” forces.¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸ Hideously, part of this tactic has included deprecating pregnant patients themselves as politically-driven crisis actors determined to needlessly commit murder, as vividly evidenced in the messaging surrounding Kate Cox.

While this tactic has been successful at providing anti-abortion ideologues a ready-made excuse to justify their continued support of cruel laws that are maiming and killing human beings who are pregnant, it has not been effective with the American public at large. Most Americans do not share anti-abortion ideologues’ enmity towards women or apathy towards pregnant people being denied medical care. 

Two years after the Dobbs decision, people continue to come forward to share their experiences. These powerful personal stories expose the barbarity of abortion bans and thus pose a direct threat to the anti-abortion movement's ultimate goal: completely abolishing abortion nationwide, with zero exceptions— not even to save the pregnant person’s life.¹⁹²⁰²¹ Therefore, the opponents of reproductive health rights are testing out a new tactic: silencing women.

In an October 3rd letter, Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration threatened a Gainesville , Florida, television station with criminal penalties under a state law regulating septic tanks and animal slaughterhouses if the TV station doesn’t stop airing an ad supporting the state’s abortion referendum. The ad “features a Florida woman named Caroline who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant.”²² “The doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mom. Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine,” she says in the ad.²³ “Still, it was a difficult decision — one she only made after she passed out while trying to get a second opinion and immediately had to travel back to the ICU.”²⁴ “Caroline got an abortion that April, when abortion in Florida was still legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. She asked her husband a question that at the time felt hypothetical: ‘Could you imagine if we were in a state that didn’t allow this?’”²⁵

On paper Florida’s six week abortion ban has an exception to avert a patient’s death or “if staying pregnant poses a ‘serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.’ Two physicians must certify that the pregnancy qualifies.”²⁶ But abortion bans exceptions are proving to be worth little more than the paper they're printed on.²⁷ “Exceptions function mainly as PR tools to make abortion bans seem less cruel than they are and [to] distract from the inhumanity of the ban itself.”²⁸

“Providing an abortion that does not meet the state’s standards is a felony. In a sworn affidavit, Dr. Shelly Tien, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who practices in Florida and Arizona, wrote that she did not believe a case like Caroline’s would have qualified under the state’s exception language.”²⁹ “Under Florida’s current law, I would not have provided this abortion because it could be viewed as a crime to terminate Caroline’s pregnancy because the termination was not necessary to ‘save the pregnant woman’s life,” Dr. Tien stated. “While the termination was medically necessary because the cancer was terminal, the abortion would not have saved the patient’s life and therefore could be illegal under Florida’s law.”³⁰

But Florida officials in DeSantis's administration are claiming that it is a “sanitary nuisance” under the Florida Clean Air Act for Caroline to share her story with the public.³¹ That's right. Anti-abortion officials in Florida say that “the video of this woman describing her own experiences” is a “sanitary nuisance,” and she therefore must be silenced.³²

Because talking about abortion bans is the real problem, and not, ya know, the actual bans.

“Meanwhile, DeSantis is using taxpayer funds to run ads falsely claiming that the amendment, which enshrines the right to a pre-viability abortion, would deregulate abortion care and override parental consent laws.”³³ And he continues to claim that Florida, under his reign, “is a shining beacon of free speech.”³⁴

This week, the head of the Federal Communications Commission condemned Florida’s effort to keep the public from seeing the ad featuring Caroline’s story.³⁵ In an official statement, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel stated, “The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment. Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”³⁶

The sadists on the Supreme Court and in positions of power across the country never have to deal with those they are hurting, but abortion ban survivors have a voice and their stories are powerful. Of course the anti-abortion movement wants their voices shut down and shut up. They can feel their power being threatened and thus want to keep the truth away from the American public about what is happening to their neighbors under barbaric laws.— Even if they have to label women’s stories “sanitary nuisances” to make that happen. Even if they have to trample the Constitution and free speech. Even if they have to prosecute people and organizations under totally unrelated criminal statutes.

For the anti-abortion movement, the ends always justify the means, no matter the cost.

It will be important to keep an eye on how this new tactic of silencing women develops and evolves in the future, and the Constitutional ramifications thereof. At a time when the Supreme Court is controlled by sadists eager to burn down longstanding laws, norms, and precedents, none of our remaining rights should be taken for granted or considered guaranteed.

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1. Rudavsky, S., & Fradette, R. (2023, January 24). Patients head to Indiana for abortion services as other states restrict care. The Indianapolis Star. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2022/07/01/indiana-abortion-law-roe-v-wade-overturned-travel/7779936001/

2. Rudavsky, S., & Fradette, R. (2023, January 24). Patients head to Indiana for abortion services as other states restrict care. The Indianapolis Star. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2022/07/01/indiana-abortion-law-roe-v-wade-overturned-travel/7779936001/

3. Tabachnick, C. (2023, July 5). Ohio man sentenced to life in prison for rape of 10-year-old girl who traveled to Indiana for abortion. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gerson-fuentes-guilty-sentenced-life-rape-10-year-old-girl-abortion/

4. Abcarian, R. (2023, June 4). Opinion: Persecution of abortion doctor who treated pregnant child was a shameful political farce. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-06-04/abortion-indiana-caitlin-bernard-hearing

5. Ziegler, M. (2023, June 14). The latest antiabortion tactic: Silencing doctors - the Boston Globe. BostonGlobe.com. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/06/13/opinion/silencing-abortion-doctors-mary-ziegler/

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15. Boyd, J. (2022, June 29). Fact check: Dobbs doesn’t ban treating ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage. The Federalist. https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/29/no-dobbs-doesnt-stop-doctors-from-treating-ectopic-pregnancies-or-miscarriages/

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22. Dye, L. (2024, October 8). Florida tries to ban abortion referendum ads under public health law that regulates slaughterhouses and septic tanks. Above the Law. https://abovethelaw.com/2024/10/florida-tries-to-ban-abortion-referendum-ads-under-public-health-law-that-regulates-slaughterhouses-and-septic-tanks/

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25. Luthra, S. (2024, October 8). Florida is trying to block a TV ad about a woman with cancer who got an abortion. The 19th. https://19thnews.org/2024/10/florida-tv-ad-abortion-amendment-4/

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27. Valenti, J. (2024, October 8). Abortion exceptions don’t really exist. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/abortion-exceptions-dont-exist-republicans-1235128145/

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29. Luthra, S. (2024, October 8). Florida is trying to block a TV ad about a woman with cancer who got an abortion. The 19th. https://19thnews.org/2024/10/florida-tv-ad-abortion-amendment-4/

30. Luthra, S. (2024, October 8). Florida is trying to block a TV ad about a woman with cancer who got an abortion. The 19th. https://19thnews.org/2024/10/florida-tv-ad-abortion-amendment-4/

31. Dye, L. (2024, October 8). Florida tries to ban abortion referendum ads under public health law that regulates slaughterhouses and septic tanks. Above the Law. https://abovethelaw.com/2024/10/florida-tries-to-ban-abortion-referendum-ads-under-public-health-law-that-regulates-slaughterhouses-and-septic-tanks/

32. Dye, L. (2024, October 8). Florida tries to ban abortion referendum ads under public health law that regulates slaughterhouses and septic tanks. Above the Law. https://abovethelaw.com/2024/10/florida-tries-to-ban-abortion-referendum-ads-under-public-health-law-that-regulates-slaughterhouses-and-septic-tanks/

33. Dye, L. (2024, October 8). Florida tries to ban abortion referendum ads under public health law that regulates slaughterhouses and septic tanks. Above the Law. https://abovethelaw.com/2024/10/florida-tries-to-ban-abortion-referendum-ads-under-public-health-law-that-regulates-slaughterhouses-and-septic-tanks/

34. Dye, L. (2024, October 8). Florida tries to ban abortion referendum ads under public health law that regulates slaughterhouses and septic tanks. Above the Law. https://abovethelaw.com/2024/10/florida-tries-to-ban-abortion-referendum-ads-under-public-health-law-that-regulates-slaughterhouses-and-septic-tanks/

35. Jones , J. (2024, October 9). FCC rebukes desantis admin for threat against TV stations airing Abortion Measure AD. MSNBC. https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/fcc-desantis-tv-stations-florida-amendment-4-ad-rcna174704

36. Jones , J. (2024, October 9). FCC rebukes desantis admin for threat against TV stations airing Abortion Measure AD. MSNBC. https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/fcc-desantis-tv-stations-florida-amendment-4-ad-rcna174704