by Megan Burbank
Last week, President Joe Biden got himself into a kerfuffle with reproductive rights activists when he expressed his true feelings on abortion. “I’m a practicing Catholic,” he said at a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic governors. “I don’t want abortion on demand, but I thought Roe v. Wade was right.”
Continue reading OPINION | You Keep Saying ‘Abortion on Demand.’ I Don’t Think You Know What It Meansby Megan Burbank
When Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization struck down nearly 50 years of precedent for abortion rights, it opened the door to a strange new reality we’re still just beginning to understand. Without national protections for abortion, state legislatures are freshly empowered to restrict abortion access however they please, often through model legislation intended to be replicated elsewhere. That means it’s especially important to keep tabs on potential health care restrictions on their way to statehouses across the country. This session, at least one has already been introduced in Olympia, alongside efforts to throttle access to gender-affirming care and limit free speech for transgender and nonbinary kids.
Continue reading OPINION | Conservative WA Lawmakers Start 2024 With Reactionary Attacks on Gender-Affirming CareUpdated for 2024 by Megan Burbank
Previous reporting from Megan Burbank, Jessie McKenna, and Marti McKenna
Between the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health and anti-abortion restrictions that preceded it and came after, it’s a challenging time to be a person seeking abortion care. But Washington was already diverging from national trends toward anti-abortion legislation before Roe was overturned, and since Dobbs, that contrast has only deepened.
Continue reading The Emerald Guide to Abortion Access In and Around Seattleby Megan Burbank
On Wednesday, Aug. 16, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Food and Drug Administration should revoke its approval for mifepristone, one of two drugs commonly used in medication abortions. The case has drawn widespread attention, given the impact it could have on access to mifepristone and spurred confusion about whether medication abortion is still available.
It is. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it’s important to be clear on this point: Mifepristone remains legal and accessible in states where abortion is, and will remain that way until the case makes its way to the Supreme Court. If you take away just one piece of information from this column, that should be it. But if you want to know more, let’s dig in.
Continue reading OPINION | What The Latest Mifepristone Ruling Really Meansby Megan Burbank
Last summer, when the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the right to an abortion through Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, speculation swirled as to how the decision would impact abortion access. But it was difficult to capture meaningful data in the immediate aftermath: Abortion rates shift seasonally, and they were already on the rise in states like Washington in the years before Dobbs, largely because of restrictive abortion laws that have propagated throughout conservative-controlled state legislatures since Roe v. Wade was first decided.
Now, emerging data on the fallout from Dobbs is getting clearer: What was already a national crisis in maternal health among Americans has been catalyzed by the loss of Roe, according to physicians responsible for providing pregnancy care across the country, both in states with abortion bans and broader access to care. From March 17 to May 18, health policy organization KFF surveyed 569 obstetrician-gynecologists about their experiences after Dobbs and released the results of its national survey on June 21. Here are the major takeaways from the report — and what they could mean for the Pacific Northwest.
Continue reading OB-GYNs Say Dobbs Has Harmed Their Capacity to Provide Care and Deepened Health Disparitiesby Megan Burbank
Even before the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision leaked a year ago, Washington State lawmakers established new and strengthened protections for abortion access, shielding providers and patients from prosecution and protecting private health information not covered under HIPAA. Though the impact of Dobbs will likely not be fully understood for years or even decades, recent developments nationwide show how critical Washington’s protective policies are.
Continue reading OPINION | In Recent Years, Washington Expanded Abortion Access. Now We Know How Important That Isby Megan Burbank
In April, northern Idaho’s Valor Health Hospital announced it would be closing its labor and delivery unit. It was the second Idaho hospital in as many months to stop delivering babies: Bonner Health had made headlines when it did the same thing in April, citing the state’s political situation as a contributing factor. Idaho is home to some of the country’s most draconian abortion laws, and the state’s long-running hostility toward abortion means patients from Idaho often relied on Eastern Washington abortion providers since long before Roe’s reversal.
Continue reading OPINION | ‘Could She or I Go to Jail for This?’ Abortion Bans Result in Substandard Care That Threatens Patients’ Livesby Megan Burbank
The reversal of Roe v. Wade last summer catalyzed major electoral wins for Democrats nationwide and brought a slate of bills protecting abortion access to the Washington State Legislature. But at the time, it wasn’t clear the momentum would last — or translate to meaningful, sustainable change. Now that this year’s legislative session has wrapped, with Gov. Jay Inslee signing off on a slate of new protections for reproductive health, we have a better idea of what’s in store. Here are the policies that made it to the governor’s desk and what they mean for the future of abortion rights and gender-affirming care in the Northwest.
Continue reading OPINION | The Legislative Session Is Over. Here’s How Washington Lawmakers Strengthened Abortion Rightsby Megan Burbank
In 1991, a Washington State voter initiative established the law that would go on to keep abortion legal locally after Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer. Initiative 120’s drafters had a U.S. Supreme Court like the one currently in power in mind when putting together their initiative, and when Roe was overturned, Initiative 120 kicked in just as it had been intended to, upholding abortion access for Washingtonians.
Continue reading New Study Shows Medicaid Coverage for Abortion Increases Health Equity and Reduces Reliance on Abortion Fundscurated by Vee Hua 華婷婷
