Tag Archives: Megan Burbank

Voices

OPINION | Pregnancy and Poverty Have Always Been Criminalized

by Megan Burbank

In 2014, a 16-year-old girl named Rennie Gibbs was indicted for “depraved heart murder” by a Mississippi grand jury after giving birth to a baby who died. As ProPublica’s Nina Martin reported contemporaneously, the baby’s likely cause of death was a nuchal cord, when the umbilical cord wraps around an infant’s neck. But because Gibbs had a history of drug use, an overzealous medical examiner blamed the baby’s death on Gibbs herself.

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Features

Bad Faith: Anti-LGBTQIA+ Activists Are Repurposing a Decades-Old Anti-Abortion Strategy

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by Megan Burbank

As conservative legislators continue attacks on gender-affirming care nationwide, the same small group of political actors is showing up again and again to sow fear about this life-saving medical care. While the spate of attacks on gender-affirming care might seem recent, the rhetorical strategies propelling it are straight out of the Moral Majority’s anti-abortion playbook from the 1980s. The reemergence of these strategies exemplifies the obvious nexus between anti-abortion and anti-trans policy, and should prompt a look back at the true origins of the anti-abortion movement, which also relied on selective storytelling.

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Voices

OPINION | What The Latest Mifepristone Ruling Really Means

by 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.

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Features

Thinking of Counter-Protesting Abortion Protesters? There Are Better Ways to Help

by Megan Burbank

As a reproductive health policy reporter, my inbox is a rich text. Every day, I field a deeply chaotic assortment of messages from abortion-rights activists, reproductive health care providers, and anti-abortion organizations peddling misinformation about abortion. (I also get weird invitations to take part in “collabs” that have nothing to do with my beat; if you do this to me, I delete without reading, sorry!) Among these messages, the latter usually presents the biggest minefield for myths about abortion: The anti-abortion movement has propagated many since the rise of the Moral Majority after Roe v. Wade was decided, and the narrative they lean heavily on — that abortion harms women and ruins lives — is easily dispatched if you look at existing data on how most people feel about abortion.

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Features

Last Year, Birth Doulas Fought for Medicaid Reimbursement. Now, They’re Making It a Reality

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by Megan Burbank

Last year, a QTBIPOC-led coalition of birth doulas lobbied for a road to certification and reimbursement under Medicaid in Washington State — and won. By broadening access to doula support, the group hopes to improve birth outcomes among communities most affected by America’s ongoing perinatal health crisis. “That is the reason why we were trying to get Medicaid reimbursement,” said Senait Brown, policy director at Surge Reproductive Justice, which facilitated the Doulas for All Coalition. “Reimbursement is not the goal. Ending the Black and Indigenous perinatal health crisis is the goal.”

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Features

OB-GYNs Say Dobbs Has Harmed Their Capacity to Provide Care and Deepened Health Disparities

by 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.

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Voices

OPINION | In Recent Years, Washington Expanded Abortion Access. Now We Know How Important That Is

by 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.

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Voices

OPINION | ‘Could She or I Go to Jail for This?’ Abortion Bans Result in Substandard Care That Threatens Patients’ Lives

by 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.

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Features

Teaching Students From His Own South End Neighborhood, a Former PNB Dancer Is Bringing Ballet to the Next Generation

by Megan Burbank

In a low-ceilinged studio at Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Phelps Center in downtown Seattle, two rows of kids from South Seattle’s Maple Elementary stand at a ballet barre on a floor of middle-gray marley. Clad in purple cap-sleeve leotards or white T-shirts and black tights, they move in unison to music played by a pianist in the corner, as former PNB dancer Eric Hipolito Jr. leads them through the first step of every ballet class ever taken: pliés, knee bends that form the basis of numerous steps still to come. As the students move through the static postures that, taken together, form the foundation of classical ballet, Hipolito interjects here and there with jokes, praise, nuggets of guidance: “Make sure there’s space between your fingertips,” he says at one point. At another: “Check if you’re early and check if you’re late.”

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News

New Study Shows Medicaid Coverage for Abortion Increases Health Equity and Reduces Reliance on Abortion Funds

by 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.

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