A number of weeks in the past, I did one thing that, as a journalist in 2023, is a standard a part of my job: I tweeted. (Xeeted? Posted?) Particularly, I tweeted in regards to the double-whammy of devastating information we noticed that week: A complete abortion ban going into effect in Indiana and a six-week ban going into effect in South Carolina.
After which I spent the remainder of the day getting barked at by a bunch of (principally) dudes who suppose they know extra about abortion than me, a repro reporter with a decade of experience.
Specifically, The Dudes™ took offense to the truth that I described each South Carolina and Indiana as being “two of the last states in their respective regions where abortion was more accessible.”
Extraordinarily unhealthy information for the South and Midwest this week. A complete abortion ban went into impact in Indiana, and now a six-week ban will go into impact in South Carolina.
These have been two of the final states of their respective areas the place abortion was extra accessible.
— Garnet Henderson (@garnethenderson) August 23, 2023
I used to be lambasted for that (true and correct) assertion, being accused of the whole lot from doomerism to mendacity. A lot of my replies went one thing alongside the traces of “What about Michigan?? And Illinois?? Ohio??” Abortion stays authorized in lots of Midwestern states, many armchair consultants identified. How dare I examine the standing of abortion care there to the standing of abortion care within the South? As is so usually the case, the mob on the web site previously often called Twitter was lacking the purpose.
Normally, I’d simply transfer on. However as someone who reports a lot on the harms of mis- and disinformation, I take being accused of spreading misinformation significantly. And the hullabaloo surrounding this tweet occurs to completely encapsulate a incontrovertible fact that drives a lot of my work: There’s a giant distinction between legality and entry.
An excessive amount of media protection of abortion focuses solely on legality, to the purpose that few folks absolutely grasp the enormity of the abortion entry disaster. They don’t notice how unhealthy issues have been earlier than Roe v. Wade was overturned—and so they don’t see the total image now. It’s because a lot common discourse round abortion flattens it right into a purely political subject, slightly than framing it as what it’s: A human proper and a vital a part of reproductive life.
It’s true that whenever you take a look at a map that exhibits states the place abortion is authorized or unlawful, things look much worse in the South than within the Midwest. In some ways, they’re: Abortion is illegitimate in nearly your complete Southeastern United States.
I can be letting you into the unusual encyclopedia that’s my mind each different week. There can be takes. There can be behind-the-scenes particulars. There can be bizarre information.
But when we take a more in-depth look, we are able to see that almost every single Midwestern state locations restrictions on abortion entry—some extra extreme than others. Most of those restrictions lengthy predate final summer time’s Supreme Court docket determination in Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group: focused regulation of abortion suppliers, or TRAP laws, that make it troublesome and costly to maintain clinics open, ready durations and parental involvement laws that make sufferers’ lives more durable, the checklist goes on.
In consequence, the Midwest doesn’t have sufficient clinics to take care of their very own residents. In truth, when Roe was nonetheless in place, the Midwest was the area with the highest ratio of women of reproductive age to every abortion-providing facility. In different phrases, the fewest clinics in comparison with the quantity of people that would possibly want them.
Now, these clinics are being flooded with sufferers touring up from the South. Although a few new clinics have opened up within the area, they will’t meet the enormity of this demand. The Midwest is, and has been, within the midst of an abortion entry disaster. Every extra state ban worsens the disaster. Each single area of the nation has been affected by the overturn of Roe, however the South and Midwest are the epicenter of the catastrophe.
Backside line, anybody who thinks they perceive the present realities of abortion entry in america just because they observe polling or election outcomes doesn’t get it and by no means will. There’s a lot extra to be taught right here.
That is the sort of stuff that, fairly actually, retains me up at night time. One factor about me is that I do know an excessive amount of. Behind each story I write are so many particulars I couldn’t slot in, and swirling round in my head always are so, so many information.
A few of these information are gleaned from my expertise reporting on the whole lot from the shady financials of “crisis pregnancy centers” to myths about exercising during pregnancy (did I point out I was a private coach?). Others are gleaned from my many each day Google binges. I’ve an insatiable urge for food for info, OK?
And now I can be letting you into the unusual encyclopedia that’s my mind each different week. Welcome to my column, which can be one thing like a cross between my reporter’s pocket book and my Twitter feed. There can be takes. (Have I informed you that I feel egg freezing is sort of a rip-off?) There can be behind-the-scenes particulars. There can be bizarre information. If I’ve to know them, so do you.
