The best laboratories for democracy show what can be done when women\u2019s health is a priority. A protest on National Women\u2019s Strike 2024 day outside the City Hall in Los Angeles on June 24, 2024, the second anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. (Frederic J. Brown \/ AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n
This article was originally published by The Contrarian<\/a>. <\/p>\n For all the around-the-clock chaos spurred by the federal government, disdain for reproductive health and rights is an omnipresent and defining feature. <\/p>\n Two examples from the past week: <\/p>\n On issuing a lengthy\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0accusing the Biden administration of unfair treatment of antiabortion protestors, the Department of Justice\u00a0fired at least four prosecutors<\/a>\u00a0for enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act during his tenure. In a House hearing for the Committee on Education and Workforce, \u201cExamining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services,\u201d HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. refused to acknowledge the well-established, shameful statistic that Black women in the United States are at least three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts\u2014even as\u00a0Rep. Summer Lee<\/a>\u00a0(D-Pa.) called out that it was Black Maternal Health Week and asked, point-blank, \u201cDo you have an idea of how we could solve the Black maternal mortality crisis if we can\u2019t say Black?\u201d <\/p>\n That\u2019s why it is a relief to point to bona fide good news coming from the states, often some of the\u00a0best laboratories<\/a>\u00a0for democracy. <\/p>\n In\u00a0Pennsylvania<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, an appeals court struck down a decades-old law banning the use of state Medicaid funding to cover abortion. Truly remarkable is the majority\u2019s decree that reproductive autonomy is enshrined in the equal protection provision of the Pennsylvania Constitution, guaranteed under its\u00a0Equal Rights Amendment<\/a>. As the ruling\u00a0states<\/a>, \u201cThere is no comparable exclusion of any health coverage\u2014reproductive or otherwise\u2014for men.\u201d The case could still be appealed to Pennsylvania\u2019s supreme court, but for now it is a noteworthy win with even bigger implications than just abortion.<\/p>\n OG Contrarian readers may recall that among the site\u2019s inaugural\u00a0posts<\/a>\u00a0was professor Laurence Tribe\u2019s summary of the status of the federal Equal Rights Amendment and obvious roadblocks in the immediate future. But\u00a029 states<\/a>\u00a0have some form of an ERA (e.g., broader sex equality language than the U.S. Constitution) written into their constitutions\u2014enabling an alternate path forward, as the Pennsylvania ruling demonstrates.<\/p>\n ERAs can be game-changing<\/a> for bolstering legal protection against a wide array of discrimination\u2014including on the basis of pregnancy, age, disability, and immigration status\u2014as well as for addressing adjacent issues such as pay equity and transparency and gender-based violence. (If you\u2019re looking to know more, the Center I lead at NYU Law is home to the\u00a0Marcy Syms Equality Initiative<\/a>, a law and policy think tank that provides expert analysis on the mobilization of state ERAs, among other work; check it out.)<\/p>\n In other state headlines, upcoming judicial elections in\u00a0Georgia<\/a>\u00a0are fast becoming a reproductive rights referendum, as happened last year in Wisconsin, given two of the incumbent judges were instrumental in reinstating Georgia\u2019s highly restrictive abortion ban in 2024. Activists are raising funds in force.\u00a0<\/p>\n Idaho<\/a>\u00a0voters will likely get to weigh in directly on abortion rights: Earlier this week, organizers of a 2026 ballot initiative say they\u2019ve now collected enough signatures to qualify (6 percent of the total registered voters at the time of the last general election, or about 70,000+ signatures). The proposed measure would establish a right to \u201cprivate reproductive health care decisions,\u201d including abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care and prenatal through postpartum care.\u00a0<\/p>\n California<\/a>, which has sought to be a safe haven for reproductive rights, is poised to pass legislation requiring in-state medical providers and affiliated businesses to notify the state attorney general and patients on compliance with any federal subpoena seeking abortion, gender-affirming or reproductive health information. \u201cNo one should have to fear that seeking lawful medical care in the state of California could put their privacy and their safety at risk,\u201d the bill\u2019s sponsor told the\u00a0Assembly Judiciary Committee<\/a>\u00a0at a hearing last week.<\/p>\n And on Tuesday, the\u00a0Illinois<\/a>\u00a0House passed a bill that would create a statewide abortion access fund to assist patients who are underinsured or uninsured; already existing insurance-based funds that offer this service would be turned over to the state to run instead. (Maryland already does the same.) Illinois plays a key role in the national abortion landscape, given its central geography\u2014it is where nearly one in four out-of-state patients go for care, according the\u00a0Guttmacher Institute<\/a>\u2014making its policies have exponential impact. \u201cIllinois really became kind of a haven state for the Midwest and much of the South immediately post-Dobbs,\u201d Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, told\u00a0Stateline<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finally, a follow-up to a recent\u00a0Contrarian<\/a> <\/a>column<\/a>\u00a0on women in the U.S. military and the Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019 (VA) strict abortion ban that is now in place. Last week, two organizations\u2014Vet Voice Foundation and The Brigid Alliance\u2014launched a billboard campaign near major VA clinics in Georgia, New Mexico and Virginia. The bad-ass signs include user-friendly information for how to access abortion and other reproductive healthcare.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main idea is to let veterans know that there are organizations out there who will help them get the healthcare they need, even though the VA has abandoned its obligation to take care of them in this regard,\u201d Janessa Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of Vet Voice Foundation,\u00a0told Military.com<\/a>.<\/p>\nAn example of new billboards in multiple U.S. cities. This sits outside the Las Cruces VA clinic in New Mexico. (Lamar Billboards) <\/p>\n