The pundits will tell you that abortion as a political issue reached its high point over the summer and that it's now "in the rear view mirror" for voters.

OK, dude.

I'm here @thenation with a hopeful dispatch from a perfect fall day in Vermont:

thenation.com/article/politi… Vermont is one of three states (plus California and Michigan) that could make history by enshrining an explicit right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution.

But the record number of ballot initiatives is just one way this election will make history on abortion.

As I told @brianbeutler here, I've been using inclusive terms like "patients" and "pregnant people" to refer to those who get abortions for years for a simple reason:

They're accurate.

It's also accurate to say that abortion fundamentally shapes women's role in society.

https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1542882180904501250

We can and MUST hold two truths at the same time:

1. LGBTQ people are impacted — yes, even disproportionately impacted in a health-care system where they're already discriminated against — by abortion bans.

2. Abortion bans are an effort to control women's social roles.

These informed predictions from one of the leading researchers on abortion @Dianagfoster are such a chilling forecast:

politico.com/news/magazine/… 1/ Poor people will be forced to have pregnancies they don't want.

"My conservative estimate, based on studies of other restrictions on abortion, is that a quarter of those who would previously have been able to get an abortion will instead give birth."

I have the same phrase echoing in my head that I did the day after the 2016 election:

"So many people are going to die."

I don't mean from back-alley abortions, since we have safe abortion pills now... I mean that I don't think anyone is fully prepared for what is going to happen when total state abortion bans collide with the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world—with a country where Black mothers die at 3x the rate of white mothers.

INBOX: Yesterday the Oklahoma House passed a TOTAL abortion ban modeled on Texas Senate Bill 8 that would be enforced by private "bounty hunter" lawsuits.

Nearly half of all Texas abortion patients traveling out of state are currently going to Oklahoma, providers say. "S.B. 8 has manufactured the greatest health care crisis since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now Oklahoma lawmakers want to inflict that completely avoidable crisis on their own citizens."

Rebecca Tong, co-ED of @TrustWomen says.

Texas abortion providers and funds are holding a presser right now on what the past six months have been like under SB 8, the six-week abortion ban. 🧵 Marc Hearron of @ReproRights says there's no end in sight for the foreseeable future.

Because of how SCOTUS ruled before, the best outcome from today's TX SCOTUS hearing would be to block state licensing officials from punishing providers. That wouldn't stop vigilante lawsuits.

NEW: Medication abortion now accounts for MORE THAN HALF of all abortions in the United States.

This is a HUGE shift from 2017 when med abs were 39 percent of abortions. Now they're 54 percent. 🧵

guttmacher.org/article/2022/0… Obviously, this only accounts for abortions researchers were able to count!

@Guttmacher says the Covid pandemic has accelerated an ongoing rise in medication abortions.

Key caveat: The availability of legal telehealth med abortions varies widely from state to state.

For @thenation I wrote about the group that wrote the 15-week abortion ban that SCOTUS will hear tomorrow: Alliance Defending Freedom.

It's the same group driving anti-transgender bills in state legislatures. 🧵

thenation.com/article/politi… In 2018, ADF attorneys laid out a plan to "eradicate Roe" using the Mississippi ban.

@petemont was there and documented it.

Three years later, that plan is coming to fruition. rightwingwatch.org/post/adf-plans…

For @thenation, I spoke with patients, abortion funds, and clinics nationwide about how abortion access during COVID almost flickered out. 🧵💕
thenation.com/article/societ… Patients encountered locked doors, limited services, and state attempts to ban abortion under the guise of preserving PPE.

Abortion funds like @IWRising @WHOohio @lilithfund @JENSouthDakota @TBAF7 @FundTexasChoice @nmrcrc engaged in quiet acts of heroism to get people care.

This by @DrJenGunter shows how "life endangerment" exceptions to abortion bans are a false promise (thread): nytimes.com/2019/05/20/opi… Kansas, which @DrJenGunter cites in her chilling example, is just one state that bans abortion in public facilities unless a patient's life is in danger.

@ElizNash and I found 10 others: rewire.news/article/2019/0…

This is an important piece about how hospital consolidation drives up patient costs. But @nytimes has again failed to mention how the Catholic hospitals at the center of this trend restrict reproductive health care: nytimes.com/2018/11/14/hea… I wrote in July about how any mention of Catholic hospitals in a story like this - particularly when it's about how they are increasingly becoming the only accessible option - should mention these potentially life-threatening restrictions on care: rewire.news/article/2018/0…

When I read the chilling @jackhealyNYT article on rural hospital closures, a detail stood out to me that @nytimes omitted: The hospital a woman traveled 100 miles while in labor to reach is Catholic (thread) rewire.news/article/2018/0… I've reported for @Rewire_News on how Catholic hospitals, which follow religious directives, have turned away patients who are miscarrying and refused to terminate doomed pregnancies. rewire.news/article/2017/0…