‘Child Sacrifice’ Anti-Abortion Group Hosts Trump

Andrea Grimes
15 minutes

Plus: Amanda Zurawski, who was forced to leave Texas for life-saving abortion care, says she’ll run for office in 2026.

Here’s another edition of Hard to Believe It’s Only Tuesday, a weekly roundup of the top headlines, tweets, toks, takes, and more in abortion news. You can always email me (andrea.grimes@gmail.com, or grimesandrea@proton.me for more sensitive inquiries) or DM me on instagram with action items, takes, and news clips. This post is probably too long for email, so click the headline above or head to the HTBIOT page to get the full read in your browser, because you don’t want to miss this week’s Goodnight and Good Dunk!

Programming note: I was off for a couple of weeks what with holidays, deadlines, and travel, so this is a bit of a catch-up issue aggregating stuff from late May until today. I’ll probably have missed some stuff, so leave what you’ve been reading in the comments if there’s a story you’d like to see highlighted!

Photo by Victoria Pickering via Flickr/Creative Commons

The big takeaway: A couple of weeks ago, the Texas Supreme Court rejected two dozen women’s challenge to parts of the state’s abortion ban. The court refused to offer further clarification on or reassurances about the circumstances under which medical professionals can provide abortion care to people with life-threatening and/or highly complex pregnancies. I have said it before and I will say it again: this is ghoulish fuckery. Hell is not hot enough for the politicians behind this shit. It’s exciting to hear that Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in the suit, is looking at running for political office in 2026.

But it can’t just be on these Texans and their doctors to carry this entire issue while risking their lives. At some point, the highly resourced hospital systems and health care conglomerates who say doctors’ hands are tied by state law are going to have to reject the timidity of risk-averse legal departments and start standing the fuck up for their own doctors and their patients. They are going to have to move from playing defense to offense. They are going to have to switch from “we may have to let you die because we are unwilling to face legal risks” to “we won’t let you die, because we are willing to face legal risks.” They are going to have to spend a lot more money than they already do on lobbying on pro-abortion issues (to the extent they do at all), and lobby about eleven million times harder.

And with this latest ruling, hospitals and health care groups are going to have to decide to take the Texas Supreme Court and the state itself at its word and presume that the law allows doctors to provide care using their best medical judgment. If prosecutors take aim, these highly resourced organizations are going to have to commit to defending providers and patients with absolutely everything they have. Few entities have the expertise and resources to go up against these laws, but there are absolutely some hospitals and health care groups that do, with plenty to spare.

I know it’s ~ more complicated ~ than that. But also? It isn’t.

It cannot continue to be on individual doctors and their patients — Texans who are being forced to risk their lives to give birth — to bear the the weight of this anti-abortion fuckery and take on the primary risks under the hottest of spotlights.

The Top Headlines

The Takes

  • “Your Local Epidemiologist” Katelyn Jetelina and Ibis Reproductive Health’s Heidi Moseson are in the Washington Post with a piece on the retracted anti-abortion studies cited in the case against medication abortion at SCOTUS: “Clinical guidance and policy are (ideally) built on decades of research and consideration of the totality of evidence. In the case of mifepristone, more than 100 studies show it’s safe — in fact, safer than Tylenol — with only a few discordant studies. However, big mistakes can make it past the peer-review process, and, in some rare cases, “mistakes” are intentional and egregious. Even if studies are retracted, they can do a lot of harm. … This bedrock of data is highly dependent on ethical scientists and a strong review process. Retracted studies should never have reached the Supreme Court.”
  • Listen to sociologist and author Gretchen Sisson on the latest Boom! Lawyered podcast, talking about Relinquished, her new book on the adoption industry. Key takeaway: “The idea that women are choosing between abortion and adoption is not borne out by the data at all.“
  • Comedian Grace Campbell published an essay in The Guardian about her complex feelings, including depression and guilt, after having an abortion: “I was nervous writing this. I’ve worried that in doing so I am letting women down. You only have to look at the upcoming American elections to see we are being confronted with loud, powerful men who are trying to occupy our basic right to choose. Women are being controlled and their every move watched, because of the male obsession with taking our autonomy away. And so I wonder if we don’t want to tell other people how hard our abortions were, because thank fucking God we are still being allowed them. But then I think, that is why we are being denied the nuance.“
  • Meghan Daniel of the Chicago Abortion Fund/Complex Abortion Regional Line for Access is in Prism with an op-ed about supporting people who need emergency abortion care: “Those who need emergency care are confronted not only with time-sensitive medical needs, but also potentially thousands of dollars in hospital bills and cumbersome administrative systems with limited appointment availability. The case before the Supreme Court threatens to make this dire situation even worse. Post-Dobbs, providers and patients alike have faced fear, uncertainty, and confusion navigating state and federal laws. This fear is by design; it prevents timely and necessary medical care and leads to more calls for support from abortion funds.“

The Tweets/Toks/Skeets/Grams

  • Hey! Alabama’s Yellowhammer Fund needs help restocking their Repro Raven bus!

🍉 🚨 NON-ABORTION INTERLUDE 🚨 🍉

Supporting families separated by genocide is a reproductive justice issue, which is why I’m fundraising for Aya Musallam and her campaign to reunite her family, who have been separated by Israel’s attacks on Gaza. They’ve lost their family home, and they’re spread out all over the world. Right now, Aya’s working to get her sister Lara, her brother-in-law, and her nephews Ayham (2 years old) and Yaman (4 months old) to safety and back together with Aya, her mom, and her little sister, who are in Russia, and Aya’s brother and father, who are in Egypt.

Aya is almost to her goal! We just need to raise just €3,600 more to complete Aya’s campaign.

If you can donate even a few bucks, it makes a big difference. If you can’t donate, please share Aya’s Go Fund Me page widely with your networks, or you can like/share/comment/bookmark and otherwise interact with my fundraiser videos on TikTok and Instagram to make sure they aren’t suppressed by the cowardly, censorious algorithms.

(And be sure to scroll allllll the way to the bottom of this post for pics from a fabulous fundraiser held in South Texas for Aya’s family last weekend!)

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

The Fuck Are We Supposed to Do About It?

  • 👕 SWAG OF THE WEEK! 👕
  • 🌅 Arizona: Here’s a big list of events with opportunities to sign the petition for the state’s abortion rights ballot measure. (Plus a way to sign up as a volunteer!)
  • 📱 Online: The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice is hosting an online “How to Talk About Abortion” event on Wednesday, June 12. Sign up here!
  • 🗣️ Anywhere: Women on Web is looking for Polish speakers to join their help desk.
  • 🦺 St. Louis area: Illinois’ Hope Clinic is looking for clinic escorts. Here’s how to learn more.
  • 🐝 Anywhere: The “Pollination Station,” Apiary Practical Support‘s volunteer training series, is now taking applications.
  • 🚗 Kentucky: The Kentucky Health Justice Network is looking for volunteer drivers and case managers. Here’s where to sign up.
  • 📱 North Texas: The Texas Equal Access Fund is looking for bilingual Spanish-speaking volunteers for their text line. Here’s where to sign up.
  • 🤠 Texas: Local teen-friendly businesses in in Bryan, College Station, Lubbock, or San Angelo can become pickup spots for repro kits assembled by Jane’s Due Process. Here’s the application form.
  • ⛰️ Southwestern Virginia and Appalachia: The New River Abortion Access Fund is looking for volunteers.
  • 🗳️ Anywhere, U.S.: Hey Jane x Vote America helps prep voters to support pro-abortion policies and candidates

Goodnight and good dunk — This is not a dunk, but rather a delight! South Texans for Repro Justice hosted an event last weekend in McAllen raising money to help get Aya Musallam’s family out of Gaza, and in support of Palestinian freedom — because opposing genocide is a reproductive justice issue.

That’s all for this week. I’m sure I’ve missed something you’d like to see featured in this roundup, for I am but one woman with a computer and an abortion-news-induced drinking problem. Holler at me — andrea.grimes@gmail.com or grimesandrea@proton.me for more sensitive inquiries, or DM me on Instagram, and I’ll try to add follow-ups as I’m able.

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