Ali Velshi: The U.S. may have just entered the most dangerous chapter of the post-Roe era yet
This is an adapted excerpt from the June 8 episode of 'Velshi.'
We may have just entered the most dangerous chapter of the post-Roe era to date. With new, but little-noticed, developments over recent days, it's apparent that not only are women under greater threat of being criminalized for their pregnancies, but the health and lives of pregnant women are more endangered now than at any time since the Dobbs decision was handed down.
Since the Supreme Court's 2022 decision, draconian abortion bans have been enacted in more than a dozen states. We have seen the deadly impact of those bans. In Georgia, Amber Thurman died of sepsis after not receiving an abortion procedure, known as dilation and curettage, that could have saved her life. Also in Georgia, Candi Miller died after she was too afraid to seek medical care because of the state's abortion ban.
In Texas, Josseli Barnica, Porsha Ngumezi and Nevaeh Crain all died after being denied proper care following miscarriages. And in the same state, Kylie Thurman lost part of her reproductive system after being turned away from a Texas hospital with an ectopic pregnancy. These are just some of the cases we know about.
To put it quite simply: Abortion is health care, emergency abortion is emergency health care — and without it, women die.
Despite that fact, last week the Trump administration revoked guidance issued by the Biden administration that directed hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women regardless of a state's abortion laws.
So why would the Trump administration want to come after emergency abortions specifically? The ones where, if you don't get them, you could die? Well, University of California, Davis law professor Mary Ziegler has a theory. She notes that the new guidance from the Trump administration does not just revoke the Biden-era guidance on providing emergency abortions, it also suggests that hospitals are required to protect the health of a pregnant woman's 'unborn child.'
This, Ziegler suggests, hints at a broader anti-abortion strategy. As she writes in a new piece for MSNBC: 'In the longer term, the end of the Biden-era guidance may be the tip of the sword further carving up abortion protections, even in states where that right is still protected.'
So not only is it dangerous to experience a pregnancy complication in the wrong state, it's likely to get more complicated even if you live in a 'safe' state.
But that is not even the end of the alarming trends in anti-abortion zealotry. Miscarriage is the most common pregnancy complication in America, affecting up to 1 in 5 pregnancies, according to the National Institutes of Health. And yet, since Dobbs was handed down, we have seen case after case of this common medical condition becoming a criminal investigation.
Mallori Patrice Strait spent five months in police custody after miscarrying in a public bathroom in Texas. Those charges were dropped, and an autopsy determined she had naturally miscarried a nonviable fetus.
Brittany Watts was arrested on felony corpse abuse charges in Ohio, for her miscarriage, which happened at home after she had been to a hospital with severe bleeding and was told her pregnancy was not viable. The charges against her were eventually dropped.
In Georgia, Selena Maria Chandler-Scott had a miscarriage and was arrested for disposing of the fetal tissue. Those charges were also dropped.
In South Carolina, Amari Marsh was accused of murder after losing her pregnancy. She was held in jail without bond for 22 days, ultimately released on house arrest with an ankle monitor. Thirteen months later, she was cleared by a grand jury.
If you're not following these stories closely, it might be tempting to think of each as a one-off: a bad arrest or a wrong judgment call. But make no mistake, this is systematic criminalization of women's bodies — and they are saying it out loud.
Tom Truman, a prosecutor for Raleigh County, West Virginia, said that while he would be unwilling to charge a woman for her miscarriage, other prosecuting attorneys in the state have discussed the possibility. Speaking to a local news outlet, Truman advised that if women who miscarry want to avoid arrest, they should call authorities to tell them that their pregnancy has ended.
'Call your doctor. Call law enforcement, or 911, and just say, 'I miscarried. I want you to know,'' Truman said. ''Isn't there a difference between somebody that's eight months pregnant and nine weeks pregnant?' … Those are going to be decisions that are going to have to be parsed out.'
Strict abortion bans could turn a common medical outcome, one that only happens to pregnant women, into a matter for the police. The idea is that you are supposed to call 911 if you have a miscarriage at home so that it can be investigated as a crime. This is America in 2025.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump administration orders California to remove ‘disturbing gender ideology' from sex ed program
The Trump administration has given California 60 days to strip all references to gender identity from a federally funded sex education program or risk losing its funding. In a letter sent Friday to the California Department of Public Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families called the state's Personal Responsibility Education Program 'noncompliant' with federal law. The agency cited 'disturbing gender ideology content,' including passages explaining that gender identity can differ from biological sex and that some individuals identify as transgender or nonbinary. 'The Trump Administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,' said Andrew Gradison, ACF's acting secretary, in a statement. 'The disturbing gender ideology content in California's PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program's core purpose.' PREP, which receives approximately $6 million in federal support, is designed to educate youth on contraception, abstinence and preventing sexually transmitted infections. California officials said the program targets vulnerable populations, such as youth in homeless shelters and juvenile justice facilities. Among the flagged content were educational materials describing gender identity as a 'deep-seated, internal sense' and including terms such as 'cisgender,' 'transgender' and 'genderqueer.' The agency stated that such material exceeds the scope of PREP's authorizing statute. A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Hill that the state was first made aware of the directive through Fox News. 'To be clear: this is NOT California's K-12 sex education curriculum,' the spokesperson noted, calling it an 'effective, evidence-based program model.' The latest announcement comes just days after the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's law banning gender-affirming medical care — such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy — for transgender minors.
Politico
2 hours ago
- Politico
RFK Jr. goes after immigrants to cut health insurance costs
The Trump administration is tightening eligibility for Obamacare coverage in what it says is a bid to combat a 'surge of improper enrollments' and to lower insurance costs broadly. Critics say the rule changes will cause eligible people to miss out on a chance at subsidized health insurance and increase the uninsured rate. 'With this rule, we're lowering marketplace premiums, expanding coverage for families, and ensuring that illegal aliens do not receive taxpayer-funded health insurance,' HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a press release that projects $12 billion in savings from the rule changes next year. Those changes include reducing the enrollment period for plans by two weeks, adding paperwork requirements for some enrollees, ending the use of federal subsidies to help cover the cost of transgender people's transition-related medical care, and barring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients from purchasing insurance on the exchanges. Those are immigrants brought to the country without documentation when they were children whom President Barack Obama protected from deportation. The final rule also repeals a special enrollment period for individuals in households earning less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level. CMS estimates about 725,000 to 1.8 million people will lose coverage as a result of the final rule. In January, CMS said about 24 million people had signed up for Obamacare coverage for 2025. Many of those will lose coverage because enrollment will be less consumer-friendly, said Larry Levitt, who advised President Bill Clinton on health policy and is now executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a health care think tank. 'I think the combination of the shorter open enrollment period and the more complex income verification rules will result in more people falling through the cracks,' Levitt said. Levitt noted that many policies in the final rule are effective only for the 2026 plan year, but that could change if Congress codifies them. The House last month included some of the changes in its version of President Donald Trump's megabill. The Senate hasn't yet voted on its version of the bill, which aims to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts but needs budget savings to do it. The final rule shortens the annual open enrollment period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. The previous enrollment period ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15. The regulation also eliminates a policy under which individuals with low incomes who are eligible for premium-free plans are automatically re-enrolled in them. Under the new rule, they will be re-enrolled with a $5 monthly premium in plan year 2026. If the individual files paperwork showing they are still eligible for a no-premium plan, they'll be re-enrolled in one. Taken together, CMS estimates the changes will cause individual health insurance premiums to drop by an average of 5 percent.
Axios
3 hours ago
- Axios
Trump admin shortens ACA enrollment window
The Trump administration on Friday narrowed the period to sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage and imposed other restrictions aimed at rolling back Biden-era flexibilities for the program. Why it matters: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expects the new policies to lower marketplace premiums by about 5% on average, and save taxpayers $12 billion next year. But between 725,000 and 1.8 million people are expected to lose coverage, per CMS's projections. The big picture: Congress is considering codifying many of the same provisions in the massive GOP budget bill that's now in the Senate. That would make them much harder for a future administration to undo. State of play: CMS is shortening the period for enrolling in marketplace insurance by two weeks, starting for plan year 2027. Federal exchanges will then be open for sign-ups from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 of each year. It's also repealing the monthly opportunity started under the Biden administration for lower-income people to get marketplace coverage. The new rule limits plans' ability to cover gender-affirming care beginning next year. It also excludes Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients from obtaining ACA coverage. CMS said the policies will ensure federal subsidies to offset the cost of ACA coverage only support statutory goals of the law. Yes, but: In response to public comments, CMS is making several of its changes temporary. For plan year 2026 only, CMS will begin charging a $5 monthly premium for consumers who are automatically reenrolled in an ACA plan from one year to the next and would otherwise have fully subsidized coverage. Other changes concerning income verification for enrollees will also end after 2026. Between the lines: Insurance losses from the new policy will be felt hardest in states where "erroneous and improper enrollment is most noticeable," including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, CMS said.
