abortion

Greetings, Meteor readers,

The women’s Final Four is set, and thankfully for my bracket, UConn is still in it along with UCLA, Texas, and South Carolina. As much as I love Dawn Staley, I need anyone but South Carolina to win as I refuse to lose to my own husband in our bracket battle.

In today’s newsletter, we celebrate a win for abortion in Alabama. Plus, one very expensive election and an answer to whether or not your basketball tattoo can get you arrested (it can).

Cheering for Paige,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Sometimes we win: On Monday, a federal judge in Alabama ruled that the state could not prosecute people for obtaining abortions in states where the procedure is legal, writing in his decision that “Alabama’s criminal jurisdiction does not reach beyond its borders.” (Someone tell that to Ken Paxton.) The judge also wrote that going after people or organizations who help others get abortions “would violate both the First Amendment and the right to travel.” The ruling comes in response to a 2023 lawsuit filed by Yellowhammer Fund, the state’s only abortion fund, along with West Alabama Women’s Center (WAWC) and Huntsville OB/GYN Dr. Yashica Robinson against the state’s attorney general Steve Marshall, who had publicly threatened to criminalize anyone aiding out-of-state abortions under a criminal conspiracy law from 1896.

Even just those threats had been having real-world consequences in Alabama, where abortion is illegal in all instances with very, very few exceptions. Robin Marty, the director of operations for WAWC, told The Meteor that even after Roe was overturned, people came to the center seeking care—often unaware that abortion had become illegal. But because of Marshall’s threats to enforce anti-conspiracy laws, Marty says her staff was severely hindered from offering patients guidance on how to get an abortion, despite no new legislation being on the books. “We had to say ‘I can't help you,’” Marty tells The Meteor. “Because any information that we provided would then be potentially considered to be the beginning of that so-called criminal conspiracy.”

If that kind of cruelty on top of cruelty—in which the state mistreats patients and bars anyone from helping them—sounds familiar, that’s because a number of other anti-abortion states are also manipulating existing racketeering and conspiracy laws to make it nearly impossible to access abortion care. Idaho and Tennessee have already codified so-called “abortion trafficking” laws, making it a felony to help teens get out-of-state abortions without parental consent. (Tennessee’s law is being challenged in court.) Last month, Texas, the least magical place on earth, introduced SB 2880, which would open providers, funds, and even abortion pill manufacturers up to civil suits.

But the ruling in Alabama is a considerable bright spot in the fight for abortion access and could provide a legal boost to the fight against other abortion travel bans. Marty still has concerns—“the state has said that they’re looking at their options”—but, she says, “we are just excited that we are able to provide as much care as we are legally allowed to right now.”

AND: 

• There’s a consequential election happening today in Wisconsin, where voters in the “swingiest swing state” will put a new state Supreme Court justice on the bench. The candidates are Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel, and while justices are meant to be non-partisan, Schimel’s loudest supporter has been Elon Musk, who has poured more than $20 million into Schimel’s campaign and even gave million-dollar checks to two Wisconsin voters last weekend. Crawford’s campaign has broken funding records in response. Why all this money? Because, as Musk himself said, as a result of redistricting issues it’s a “vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives”; the balance of the court could also affect labor outcomes, election laws, and abortion access in the state. In other words? The results will serve as a referendum on whether or not one billionaire can buy an election and alter policy for years to come.

• Under the guise of removing gang members from the U.S., the Trump administration is continuing to deport young Venezuelan men to El Salvador, where they are allegedly subject to torture and forced labor.  However, in most cases, there is not sufficient evidence that those deported are in fact members of Tren de Aragua, a gang recently designated a terrorist group. Instead, the administration is asking immigration officials to adhere to an “alien enemy validation guide,” which specifies that clothes and tattoos—of things like a crown, train, or Michael Jordan’s Jumpman logo— seen on a boy over 14 are sufficient reasons to detain and eventually deport. Customs and Border Patrol had previously argued that tattoos are “not a definite indicator” of allegiance to this particular gang. So when exactly are we going to start calling this what it is?

• Amber Ruffin has been relieved of her duty as headliner at the upcoming White House Correspondents’ dinner after calling Trump administration officials “kind of a bunch of murderers” on a Daily Beast podcast and refusing to write jokes that would amount to a “false equivalency” between Democrats and Republicans. Ruffin was told that she would have to evenly mock both parties at the dinner and replied, “There’s no way I’m going to be freaking doing that, dude. It’s bonkers that we’re still acting like things are normal.” Ruffin later pulled out an infamous Trump line on Late Night with Seth Meyers, sarcastically conceding that there are “very fine people on both sides.”

• Cammie Woodman, a self-described “trans tennis princess,” was kicked out of the Brooklyn Tennis League last week. Her violation? Winning a tennis match against a cisgender woman. After the match, Woodman was asked to move to an “appropriate level” men’s division within the league. She declined, writing in part, “I believe in my integrity as a woman player…my win yesterday was based on my skill and consistency that a player at her level was respectfully unable to keep up with.” Woodman also says she was shocked at the decision to remove her as she was under the impression that trans players were welcome.

• In recent years, there has been a decline in Black men attending HBCUs. But the decrease is now so great that at Howard University, one of the most prestigious colleges in the country and a historically Black university, Black men only make up 19 percent of the student body. The reasons for this are many, but one expert told the Times, “ If we are serious about reducing race gaps in economic opportunity, household wealth, et cetera, then our attention should be squarely focused on economic outcomes for Black boys and men — period. Full stop.”

• From 7 pm Monday up until the time of this writing—21 hours!—Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has been giving a marathon speech on the Senate floor protesting the Trump administration’s policies. Technically not a filibuster because he’s not holding up a vote for legislation, his speech is meant to serve as a public, forceful attack on Trump and Musk’s actions, which he’s called “a complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution and the needs of the American people.” Booker has filled the time by reading letters from constituents, taking questions from fellow Democrats, and quoting speeches from people like late senators John McCain and John Lewis, the latter of whom encouraged “good trouble, necessary trouble.”

WHEN YOU'RE TIRED BUT YOU PROMISED YOUR CONSTITUENTS YOU WOULD "STAND UP AND SAY SOMETHING" EVEN IF IT MEANT NOT GOING TO THE BATHROOM FOR A FULL DAY. (SCREENSHOT VIA YOUTUBE)

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