Spring is Here and the Supreme Court is in Session
Marisa Falcon with Molly Gaebe as “Anthony Comstock”
Dear friends,
Spring is here! Sun! Rain! A bunch of white men making atrocious decisions about abortion access! It’s a heavy time in our movement, and we at Apiary just want you to know that we are with you, we are feeling it.
It was genuinely delightful to see so many of you on the steps of the Supreme Court on March 26, including Anthony Comstock himself!
The Court heard oral arguments FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the case that will determine the future availability of Mifepristone, which is used in more than half of all abortions in the U.S and is safer than Tylenol. Initial inklings indicate that the Court may rule in our favor, but if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s good to prepare for the worst with SCOTUS.
Speaking of worse - on April 24, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Idaho and Moyle, et al. v. United States. After the fall of Roe, Idaho banned abortion unless it was necessary to prevent a patient’s death, which violates the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA requires hospitals that receive Medicare funding to provide necessary “stabilizing treatment” to patients in emergencies, including abortion care, which seems obvious but apparently we need an explicit law for this. Now, the Supreme Court will decide how “sick” a pregnant person has to be in order to have an emergency abortion. Fun! A ruling in this case, like the mifepristone case, is expected sometime in May/June; we’ll keep you posted on what happens and what it means when it does.
In the meantime, we will keep doing the work because it needs to be done and that is what we do.
In solidarity,
Marisa Falcon
Executive Director
Get Help Building a Volunteer Driving Program 🚙
Have you wanted to start a volunteer driving program to get people to and from abortion care? Our new Blueprint cohort is perfect for you! Apiary is preparing to launch a new cohort in May, focused on creating a volunteer driver program, implementing it, and making it sustainable. If you or your organization is interested in learning more, fill out an interest form. Our wonderful Ayé will host information sessions for interested folks. We plan to have 8-12 groups enrolled in this Blueprint cohort, where they will receive hands-on technical assistance. And, for the groups that ultimately finish the training, we will be regranting up to $20,000 to each group to help implement their new program!
Last month, Apiary hosted our very first "Tech Tea Time 🫖," highlighting innovative tech tools for those in the reproductive health world. Every month, we will host a community partner who will showcase their app, program, or digital process designed to support this work.
The Clinic Access Support Network (CASN), a Texas-based practical support organization (and in some of our very first Hivemind calls!), designed the award-winning CASN Driver app, that allows organizations to easily communicate with their fleet of volunteer drivers, all while protecting the privacy of care-seekers. With automated text message alerts and fun achievements, the CASN Driver app helps ease the logistical challenges of managing practical support.
Our monthly Tech Tea Time is open to our Hivemind community, the members of our TA Coalition, and will soon be available to T4RJ community members.