What A Day - The State That Might Re-Ban Abortion

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

Abortion is back on the ballot in a handful of states – including Missouri, where voters are being asked to repeal the rights they just instated two years ago. Jane sits down with Carter Sherman, co-host of the Guardian podcast, Stateside with Kai and Carter, to hear more about the states weighing abortion in the midterms.Show Notes: Check out Stateside with Kai and Carter — theguardian.com/us-news/series/stateside Buy your Crooked Con tickets — crookedcon.com Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – tinyurl.com/… What A Day – YouTube – youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – instagram.com/crookedmedia For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

Idaho actually has seen more than a third of its OBGYNs leave the state since the ban was enacted because OBGYNs are so afraid of the consequences of doing something wrong. Even if they're not really looking to perform an abortion, they feel like they could get targeted by state legislators. And that has made them so afraid that they've had to flee. It's Wednesday, October 14th. I'm Jane Koston. And this is why today. The Trump administration is reportedly growing cold on Secretary. Area of War slash little boy, Pete Hegsass, big plan to live stream the execution of the 2009 Fort Hood shooter because it could ramp up anti-American sentiment.

But not everyone agrees. South Carolina Republican Congresswoman turned podcast host, Hey, it's a living. Nancy Mace told CNN's Wolf Blitzer today that she thinks the execution is fine. Do you have any concerns, though, that live streaming his execution potentially could also. offer some sort of propaganda opportunity for various terrorist groups out there. Well, they're using AI these days. They don't need a real-world example when they're using AI and all of their propaganda. But they would have a real-world example.

So that's not AI. Anyway, the Pentagon announced that the December execution would be live-streamed last week, a decision which most people immediately hated. That's Pete Higgs-Seth for you. tough news for Republicans. The Labor Department announced today that inflation rose to 3.7% last month. Cost jumped 0.6% from August to September, the biggest gain in five months, as gasoline and many other goods got even more expensive for Americans, which you probably know if you've done anything in the last few months. This is the last major inflation data we're going to see before the election, all but ensuring the GOP will not get a last minute reprie from affordability.

concerns ahead of the midterms, which is tough news for President Donald Trump. A recent poll by the Associated Press and the Nork Center for Public Affairs Research found that just 17% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the cost of living issue, and only 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, a new low. I need to know who those 26% are. Remember the reflecting pool? The reflecting pool. Trump was renovating and then subsequently ruined. because of shoddy work he blamed on non-existent vandals? Well, according to the Washington Post, an inspection report commissioned by the contractor who did the renovations

found that the pool's lining failed in at least 85 places, thanks to mistakes like refilling the pool before the liner fully dried. But this story isn't over. The Associated Press reported this week that the reflecting pool is being refilled, hopefully for the final time. Just three months and a few days behind schedule, with a quick, attempted, malicious prosecution of an innocent man. But I want to talk about abortion on the ballot and how one state might decriminalize it,

while another might recriminalize it. Joining me is Carter Sherman, a journalist covering gender and sexuality and the co-host of the Guardian podcast, State Side with Kai and Carter. Carter, welcome to what today. Thank you for having me. So which states are deciding on abortion-related legislation this November? So there are four states where we are going to be seeing ballot measures around abortion rights. They are Nevada, Missouri, Idaho, and Virginia.

Idaho and Nevada and Virginia, they are voting to protect or secure abortion rights. And Missouri is voting to actually eliminate abortion rights. Yeah, because Idaho, as you mentioned, is deciding whether or not to create a right to abortion before viability and in the case of a medical emergency. And if that sounds like very conservative, that's because as far as I can tell, the state of abortion in Idaho is that there's basically a total ban. I mean, pretty much. There have been some exceptions that have been added to the law in the years since Roe was overturned and the ban went into effect. But in general, like, exceptions are not really a thing that actually work for women on the ground. I have talked to many women in Idaho who said that they were in medical emergencies and needed to end their pregnancies and were not able to do. so in Idaho, their doctors denied them and they had to go elsewhere. They had to go out to Seattle or they had to go to Oregon. And that is really, really tough for people to experience and to

go through. Yeah, I mean, I can't even begin to imagine, which is why I'm a little surprised that Missouri voters are being asked to repeal an abortion rights amendment that was passed two years ago. What's going on there? Yeah, it's a little wild. So in 2024, Missouri voters voted to overturn the state's abortion ban. Missouri was actually the very first state to ban abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. And now lawmakers have come up with this ballot measure that they are sending back to voters to say, actually, that's overturned that previous 2024 ballot measure. That's actually eliminate abortion access again in this state. And so it really actually kind of raises for me some interesting questions about the nature and the health of democracy in Missouri.

Yeah. And something that was fascinating to me is. is that abortion is such a, I don't want to say divisive, because that sounds kind of like mealy mouth, but it's such a specific issue. And in both Missouri and Idaho, you have two abortion ballot measures where the lead issue is something else, because the Missouri ballot issue would also ban gender affirming care for minors. And so when you look at ads about this legislation across Missouri, if you're in St. Louis, for example, the ads talk about, you know, protecting our kids from gender transition. They don't really mention the fact that this would ban abortion except for medical emergencies, fatal, fetal anomaly, or rape and incest up to 12 weeks. But in contrast, in Idaho, the abortion issue is not being talked about in that ballot issue in Prop 1. They're talking about, like, you know, making sure doctors, have the ability to work with patients freely. What does that tell you about the state of how we think about abortion in America right now? I mean, I think it tells us that people have a really hard time looking at the issue of abortion directly. I think in Missouri in particular, it's been really interesting to me to see how the anti-abortion advocates are focusing on this issue of gender affirming care.

Like the people who are trying to support abortion rights in Missouri, they will tell you that actually gender affirming care is already not available for minors. Like this ballot measure is not really going to be doing anything substantive that the state of Missouri has not already done to restrict minors access to this kind of care. And I think we've actually seen this again and again that anti-abortion advocates know that it's kind of unpopular to ban abortion at this point. They know that people got very outraged by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And so instead of talking about abortion directly, they are pivoting and trying to make these ballot measures be about gender affirming care. I was in Ohio a few years ago when they were passing their own ballot. measure around abortion rights. And I saw the exact same kinds of ads on TV there. They were also

talking about how like, oh, if this ballot measure gets passed, you know, you parents won't be able to protect your kids from gender affirming care, although that's obviously not the language that they used. And so it's really clear that I think after Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion advocates are really struggling to actually find a message that works. And they're finding that their actual message, their core message of banning abortion, the thing they actually want doesn't really resonate with voters the way they want it to. Yeah. And in contrast, with the doing in Idaho actually kind of reminded me of the reproductive and freedom bill that was passed in Kansas a couple of years ago, where the people who were supportive of abortion rights didn't talk about abortion in their ads. They talked about like, you know, we don't want the government getting in between a patient and their doctor. Was that something that you've seen as well? Yeah. And I was actually in Kansas ahead of that ballot measure being passed as well. It's really interesting because I think that the backers of those ballot measures to restore abortion access, I mean, there were.

right that what happens when you ban abortion is you actually have downstream consequences for a lot of health care for women. You know, people are not able to get the kind of care that they want in various points of pregnancy, not just when they want to end it. Idaho actually has seen more than a third of its OBGYNs leave the state since the ban was enacted because OBGYNs are so afraid of the consequences of doing something wrong. Even if they're not really looking to perform an abortion, they feel like they could get targeted by state legislators, and that has made them so afraid that they've had to flee. Like I've talked to doctors who actually, you know, came home every day

and we're saying, I have kids, I have a partner, I cannot continue to live in this state and be afraid for my livelihood, be afraid for my future of my family, and they've left. We'll get back to my conversation with Carter Sherman in just a moment. What a day is brought to you by One Skin. A lot of skincare makes big promises but can't deliver. One Skin is different. They never set out to become a skincare company.

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off your first month. Visit betterhelp.com slash wad to explore your payment options. That's betterhelp.com slash wad. Let's get back to my conversation with Carter Sherman. So with regard to Missouri's attempt to re-ban abortion, back in February, it looked like Missouri might vote to do so. It was polling at like 50 to 39. But in August, it's much tighter. What's been happening on the ground in Missouri to kind of shift the tides around this legislation? I mean, I'm not exactly sure what's going on on the ground. I think what is happening in general is that when you get closer up to an election, people pay more attention.

Like, that is just true regardless of what kind of race you're looking at. And so I think that more and more people are tuning in and looking at this and saying, wait, didn't we just vote on this? Like, what is happening here? Oh, actually, I can form an opinion. around this because now I'm finally like looking at the information that's being given to me. All of this is people going to the ballot box to vote on abortion or abortion related issues. It's been four years since the Dobbs decision. How has abortion done at the ballot box since 2022? Well, it's done really well in general. More than a dozen states, I believe, have now passed measures to

restore abortion access or to protect abortion access in states that already have it, which I think really speaks to not only the soaring popularity of abortion rights because we do see that more and more people are in support of broader abortion rights, but also that this is an issue that more and more people just care about. Like, this is more salient to their vote. This is more important to their vote. And that has been incredibly striking to me as someone who's covered this issue since 2016. Like this has long been an issue where people will say, oh, I care about this, but I'm not really going to care about this more than, say, immigration or more than, say, the economy. But we're seeing, at least in recent years that the issue of abortion has really climbed in people's list of

important issues. That said, I would say it's less important in 26 than it was in previous cycles of elections. Yeah, I can imagine, obviously, people are thinking about the economy, but, you know, the economy also includes people who might need abortions, but that's neither here nor there. No, I think it is relevant. Whenever I'm at an abortion clinic and talking to folks who are looking to get abortions, most of them will say, the reason I want an abortion, today is because I can't afford to have a kid or I can't afford to have another kid. Many people who have abortions already have children and have a really good sense of how much it costs them. And so there is a way to think about abortion as an affordability issue, which as we all know, affordability is like the story of this election.

Right. So there are also abortion-related ballot issues in Nevada and Virginia. Two states where abortion is legal. Can you tell me about those? Well, so Nevada is actually kind of a redo of a previous ballot measure In Nevada, they have to pass ballot measures twice in order to actually get them to enter the state constitution. And so that's what we're seeing in Nevada. In Virginia, they are voting to enthrine abortion rights into the state constitution. And even though abortion rights are legal in Virginia, I think it's worth pausing on the fact that Virginia is actually one of the last bastions of abortion rights in the South. It is one of the easiest places for people who are fleeing abortion bans in Texas or Georgia to go. Yeah, it's the only southern state without a ban.

or an early limit at the very least. Right. I was at a Virginia abortion clinic a few years ago, and I met a woman there who was 23 years old. She was already a mom. And she lived in Georgia, and she had realized that she was pregnant just six, seven weeks into her pregnancy. But at that time, she already couldn't get an abortion in Georgia. And so she and her partner went to North Carolina. But by the time they made it out to North Carolina, she was past the 12-week mark. And there's a 12-week ban in North Carolina. And so she had to make her way all the way to Virginia in the 14th week of her pregnancy in order to get that abortion. And so that is why I think for abortion rights advocates, it is really important to enshrine those abortion rights into the state constitution and make sure

that this continues to be a stronghold where people can go to get the procedure. Do you think that Prop 1 in Idaho can win? That is a great question. I would say in recent years, I've really tried to avoid making predictions when it comes to elections. Good idea. Yeah, I mean, post-Trump, who can say what will happen. But one of the things that's interesting about Idaho, I would say, is that it is one of the few states where it looks like a majority of people are not actually super supportive of abortion rights. The sort of breakdown of how abortion rights support shakes out changes when you look from state to state.

And so that, I think, is really key. That said, I think that there are sort of two forces that may be clashing with this ballot measure that will, determine who's going to win. One is that Idaho has really become a stronghold of Christian nationalism over the last few years. And so we may see those folks come out. On the other hand, you know, Idaho is part of the mountain west. And there is a really strong tradition of like libertarian, get the government out of my bedroom, get the government out of my uterus sentiment in that state. And so we may see that kind of fervor propel the abortion rights advocates in Idaho to victory. So if Missouri does re-ban abortion access, what do you think is going to be the first fight for reproductive rights advocates?

Are they going to fight over enforcement of the ban, exceptions, or there would be a 2027 sunset of the ban? I'm like, I can't believe we're just, I'm like, it will never end. I know, it's constant. I mean, I think the thing that abortion rights advocates in my experience are really concerned with is like, how can we help people on the ground right now? What can we do in order to get people abortions when they need them? And so we are seeing a growing movement for people to send abortion pills across state lines into states that even ban abortion rights. And so I would imagine that abortion rights providers in Missouri are going to be working on trying to strengthen and protect that avenue of abortion access. The thing I've also noticed about abortion rights advocates in Missouri is like they do not give up.

They do really, really try to find every possible nook and cranny where they can try to find a way to, provide abortion access to keep clinics open, to send folks out of state. That is something I am sure we will continue to see regardless of what happens on Election Day. So we have a couple of contrasting ballot issues with regard to abortion. Which result do you think is going to be copied by other states? If, say, the Virginia issue or say the Idaho issue were to pass, do you think there are other states that are, you know, might be purple or even reddish that might try to, you know, look to either widen abortion access or make abortion available? Or do you think that there are states like Missouri where they could attempt to curtail already available abortion access?

Well, you know, what I said about and what I said about abortion rights. Yeah, well, no, I mean, what I was going to say is what I said about abortion rights advocates never giving up. Like, that is also true of anti-abortion activists. Right. And so I would not be surprised to see more ballot measures from people trying to restrict abortion in states that currently allow it or that have recently moved to broaden access to it. So I am thinking about a state like Kansas, right? Like Kansas was the first state to pass a ballot measure that protected abortion rights.

And it really surprised people. It surprised me. This is another one of the reasons I don't give predictions. It's because I went on live television and said the race in Kansas was going to be close. It was not close. I was so wrong. People voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights. But I could see if lawmakers in Kansas look at what happens in their neighbor of Missouri and say, actually, they were able to do it. Maybe they might attempt it to. And this is sort of what I'm going back to with this question of democracy and how we see that reflected in the abortion issue. You know, are we going to see a small segment of legislators who are opposed to abortion, a small segment of activists who are opposed to abortion. finding ways to kind of subvert the democratic process and make something that is popular abortion rights inaccessible to most people. I think something that I'm thinking about. I know it's a comparatively a small number of people, but in Missouri, you are seeing the so-called abortion abolitionists,

the people who believe that abortion should be basically illegal at all times for everyone all the time, no matter what. Yeah, even further than that. And that the women who have abortions should be tried as murderers, and you've seen that be an attempted push in Texas and a couple of other states. In Missouri, some of those abolitionists want the amendment defeated because it has exceptions. What role on the anti-abortion side do you think that the abortion abolition movement is having? I think that they are pulling the movement further to the right. I mean, this is not to defend that position, but it is to say that I think the abortion abolitionists who treat women who get abortions as murderers, like there is something to that are.

that is ideologically consistent, which is to say the mainstream pro-life movement, which is separate from the abortion abolitionist movement, they say that, you know, women were sort of bamboozled into getting abortions. Yes. That they were tricked by these evil abortion providers. And anti-abortion abolitionists say, like, why are we doing that? Like, why are we making that sort of caveat for them? We should be trying them as the murder as they are.

And I think one of the things that has consistently happened in the anti-abortion movement over the last 10 years, over the time that I've spent, setting it is that it does it is moving to the right it is accepting more and more of extremist fringes and it's not just in missouri that we're seeing abortion abolitionists come up there are abortion abolitionists who have been elected to the oklahoma state legislator you know these are people who are gaining legitimacy within mainstream pro-life circles and so it's very possible that in the next few years we might see a state actually make a serious attempt to pass an abortion abolitionist bill we have seen more and more states introduce them which is to say introduce bills

that would charge women with murder for getting abortions. We haven't seen states really past them. But the very fact that they're happening more and more, I think, creates this possibility for them. It makes people feel normalized in a way that I think is really disturbing to other people outside the movement. Yeah, it moves the window of what is an option here, especially because you're seeing so many of those people online. Carter, thank you so much for joining me. This was super helpful. Thank you for having me.

That was my conversation with Carter Sherman. co-host of the Guardian podcast, Stateside with Kai and Carter. Carter and her co-host will also be at CrookedCon this November. So head to CrookedCon.com to get your tickets. Before we go, Longplay, Crooked's miniseries about what it'll take for us to win in the South is back on the air. As trust erodes within Trump's coalition and Senate races are becoming more competitive, the stakes are higher than ever. Jennifer Palmieri from Showtime's The Circus and award-winning journalist Aaron Haynes

have spent months traveling across the American South to figure out what it will take to finally turn it blue. You'll definitely want to check it out before the midterms. Subscribe to Longplay wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, feel the vital energy of House Speaker Mike Johnson and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading, and not just about how the House Speaker said he was feeling, quote, huge energy from Republican crowds right now, though the crowds look a lot like this in Texas yesterday. Thank you so much for having us.

Man, this is the most important election of our lifetime. No kidding. I know you hear that all the time, but it really, really matters right now for all the reasons you just heard. Like me, Whataday is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston. And feel the excitement, Republicans.

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