By the time Ron DeSantis used the phrase “abortion tourism” in a televised interview [September 16] it had already become a favorite little slogan among antiabortion conservatives.
In an interview hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, the Florida governor and presidential candidate was asked a question related to a military policy of funding abortions for active-duty service members who might have to cross state lines to access abortions. “They are breaking, violating the law by funding abortion tourism,” DeSantis replied.
Are pregnant people who live in abortion-restrictive places traveling across state lines to access abortion? Yeah, almost definitely. The Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion data, this year has seen “major increases” in abortions in states that border other states where the procedure is banned — an 89 percent increase in Colorado, for example, and a 69 percent increase in Illinois.
Are pregnant people crossing state lines to take in a Broadway show, finally eat at Momofuku and grab a relaxing abortion before ice skating at Rockefeller Center? Please.
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We’re deep in a battle of terminology. Not only in the obvious way of “fetus” vs. “unborn child” or “intact dilation and extraction” vs. “partial birth,” but in the more innocuous-sounding terminology that needs to be unpacked to fully grasp how insidious it actually is.
