Do Republicans running for office NOT know that women in this country typically get an ultrasound at 20 weeks and at that point, problems can be detected that might make the pregnant person want an abortion? Also, what data are they using to show a 15-week "consensus?" The "poll" should first ask people if they know anything significant about 20 weeks versus 15 weeks. If they don't understand that 20 weeks is the normal timeframe for a full anatomy scan/ultrasound, then they shouldn't get to answer anything else. Geez!
Reaching out today to attorneys regarding legal action against Jonathan Mitchell, Mark Lee Dickson, and the one city and two counties wanting to restrict our religious freedom to assist those seeking abortions out of state. Fingers crossed.
I had some additional thoughts about the words "we" use surrounding abortion care. The word I have been stuck on is "heartbeat." Technically the heart (a four chamber heart that pumps blood) is not formed until 17-20 weeks of gestation. Calling detectable electrical activity at 6 weeks a heartbeat and making laws surrounding that electrical activity is anatomically incorrect. Medical professionals need to stop calling the electrical activity detected in early gestation a heartbeat. This may be tit for tat and I don't want any criteria written into laws surrounding abortion care (I want Roe back!) but it's still incorrect science. Not that "they" care about or believe in science but if "they" want a heartbeat bill, it should technically start at 20 weeks. I guess my soapbox is "we" need to stop calling electrical activity a heartbeat.
The mention of TX airports is no accident. While they can’t harass women boarding commercial flights (because security is a federal function), they CAN set up stops on state roads leading to airports. Or randomly pull over cars containing women. It sounds hyperbolic, but their goal is to stop women from traveling for abortion even if it means stopping women from all travel, period. They will whittle down female freedom of movement as they worked for 50 years to restrict abortion.
I have a dystopian premonition that authorities in these situations will eventually use dogs to identify pregnant women at airports and traffic stops. It might be the fastest and most reliable way.
Well done, Jessica, I happen to be a subscriber to the NYT and was totally elated to see your article on the front page. Glad your hard work and message is being spread beyond Substack and Thom Hartmann. Lots of comments on that article.
Jessica, you are so articulate and write so well, covering abortion in all 50 states and present such amazing evidence and arguments. I often try to imagine your research--digging into every single state news every single day, and then writing about it all, must be exhausting.
Jessica Craven too, although she covers more variety of issues that are not so emotionally toxic and distressful, though the research she does is thorough.
So happy you were published in the Times, hopefully also Washington Post and The Atlantic and other major news outlets. Maybe you can be on the Sunday TV news circuit? So glad Thom Hartmann recommended you the day I happened to be listening to his podcast.
Speaking of Thom Hartmann, one of his staff has lung cancer that has spread to her bones. They have a GoFundMe for her. She is not Medicare age and may lose her housing in Portland. This is such an outrage and so tragic.
I'm from Portland and met Thom years ago at a Democracy For America event (post Howard Dean). He works very hard too.
I am thrilled you were allowed to tell them the truth of the matter. There is so much medical misinformation in the MSM. As someone who had years of schooling to learn the accurate medical facts, (Surgical assistant) this incenses me. Keep speaking truth!
I dropped my subscription over repeated ableist coverage of pain issues rife with errors that they refused to correct. Made it clear before and after why I did so.
See how well these crisis pregnancy centers are doing teaching sex education considering Texas has the highest rate in the country of teens giving birth multiple times.
Texas tops the nation in teens who give birth multiple times
More than 1 in 6 teenagers who gave birth in Texas in 2020 already had a child. Texas does not require sex education and has the strictest abortion law in the nation.
'I have to imagine that the impact on small communities is going to drive a lot of votes' - I'll believe it when I see it. These people have trained to blame Democrats or 'elites' or liberals or the "woke" - whatever they're calling us - as the source of all of their problems, so I don't know why this would be any different. You won't get rational analysis of a problem from voters. Republicans count on that.
First, the NYT op-ed was great; I've been sharing it.
Second: Are you sure the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the mifepristone case? I've been keeping an eye out, and I did not see it mentioned in the order list from last Friday (where they granted a bunch of cases) nor this morning. The NPR piece that you link to has Nina Totenberg saying that the FDA appealed the decision from the 5th Circuit, and that the Supreme Court blocked the lower court's decision from going into effect "while it considers the question." I don't think she said that they are hearing the case. The second link is similarly couched: it says "The abortion case likely to be heard by the justices also would be the court’s first word on the topic since it reversed Roe v. Wade’s right to abortion. The new case stems from a ruling, also by the 5th Circuit, to limit the availability of mifepristone, a medication used in the most common method of abortion in the United States.
The administration already won an order from the high court blocking the appellate ruling while the case continues. The justices could decide later in the fall to take up the mifepristone case this term."
In fact, I just did a docket search, and it looks like in the FDA appeal, the folks suing have until November 9 to file their response, so we are unlikely to hear anything about the case until then.
Do Republicans running for office NOT know that women in this country typically get an ultrasound at 20 weeks and at that point, problems can be detected that might make the pregnant person want an abortion? Also, what data are they using to show a 15-week "consensus?" The "poll" should first ask people if they know anything significant about 20 weeks versus 15 weeks. If they don't understand that 20 weeks is the normal timeframe for a full anatomy scan/ultrasound, then they shouldn't get to answer anything else. Geez!
They don’t care. They want women to have babies. Period.
Reaching out today to attorneys regarding legal action against Jonathan Mitchell, Mark Lee Dickson, and the one city and two counties wanting to restrict our religious freedom to assist those seeking abortions out of state. Fingers crossed.
Congratulations on your amazing article!
I had some additional thoughts about the words "we" use surrounding abortion care. The word I have been stuck on is "heartbeat." Technically the heart (a four chamber heart that pumps blood) is not formed until 17-20 weeks of gestation. Calling detectable electrical activity at 6 weeks a heartbeat and making laws surrounding that electrical activity is anatomically incorrect. Medical professionals need to stop calling the electrical activity detected in early gestation a heartbeat. This may be tit for tat and I don't want any criteria written into laws surrounding abortion care (I want Roe back!) but it's still incorrect science. Not that "they" care about or believe in science but if "they" want a heartbeat bill, it should technically start at 20 weeks. I guess my soapbox is "we" need to stop calling electrical activity a heartbeat.
Oh absolutely. This is what South Carolina docs are suing over with the state's abortion ban: the false definition of heartbeat
How did the 'heartbeat ' nonsense get started in the first place??? Did somebody just pull it out of their ass?
Yes, they are medically ignorant.
The mention of TX airports is no accident. While they can’t harass women boarding commercial flights (because security is a federal function), they CAN set up stops on state roads leading to airports. Or randomly pull over cars containing women. It sounds hyperbolic, but their goal is to stop women from traveling for abortion even if it means stopping women from all travel, period. They will whittle down female freedom of movement as they worked for 50 years to restrict abortion.
I have a dystopian premonition that authorities in these situations will eventually use dogs to identify pregnant women at airports and traffic stops. It might be the fastest and most reliable way.
That is disturbing.
Well done, Jessica, I happen to be a subscriber to the NYT and was totally elated to see your article on the front page. Glad your hard work and message is being spread beyond Substack and Thom Hartmann. Lots of comments on that article.
Thank you, Diana!! I was really thrilled with the response
Jessica, you are so articulate and write so well, covering abortion in all 50 states and present such amazing evidence and arguments. I often try to imagine your research--digging into every single state news every single day, and then writing about it all, must be exhausting.
Jessica Craven too, although she covers more variety of issues that are not so emotionally toxic and distressful, though the research she does is thorough.
So happy you were published in the Times, hopefully also Washington Post and The Atlantic and other major news outlets. Maybe you can be on the Sunday TV news circuit? So glad Thom Hartmann recommended you the day I happened to be listening to his podcast.
Speaking of Thom Hartmann, one of his staff has lung cancer that has spread to her bones. They have a GoFundMe for her. She is not Medicare age and may lose her housing in Portland. This is such an outrage and so tragic.
I'm from Portland and met Thom years ago at a Democracy For America event (post Howard Dean). He works very hard too.
I am thrilled you were allowed to tell them the truth of the matter. There is so much medical misinformation in the MSM. As someone who had years of schooling to learn the accurate medical facts, (Surgical assistant) this incenses me. Keep speaking truth!
I must admit to a totally undeserved feeling of pride, Jessica, seeing your Op-Ed in the Times today. Brava for all you do, for all of us!❣️
Ahh that makes me so happy!! ❤️
I can’t see the oped bc paywall (and I refuse to pay them) but I bet it’s great!
You might want to try again. I tried all 4 links and didn't hit any paywalls. You could a alternately probably Google it. It's a good read.
Nope. Paywalls all around, including when I tried to google it. I'm also not paying them to read it.
Me too.
I was going to try a cheat, but now, I'm shut out too. 😭
I dropped my subscription over repeated ableist coverage of pain issues rife with errors that they refused to correct. Made it clear before and after why I did so.
As I know others have been saying, GREAT JOB on the editorial in the NYT today. I couldn't wait to share it on social media!
Thank you!!!
See how well these crisis pregnancy centers are doing teaching sex education considering Texas has the highest rate in the country of teens giving birth multiple times.
Texas tops the nation in teens who give birth multiple times
More than 1 in 6 teenagers who gave birth in Texas in 2020 already had a child. Texas does not require sex education and has the strictest abortion law in the nation.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/21/texas-teenage-pregnancy-abortion/
It's an unbelievable nightmare
There's a mistake. I think it should read 'Texas does not offer sex education and has the strictest abortion law in the nation.'
'I have to imagine that the impact on small communities is going to drive a lot of votes' - I'll believe it when I see it. These people have trained to blame Democrats or 'elites' or liberals or the "woke" - whatever they're calling us - as the source of all of their problems, so I don't know why this would be any different. You won't get rational analysis of a problem from voters. Republicans count on that.
How on earth can you do all that you do Jessica??? AED, news collums, speaking, interviews, research, husband and kid'. Yeesh!
I don't sleep lol
GREAT NY Times op-ed - so glad more folks will be educated - thank you!!
First, the NYT op-ed was great; I've been sharing it.
Second: Are you sure the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the mifepristone case? I've been keeping an eye out, and I did not see it mentioned in the order list from last Friday (where they granted a bunch of cases) nor this morning. The NPR piece that you link to has Nina Totenberg saying that the FDA appealed the decision from the 5th Circuit, and that the Supreme Court blocked the lower court's decision from going into effect "while it considers the question." I don't think she said that they are hearing the case. The second link is similarly couched: it says "The abortion case likely to be heard by the justices also would be the court’s first word on the topic since it reversed Roe v. Wade’s right to abortion. The new case stems from a ruling, also by the 5th Circuit, to limit the availability of mifepristone, a medication used in the most common method of abortion in the United States.
The administration already won an order from the high court blocking the appellate ruling while the case continues. The justices could decide later in the fall to take up the mifepristone case this term."
In fact, I just did a docket search, and it looks like in the FDA appeal, the folks suing have until November 9 to file their response, so we are unlikely to hear anything about the case until then.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-235.html
And the same seems to be true for the appeal by Danco Laboratories.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23-236.html
So I am pretty sure that they have not agreed to hear the case yet.
Yes, thank you! I'm including a correction today, I misread the piece
P.S. You identify Nancy Mace as "South Carolina Sen"; she's a member of the House, not the Senate...
Whew, this is what happens when I do too much thank you!
You do so much amazing work, the occasional minor slip is quite understandable. Thank you for everything you do, despite it being "too much"...
Jessica, I loved your NYTimes op-ed today and shared the hell out of it.
As always, thank you for all you do!
Thank you!!
Thank you, Waverly!!! And I appreciate the support in comments :)