I live in South Carolina and this is what Nikki Haley had to say as governor, when the subject of abortion came up: "Women are too busy with their families to worry about all that." She was a typical Republican governor : refused to expand Medicaid ( SC still has not done that), wanted to make state parks to "pay for themselves", and declined to spend $25,000.00 for software that would have prevented the hack of the SC Dept of Revenue to the tune of almost 3 milllion dollars...I could go on but you get the drift. She also did the typical Republican thing of turning to religion to manipulate the sheeple whenever the need arose. She can't articulate how she would put "compassion" into action when asked about her stance on abortion, mostly because she is just bs-ing everyone, she wants abortion illegal and forced birth to be the order of the day.
I’ve been wondering if Kate Cox can sue Ken Paxton for practicing medicine without a license...
I wish the AMA would bring a class action lawsuit along these lines. I’m so tired of not seeing the pushback to these barbarians. Why shouldn’t they live in fear for their livelihoods and actual lives? Why only women?
And I heard Senator Tammy Baldwin saying she’s trying to codify Roe. Sorry, Tammy, that’s way too little anymore. No one should have to beg for their life at ANY point in their pregnancy.
And Catholic hospitals should be shut down if they continue to refuse life-saving care for women. They got away with it under Roe and still do. The same situations we’re hearing and are mortified about (like Kate Cox’s), are standard operating procedure at Catholic hospitals. Barbaric.
If the Comstock Act is revived and applied to abortion meds and birth control, VIAGRA SHOULD ALSO APPLY TO THAT STANDARD. If we go after THEIR BODIES, will they let up on the attack of ours?! What’s fair is fair.😉
This. Although even that wouldn't go far enough. It would have to be state ownership of our testes at all times to be even close to a comparison. Emission of seminal fluid only allowed by permission of the state in what it deems appropriate circumstances. Any accidental emissions must be reported and the 'human remains' must be disposed of properly.
There is a tech millionaire who has a device that measures his nocturnal erectile tumescent status 🤔. Based on the above, should we buy stock in that company 🤔
One point that we need to be clear on, and you likely know more on this: Would Texas have allowed Cox to have a c-section or induce labor to end her pregnancy? You mentioned that this is one of the talking points of the forced-birthers, and yet - from everything I've heard and read - the state considers any act to end the pregnancy pre-term as an abortion and it's prohibited.
I'd like clarity on this issue because I know pro-life people who believe their c-section or labor induction to end a doomed pregnancy was NOT an abortion. My point to them is that is one, and it would have been and is continuing to be prohibited in Texas, Tennessee, and other abortion ban states.
All terminations, or evacuation of a uterus containing "products of conception," is an abortion. The proper name for a miscarriage is "Spontaneous Abortion". The act of evacuation, whether by mechanical,(i.e. Surgical intervention by D & C, or suction D&C) or pharmaceutical, or natural means, is an abortion. The reason for it, does not change the action.
Signed: a retired Surgical Assistant, who actually had to go to school to learn these things.
I believe that Texas still wouldn't give a shit. There is a 'heartbeat ', so no. The baby might be born alive. So what if it's basically pre dead( if they can say pre born, then we can say pre dead. ) If they actually allowed it, it would probably be because of their weird fondness for intact dead bodies. Freaking ghoulish.
Check out this map which shows the state with Abortion Rights ballot measures. It also includes the number of women in each congressional district. The number of women aged 18-45 who would be hurt the most by Republican abortion bans. The congressional rep, Senator, Governor and Attorney General for that district.... and how to register to vote.
Have you heard about Allie Phillips and her Miley’s law? She’s running for TN state legislature. She was on MSNBC tonight. 18 women who had fetal anomalies in TN were interviewed by Diane Sawyer & the interview is on Hulu Thurs. night. Allie is a shero! Her story is heartbreaking though.
I am a retired health care provider who worked in reproductive care including abortion care. I always knew that very rare third trimester abortions were necessary and usually tragic urgent or emergent medical necessities. I used to think that laws with some restrictions after viability was a reasonable “compromise”. Boy, was I wrong. There is NO law written by Legislators that can ever encompass the myriad of complications; medical ,psychological and/or social that inform the decisions. ONLY the woman, in concert with health care provider should be making these decisions. No compromises!
"... just a year after Roe v. Wade was reversed, Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, has introduced a bill, HB454, doing just that, eliminating a section in the homicide code preventing prosecutors from charging women for homicide for having an abortion."
Don't forget Alabama trying to charge women with homicide for accessing abortion care.
Yesterday, I commented on what happened to my mom in January 1951, when my oldest brother was born prematurely. After I'd written that comment, I had a quick-onset migraine and vomited on and off for 12 hours. Because, here's the deal: I didn't tell the whole story. Believe me, that whole story requires a Massive Trigger Warning. I didn't find out any details til I was in my mid-40s. My mom had little to no memory of the episode, but I heard the details from my dad. Mom was sedated throughout labor (common in those days) and also because the docs and nurses realized that the baby would be born dead and (dad told me) they "wanted to spare her." Dads were rarely, if ever, in the delivery room in those days, and my mom was unconscious, so dad bore the rest of the horror alone. He turned for help to the ministry office at the hospital (a catholic hospital in San Francisco) and the guy at the ministry office offered dad two things: (1) the name of the cemetery south of San Francisco where dead infants and children were buried, and (2) baby clothes. For the dead baby. Dad went alone to bury his first child, wrapped in those baby clothes, because mom was still unconscious. I found out almost 50 years later that dad still had nightmares about those baby clothes. That's what brought on the migraine and vomiting yesterday. Bottom line: forced birth hurts dads and partners as well, and that trauma continues down to other generations. Other bottom line: the cruelty is the point of this horror. Just look at the comment by the forced birther in today's post: they want women to carry doomed pregnancies to term so that everybody will have to see "intact human remains." Yeah, those docs at the hospital who wanted to spare my mom were more compassionate than the ministry guy who gave dad baby clothes and the address of the cemetery.
Wow. What a gut wrenching story. Can't imagine what birth must have been like before modern technology to diagnose these conditions. We really take it for granted. Talk about intergenerational trauma. I hope you feel better.
That cemetery still exists, BTW. I found that out in the mid-90s, when I was trying one January to ease my mom's yearly depression. (She mourned for that lost baby til she died in 2009, at the age of 93.) I called first the hospital, then the cemetery, and they were able to send me a copy of the burial record for my brother. The card gave his name, was signed by my dad, and described the cause of death as "inviable fetus." The area where dead babies and children were buried is still there. The area has a statue of Rachel Weeping for her Children--a compassionate image, or so one would think. Until you find out that that exact image is used as an anti-abortion icon by today's forced birthers. And, no, that didn't alleviate mom's depressive episodes. Maybe it just helped me understand her and dad a bit better. And, no, that horrible tale does not move me to cut those forced birthers any slack. At all.
She had nine other pregnancies, seven living children, including two with severe disabilities (my older brother and me.) Until I winkled the story out of dad in the mid-90s, all I knew was that I'd had an oldest brother who had died. It didn't occur to me til I heard the story from dad that both he and mom probably had long-standing PTSD (dad from the war, mom from that dead baby.) Dad finally got therapy and medication and a diagnosis. Mom refused.
Thank you. I'm a bit (OK, a *lot*) of a history nerd and I keep saying we need to tell those stories from the past *and learn from them*. Those lessons can be valuable. If we don't--learn, that is--the horrors those people endured are wasted, and we will have to keep reinventing the wheel til we do learn.
About the Marist poll - it's crucial to remember and remind others that greater than 98% of abortions occur within the first trimester. All this noise and hand wringing by those who want to restrict access to reproductive health care are about the slightly >1% of abortions occurring after the first 12 weeks. They paint women as callous, indifferent and selfish ("going about her day" in the case of Brittany Watts) because they seek termination in what is nearly always some sort of tragedy. It's a deeply, deeply misogynist view of women and birthing people.
People don't go through morning sickness, physical body changes, life changes, health care expenses, and then say "whoopsies, my bad!" and have a "post birth" abortion. Leave people alone to sort out their best way forward. Not your pregnancy? Not your business.
Not to mention the psychological trauma. Do they really think that isn't an important thing? Apparently. After all, they think abortion tourism is something that happens.
Isn't the pharmacies giving patients information a HIPPA violation?
I live in South Carolina and this is what Nikki Haley had to say as governor, when the subject of abortion came up: "Women are too busy with their families to worry about all that." She was a typical Republican governor : refused to expand Medicaid ( SC still has not done that), wanted to make state parks to "pay for themselves", and declined to spend $25,000.00 for software that would have prevented the hack of the SC Dept of Revenue to the tune of almost 3 milllion dollars...I could go on but you get the drift. She also did the typical Republican thing of turning to religion to manipulate the sheeple whenever the need arose. She can't articulate how she would put "compassion" into action when asked about her stance on abortion, mostly because she is just bs-ing everyone, she wants abortion illegal and forced birth to be the order of the day.
I’ve been wondering if Kate Cox can sue Ken Paxton for practicing medicine without a license...
I wish the AMA would bring a class action lawsuit along these lines. I’m so tired of not seeing the pushback to these barbarians. Why shouldn’t they live in fear for their livelihoods and actual lives? Why only women?
And I heard Senator Tammy Baldwin saying she’s trying to codify Roe. Sorry, Tammy, that’s way too little anymore. No one should have to beg for their life at ANY point in their pregnancy.
And Catholic hospitals should be shut down if they continue to refuse life-saving care for women. They got away with it under Roe and still do. The same situations we’re hearing and are mortified about (like Kate Cox’s), are standard operating procedure at Catholic hospitals. Barbaric.
If the Comstock Act is revived and applied to abortion meds and birth control, VIAGRA SHOULD ALSO APPLY TO THAT STANDARD. If we go after THEIR BODIES, will they let up on the attack of ours?! What’s fair is fair.😉
I think it would be more equitable to deny men prostate cancer treatment, or testicular cancer treatment. Maybe that would resonate...
This. Although even that wouldn't go far enough. It would have to be state ownership of our testes at all times to be even close to a comparison. Emission of seminal fluid only allowed by permission of the state in what it deems appropriate circumstances. Any accidental emissions must be reported and the 'human remains' must be disposed of properly.
And forgot to say all 'accidental' emissions would be subject to state investigation, to see whether the 'father' did anything to cause them.
You’re right! I went straight to the death sentence ignoring everything up to that.
There is a tech millionaire who has a device that measures his nocturnal erectile tumescent status 🤔. Based on the above, should we buy stock in that company 🤔
Very good column - as always.
One point that we need to be clear on, and you likely know more on this: Would Texas have allowed Cox to have a c-section or induce labor to end her pregnancy? You mentioned that this is one of the talking points of the forced-birthers, and yet - from everything I've heard and read - the state considers any act to end the pregnancy pre-term as an abortion and it's prohibited.
I'd like clarity on this issue because I know pro-life people who believe their c-section or labor induction to end a doomed pregnancy was NOT an abortion. My point to them is that is one, and it would have been and is continuing to be prohibited in Texas, Tennessee, and other abortion ban states.
Thank you!
All terminations, or evacuation of a uterus containing "products of conception," is an abortion. The proper name for a miscarriage is "Spontaneous Abortion". The act of evacuation, whether by mechanical,(i.e. Surgical intervention by D & C, or suction D&C) or pharmaceutical, or natural means, is an abortion. The reason for it, does not change the action.
Signed: a retired Surgical Assistant, who actually had to go to school to learn these things.
I believe that Texas still wouldn't give a shit. There is a 'heartbeat ', so no. The baby might be born alive. So what if it's basically pre dead( if they can say pre born, then we can say pre dead. ) If they actually allowed it, it would probably be because of their weird fondness for intact dead bodies. Freaking ghoulish.
I genuinely love reading your posts because I then hear updates on my favorite pods that I know use your information!! ❤️❤️
Check out this map which shows the state with Abortion Rights ballot measures. It also includes the number of women in each congressional district. The number of women aged 18-45 who would be hurt the most by Republican abortion bans. The congressional rep, Senator, Governor and Attorney General for that district.... and how to register to vote.
https://thedemlabs.org/2023/12/13/abortion-rights-ballot-measures-as-republican-try-to-ban-all-abortions/
Have you heard about Allie Phillips and her Miley’s law? She’s running for TN state legislature. She was on MSNBC tonight. 18 women who had fetal anomalies in TN were interviewed by Diane Sawyer & the interview is on Hulu Thurs. night. Allie is a shero! Her story is heartbreaking though.
ABC NEWS Studios
IMPACT x Nightline: On the Brink
On Hulu - 49 minutes
*Correction- not all the women are from TN.
She's the kind of politicians we need.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jessica/p/breaking-scotus-will-hear-mifepristone
I was today years old when I found out that HIPAA didn’t apply to pharmacy records. That’s a huge flaw in the law.
Yes, it is.
I am a retired health care provider who worked in reproductive care including abortion care. I always knew that very rare third trimester abortions were necessary and usually tragic urgent or emergent medical necessities. I used to think that laws with some restrictions after viability was a reasonable “compromise”. Boy, was I wrong. There is NO law written by Legislators that can ever encompass the myriad of complications; medical ,psychological and/or social that inform the decisions. ONLY the woman, in concert with health care provider should be making these decisions. No compromises!
Your newsletter is phenomenal!
Better still, the health care provider provides advice and the woman makes the decision!
🎯
She should always be given all the pertinent information by the provider and call the shots. It's her body. It's her life. It's her decision.
"... just a year after Roe v. Wade was reversed, Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, has introduced a bill, HB454, doing just that, eliminating a section in the homicide code preventing prosecutors from charging women for homicide for having an abortion."
Don't forget Alabama trying to charge women with homicide for accessing abortion care.
Yesterday, I commented on what happened to my mom in January 1951, when my oldest brother was born prematurely. After I'd written that comment, I had a quick-onset migraine and vomited on and off for 12 hours. Because, here's the deal: I didn't tell the whole story. Believe me, that whole story requires a Massive Trigger Warning. I didn't find out any details til I was in my mid-40s. My mom had little to no memory of the episode, but I heard the details from my dad. Mom was sedated throughout labor (common in those days) and also because the docs and nurses realized that the baby would be born dead and (dad told me) they "wanted to spare her." Dads were rarely, if ever, in the delivery room in those days, and my mom was unconscious, so dad bore the rest of the horror alone. He turned for help to the ministry office at the hospital (a catholic hospital in San Francisco) and the guy at the ministry office offered dad two things: (1) the name of the cemetery south of San Francisco where dead infants and children were buried, and (2) baby clothes. For the dead baby. Dad went alone to bury his first child, wrapped in those baby clothes, because mom was still unconscious. I found out almost 50 years later that dad still had nightmares about those baby clothes. That's what brought on the migraine and vomiting yesterday. Bottom line: forced birth hurts dads and partners as well, and that trauma continues down to other generations. Other bottom line: the cruelty is the point of this horror. Just look at the comment by the forced birther in today's post: they want women to carry doomed pregnancies to term so that everybody will have to see "intact human remains." Yeah, those docs at the hospital who wanted to spare my mom were more compassionate than the ministry guy who gave dad baby clothes and the address of the cemetery.
Wow. What a gut wrenching story. Can't imagine what birth must have been like before modern technology to diagnose these conditions. We really take it for granted. Talk about intergenerational trauma. I hope you feel better.
That cemetery still exists, BTW. I found that out in the mid-90s, when I was trying one January to ease my mom's yearly depression. (She mourned for that lost baby til she died in 2009, at the age of 93.) I called first the hospital, then the cemetery, and they were able to send me a copy of the burial record for my brother. The card gave his name, was signed by my dad, and described the cause of death as "inviable fetus." The area where dead babies and children were buried is still there. The area has a statue of Rachel Weeping for her Children--a compassionate image, or so one would think. Until you find out that that exact image is used as an anti-abortion icon by today's forced birthers. And, no, that didn't alleviate mom's depressive episodes. Maybe it just helped me understand her and dad a bit better. And, no, that horrible tale does not move me to cut those forced birthers any slack. At all.
It sounds like she lived a long life with a loving daughter regardless. That's quite a long time to grieve though.
She had nine other pregnancies, seven living children, including two with severe disabilities (my older brother and me.) Until I winkled the story out of dad in the mid-90s, all I knew was that I'd had an oldest brother who had died. It didn't occur to me til I heard the story from dad that both he and mom probably had long-standing PTSD (dad from the war, mom from that dead baby.) Dad finally got therapy and medication and a diagnosis. Mom refused.
Very sad. I really wish I could think of something to say other than sorry and be well.
Thank you. I'm a bit (OK, a *lot*) of a history nerd and I keep saying we need to tell those stories from the past *and learn from them*. Those lessons can be valuable. If we don't--learn, that is--the horrors those people endured are wasted, and we will have to keep reinventing the wheel til we do learn.
About the Marist poll - it's crucial to remember and remind others that greater than 98% of abortions occur within the first trimester. All this noise and hand wringing by those who want to restrict access to reproductive health care are about the slightly >1% of abortions occurring after the first 12 weeks. They paint women as callous, indifferent and selfish ("going about her day" in the case of Brittany Watts) because they seek termination in what is nearly always some sort of tragedy. It's a deeply, deeply misogynist view of women and birthing people.
People don't go through morning sickness, physical body changes, life changes, health care expenses, and then say "whoopsies, my bad!" and have a "post birth" abortion. Leave people alone to sort out their best way forward. Not your pregnancy? Not your business.
Not to mention the psychological trauma. Do they really think that isn't an important thing? Apparently. After all, they think abortion tourism is something that happens.