"Better yet, go directly to their website. If you want a big picture view of part of the cabal check out ADF, Lozier Institute, TPUSA, Moms for Liberty. Just for a start. There are others. They are all connect under the big T umbrella. "
Alison is right, and what connects these entities is, of course, funding.
I've been a public schools advocate for more than 20 years. A quarter of a century ago, we began to see the undermining and hollowing out of public school systems by so-called education reformers. A major one was Bill Gates, who created an entire ecosystem pushing charter schools, de-professionalization of teaching, pushing public taxpayer monies into private hands. The Waltons of Walmart got into the game, as did the founder of Home Depot, Bernard Marcus; Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix; and Eli Broad, CEO of SunAmerica, an enormous insurance company.
With their money, these billionaires spawned multiple organizations - all of which paid their employees quite remunerative salaries to do "research" which created and controlled the discourse about the nation's K-12 schools - many of which they designated "failures." (An aside, 90% of Americans are educated in public schools, and we have the world's largest and most robust economy, so not failing.)
With actors on the right, remember that every accusation is a confession. When they use the phrase "abortion industry," what they're telling us is they have lawyers, researchers, economists, influencers and allied right-wing orgs whose salary is paid for spinning up a narrative.
It's time to track down who is making good money to deprive women of their bodily autonomy. For example, Josh Hawley's wife, Erin, who is Senior Counselor for Alliance Defending Freedom. No doubt she's bringing home a larger salary that the judges who sit on SCOTUS. Her (chickenshit) husband advances the very cause that brings money into their household in his position as a US Senator.
I'll bet that the "maternity homes" and fake pregnancy counseling centers have plenty of folks on their payrolls whose funding ultimately comes from the Heritage Foundation, the Kochs, or Leonard Leo at the Federalist Society. Their websites are created by individuals or teams, their lobbyists are funded through them, the multitude of orgs are staffed by folks who get paid for their work. The members of Congress who oppose women's autonomy count on contributions from these funders.
We're still in a struggle to hold on to public schools, but exposing who gets paid how much and by whom to eviscerate the rights of the 51% might be another tool we can use.
I listened to the interview. A nurse is part of a cultural setting. This is on physicians and “risk management” (attorneys for hospital). It’s also a standard move to put patients in a no win situation re any diagnosis and then use leaving AMA against them as a weapon. Due to tort reform, Brittany can’t sue them because she’s not dead, or wait, perhaps she can sue them for being defamed?? And sue for her f-ing bathroom, and trauma, being lied to by people who are supposed to be leaders caring for you. You don’t write things in a chart that could be used against a patient in court to cover your butt because you have more to lose than they do, you come out and force your specialty organization to come out and make f-ing statements about how abortions save lives and no one is qualified to make the decision but healthcare providers and no one needs prison looming over them when they’re doing it. Unless your bottom line is not that. Pardon my anger. I’ve risked so much and was privileged to do it. I’m judging, I’m sorry.
Mixing medical care with religious doctrine is dangerous, and considering that in many areas Catholic Hospitals are the only game in town makes it even more worrisome.
Ludicrous and insanely cruel. Let's hold republican politicians accountable and vote against them in EVERY election until they KNOW that we will not put up with their goddamn bans.
Check this StoryMap for the Catholic hospitals where you live. How many births do they manage? How much do Catholic hospitals get in tax payer dollars every year? (Answer: $48 billion) Who are the Republican Senators and Congressmen for the areas with these hospitals? Should women we forced to pay taxes to fund Catholic Hospitals that deny them critical care?
Well, it's nearly Groundhog Day and here's my fantasy for Senator Mike Lee:
He wakes up to nausea, feeling achy and bloated. As the morning goes on, his abdomen begins to grow, his back aches, his feet swell. Someone touches his belly without his permission and asks when the baby is due. He panics, wants an abortion, but he's past 6 weeks. He realizes he'll have to push that being out the tiny hole in his penis. He can't sleep that night, due to the physical and mental challenges.
When he wakes the next day, he thinks it's just been a dream, but by mid morning, his belly swells, his blood pressure is high; he has pre-eclampsia. The Catholic hospital where he seeks care sends him home, telling him how wonderful he is to sacrifice his health for innocent life.
A variation reoccurs every day - he can't be treated for cancer; there's a fatal fetal abnormality, a cesarean section will be performed against his consent, until Lee goes on Fox News and X and makes large contributions to multiple pro-women organizations to support health care. He stands up in the Senate and pro-claims the government has no right to make health care decisions; it's a matter for the patient and the docs.
About that CBS video, what enraged me was that the white guy got the last word and what he said -- normalizing everything that went wrong, the nurse, the hospital, the cops, the prosecutor, and seeming to conclude some nebulous 'oh they were just following the laws...' His air of trying the absolve the injustice ...*scream*
Being a cop isn’t the kind of job that attracts good people. Keep that in mind while deciding how much you can trust law enforcement. They’re not there to protect you.
Presidential candidate Nikki Haley was quoted, again, as saying that the most important issue for women in the upcoming election is transgirls playing on high school sports teams.
Um, no.
We don't want to end up in jail or die because we need an abortion.
She’s not dumb or willfully ignorant either. Master manipulator. Needs votes, money & free airtime. I would never vote for her, but am enjoying her poking her opponent that the white Christian nationalist are bowing to for their own greed for power.
Nikki F'in Haley better not become the first female GD President. She has to be, at times, blind or deaf or dumb to hold the positions she holds in today's politics.
My clinical OB nursing students are unfortunately assigned to a catholic hospital. Today I had a student ask me if an abortion is considered a previous surgery. I told the student that we would not be able to tell if the abortion was medical or surgical from the prenatal records. She said OK. One of the staff nurses piped up and said, "we work at a catholic hospital, so we just gloss right over that." I said, "gloss right over what?" She said, "the a-word." I said, "Abortion? Abortion is healthcare." She said, "whatever." I left it at that because I am not an employee at this hospital, I am a guest. I need to have a good relationship with these nurses, so they are willing to teach my students. But the nurses and my students heard me say "abortion is healthcare" and I'm going to keep saying it. My students will at least hear these words strung together and will hopefully be able to say the word abortion without shame.
This bill Mike Lee has written... do you know the number and the co-sponsors? Seems like a good time to flood his Congressional office. Where are the medical schools and medical organizations speaking out about language changes?
That’s the question-they are silent, partly because they are scared (although they have money and power to fix this). They’re silent because they’re conservative and wayyyy too many of them agree with the wrong side of the argument. Btw, having all your medical records immediately sent to an attorney might make the records magically more accurate, or not, if you can afford that. It’s stomach turning.
Josh Hawley has a financial interest in reducing access to reproductive health care. Wife Erin earns big money as Senior Counsel from the Alliance Defending Freedom, for which organization she has testified before Congress that miscarriage treatment isn't abortion. She clerked for Chief Justice Roberts. If you're not familiar with ADF, check out their wiki.
Better yet, go directly to their website. If you want a big picture view of part of the cabal check out ADF, Lozier Institute, TPUSA, Moms for Liberty. Just for a start. There are others. They are all connect under the big T umbrella.
Lee is a total douchnozzle 🤮. The Federalist Society rates him at 99 percent. That was one of the least offensive things I read about him. And unfortunately, I share a birthday with that smuck.🤮🤮🤮
Nice of you to say, but that ahole is smart. Law school, clerking for Alito, with relatives coming out of the woods who are big shot politicians. One to watch out for.
Brittany Watts is a survivor, a warrior, and someone who will make a difference for many. That nurse could have asked the administrator to make that call. She also lied. The police have a whole new level of training they should implement to educate the mostly male force on. Naive, (his word) & willfully ignorant (my word) male TV media round table personalities should be cautious about taking up for anyone acting so cruelly when they knew this segment would run, knew he would be at the table, knew the police declined to make a statement and admits he doesn’t know. Come on man. If this had been his white wife & his bathroom, I would love to know if he would have the same attitude & comments. But it goes back to that nurse. It’s goes back to the hospital essentially “trying to hold her” until what? Until she miscarried on her own in their hospital bed? Or the hospital bathroom? Would they have allowed police rip out the hospital toilet?? Grrrr
Watts was 21 weeks and 6 days pregnant - according to whoever made that absurd calculation. The Catholic hospital kept Watts without treating her the first time for 8 hours, the second time for 11 hours. It seems they wanted her to go past the 22 week limit so they could deny her an abortion.
I agree. That’s the first thing I thought of when I read it. That’s also why I believe Watts over the nurse/hospital report about what they claim she said. That and the fact they tried to report it was a “potential viable” pregnancy which appears to be a false statement, in my mind.
I took it to mean the police were put in a bad position and they were following orders, which to a degree is true. But for me it’s how they chose to carry out those orders. The fact that all right wing media demonized her in addition to the police’s behavior and unwillingness to deal with their actions in a straightforward truthful way makes them all seem complicit in a callous way versus how they might have handled it if they had more truthful knowledge about miscarriages and the fact she had been told the pregnancy was non viable already.
The bitch nurse claimed there was a "Baby in a bucket" to the cops, so they were made to think it was viable. It should have been reported as deceased, stillborn fetal remains. The fact that Brittany is black, and their prejudice did the rest, as the nurse intended, or she would have reported accurately.
I wonder how many of those rapes were family, and exactly what the consequences of that will be in the abortion ban states, genetically, emotionally, etc. Starting with most rapists are known to the victim, and family is right up there. How will that tear families apart for the proponents of “family first”? Sorry to be graphic.
I wonder if this upsets women so much because so many of us have been raped? I guarantee if all babies were required to have paternity tests, that would clear some of this nonsense right up. Lots of explaining to do, consequences, pocketbook problems. I’m tired of being angry, I want Machiavelli.
Feel free to be as graphic as you want. I've read way too many stories about the Israeli hostages. Putting aside the horror of those that were raped, the ones that were spared, were tortured almost as horribly. I read the testimonials of many hostages who said that every second of every hour of every day all they could think about was whether they were going to be raped. I could go on, but I think I've sickened both of us enough. Be strong. As the NOVA survivors say 'we shall dance again '.
"Alison
20 hrs ago"
"Better yet, go directly to their website. If you want a big picture view of part of the cabal check out ADF, Lozier Institute, TPUSA, Moms for Liberty. Just for a start. There are others. They are all connect under the big T umbrella. "
Alison is right, and what connects these entities is, of course, funding.
I've been a public schools advocate for more than 20 years. A quarter of a century ago, we began to see the undermining and hollowing out of public school systems by so-called education reformers. A major one was Bill Gates, who created an entire ecosystem pushing charter schools, de-professionalization of teaching, pushing public taxpayer monies into private hands. The Waltons of Walmart got into the game, as did the founder of Home Depot, Bernard Marcus; Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix; and Eli Broad, CEO of SunAmerica, an enormous insurance company.
With their money, these billionaires spawned multiple organizations - all of which paid their employees quite remunerative salaries to do "research" which created and controlled the discourse about the nation's K-12 schools - many of which they designated "failures." (An aside, 90% of Americans are educated in public schools, and we have the world's largest and most robust economy, so not failing.)
With actors on the right, remember that every accusation is a confession. When they use the phrase "abortion industry," what they're telling us is they have lawyers, researchers, economists, influencers and allied right-wing orgs whose salary is paid for spinning up a narrative.
It's time to track down who is making good money to deprive women of their bodily autonomy. For example, Josh Hawley's wife, Erin, who is Senior Counselor for Alliance Defending Freedom. No doubt she's bringing home a larger salary that the judges who sit on SCOTUS. Her (chickenshit) husband advances the very cause that brings money into their household in his position as a US Senator.
I'll bet that the "maternity homes" and fake pregnancy counseling centers have plenty of folks on their payrolls whose funding ultimately comes from the Heritage Foundation, the Kochs, or Leonard Leo at the Federalist Society. Their websites are created by individuals or teams, their lobbyists are funded through them, the multitude of orgs are staffed by folks who get paid for their work. The members of Congress who oppose women's autonomy count on contributions from these funders.
We're still in a struggle to hold on to public schools, but exposing who gets paid how much and by whom to eviscerate the rights of the 51% might be another tool we can use.
Excellent summary of the Pennsylvania SC ruling by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern (shared by Robert Hubbell in last night's substack):
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/pennsylvania-supreme-court-dobbs-sam-alito-abortion.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Glad you posted that. I saw it earlier but couldn’t repost at the time. Hope this catches on with other judges and legal lawsuits!
Yes!! I hope so too! I was encouraged by how well-presented the arguments were. Easily transferable, too!
I listened to the interview. A nurse is part of a cultural setting. This is on physicians and “risk management” (attorneys for hospital). It’s also a standard move to put patients in a no win situation re any diagnosis and then use leaving AMA against them as a weapon. Due to tort reform, Brittany can’t sue them because she’s not dead, or wait, perhaps she can sue them for being defamed?? And sue for her f-ing bathroom, and trauma, being lied to by people who are supposed to be leaders caring for you. You don’t write things in a chart that could be used against a patient in court to cover your butt because you have more to lose than they do, you come out and force your specialty organization to come out and make f-ing statements about how abortions save lives and no one is qualified to make the decision but healthcare providers and no one needs prison looming over them when they’re doing it. Unless your bottom line is not that. Pardon my anger. I’ve risked so much and was privileged to do it. I’m judging, I’m sorry.
Mixing medical care with religious doctrine is dangerous, and considering that in many areas Catholic Hospitals are the only game in town makes it even more worrisome.
Ludicrous and insanely cruel. Let's hold republican politicians accountable and vote against them in EVERY election until they KNOW that we will not put up with their goddamn bans.
Check this StoryMap for the Catholic hospitals where you live. How many births do they manage? How much do Catholic hospitals get in tax payer dollars every year? (Answer: $48 billion) Who are the Republican Senators and Congressmen for the areas with these hospitals? Should women we forced to pay taxes to fund Catholic Hospitals that deny them critical care?
https://arcg.is/1yvHmb
This is good! Agree!
Well, it's nearly Groundhog Day and here's my fantasy for Senator Mike Lee:
He wakes up to nausea, feeling achy and bloated. As the morning goes on, his abdomen begins to grow, his back aches, his feet swell. Someone touches his belly without his permission and asks when the baby is due. He panics, wants an abortion, but he's past 6 weeks. He realizes he'll have to push that being out the tiny hole in his penis. He can't sleep that night, due to the physical and mental challenges.
When he wakes the next day, he thinks it's just been a dream, but by mid morning, his belly swells, his blood pressure is high; he has pre-eclampsia. The Catholic hospital where he seeks care sends him home, telling him how wonderful he is to sacrifice his health for innocent life.
A variation reoccurs every day - he can't be treated for cancer; there's a fatal fetal abnormality, a cesarean section will be performed against his consent, until Lee goes on Fox News and X and makes large contributions to multiple pro-women organizations to support health care. He stands up in the Senate and pro-claims the government has no right to make health care decisions; it's a matter for the patient and the docs.
A girl can dream, right?
This needs to be a movie. Somebody please write this screenplay.
Great! I'm sure many here can help build this scenario out.
About that CBS video, what enraged me was that the white guy got the last word and what he said -- normalizing everything that went wrong, the nurse, the hospital, the cops, the prosecutor, and seeming to conclude some nebulous 'oh they were just following the laws...' His air of trying the absolve the injustice ...*scream*
{Media will NOT help us}
I had not heard about Cecile Richards, a hero of mine. Brittany's story leaves me blind with rage. Thank you, Jessica, for this important work you do!
Being a cop isn’t the kind of job that attracts good people. Keep that in mind while deciding how much you can trust law enforcement. They’re not there to protect you.
Presidential candidate Nikki Haley was quoted, again, as saying that the most important issue for women in the upcoming election is transgirls playing on high school sports teams.
Um, no.
We don't want to end up in jail or die because we need an abortion.
Strongmen aren’t women. Especially Brown women who dare insult the Maga god.
She isn't that fucking clueless, that is what they have told her to say.
She’s not dumb or willfully ignorant either. Master manipulator. Needs votes, money & free airtime. I would never vote for her, but am enjoying her poking her opponent that the white Christian nationalist are bowing to for their own greed for power.
Nikki F'in Haley better not become the first female GD President. She has to be, at times, blind or deaf or dumb to hold the positions she holds in today's politics.
My clinical OB nursing students are unfortunately assigned to a catholic hospital. Today I had a student ask me if an abortion is considered a previous surgery. I told the student that we would not be able to tell if the abortion was medical or surgical from the prenatal records. She said OK. One of the staff nurses piped up and said, "we work at a catholic hospital, so we just gloss right over that." I said, "gloss right over what?" She said, "the a-word." I said, "Abortion? Abortion is healthcare." She said, "whatever." I left it at that because I am not an employee at this hospital, I am a guest. I need to have a good relationship with these nurses, so they are willing to teach my students. But the nurses and my students heard me say "abortion is healthcare" and I'm going to keep saying it. My students will at least hear these words strung together and will hopefully be able to say the word abortion without shame.
Thank you for speaking the truth.
We need to address Catholic hospitals and their withholding of care. It’s barbaric and, unfortunately, the number of Catholic hospitals is increasing.
Absolutely! Hospitals should not be making healthcare decisions based on archaic religious beliefs!
That nurse is evil; Brittany needs to sue that hospital and that nurse.
The NY Times op-ed nailed it.
HIPAA? What's that? /s
No such thing
I keep asking myself that...
This bill Mike Lee has written... do you know the number and the co-sponsors? Seems like a good time to flood his Congressional office. Where are the medical schools and medical organizations speaking out about language changes?
That’s the question-they are silent, partly because they are scared (although they have money and power to fix this). They’re silent because they’re conservative and wayyyy too many of them agree with the wrong side of the argument. Btw, having all your medical records immediately sent to an attorney might make the records magically more accurate, or not, if you can afford that. It’s stomach turning.
Josh Hawley has a financial interest in reducing access to reproductive health care. Wife Erin earns big money as Senior Counsel from the Alliance Defending Freedom, for which organization she has testified before Congress that miscarriage treatment isn't abortion. She clerked for Chief Justice Roberts. If you're not familiar with ADF, check out their wiki.
Better yet, go directly to their website. If you want a big picture view of part of the cabal check out ADF, Lozier Institute, TPUSA, Moms for Liberty. Just for a start. There are others. They are all connect under the big T umbrella.
Have you ever seen the pic of him kissing his wife? He looks like "Alfalfa from the Little rascals" having to kiss Darla, https://ifunny.co/picture/josh-hawley-kisses-his-wife-like-his-parents-are-making-YcMYIUU49
I cannot expose my already defective eyeballs to Josh Hawley kissing anything. 😂
It is like he read a description of how it is supposed to work, but can't bring himself to actually touch her! She's definitely his "beard".
Thank you. I missed that. Lots of informative reading in yesterday’s post … as always!
Lee is a total douchnozzle 🤮. The Federalist Society rates him at 99 percent. That was one of the least offensive things I read about him. And unfortunately, I share a birthday with that smuck.🤮🤮🤮
You obviously got his share of intelligence and empathy, though.
Nice of you to say, but that ahole is smart. Law school, clerking for Alito, with relatives coming out of the woods who are big shot politicians. One to watch out for.
Yes, but he is evil, you are an empathetic person.
Brittany Watts is a survivor, a warrior, and someone who will make a difference for many. That nurse could have asked the administrator to make that call. She also lied. The police have a whole new level of training they should implement to educate the mostly male force on. Naive, (his word) & willfully ignorant (my word) male TV media round table personalities should be cautious about taking up for anyone acting so cruelly when they knew this segment would run, knew he would be at the table, knew the police declined to make a statement and admits he doesn’t know. Come on man. If this had been his white wife & his bathroom, I would love to know if he would have the same attitude & comments. But it goes back to that nurse. It’s goes back to the hospital essentially “trying to hold her” until what? Until she miscarried on her own in their hospital bed? Or the hospital bathroom? Would they have allowed police rip out the hospital toilet?? Grrrr
Watts was 21 weeks and 6 days pregnant - according to whoever made that absurd calculation. The Catholic hospital kept Watts without treating her the first time for 8 hours, the second time for 11 hours. It seems they wanted her to go past the 22 week limit so they could deny her an abortion.
Oh Hell, I think you nailed it and they really can't be that precise like predicting days, IIRC.
I mean, c'mon, right? Dating is to the first day of your last menstrual cycle. Not every keeps tabs on that bit of data.
Yes, most have other things going on in their life. And what about spotting and irregular breakthrough bleeding?
I agree. That’s the first thing I thought of when I read it. That’s also why I believe Watts over the nurse/hospital report about what they claim she said. That and the fact they tried to report it was a “potential viable” pregnancy which appears to be a false statement, in my mind.
🤯🤮
I took it to mean the police were put in a bad position and they were following orders, which to a degree is true. But for me it’s how they chose to carry out those orders. The fact that all right wing media demonized her in addition to the police’s behavior and unwillingness to deal with their actions in a straightforward truthful way makes them all seem complicit in a callous way versus how they might have handled it if they had more truthful knowledge about miscarriages and the fact she had been told the pregnancy was non viable already.
The bitch nurse claimed there was a "Baby in a bucket" to the cops, so they were made to think it was viable. It should have been reported as deceased, stillborn fetal remains. The fact that Brittany is black, and their prejudice did the rest, as the nurse intended, or she would have reported accurately.
Everything about all of it is just wrong/bad. And something written in a chart is meaningless just because someone wrote it there.
This is from Scientific American and has 2 interesting and scary charts. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/64-000-pregnancies-caused-by-rape-have-occurred-in-states-with-a-total-abortion-ban-new-study-estimates/
I wonder how many of those rapes were family, and exactly what the consequences of that will be in the abortion ban states, genetically, emotionally, etc. Starting with most rapists are known to the victim, and family is right up there. How will that tear families apart for the proponents of “family first”? Sorry to be graphic.
I wonder if this upsets women so much because so many of us have been raped? I guarantee if all babies were required to have paternity tests, that would clear some of this nonsense right up. Lots of explaining to do, consequences, pocketbook problems. I’m tired of being angry, I want Machiavelli.
Feel free to be as graphic as you want. I've read way too many stories about the Israeli hostages. Putting aside the horror of those that were raped, the ones that were spared, were tortured almost as horribly. I read the testimonials of many hostages who said that every second of every hour of every day all they could think about was whether they were going to be raped. I could go on, but I think I've sickened both of us enough. Be strong. As the NOVA survivors say 'we shall dance again '.