President Biden could give a really effective answer to why he’s “changed” on abortion. He could say “I have personally not changed. However, I am not your priest I am your President and it’s my job to ensure that everyone has equal rights under the law. If your personal beliefs dictate that you will not get an abortion, that is your choice but you cannot expect everyone else to conform to your personal beliefs. Your beliefs constrict your behavior, not the behavior of anyone else”
Seems simple to me that President Biden can say he needs to broaden his political stance on the issue due to the behavior of the R in TX and other states who clearly do not support exceptions even though they say they do. They only want to torture women. Women in medical need should only need the support of their doctors.
Jessica linked to an NPR article about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that preventing the use of state Medicaid funds for abortions does discriminate on the basis of sex. The NPR article has really good info, and there's also a Slate article that includes details from the majority opinion of the PA Supreme Court that just rips SCOTUS' ruling on Dobbs -- and Alito's legal logic in particular: one of the justices "recounted the historical use of abortion bans to repress women, condemned Alito’s error-ridden analysis, and repudiated the 'antiquated and misogynistic notion that a woman has no say over what happens to her own body.'” It's a great read, maybe it'll turn into something bigger. Enjoy! https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/pennsylvania-supreme-court-dobbs-sam-alito-abortion.html
Regarding Repugnants attack on Biden's wabbley position on abortion... yes, he needs to get his script straight and speak with command skills. I feel he can overcome that. Trump has the same issue but opposite. He said he was very pro-choice in 1999 interview. So how will Trump answer that same wabbley question? I suppose he will evade it as he has so far. You can't trust anything he says, he's pandering to so many agendas.... mainly his own.
I think many of us are fatigued by watching Biden try to play this issue to his advantage when we know he doesn't truly understand it. I also think he could make real headway with a deep and honest statement about how his own feelings about abortion ARE complicated, but how the stories he has heard and the things he has learned have shown him that pregnancy, birth, and reproductive health are equally complicated and therefore should not be legislated. I think a lot of Americans are in that position post-Dobbs (of having complicated feelings about abortion but also becoming more pro-choice) and the message would resonate.
As a clinic escort, it is so satisfying to see those jerks get convicted for FACE Act violations. I hope y'all understand how rare and not at all guaranteed that was.
Given all the book bans and scaled down curriculum these states have at schools to "protect children"........how do they plan on explaining to 1st & 2nd graders the inevitable questions of; where do babies come from and how are they made?
They won’t explain. They show these movies and images of blood and viscera to children. They tell girls this is what happens to loose girls who don’t guard their virtue. They force girls into years of indoctrination on all the ways their very existence tempts men and boys to sin. Many of these girls will have no idea how babies happen or what their periods are or what ovulation is. They will only know to do everything they can to not cause male lust. Many will grow into very fucked up women with the emotional maturity of a 13-year-old. And that’s when their Good Christian Husband will impregnate them. And this cycle will repeat itself.
Yep.... I've watched lots of documentaries over the years on this stuff. The horror these women & girls live under. Like the FLDS and Duggars IBLP. That's exactly what they do to indoctrinate.... the catholics do the same, but many break away from the catholics. But the public schools need to be careful how, what they say don't you think? They can't teach such radicalness like an evalgenic religious school? I agree sex ed is totally dumbed down in the public schools in south, really any R state now.. Even in Tennessee where I am....too much on abstinence, too little on rest. Too many laws on how & what TN teachers can do, say.
I don’t want to keep hammering Project 2025 in Jessica’s space, but a huge chunk of it is how their religious dogma will use taxpayer funding to capture all aspects of American life: public schools; universities; welfare; punishment for crime. Everything will become a portal for their dogmatic indoctrination. Because they believe separation of church and state was meant to protect the church from the state, not vice-versa. We are witnessing their random attempts to start that process now, but it will be a crushing, obligatory tsunami if they win in November. And they will withhold all federal funding from states and localities who refuse to comply.
Andra - I didn’t grow up with the indoctrination you had but I am older. Roe didn’t pass until I was in High School. I was fortunate that my minister was part of the clergy Underground Railroad helping women and girls get safe abortions. My mother objected but my father supported him - after she risked death from being forced to carry a dead fetus for 2 weeks when the placenta prematurely separated at 9 months. It was 1958. When Dobbs was decided my sister was talking the Fox News lingo and told me - “but these women are getting abortions at 9 months” 😫. Yeah sis - like our MOTHER needed!!!! You knew the name of that baby because it was decades later. I was 2 years old when it happened - all I ever knew was mom talking about “that dead baby they made me carry for two weeks”.
Thank GOD - the PA Supreme Court chewed SCOTUS a new one for using slave language regarding women. It’s the same thing I told my Evangelical family when they tried to push that women should obey their husbands on me. Ephesians 5. Well Ephesians 6 says slave’s should obey their masters - do we still have slavery?? No
Then it’s time to move 2000 years into today with airplanes and rockets. Jesus said do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Do you want to be told to obey your partner? No - then neither do we. I died while I was in the ICU with cancer in 2008. I saw Heaven. It’s about love and compassion. It’s not about what these Republicans are pushing. They are the false prophets and teachers Jesus and all the apostles warned us about 2000 years ago. The very Jesus these so-called christians are talking about protected women like the adulterous women from the men. Kinda hard to be caught in adultery by yourself??? Remember “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone - while Jesus is writing in the dirt ( maybe the names of those with stones in their hands)??? These christfascists infuriate me. They are like the thieves in the temple court.
My husband loves Johnny Cash. Every Christmas, he plays the song "The Christmas Guest" until I want to gnash my teeth in despair. But it paints a vivid picture of a man who prepares a feast for the Lord because he promised to stop by. He then spends all night answering the door to beggars and homeless people. He runs out of food before the Lord ever shows up. Heartbroken, he asks the Lord why he didn't come. And the Lord says, "Oh, I came. Three times. I was every needy person who knocked on your door tonight. Every time, you helped me."
Today's Christian Nationalists would turn the Lord away. Christian Nationalists are the Pharisees Jesus openly condemned. They are "wolves in sheep's clothing." Anyone who reads the Bible's account of the life of Jesus knows he was a poor, unsheltered migrant. He hung out with society's rejects. He helped everyone who came to him however he could without asking for anything in return. Jesus Christ wouldn't vote for today's Republicans.
You say everything that a true Christian should be saying about this situation. And yes so many who call themselves Christians do not. Thank you for sharing your perspective here. It reminds us in the face of this religious fascism that faith doesn't have to be antagonistic to good. I have read a few others here who share your approach, and this cause greatly benefits from the strength those of you bring to it.
You need to keep hammering project 2025 on Jessica's space, that is how I heard about you and subscribed, do not be ashamed or bashful. Yes totally see things changing already. It's important that people in blue states are paying attention to all of this, even though they have the freedom of being in a progressive or liberal state, I do fear that they are not paying attention to the Republican states, especially deep south, it's a goddamn religious stranglehold down here...... Yes it will get worse. I would hate to see a pro-choice person in California vote Republican for congress because they think they are safe sitting in California with Gavin as their governor, that's my point.
Yes, that's exactly what they did in 2022. California and New York gave Republicans the House. This year the worry might be that of the six competitive states - Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia - Republicans only have full control of one (Georgia) so some voters in the other five may have a false sense of security.
Keep hammering. You feel an obligation to try to help save this country, exactly the same as JV does. What's happening now with abortion is the best demonstration of what Project 2025 envisions for everything else, so those of us who read here are better able to understand the danger. That means this community is a very good place to start spreading the message. The Republicans are hiding it in plain sight. If the electorate doesn't become acutely aware of it, they win, and next year we'll all be worried about ending up in jail.
I'm worried about Biden's tepidness too. But with the stakes so high, I have to believe he'll become more forceful in his advocacy for reproductive rights/justice.
I’m old enough to remember when JFK said that he would be answering to the Constitution and not the Vatican. I know we’re stuck with Biden, but I’m incensed that he ran knowing that he feels his “afterlife” is more important than our REAL lives.
No wonder his AG hasn’t done much of anything to protect us. He thinks women are less.
This essay was a direct result of conversations and feedback from this community. But it highlights the lifelong damage of this kind of indoctrination. I don’t need your sympathy. I’m strong and resilient. But we choose to share these kinds of stories (and open ourselves up to our brothers trolling us publicly) because this is an example of what this indoctrination does. It is effective. It has consequences.
Reproductive justice in this country is NOT and cannot be equated with what is happening in Palestinian. The United States is not Israel. The United States is not Hamas. The bloodshed is sickening but to expect the US which is under attack from within by the Russian backed Republican Party should take precedent now. They are taking away women rights HERE. Think of the rule of a plane losing pressure - secure your own oxygen mask first - then you can assist another person.
How can they do this? These are public schools. This is complete propaganda not based on any scientific fact. They are doing this with taxpayer money. They need to be sued for violating the constitution. There has to be something that can be done.
Thanks for link, I donated just now. I read about this catholic school in OK months ago. But they had not voted on it yet. Total bullshit. The article said that they will use this as a test case up to the SCOTUS because they knew that's where it would land. They feel the extremist composition of SCOTUS is prime time to strike and win. This country is in a bad spot.
It's horrifying. This is why Biden has to be the next president. I know the majority of Americans don't want this stupidity. I hope so much that all my fears are unfounded and Biden will win by a landslide.
According to a new report in Rolling Stone, Donald Trump's campaign wants to launch a "holy war" on Taylor Swift. Ohh good, she and the Swifties might wind up carrying us 🇺🇸 🎶 😏
Considering all the trouble Biden and Harris are having in the polls, and all of the calls for someone other than Biden or Trump, I've taken note that Taylor Swift turns 35 years old 38 days before Inauguration Day.
I cannot imagine her bowing to this abuse. But I wish more news outlets (including feminist writers) would call this what it is: A hugely popular person who can tell her fans to vote for Joe Biden. And they will. And 45 and his minions are terrified of that.
President Biden could give a really effective answer to why he’s “changed” on abortion. He could say “I have personally not changed. However, I am not your priest I am your President and it’s my job to ensure that everyone has equal rights under the law. If your personal beliefs dictate that you will not get an abortion, that is your choice but you cannot expect everyone else to conform to your personal beliefs. Your beliefs constrict your behavior, not the behavior of anyone else”
Seems simple to me that President Biden can say he needs to broaden his political stance on the issue due to the behavior of the R in TX and other states who clearly do not support exceptions even though they say they do. They only want to torture women. Women in medical need should only need the support of their doctors.
if they make schools show that video - I sure hope they are letting parents opt out for their kids. Parents' rights, right?
They never apply that if it is something they oppose!
Also https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/pennsylvania-supreme-court-dobbs-sam-alito-abortion.html
I haven’t looked yet today but last night I couldn’t find mention of the PA SCt case in WaPo or NYT
Yo hun, take a look at this…
https://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-65-2022mo%20-%20105815658253412907.pdf?cb=1
Jessica linked to an NPR article about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that preventing the use of state Medicaid funds for abortions does discriminate on the basis of sex. The NPR article has really good info, and there's also a Slate article that includes details from the majority opinion of the PA Supreme Court that just rips SCOTUS' ruling on Dobbs -- and Alito's legal logic in particular: one of the justices "recounted the historical use of abortion bans to repress women, condemned Alito’s error-ridden analysis, and repudiated the 'antiquated and misogynistic notion that a woman has no say over what happens to her own body.'” It's a great read, maybe it'll turn into something bigger. Enjoy! https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/pennsylvania-supreme-court-dobbs-sam-alito-abortion.html
Regarding Repugnants attack on Biden's wabbley position on abortion... yes, he needs to get his script straight and speak with command skills. I feel he can overcome that. Trump has the same issue but opposite. He said he was very pro-choice in 1999 interview. So how will Trump answer that same wabbley question? I suppose he will evade it as he has so far. You can't trust anything he says, he's pandering to so many agendas.... mainly his own.
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/trump-in-1999-i-am-very-pro-choice-480297539914
Trump was so pro-choice he told Marla Maples to abort Tiffany.
I belive it.
I think many of us are fatigued by watching Biden try to play this issue to his advantage when we know he doesn't truly understand it. I also think he could make real headway with a deep and honest statement about how his own feelings about abortion ARE complicated, but how the stories he has heard and the things he has learned have shown him that pregnancy, birth, and reproductive health are equally complicated and therefore should not be legislated. I think a lot of Americans are in that position post-Dobbs (of having complicated feelings about abortion but also becoming more pro-choice) and the message would resonate.
As a clinic escort, it is so satisfying to see those jerks get convicted for FACE Act violations. I hope y'all understand how rare and not at all guaranteed that was.
I hear you. As a former one, may they get the full ten years.
I do.... And in Tennessee no doubt. Like wow!
Given all the book bans and scaled down curriculum these states have at schools to "protect children"........how do they plan on explaining to 1st & 2nd graders the inevitable questions of; where do babies come from and how are they made?
Just sayin...
They won’t explain. They show these movies and images of blood and viscera to children. They tell girls this is what happens to loose girls who don’t guard their virtue. They force girls into years of indoctrination on all the ways their very existence tempts men and boys to sin. Many of these girls will have no idea how babies happen or what their periods are or what ovulation is. They will only know to do everything they can to not cause male lust. Many will grow into very fucked up women with the emotional maturity of a 13-year-old. And that’s when their Good Christian Husband will impregnate them. And this cycle will repeat itself.
Yep.... I've watched lots of documentaries over the years on this stuff. The horror these women & girls live under. Like the FLDS and Duggars IBLP. That's exactly what they do to indoctrinate.... the catholics do the same, but many break away from the catholics. But the public schools need to be careful how, what they say don't you think? They can't teach such radicalness like an evalgenic religious school? I agree sex ed is totally dumbed down in the public schools in south, really any R state now.. Even in Tennessee where I am....too much on abstinence, too little on rest. Too many laws on how & what TN teachers can do, say.
I don’t want to keep hammering Project 2025 in Jessica’s space, but a huge chunk of it is how their religious dogma will use taxpayer funding to capture all aspects of American life: public schools; universities; welfare; punishment for crime. Everything will become a portal for their dogmatic indoctrination. Because they believe separation of church and state was meant to protect the church from the state, not vice-versa. We are witnessing their random attempts to start that process now, but it will be a crushing, obligatory tsunami if they win in November. And they will withhold all federal funding from states and localities who refuse to comply.
Andra - I didn’t grow up with the indoctrination you had but I am older. Roe didn’t pass until I was in High School. I was fortunate that my minister was part of the clergy Underground Railroad helping women and girls get safe abortions. My mother objected but my father supported him - after she risked death from being forced to carry a dead fetus for 2 weeks when the placenta prematurely separated at 9 months. It was 1958. When Dobbs was decided my sister was talking the Fox News lingo and told me - “but these women are getting abortions at 9 months” 😫. Yeah sis - like our MOTHER needed!!!! You knew the name of that baby because it was decades later. I was 2 years old when it happened - all I ever knew was mom talking about “that dead baby they made me carry for two weeks”.
Thank GOD - the PA Supreme Court chewed SCOTUS a new one for using slave language regarding women. It’s the same thing I told my Evangelical family when they tried to push that women should obey their husbands on me. Ephesians 5. Well Ephesians 6 says slave’s should obey their masters - do we still have slavery?? No
Then it’s time to move 2000 years into today with airplanes and rockets. Jesus said do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Do you want to be told to obey your partner? No - then neither do we. I died while I was in the ICU with cancer in 2008. I saw Heaven. It’s about love and compassion. It’s not about what these Republicans are pushing. They are the false prophets and teachers Jesus and all the apostles warned us about 2000 years ago. The very Jesus these so-called christians are talking about protected women like the adulterous women from the men. Kinda hard to be caught in adultery by yourself??? Remember “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone - while Jesus is writing in the dirt ( maybe the names of those with stones in their hands)??? These christfascists infuriate me. They are like the thieves in the temple court.
100% agree.
My husband loves Johnny Cash. Every Christmas, he plays the song "The Christmas Guest" until I want to gnash my teeth in despair. But it paints a vivid picture of a man who prepares a feast for the Lord because he promised to stop by. He then spends all night answering the door to beggars and homeless people. He runs out of food before the Lord ever shows up. Heartbroken, he asks the Lord why he didn't come. And the Lord says, "Oh, I came. Three times. I was every needy person who knocked on your door tonight. Every time, you helped me."
Today's Christian Nationalists would turn the Lord away. Christian Nationalists are the Pharisees Jesus openly condemned. They are "wolves in sheep's clothing." Anyone who reads the Bible's account of the life of Jesus knows he was a poor, unsheltered migrant. He hung out with society's rejects. He helped everyone who came to him however he could without asking for anything in return. Jesus Christ wouldn't vote for today's Republicans.
You say everything that a true Christian should be saying about this situation. And yes so many who call themselves Christians do not. Thank you for sharing your perspective here. It reminds us in the face of this religious fascism that faith doesn't have to be antagonistic to good. I have read a few others here who share your approach, and this cause greatly benefits from the strength those of you bring to it.
You need to keep hammering project 2025 on Jessica's space, that is how I heard about you and subscribed, do not be ashamed or bashful. Yes totally see things changing already. It's important that people in blue states are paying attention to all of this, even though they have the freedom of being in a progressive or liberal state, I do fear that they are not paying attention to the Republican states, especially deep south, it's a goddamn religious stranglehold down here...... Yes it will get worse. I would hate to see a pro-choice person in California vote Republican for congress because they think they are safe sitting in California with Gavin as their governor, that's my point.
Yes, that's exactly what they did in 2022. California and New York gave Republicans the House. This year the worry might be that of the six competitive states - Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia - Republicans only have full control of one (Georgia) so some voters in the other five may have a false sense of security.
Keep hammering. You feel an obligation to try to help save this country, exactly the same as JV does. What's happening now with abortion is the best demonstration of what Project 2025 envisions for everything else, so those of us who read here are better able to understand the danger. That means this community is a very good place to start spreading the message. The Republicans are hiding it in plain sight. If the electorate doesn't become acutely aware of it, they win, and next year we'll all be worried about ending up in jail.
I'm worried about Biden's tepidness too. But with the stakes so high, I have to believe he'll become more forceful in his advocacy for reproductive rights/justice.
I’m old enough to remember when JFK said that he would be answering to the Constitution and not the Vatican. I know we’re stuck with Biden, but I’m incensed that he ran knowing that he feels his “afterlife” is more important than our REAL lives.
No wonder his AG hasn’t done much of anything to protect us. He thinks women are less.
I’m disgusted.
I mean Biden thinks women are less.
I share a link to a Newsweek essay I wrote last year to highlight how anti-abortion propaganda in schools shatters lives.
https://www.newsweek.com/children-motherhood-parenting-church-religion-1803783
This essay was a direct result of conversations and feedback from this community. But it highlights the lifelong damage of this kind of indoctrination. I don’t need your sympathy. I’m strong and resilient. But we choose to share these kinds of stories (and open ourselves up to our brothers trolling us publicly) because this is an example of what this indoctrination does. It is effective. It has consequences.
Andra - I'm sorry that was your childhood. To say that you're strong and resilient is a huge understatement. I appreciate your ferocity.
Great article
Reproductive justice in this country is NOT and cannot be equated with what is happening in Palestinian. The United States is not Israel. The United States is not Hamas. The bloodshed is sickening but to expect the US which is under attack from within by the Russian backed Republican Party should take precedent now. They are taking away women rights HERE. Think of the rule of a plane losing pressure - secure your own oxygen mask first - then you can assist another person.
100% correct
How can they do this? These are public schools. This is complete propaganda not based on any scientific fact. They are doing this with taxpayer money. They need to be sued for violating the constitution. There has to be something that can be done.
I’m contributing to this organization :
https://www.au.org
Thanks for link, I donated just now. I read about this catholic school in OK months ago. But they had not voted on it yet. Total bullshit. The article said that they will use this as a test case up to the SCOTUS because they knew that's where it would land. They feel the extremist composition of SCOTUS is prime time to strike and win. This country is in a bad spot.
Yet Project 2025 will make this kind of taxpayer funded religious propaganda the norm. They’re already doing it.
It's horrifying. This is why Biden has to be the next president. I know the majority of Americans don't want this stupidity. I hope so much that all my fears are unfounded and Biden will win by a landslide.
That people will realize how serious this is, and vote, that all their votes will be counted, and all will be well. Cross fingers.
WAR UPDATE - SWIFT EDITION :
According to a new report in Rolling Stone, Donald Trump's campaign wants to launch a "holy war" on Taylor Swift. Ohh good, she and the Swifties might wind up carrying us 🇺🇸 🎶 😏
The Swifties will join with the K-pop kids army, that saved us from trump's bullshit and scammed his Oklahoma rally.
Considering all the trouble Biden and Harris are having in the polls, and all of the calls for someone other than Biden or Trump, I've taken note that Taylor Swift turns 35 years old 38 days before Inauguration Day.
I cannot imagine her bowing to this abuse. But I wish more news outlets (including feminist writers) would call this what it is: A hugely popular person who can tell her fans to vote for Joe Biden. And they will. And 45 and his minions are terrified of that.