The whole "will of the people" thing pisses me off. I think it is for the sake of people (both men and women) who aren't paying attention, so they will think "oh, everybody in my state wants that ban, so I guess my vote against it or against pro-life politicians won't matter." When, the reality is that nobody voted one way or another for bans. They voted for them indirectly by voting for Republicans who are increasingly more extreme and "christo-fascist" to borrow that phrase from Andra Watkins. Pro-choice republicans weren't worried about losing reproductive rights by voting for pro-life Republican candidates because they thought it was protected at the federal level and would never be an issue.
I live in Idaho, and Raul Labrador has long revealed himself to be a grandstanding, misogynist jerk for years. His election to AG is one of the worst things to happen in this state -- and that's saying a lot. Ugh.
If Labrador doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what it’s going to take: these people are evil. Not just misguided or wrong on the facts, actually bad people just like murderers and rapists. They cannot be compromised with, only defeated.
Use this online calculator to estimate the cost of traveling out-of-state for an abortion (including things such as travel, lodging, meals, childcare, lost wages and more). Republicans are intentionally pricing abortion out of reach for poor women.
The article about "women being denied emergency care in anti-abortion states" does not want to open, so I am hoping this message reaches Jessica and she can relink.
Unrelated but related. I just want to say that I am grateful for this community and its safety. I know people make fun of the safe spaces phrase but I experienced something today on the comment section of the NYT that reminded me that misogyny is alive and well not just around abortion.
It was one of the articles about Weinstein’s New York conviction being overturned by an appeals court citing that the testimony of women not directly involved with this case was prejudicial. Normally law wise that’s true, but given the serial and predatory nature of his crime and the fact that his whole defense was it was consensual they’re lying, there’s a good argument to be made that it should be admissible.
I went to the top recommended comments and there were so many men piling on with their views of why it’s the law and this is justice. Like it seemed targeted so I wrote a comment about that and I hit a nerve with a guy so he came at me saying I was self victimizing and it was policies I vote for that free rapists. First of all, having a little distance from it, it was just ridiculous. He must have read my reply to someone else who was denigrating democrats. But his reply shook me anyway.
I read Jessica’s memoir so I know she has faced worse to bring us truth and to fight for women and girls. I do my part in other ways, but I am grateful she has the courage and the platform to fight on this front. Thank you Jessica for all you do and for giving us this space.
I'm so sorry you had that experience, Kerry. It truly sucks to be a woman who uses her voice in any capacity on the internet. I know you know this, but whatever these assholes typed about you isn't true. I used to get so upset about things people on the internet (mostly men, probably Russian troll farms) typed to or about me, but now I'm good with "don't read" and "block" wherever I have that power.
For what it's worth, I usually give more weight to comments where it's obvious trolls have piled on, because clearly those cowards are scared of what you're saying. They want to silence you.
The men supporting Weinstien hate women, dont think rape is a crime, some are Incels, they all vote for Trump and do not have kids at least not daughters. They are ignorant, self-absorbed, arrogant dickheads. They are pathetic.
And then to hide their misogyny they fall back on their supposedly superior ability to interpret the law. I’m not a lawyer but I used to teach a law elective and I learned a lot while crafting my lessons. I would never say I’m an expert. But sometimes people’s lack of understanding does impact their opinion. For instance not understanding that if a grand jury indicts you it means there’s enough to warrant a trial. Not saying they always get it right but most people don’t even understand how it all works because we don’t prioritize civics and government as required foundational knowledge.
With some distance from it I realized I clearly struck a nerve. I also comfort myself with the knowledge that these men will likely die alone and have no visitors at the nursing home. Lol.
What you said about “expert”. Sigh. Medical experts in trials are so often not the specialty in question. The most commonly quoted medical “experts” in some fields generally fail to disclose conflicts of interest and their understanding definitely has an impact on their opinion. My fav quote in today’s great post was about pregnant women being radioactive. Add pain to that list-pain makes you radioactive as well. Also, regarding distance driven to care, the partly secret non-FDA approved AI algorithm that determines whether you can fill a legal prescription takes into account how far your physician’s office is from your home, as well as the pharmacy, and it may be different for different areas, but does not take into account availability of care. So you can be coded as doing something suspicious because every other physician left the area and you had to drive farther to be seen, and that makes the doctor suspicious as well and can trigger a DEA SWAT team to their office or home. You could pull up footage of physicians in pajamas with family face down on the lawn with guns pointed at them. Or a wheelchair bound patient with a gun pointed at them (that one led to a suicide). But we will not see that on the news because disabled people are also objects and don’t have the numbers women do. This is all unacceptable. I hope we can codify reproductive rights.
As of now my state (Massachusetts) has no barriers to care. And even our system with some of the best hospitals in the world is losing ground on maternal health and infant mortality especially amongst Black women. the idea of these care desserts makes me sick.
I think the other problem with certain folks in our society and this includes women - they victim blame. If a woman is assaulted at a grocery store at 11pm, some people say "well, why didn't she go to the grocery store at 11am". NO NO NO...... that is the wrong question to ask..... she should be able to go to the store any damn time. No one says this when a man is assaulted at a grocery store at 11pm.
We should never allow for the double standards and victim blaming - men and women both should be able to freely move around pretty much anywhere at any time without worrying about getting assaulted.
I’m sorry you had that experience. The misogyny on the internet just gets louder and louder as we go down this frightening path. And many men - even the “good” ones whom we love - just don’t see it.
You’re not alone in your fears and I agree that having this community is so so important and so helpful in these tough moments. We fight together. I wish we didn’t have to but I’m grateful that we’re all here, that Jessica writes these newsletters and books and the comments are full of compassionate folks looking for ways to help. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane.
Thank you all for this safe space. I just had an experience on Instagram where I gave an affirmation on Jessica’s video regarding SCOTUS hearing. A person was not happy that I used Pregnant People rather than woman Naively I responded and said I was being inclusive and attached a link on inclusive language. She got angry and then another woman chimed in angry too. Jeepers next time I will ignore an ugly comment about my affirmation and move on.
I blocked them both and might change my settings. Hugs to you all ❤️❤️❤️
Tell them children, can and do get pregnant, are not yet women ,and should not be classified as such, to make the point. I know there are many others that fall under the "people" umbrella, but trying to shame the trolls usually works. Also remind them that many men need to be reminded we are people, because they are treating us like objects, which most women will get. Of course you probably had TERFs yelling as they do, and nothing trumps their hate.
It just hasn’t been my experience on the Times so it jarred me, I don’t post many places because of the comments and that had seemed relatively safe. And then they didn’t approve my reply which just said thank you for proving my point but they approved 4 more guys to pile on and tell me how I don’t understand law and am essentially stupid. I know it’s because I touched a nerve, but it still sucks. Like I’m not sure how they curate their comments but it definitely looks like it’s on purpose to tell a particularly story.
The NYT is really quite conservative, they employ a bunch of misogynistic, shitty, right-wing men. The owner recently has been exposed for giving the order for all the negative press about Biden. Just because he wouldn't give them an interview. They would kill democracy supporting the Orange Ape, just because they are arrogant.
They should have approved your reply !! I comment in the Times quite a bit, because it is usually has sane, respectful, thoughtful, -- and yes, searing, comments. I've had someone go after me repeatedly once, and felt shook for a while, but then another commenter came to my defense. Sometimes when a comment gets heated, they delete the entire thread.
Labrador says "EMTALA says nothing about abortion". Um, it doesn't need to. That's because abortion IS healthcare, something these politicians are working so very diligently to deny.
Perhaps the most disingenuous argument Idaho has made is that the fetus is the patient when a woman presents with a pregnancy that endangers her. In that case, the woman is the patient. When the fetus is the patient, the woman seeking care isn't having a medical emergency - her child is. That's why EMTALA says you can't dump the woman onto the street while she's in labor just because she lacks insurance, for example.
Exactly...... for the same reason EMTALA doesn't need to specifically say tonsillectomy, appendectomy, ulcers, myocardial infraction, stent, erectile dysfunction.........etc. We'd have to write encyclopedias after encyclopedias after encyclopedias into EMTALA..... , but of course Labrador knows very well the game he's playing.
“half of voters want states to make their own abortion laws”
And of course — even if they want it — that’s a fantasy that they haven’t really thought through (thanks MSM for nothing!) …
(1) our nation is way *way* too interconnected in 2024 to be functional like that.
(2) it will never be enough for the anti-abortionist camp until they get a national ban.
(3) voters rarely get to choose their own laws. If this was a popular vote on this issue — just like gun laws — this discussion would be over. States rights is for losing arguments.
Oddly enough those who champion the rights of Arizona or Texas to ban abortion do not champion the rights of Connecticut or New Jersey to clarify that abortion is legal in their states. Reminds me of those who uphold the rights of parents to home school their kids, because parents should be allowed to control their children's lives, but oppose the ability of parents to get gender-affirming care for their kids. Because then parents shouldn't be allowed to do anything that displeases the heckler.
I can definitely tell you Labrador is a lying sack of shit because the residents I supervise also help out the high risk pregnancy doctors at St Lukes in Boise and are the ones writing the transfer orders for these women flying out of state. This has all been really hard on the resident physicians. (Of course harder on the patients - I just don’t know them.)
I hate to say it but it would probably be good to rebut the accusations with proofs. The level of trust in this country is below zero and the people we most need to reach are already more skeptical of Democrats.
And I also hate to say but it would help to have more names associated with deaths. I know they likely won't be 'perfect' patients and the stories might not seem unambiguous, but still. It's just far too easy for people in this country to dismiss things as hyperbole.
Yes, that's true. We need to be organized - victims, providers, and supporters - and all find ways to have each other's backs. As many lives as are at stake now, it will be far more dire if we lose this election.
This is true. It’s easy for my relatives and my mom’s friends to avoid believing that the bans are really that bad because they can avoid the real stories of real women. While there’s no point wasting time on the misogynists, I think there are a lot of people who are burying their heads in the sand who would change their minds if forced to confront reality. As horrible as this is to say, they have to have real women’s suffering and death rubbed in their faces.
You are so correct in your assessment of the current situation, we just don’t trust anything the “other side” says unless there’s proof; & even then some people still won’t believe it.
Jordan Klepper asked some magas at a rally “What would you think if Trump said _____?” They answered that they wouldn’t believe he said that. He then showed them a vid of him saying exactly that, & they still didn’t believe it.
Yes. Some people won't believe even if they see the bodies, and f*** them. But some people might not believe _until_ they see the bodies, and it's that group I'm thinking of.
Doctors are lying. Women are lying. Little girls who are raped are lying. But politicians and attorneys, two groups of people who are notorious for lying, are telling the truth? Got it.
The whole "will of the people" thing pisses me off. I think it is for the sake of people (both men and women) who aren't paying attention, so they will think "oh, everybody in my state wants that ban, so I guess my vote against it or against pro-life politicians won't matter." When, the reality is that nobody voted one way or another for bans. They voted for them indirectly by voting for Republicans who are increasingly more extreme and "christo-fascist" to borrow that phrase from Andra Watkins. Pro-choice republicans weren't worried about losing reproductive rights by voting for pro-life Republican candidates because they thought it was protected at the federal level and would never be an issue.
I live in Idaho, and Raul Labrador has long revealed himself to be a grandstanding, misogynist jerk for years. His election to AG is one of the worst things to happen in this state -- and that's saying a lot. Ugh.
If Labrador doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what it’s going to take: these people are evil. Not just misguided or wrong on the facts, actually bad people just like murderers and rapists. They cannot be compromised with, only defeated.
I think we can drop the "just like" because they are killing us.
Thank you Jessica for all you do.
Check the stories of eight women who filed amicus briefs to protect EMTALA emergency care for pregnant women.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/04/24/scotus-to-ban-emtala-emergency-care-for-pregnant-women/
Use this online calculator to estimate the cost of traveling out-of-state for an abortion (including things such as travel, lodging, meals, childcare, lost wages and more). Republicans are intentionally pricing abortion out of reach for poor women.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/04/06/cost-of-traveling-out-of-state-for-an-abortion-calculator/
Deepak, you have a real talent first creating these simple to understand infographics out of complex stories. Thanks.
I’m so tired of them acting like their position is supported by the majority. That is such bullshit!
To the people in their bubbles, they can't imagine it being otherwise.
Jessica - under stats and studies, the hyperlink to the article about women being denied emergency care does not work, can you send that please to us?
The article about "women being denied emergency care in anti-abortion states" does not want to open, so I am hoping this message reaches Jessica and she can relink.
Thank you,
Sarah
The link is broken, I'm hoping she will post that to everyone here, because I want to read it as well
Unrelated but related. I just want to say that I am grateful for this community and its safety. I know people make fun of the safe spaces phrase but I experienced something today on the comment section of the NYT that reminded me that misogyny is alive and well not just around abortion.
It was one of the articles about Weinstein’s New York conviction being overturned by an appeals court citing that the testimony of women not directly involved with this case was prejudicial. Normally law wise that’s true, but given the serial and predatory nature of his crime and the fact that his whole defense was it was consensual they’re lying, there’s a good argument to be made that it should be admissible.
I went to the top recommended comments and there were so many men piling on with their views of why it’s the law and this is justice. Like it seemed targeted so I wrote a comment about that and I hit a nerve with a guy so he came at me saying I was self victimizing and it was policies I vote for that free rapists. First of all, having a little distance from it, it was just ridiculous. He must have read my reply to someone else who was denigrating democrats. But his reply shook me anyway.
I read Jessica’s memoir so I know she has faced worse to bring us truth and to fight for women and girls. I do my part in other ways, but I am grateful she has the courage and the platform to fight on this front. Thank you Jessica for all you do and for giving us this space.
I'm so sorry you had that experience, Kerry. It truly sucks to be a woman who uses her voice in any capacity on the internet. I know you know this, but whatever these assholes typed about you isn't true. I used to get so upset about things people on the internet (mostly men, probably Russian troll farms) typed to or about me, but now I'm good with "don't read" and "block" wherever I have that power.
For what it's worth, I usually give more weight to comments where it's obvious trolls have piled on, because clearly those cowards are scared of what you're saying. They want to silence you.
The men supporting Weinstien hate women, dont think rape is a crime, some are Incels, they all vote for Trump and do not have kids at least not daughters. They are ignorant, self-absorbed, arrogant dickheads. They are pathetic.
And then to hide their misogyny they fall back on their supposedly superior ability to interpret the law. I’m not a lawyer but I used to teach a law elective and I learned a lot while crafting my lessons. I would never say I’m an expert. But sometimes people’s lack of understanding does impact their opinion. For instance not understanding that if a grand jury indicts you it means there’s enough to warrant a trial. Not saying they always get it right but most people don’t even understand how it all works because we don’t prioritize civics and government as required foundational knowledge.
With some distance from it I realized I clearly struck a nerve. I also comfort myself with the knowledge that these men will likely die alone and have no visitors at the nursing home. Lol.
What you said about “expert”. Sigh. Medical experts in trials are so often not the specialty in question. The most commonly quoted medical “experts” in some fields generally fail to disclose conflicts of interest and their understanding definitely has an impact on their opinion. My fav quote in today’s great post was about pregnant women being radioactive. Add pain to that list-pain makes you radioactive as well. Also, regarding distance driven to care, the partly secret non-FDA approved AI algorithm that determines whether you can fill a legal prescription takes into account how far your physician’s office is from your home, as well as the pharmacy, and it may be different for different areas, but does not take into account availability of care. So you can be coded as doing something suspicious because every other physician left the area and you had to drive farther to be seen, and that makes the doctor suspicious as well and can trigger a DEA SWAT team to their office or home. You could pull up footage of physicians in pajamas with family face down on the lawn with guns pointed at them. Or a wheelchair bound patient with a gun pointed at them (that one led to a suicide). But we will not see that on the news because disabled people are also objects and don’t have the numbers women do. This is all unacceptable. I hope we can codify reproductive rights.
As of now my state (Massachusetts) has no barriers to care. And even our system with some of the best hospitals in the world is losing ground on maternal health and infant mortality especially amongst Black women. the idea of these care desserts makes me sick.
I think the other problem with certain folks in our society and this includes women - they victim blame. If a woman is assaulted at a grocery store at 11pm, some people say "well, why didn't she go to the grocery store at 11am". NO NO NO...... that is the wrong question to ask..... she should be able to go to the store any damn time. No one says this when a man is assaulted at a grocery store at 11pm.
We should never allow for the double standards and victim blaming - men and women both should be able to freely move around pretty much anywhere at any time without worrying about getting assaulted.
I’m sorry you had that experience. The misogyny on the internet just gets louder and louder as we go down this frightening path. And many men - even the “good” ones whom we love - just don’t see it.
You’re not alone in your fears and I agree that having this community is so so important and so helpful in these tough moments. We fight together. I wish we didn’t have to but I’m grateful that we’re all here, that Jessica writes these newsletters and books and the comments are full of compassionate folks looking for ways to help. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane.
Thank you all for this safe space. I just had an experience on Instagram where I gave an affirmation on Jessica’s video regarding SCOTUS hearing. A person was not happy that I used Pregnant People rather than woman Naively I responded and said I was being inclusive and attached a link on inclusive language. She got angry and then another woman chimed in angry too. Jeepers next time I will ignore an ugly comment about my affirmation and move on.
I blocked them both and might change my settings. Hugs to you all ❤️❤️❤️
Tell them children, can and do get pregnant, are not yet women ,and should not be classified as such, to make the point. I know there are many others that fall under the "people" umbrella, but trying to shame the trolls usually works. Also remind them that many men need to be reminded we are people, because they are treating us like objects, which most women will get. Of course you probably had TERFs yelling as they do, and nothing trumps their hate.
People are so judgmental. They want to control the language *you* use, and use with good intentions. Unreal !
It just hasn’t been my experience on the Times so it jarred me, I don’t post many places because of the comments and that had seemed relatively safe. And then they didn’t approve my reply which just said thank you for proving my point but they approved 4 more guys to pile on and tell me how I don’t understand law and am essentially stupid. I know it’s because I touched a nerve, but it still sucks. Like I’m not sure how they curate their comments but it definitely looks like it’s on purpose to tell a particularly story.
The NYT is really quite conservative, they employ a bunch of misogynistic, shitty, right-wing men. The owner recently has been exposed for giving the order for all the negative press about Biden. Just because he wouldn't give them an interview. They would kill democracy supporting the Orange Ape, just because they are arrogant.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/25/new-york-times-biden-white-house-00154219
They should have approved your reply !! I comment in the Times quite a bit, because it is usually has sane, respectful, thoughtful, -- and yes, searing, comments. I've had someone go after me repeatedly once, and felt shook for a while, but then another commenter came to my defense. Sometimes when a comment gets heated, they delete the entire thread.
WaPo's comment section is awful !
Labrador says "EMTALA says nothing about abortion". Um, it doesn't need to. That's because abortion IS healthcare, something these politicians are working so very diligently to deny.
Perhaps the most disingenuous argument Idaho has made is that the fetus is the patient when a woman presents with a pregnancy that endangers her. In that case, the woman is the patient. When the fetus is the patient, the woman seeking care isn't having a medical emergency - her child is. That's why EMTALA says you can't dump the woman onto the street while she's in labor just because she lacks insurance, for example.
Exactly...... for the same reason EMTALA doesn't need to specifically say tonsillectomy, appendectomy, ulcers, myocardial infraction, stent, erectile dysfunction.........etc. We'd have to write encyclopedias after encyclopedias after encyclopedias into EMTALA..... , but of course Labrador knows very well the game he's playing.
“half of voters want states to make their own abortion laws”
And of course — even if they want it — that’s a fantasy that they haven’t really thought through (thanks MSM for nothing!) …
(1) our nation is way *way* too interconnected in 2024 to be functional like that.
(2) it will never be enough for the anti-abortionist camp until they get a national ban.
(3) voters rarely get to choose their own laws. If this was a popular vote on this issue — just like gun laws — this discussion would be over. States rights is for losing arguments.
Oddly enough those who champion the rights of Arizona or Texas to ban abortion do not champion the rights of Connecticut or New Jersey to clarify that abortion is legal in their states. Reminds me of those who uphold the rights of parents to home school their kids, because parents should be allowed to control their children's lives, but oppose the ability of parents to get gender-affirming care for their kids. Because then parents shouldn't be allowed to do anything that displeases the heckler.
"Cause I’ve decided so." I think this politician identifies too strongly with Homer Simpson.
doh !
I can definitely tell you Labrador is a lying sack of shit because the residents I supervise also help out the high risk pregnancy doctors at St Lukes in Boise and are the ones writing the transfer orders for these women flying out of state. This has all been really hard on the resident physicians. (Of course harder on the patients - I just don’t know them.)
Yeah, classic gaslighting. As a lifelong victim of gaslighting, this kind of stuff enrages. me.
Bald-faced lying like this needs called out publically so everyone knows what a douche-canoe this guy is.
I hate to say it but it would probably be good to rebut the accusations with proofs. The level of trust in this country is below zero and the people we most need to reach are already more skeptical of Democrats.
And I also hate to say but it would help to have more names associated with deaths. I know they likely won't be 'perfect' patients and the stories might not seem unambiguous, but still. It's just far too easy for people in this country to dismiss things as hyperbole.
I agree. But to do that could put those women and their families at risk for more victimization— death threats, or worse. It’s a dilemma.
Yes, that's true. We need to be organized - victims, providers, and supporters - and all find ways to have each other's backs. As many lives as are at stake now, it will be far more dire if we lose this election.
This is true. It’s easy for my relatives and my mom’s friends to avoid believing that the bans are really that bad because they can avoid the real stories of real women. While there’s no point wasting time on the misogynists, I think there are a lot of people who are burying their heads in the sand who would change their minds if forced to confront reality. As horrible as this is to say, they have to have real women’s suffering and death rubbed in their faces.
I believe that. Just trying to figure out a way to tell these stories without putting the victims at risk of being punished or attacked.
You are so correct in your assessment of the current situation, we just don’t trust anything the “other side” says unless there’s proof; & even then some people still won’t believe it.
Jordan Klepper asked some magas at a rally “What would you think if Trump said _____?” They answered that they wouldn’t believe he said that. He then showed them a vid of him saying exactly that, & they still didn’t believe it.
Can you point me to data on deaths? I haven’t found any yet...
Much appreciated!
The author of this website shared it the other day.
http://www.noabortionbans.com/
I haven't seen any either. But I was thinking specifically of this AED column from Jessica.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jessica/p/searching-for-savita?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=l0fb9
Yeni Glick
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/15/abortion-high-risk-pregnancy-yeni-glick
Poor Yeni, that was malpractice not to tell her, but I guess their hands and tongues were tied.
Oh yes, I remember this column and Savita’s story. Thanks, Zach!
Yeni Glick too.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/15/abortion-high-risk-pregnancy-yeni-glick
Yes. Some people won't believe even if they see the bodies, and f*** them. But some people might not believe _until_ they see the bodies, and it's that group I'm thinking of.
Doctors are lying. Women are lying. Little girls who are raped are lying. But politicians and attorneys, two groups of people who are notorious for lying, are telling the truth? Got it.
Exactly..... and the forced birth agenda organizations are telling the "truth" too....
everyone's a liar except the actual liars...
Up Is down, Down is up, right is wrong, wrong is right....