55 Comments
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What happened to the hypocritical oath? Isn’t it violated when you don’t provide an abortion when necessary and when doctors are required to give false information about abortion

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I like that autocorrect :) But yes these laws demand doctors to lie and neglect, which is intolerable.

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Natural law in Christian doctrine dictates that women's reproductive health is exempted from the Hippocratic oath. They must breed at all costs even if it kills them.

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I have to ask. Do some religions actually exclude womens health from the medical oath?

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Evidently going by pope Paul vi encyclical Humane Vitae. It's basically the Bible of the pro-life movement.

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The 5 women in SC are amazing - I hope they continue to filibuster and keep up the fight - it sounds like they won’t back down and I’m so glad to read that they’re gathering new allies - I liked this NYT article about them:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/us/south-carolina-abortion-ban.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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Use of the FACE act to punish graffiti is particularly infuriating given the real world interference with access to clinics from the orange vest clowns at Planned Parenthood last week. OPPD claimed there was nothing they could do unless the orange vests STEPPED IN FRONT of cars - flagging them down from the side while masquerading as some kind of official or safety worker was allowed.

So everybody got that? Spray-painting graffiti on the building's exterior = interfering with access to the facility. Standing at the entrance flagging people down and trying to convince them not to enter = not interfering with access to the facility.

I swear, I hate this place more every day.

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I don't know how you do this important work day after day. It's hard on the spirit. Thank you, Jessica

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I wish that there was more good news on this front, instead of our seemingly inevitable march to becoming a real-life version of Gilead.

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founding

I guess you have to think of the good news as every woman who didn't die, every woman who was able to get care despite the law being against them, everyone who helped one of those women find care, every doctor and clinic working around the clock to care for patients who are medical refugees from their own states. Because I have to say that it could be and should be even a lot worse. There have to be people out there doing a helluva job. We just need the same effort from our politicians.

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I was (somewhat) heartened by your words, Zach, and then I woke up to read THIS horror story:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/short-life-baby-milo-161039981.html

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I read the article it was heart wrenching. I see more adjectives of "torture" being used to describe abortion bans. I choose to read those stories and I wish there was a Public Service Announcement letting people know if your state wont let you get an abortion at 15 or 20 weeks there are organizations that can help you. Such as Brigid Alliance. https://brigidalliance.org

"The Brigid Alliance supports individuals who are seeking an abortion and are currently 15 weeks pregnant or more. If you have an appointment at one of our partner clinics (see below) or a clinic in any state where abortion remains accessible (see below) and you need help with travel, food, lodging, child care or other logistical aspects of accessing abortion care, we are here to help."

I donate to this organization. I do what I can to help. It helps me feel hopeful but sad that so many pregnant people do not know about these organizations.

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It was heartbreaking indeed. ☹️

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For as much as I write here, I really limit what I'm actually reading, for my own sanity. I read every newsletter from Jessica, but I don't read the linked stories that often, and I don't usually seek out other information on the situation, all because I know how upsetting it will be. Jessica is doing a huge service by putting everything we need to know in the newsletter, so that we can bear witness to what's going on, while at the same time making me feel confident I can limit my exposure, because I know she's got it covered. But it has to be excruciating for her and Grace to be reading horror stories all day long. I'm so grateful they can do it so I don't have to.

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“What is Wrong With You” would make a great slogan for posters, t shirts, etc.

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I just want to cry. This is worse than when I first became involved in fighting for womens rights in 1970.

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founding

Sad to hear but also important to hear. They really are going scorched earth, as if they're trying to bring about some kind of armageddon. It's like they think they weren't tough enough back in the 1960s so now they want a 19th century or medieval model.

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And I know I shouldn’t ask why because cruelty and revenge are the points, but how do people get so cruel and full of revenge?

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If only we knew that. I think a lot comes from selfishness - whatever the opposite of empathy is. And Laura mentioned disgust, which is a good one that I hadn't thought of, because I do remember from psychology class disgust being one of the core emotions.

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There's neuroscience research identifying the connection between conservatism and disgust.

LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES REACT IN WILDLY DIFFERENT WAYS TO REPULSIVE PICTURES

To a surprising degree, our political beliefs may derive from a specific aspect of our biological makeup: our propensity to feel physical revulsion.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/the-yuck-factor/580465/

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Interesting article. Thanks for posting. Lots to think about here.

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Explains a lot about anti-abortion. It seems to be motivated by their revulsion to sex. Hence why they literally call it purity culture.

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Sanctimony and the disgust of others its driven by.

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May 20, 2023·edited May 20, 2023

That article about the woman in FL had me seeing red. I had to put it down and return to it. What that woman and her baby went through was pure torture. Enraging.

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Genuinely don’t get how Tricia Cotham sleeps at night.

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founding

The same way as Donald Trump I guess. Narcissistic sociopaths don't have consciences or guilt or shame.

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In response to the woman who was murdered for getting an abortion. Just to point out, when it's actually included in maternal mortality statistics, murder is the #1 cause of death in pregnant people.

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founding

Whoo boy, they ARE going there. 'Doctors care more about abortion than women.' Yes, it's definitely predictable. But it's still hard not to enjoy it somewhat when they do something so incredibly STUPID.

They think abortion is a POLITICAL issue. So they want doctors who agree with them politically. But, abortion is NOT a political issue. Abortion is a MEDICAL issue. And they can't find enough doctors who are quacks.

Their prayers and their pastors will not be able to treat their illnesses or save their lives. They will need DOCTORS for that. But, guess what, they have chased all the doctors away! It's just like when covid came and they refused their vaccines. Unfortunately many of the people who will die will not be among those who voted for this nonsense.

They're going to have the same problem with teachers and professors too. They want educators who will teach 'alternative facts' but there will not be enough morons to do it. So their states grow stupider and sicker.

As this goes on everybody else is eventually going to realize that cheap labor and low taxes can't make up for the shortfalls. So these places are effectively committing suicide. But then that is not surprising because the Republican party is a death cult. We just need to keep them from taking the rest of us out with them.

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I get that doctors are truly between a rock and a hard place, risking jail time for standards of care, but honestly we're gonna need some of them to start disobeying these laws. We need that kind of "good trouble" to get back to what we had under Roe.

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founding

Yes, I think so. I understand the risks may be jail, loss of license or ability to practice (which they invested so much time and money in, not to mention hopes and dreams), and they have their lives and families to think about, but, it's also true that doctor is a profession we look to for heroes, it's a vocation in which it's said you get to play god, and we give them great respect and prestige and gratitude for their labors. We need our doctors to lead in this time of crisis, and the rest of us need to be thinking of how to best support them and have their backs when they come under fire.

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May 20, 2023·edited May 20, 2023

The law “flirting” (or in some cases, breaking) may be happening. I think law breaking via abortion provision is not going to be done in a way that is outwardly visible. If those docs (and nurses and all of the staff required to provide abortion care) want to keep providing it, they will be doing it as discreetly as possible. One care team shut down means one fewer option to receive care and likely worsening the fear of everyone else.

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founding

That's what we're all hoping🤞

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Doctors caring more about abortion than women makes no sense unless you are in the land of crazy with them. What does make sense is that they are confessing by projection that they care more about abortion than they care about women.

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Def sounds like projection. As the Nazis say, acuse those of that which you are guilty.

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Republicans are VERY big on projection.

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founding

So very true.

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Thank you for keeping on ...

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I don’t think I’ll ever get that phrase out of my mind: “the law has created torture”

It’s from the WaPo article about baby Milo, who his mother was forced to carry to term and then she watched him die as he gasped for air for 99 minutes.

The law has created torture.

And it’s not just in one state! What will it take to change the minds of Repubs who keep voting for these monstrous bills?

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The only way it will change them is if it happens to them (see the grandfather in that story) and even then, many of them will sadly justify for themselves while passing judgment on everyone else.

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founding

Yes. How many people do we have to torture for things to change?

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What makes it really sick is it's state-sanctioned torture OF A BABY!

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And also of the mother, who feels the pain of her child a thousand times over. At least that is my experience and that of most moms I know.

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Definitely. My oldest brother was born prematurely and died just a few minutes after he was born. This was in January 1951. When my mom died, almost 60 years later (2009) she was still grieving for her lost first child. She would go into weeks-long depressions every year and be pretty much non-functional. I didn't find out why this was so til about a year before she died. At the time, medical and psychological services that we take for granted today were either not available or nobody understood the trauma that people like my mom went through.

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To me that illustrates a point our side often makes. None of us are created as independent human beings, regardless of what the religious people say. Fundamentally we all start out as a part of our mother's body. So of course she can feel it.

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Getting a little choked up; what you wrote is making me think of my mom. Really good comment. Really good.

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Yeah it's seriously fucking twisted to not let a mother provide mercy to her baby.

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Thank you for constantly correcting the incorrect language that’s being used (10 week ban rather than 12 week ban, etc.). It is just dizzying how much is getting lost in translation in all of this. I appreciate that you are relentlessly keeping it real.

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founding

It's less federal charges for graffiti that's the problem and more that it's the FACE Act. The C stands for Clinic. These. Places. Are. Not. Clinics. And the definition of such is NOT a subject for political compromise.

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I'm getting really sick of democrat's appeasement tactic with fascists. We already played this out in history. It didn't go well.

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Yeah. I suppose good people often fall for trying appeasement because good people are by their nature reluctant to fight. Need to flip that switch and then see what happens. Last time it gave us The Greatest Generation, and then massive peace dividends afterwards.

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Yeah a book is coming out this year on the topic. That Gen Z is supposed to be the new Greatest Generation. It's called The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End. A lot of pressure on them. But what else are they going to do coming into adulthood when the planet is literally on fire.

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Yes, I've heard of that theory, that generations play out in a pattern of four. My niece is Gen Z; they seem cool. Definitely agree with you that they'll be the ones to fix the planet, if it's fixable. My only thought is what are the raw numbers; there are so many freakin' boomers. But then that betrays a Western bias (although some Asian countries are aging too). The distribution looks quite different in many underdeveloped countries.

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Evidently their population was enough to prevent the red tide in 2022. And each election will have more gen z voting as they age replacing boomers and older as they die. Millennials are still voting pretty liberal too. So millennials and gen z as a voting block, they have a good chance. Especially with the minority of boomers and gen x who vote liberal, too.

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Yeah, it's like I know we're okay, politically, by the '40s, and yes the '30s should be better than the '20s too, but damn it's hard to wait and watch people suffer all the while I'm getting old.

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