21 Comments

I can think of no circumstance where I would vote for a candidate who did not support abortion rights. I don't care what party they belong to - anti-abortion Democrats are just as off-limits to me as anti-abortion Republicans, or anti-abortion Greens for that matter, assuming there are such things.

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I worked in quantitative research. If there are only ten members of an ethnicity in a county with 100 people, you don’t report the one person in your data because someone has a one in ten chance of figuring out who it is. That’s a breach of privacy. How many ten year olds were living in Ohio at the time? Tens of thousands? Millions? That is not a breach of privacy. It would be impossible to identify the child. Of course, logic never works with these people so I’m not sure why I bother stating the obvious.

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DeSantis is just a jerk. The world turned upside down. No one was walking up to a pregnant woman in the supermarket and saying "you must abort!" I never saw one bumper sticker advocating for forced abortions. What an insultingly stupid argument. I wonder how many viewers nodded and said "Yes yes, it's my right to tell my neighbor what to do and no one should be able to stop me."

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Well... regarding the 3 in 10. Let's not stress yet. If you look at the percentage of responses to "what was your single most important factor in your vote" during the midterms, a quarter to a third said "women being whole autonomous full human beings not being owned by the state." (my words) And Dems did well in the midterms.

https://www.kff.org/other/dashboard/health-care-in-the-midterm-elections-apvotecast-polling/

It certainly is mystifying why more people, women especially, aren't up in arms about their bodies being owned by the state.

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I’m suspicious about that number, too. In fact, I just don’t believe it's that low.

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Todd Rokita is a Catholic and has decided many cases according to the church's interests. Here he is writing a guest column for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. In this Catholic publication, he defends Republican tax cuts to programs that assist the poor.

https://www.archindy.org/criterion/local/2015/04-17/guest.html

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I haven't read it but I'm assuming it's to increase the poor's dependence on the church.

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Ha! He argues that "Dignity of work" is what they need. It is so gross that a state AG is that tightly coupled with the church and openly legislating its doctrines.

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What's particularly gross is that the people who don't work tend to be children, the elderly, the sick and disabled. And who are the ones paying their bills? Their families. The church isn't going to do crap for them.

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Yes, and also mothers who have children but no way to afford childcare. These moms have lots of work, but precious little dignity from it. Rokita is a sick bastard.

https://accountable.us/?s=rokita

https://restorepublictrust.org/the-ugly-truth-about-todd-rokita/

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Wow he doesn't even support abortion to save a mother's life. How "pro-life" of him.

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Yep, the church is certainly getting their money's worth from him.

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I’m not surprised about the stat that 3/4 of respondents didn’t know mifepristone is used to manage miscarriages. I was so frustrated in mid-March during that initial ruling in Texas by how many mainstream articles just simply said that a ruling against the pill would limit abortion access without emphasizing that a ruling against mifepristone puts literally *every* woman in jeopardy because *every* woman is capable of miscarrying. I get that we need to reclaim and destigmatize the word abortion, but there’s a lot of education that needs to happen because the right has done so much damage - most people still think of abortion as ending an unwanted pregnancy rather than a medical procedure that applies to so many different circumstances. Honestly, I didn’t know that the abortion pill was also miscarriage care until I lost my baby at 17 weeks last fall and needed a D&E, which included a regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol. There’s so much you don’t know until you experience it yourself. Anyway, I totally agree with you, Jessica - this needs to get emphasized a *lot* more.

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I'm sorry to hear about your loss and glad that you could get the care you needed. It's enraging that so many women won't get that in what should be a time of mourning.

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Yes, my heart breaks for women in the south and other red states. I don’t think I would contemplate another pregnancy if I didn’t live in NY. We are in such a devastating time.

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3 in 10?

As far as I'm concerned these numbers are pathetic.

I hate it here.

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Living in the south, I was surprised it was this high! Still, I wish more people prioritized defending our human rights.

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I have only ever voted for pro-choice candidates. If a woman is subject to the whims of the state when it comes to her reproduction, then she's a second class citizen.

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KFF poll - I assume it's credible if Jessica's using it as a reference - underscores the bubble I've chosen to live in. 3 out of 10 putting abortion rights front and center is a disappointing shock.

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I think the 2022 election results show that there was never a majority that strongly supported abortion rights. I live in Georgia and Kemp won handily over Abrams. What it does show is that abortion rights will be critical in swings states (as it was in 2022) and therefore pivotal for a 2024 Democratic victory.

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That’s what I thought

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