I hope there are doctors out there quietly breaking the law and not telling their patients legally mandated lies about their healthcare, or finding ways to provide necessary healthcare. Electronic medical records make that much more difficult, of course, but I *have* to hope there are cracks in the system and people doing the right thing despite the risks and without any chance of recognition beyond whisper networks.
The thing that most infuriates me about the attacks on contraception is that it makes it so much harder to be open about the real risks and downsides, because you know that discussing adverse events will be used as fuel for the christofascist fires.
For example, I personally have tried two different hormonal birth control pills and had dangerous side effects from each one. The first pill flipped a switch in my brain and made me want to kill myself until I stopped taking it, and then the switch flipped back, all those thoughts went away in about 3 days' time, and I was left reeling like "dear god why did I just spend six months of my life desperately wanting to die", and the second gave me increasingly severe, lengthy, and frequent migraines. I stopped taking that one when I was spending more than half of my time with a migraine, and the next time I saw a gynecologist she told me I had been at risk for a stroke and she recommended that I never take hormonal BC pills again.
She talked through other forms of contraception with me and we decided to try a hormonal IUD since it's a lower, more targeted dose of hormones. She made sure I knew what side effects to watch out for, that I could contact her with any questions at all, and that I could call the clinic any time to come in and have it taken out. I had that IUD for 5 years before replacing it with another very similar one that's good for 7 years. When I made the appointment I talked to a nurse who took the time to look up the exact difference between the two IUDs and discuss my concerns.
This isn't a story about how contraception is bad and dangerous, and should be banned or controlled by the government, or never sold over the counter! It's a story about the importance of access to healthcare in the first place, how it's absolutely essential to have options, and how healthcare professionals need to be freely able to provide the best care for each individual patient.
I'm sorry you went through that to find something that works for you. It shows the complex aspects of female reproductive health, and why politicians (or anyone besides the woman and her doctor) should stay the fuck out of it.
I agree, I hope there are doctors doing that all over. I would be immediately banned from practicing medicine, the first person who needed life saving care and they couldn’t get, I’d be committing insurance fraud. No way I could lie about abortion stuff-- and doctors HAVE TO LIE?! Man, did I take the red pill? Nope it sucks with both, women are always treated like breeding machines.
Election results are an even more reliable indicator of public opinion than polls. And they keep on supporting abortion rights. The latest is the defeat of an incumbent Democratic anti-abortion legislator in Virginia (Morrissey) in favor of Lashrecse Aird, who is on track now to become a State Senator. The next one to watch out for (and work on) is the Aug. 8 election on Issue 1 in Ohio (not specifically about abortion but designed by Republicans to stifle a pro-abortion-rights petition in the works for November. Message for politicians: there is no downside to coming out strongly in favor of abortion rights (one exception might be for Republicans who fear getting primaried on the right, which is really sad). There is also a hopeful development in the Virginia results in that several nutcase Republicans lost their primary against more moderate challengers.
The anti-feminists drive me nuts. You think handmaid barret would be on the high court but for the doors kicked open by women like RBG? And the rights that Steinheim and Chisholm and all the other women's libbers fought for?? And then to spit on that legacy...shameful. I can't believe these girls actually want to go back to days where women couldn't even have a bank account in their name. These idiot conservative young women have no idea how privileged they are.
They are taught that submitting to the man is God’s will. That they should do it joyfully. And that, yes, if women would do it, it would be as close as we could get to heaven on earth.
I wish I were kidding. Advocating for this shit may be the only power many of them have in their lives.
I wonder if they hold a belief of an imaginary 'golden age' in which men could take care of women? No such thing ever existed but like a lot of nostalgia it may have an appeal. They don't want to be responsible for themselves, and they think the only thing stopping men from being men and being the sole provider is changes in the world brought about by those awful feminists?
Jessica & Grace, I think you should be thanked daily for what you two do. Thank you for all your time & efforts & information. Jessica, thank you for providing this platform.
Even on days when no one writes a similar message, I hope you know that many are thankful for your efforts, hold you in high regard and are grateful to have access to this space with like minded people.
Sonderman reveals his position when he states: “On the other side of the coin, some blue, pro-choice states have doubled down on unfettered abortion access. In Colorado, it now seems that the whole thing is legal until the baby’s first birthday. Or do I exaggerate?”
Such bloviating nonsense.
I do notice that most of the BS written is coming from the white cis hetero male community. Sure they now have their white blonde woman token and other women here and there, but it constantly amazes me how the menfolk are just scared of us. Their need to control us is pathological.
What a fucking moron. 1 years old. Don’t you love how they use the same ol’ attention grabbing bullshit. Just proof they actually know zero about anything besides the size of their micro dicks.
And I just loved (/s) how he wrote that some women have been inconvenienced....tell that to the women almost dying or having emergency hysterectomies or any of the abhorrent trauma that these bans have inflicted.
Inconvenienced is when you are forced to listen to some old, rich, white, windbag whine about women having rights. Far from the horrifying destruction that pregnancy can cause.
Absolutely, hence my comment about the token women. However, I could be wrong, but it feels like the overwhelming majority of these stories feature the white man.
I'm guessing that's for marketing purposes though? It's much easier to reject messaging on abortion from someone who biologically cannot become pregnant, so anti-abortion organizations want women to be the faces of their organizations.
It would be interesting if someone could do a study of what Americans think fetal development looks like at various stages, compared to what it actually is, and then of what Americans think are the statistics about gestational age at, reason for, and method of, abortion, compared to what they actually are. I would bet the beliefs are nowhere near the truth, and that those of Republican voters are a good bit further, especially those of voters who identify as "pro-life". It would be useful to examine how much of voter opinion on abortion is determined by level of misinformation, as opposed to just different values. I was thinking about it when I read the question, "How did Republicans get to be the extremists?" If one were badly misinformed about the realities of fetal development and abortion, one might not understand why the Republican positions are so extreme. Misogyny isn't going anywhere, but I do think anti-abortion depends on misinformation to keep its support from completely collapsing. Hopefully an effect of this crisis will be that Americans become less uneducated about those realities.
I was shown anti-abortion videos in school and church. I believed all abortion happened to fully-developed babies because every image showed that. I also had no fucking idea how my body worked or how babies happened. All to say, yes it’s REALLY bad in red states.
Reproductive anatomy education in red states SUCKS. When I ask my uni students what they learned about this in high school, it's usually just abstinence only and no fetal development. It's BAD.
There have been more than a few reports that when women receive the required sonogram in some states they are surprised by what they see. What is usually missing from those articles is why they are surprised as if the information should speak for itself, which to some degree it does.
For hardcore pro-life believers, I personally think the problematic miscarriage horror stories will make the most inroads in the “enlightenment” category. Many of my friends in the Deep South have daughters of childbearing age who are starting families and they have new 1st time fears about what ifs. Most turned on T in 2020, but their husbands didn’t. That is an electorate that needs enlightened… or as I wrote yesterday, at this point, I’m not above shaming them.
I think more stories on complications are needed, too. They seem to move the needle a bit, at least with female pro-lifers who read my recent articles and wanted to argue with me. A couple have been shocked and appalled by some of the stories I’ve shared, most from this newsletter.
They settled on abortion as the issue in the 1970s because it emotionally motivated women. No reason not to use their own tools against them to show the cruel, inhumane consequences of these bans.
It penetrates those with money because they realize that a crises miscarriage or a fetal anomaly, which most don’t learn about until 20 weeks, is time & care sensitive. It forces them to think about how they would deal with that from a logistical lens versus a monetary lens. In addition, they connect the dots that this could happen to their child, no matter how good of insurance, funds, doctors they have.
Another avenue that stays in my mind is how little history 60 year olds & younger know about how things were prior to Roe in regards to hospitals. There were floors dedicated to sepsis patients. That fact alone widens many eyes when I share it.
There was a study I think when I was in my master's midwifery program in 1996 that said they gave a group of doctors a paper and said "draw a fetus" and the vast majority of doctors drew a full fledged infant. So your point is well taken.
It's also about controlling women. Women who are pregnant again and again find it difficult, if not impossible, to be promoted, to be hired for high-paying, powerful positions, and many find it impossible to keep a low-wage, low-skill job because even though it's illegal to refuse to hire women simply because of their gender, it's done all the time and even in prestigious positions. I know of a physician radiology practice that was looking for another partner and wanted to hire a man because "women get pregnant and take time off". Forced pregnancy will mean far fewer female doctors, lawyers, politicians, upper management, and CEO/CFO's. With fewer women making the big decisions, once again every decision in America will be based on the male, and most likely, the white male, perspective and advantage. .
Having a baby in America is outrageously expensive, especially in light of the fact hat we have the worst infant and maternal mortality of any industrialized country. Pregnancy and delivery are expensive even if you health insurance. The US C-section rate is an outrageous 33% and of course, women who get a c-section have significantly higher delivery costs. The Kaiser Family Fund found in 2022 that the average cost of pregnancy and childbirth for c-sections is $26,280 with $3,314 out-of-pocket vs. vaginal birth at $14,768 with $2,655 out-of-pocket. There is also the loss of income for women who work. Women who quality for Medicaid will be covered retroactively but for women who don't qualify, the entire cost of an uninsured birth is the mother's responsibility. Add any complications for mom or baby, any NICU stays, or multiple births, and the costs skyrocket very quickly. Without exceptions for rape and incest, women who become pregnant after rape or incest will be burden with the entire cost of the pregnancy, delivery, and childcare as well as the emotional burden. Women who live in poverty are much easier to control than women with ample resources since their options are limited.
The republican stance on abortion stems for their complete lack of knowledge about all things female genitalia, menstruation, and pregnancy as well as the risks that come with pregnancy, the number of fetal diagnosis that are fatal or lead to profound medical problems that lead to infants who will never leave the ICU. republicans completely misunderstand what a D&C is, the risks and frequency of tubal pregnancies and retained miscarriage (the fetus is dead but still in the uterus). They don't understand that tubal pregnancies will always rupture and that causes hemorrhaging. Waiting until it ruptures is a very dangerous way to treat a tubal pregancy and it always means a loss in fertility on that side whereas a medication abortion can save the tube. Treatment after hemorrhaging begins means the women will have at best a long, complex recovery and at worst, she may die. republican do not understand the danger of a retained fetus and the risk of sepsis. Forcing women to wait until the fetus is fully dead or completely outlawing a D&C (which is an abortion procedure) is cruel and very very dangerous At best, the women will need IV antibiotics for a couple of weeks but most will require ICU care and have long recoveries and some will die.
Antiabortion zealots have spread so many lies about abortions and republicans believe those lies including that the trauma of rape protects the victim from getting pregnant. The female head of an antiabortion group repeated that nonsense recently. They refuse to consider real statistics like the frequency of the sexual assault of women and children across all spaces and across traditionally republican spaces including religion where we have seen a large number of Catholic priests and Baptists ministers grooming and sexually assaulting young children and women. In the evangelical and fundamentalist Mormon religions, it is very common for full-grown men to marry girls as young as 12 and again we see church leaders grooming and sexually abusing young kids. Unfortunately, the churches have all chosen to protect the abuser by quietly moving them to another church without notifying the new church of the dangers. Youth organizations like The Boy Scouts and athletic organizations like USA gymnastics and the National Women's Soccer League have had big scandals with coaches and/or doctors sexually assaulting children and women players over decades. Doctors and coaches at Ohio State, Michigan State, The University of Michigan and Penn State have been accused by male and female athletes of sexually assaulting players under the auspice of "providing medical care". In every situation, there are allegations that coworkers and staff were made aware of the allegations and they chose to protect the assailant for years or decades. I know several people we were treated by Larry Nassar at MSU, thankfully they don't believe they were abused.
The people who are making decisions about abortions don't understand anything that they are doing. We have already seen obstetricians leaving deep red states because they cannot stand by and watch their patients get critically ill or die before they can intervene and in some states, like Texas, it's still unclear if they can be charged criminally for treating dying women. OB residents are leaving these states because they need to learn to provide abortion care and they won't get proper training in these states. That leaves the women in these states with far fewer providers. Pregnancy in America is already dangerous business, especially for Black women, but it will be much more dangerous over the coming years. If they outlaw birth control it will be devastating for women. Birth control pills are used for much more than contraception. They are used to treat menstrual problem like menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, and other medical diagnosis that get worse around one's menstruation.
I think it's primarily about punishing women and misinformation is just used to justify that punishment. I don't think much can be done about the misinformation until they're called out for their underlying motivation.
Well that's the motivation to spread the misinformation, and I have no doubt that level of passion on the issue strongly correlates with misogyny. But for the average Republican voter I do wonder about the cause-effect, and sort of the chicken-and-egg problem.
I correct the misinfo all the time and it always ends in "well they need to suffer the consequences for their actions" or some variation. The "consequences" of course being literal babies.
Yeah, I'm probably thinking more of voters who are wishy-washy or think, 'Why can't we come to some compromise?' than voters who are unequivocally anti-abortion.
I see that a lot too. I get the impression many of those women are older 70-80, but I could be wrong. It was drilled into many in that age group by their own mother’s.
That Tish Warren Harrison (whatever) piece raised my blood pressure by 20 points when I first read it. For me it was the ‘continuous right to life’ which she insists is only fulfilled by starting with life at conception, even though an Episcopal priest should know that that’s not biblical (and neither is ‘heartbeat’) even if she personally follows Anglican or Catholic dogma. As a priest she has likely counseled many women, but I doubt she has counseled the hundreds of young low income women like I did in a maternal health/family planning clinic, where I was witness to many of the challenges of life with reproductive concerns layered on top of them. There is plenty of biblical bases to support caring for the sick, feeding the hungry and especially inviting in immigrants, and thousands of verses elevating concerns for those people living in poverty. Jesus didn’t mention abortion, but he did denounce oppression and injustice, which is what these abortion bans result in. And I believe she lives in Texas. Is she blind to the torture and suffering of women experience pregnancy complications?
They aren’t blind either. They’re unwilling to even entertain that people were NOT born with the same privileges as them. They all know one person that suffered as a child and became a self made millionaire, so they ignore the statistics that show the horror of anything- abortion bans, poverty, injustice. Cuz hey! My one friend of a friend did it, so everyone can! They need to check their privilege and own the impact of their bigotry.
They don’t even support feeding the poor, the homeless, the suffering, cuz that is socialism. They don’t help kids either in that situation, they should have picked better parents, who should have kept their legs closed. So them giving a fuck about women dying from abortions would shock me anyways. They love to use the Bible when it’s convenient. How handy to have a book available that absolves you of any real opinion, because they can twist the words to fit their narrative.
This "seamless garment" business is so creepy. They want to control both pregnancy and end-of-life decisions for us in the name of a cruel and inhuman ideal. It reminds me of the media circus in 2005 a bunch of religious zealots tried to force Terri Schiavo's family to keep her on life support against her will.
Brings to mind a Christopher Hitchens quote from his book on mother Theresa The Missionary Position, "MT [Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction." It is a literal cult of suffering.
You make a compelling case for why Christians should support reproductive rights and economic and social justice, but unfortunately it seems that a majority of the people who identify as Christian in this country do not demonstrate support for that, and rather more often demonstrate support for the opposite, at least judging by their political affiliation and activities. It also seems that Christian is more of an identity for them than a belief system, and so it may be less responsive to the argument that they misunderstand their faith. I don't know how else to better explain when their attitudes and actions stray so far from the teachings of Jesus.
"Is she blind to the torture and suffering of women experiencing pregnancy complications?"
It seems these people are quite aware and even actively encourage the suffering. The cruelty is the point. Women need to be punished for their sexual behavior even if they're married with wanted pregnancies that went horribly wrong. It's God's "natural law" that they suffer for their "sins".
I think she doesn’t quite fit into that mold--she supports immigrant rights and is against the death penalty, but I do think she holds the ‘sacrifice for the unborn baby’ mindset which often extends to ‘women are selfish’ if they want to end a pregnancy.
Sure. But medieval ‘humonculous’ language and seizing the moral high ground, in their minds, has many in the anti-abortion movement convinced it really is about fully-formed babies at conception.
I wonder if the willful ignorance of embryology could be related to the reluctance of religious people to let kids learn how humans start out with tails and proto-gills, since it sort of confirms the truth of evolution.
The truth of science most often conflicts with the ideas of the world that people get from religious texts. To remain a believer one either has to make their interpretation of the religious text much more flexible, or deny the legitimacy of science and the scientific method. Those who make the most noise about being believers seem to overwhelmingly choose the second option.
Ignorance of embryology and fetal development is pretty widespread, especially for people exposed to the homunculus images promoted by the anti-abortionists.
Victoria, I’m in VB & also excited by this news! We got redistricted & have a lot of work to do for 2025 to try to change southern VB.
To ALL on this thread, we really need help electing pro-choice legislative (delegate) candidates in VA this November. It’s really an all hands on deck moment that can contain pro-life Youngkin (who no doubt has Presidential aspirations) and keep abortion accessible for families in VA, & surrounding states which have passed anti abortion policies.
Phil Hernandez in Norfolk is running in a competitive seat & needs $ & volunteers. As well as Aird. There are others. PLEASE consider helping.
Figures that Abbott would spell “rein in” incorrectly. 🙄
I like the weekly review and analysis. Helps make sense of all the information. Reading the newsletter is good for "news" but like this analysis
I hope there are doctors out there quietly breaking the law and not telling their patients legally mandated lies about their healthcare, or finding ways to provide necessary healthcare. Electronic medical records make that much more difficult, of course, but I *have* to hope there are cracks in the system and people doing the right thing despite the risks and without any chance of recognition beyond whisper networks.
The thing that most infuriates me about the attacks on contraception is that it makes it so much harder to be open about the real risks and downsides, because you know that discussing adverse events will be used as fuel for the christofascist fires.
For example, I personally have tried two different hormonal birth control pills and had dangerous side effects from each one. The first pill flipped a switch in my brain and made me want to kill myself until I stopped taking it, and then the switch flipped back, all those thoughts went away in about 3 days' time, and I was left reeling like "dear god why did I just spend six months of my life desperately wanting to die", and the second gave me increasingly severe, lengthy, and frequent migraines. I stopped taking that one when I was spending more than half of my time with a migraine, and the next time I saw a gynecologist she told me I had been at risk for a stroke and she recommended that I never take hormonal BC pills again.
She talked through other forms of contraception with me and we decided to try a hormonal IUD since it's a lower, more targeted dose of hormones. She made sure I knew what side effects to watch out for, that I could contact her with any questions at all, and that I could call the clinic any time to come in and have it taken out. I had that IUD for 5 years before replacing it with another very similar one that's good for 7 years. When I made the appointment I talked to a nurse who took the time to look up the exact difference between the two IUDs and discuss my concerns.
This isn't a story about how contraception is bad and dangerous, and should be banned or controlled by the government, or never sold over the counter! It's a story about the importance of access to healthcare in the first place, how it's absolutely essential to have options, and how healthcare professionals need to be freely able to provide the best care for each individual patient.
I'm sorry you went through that to find something that works for you. It shows the complex aspects of female reproductive health, and why politicians (or anyone besides the woman and her doctor) should stay the fuck out of it.
I agree, I hope there are doctors doing that all over. I would be immediately banned from practicing medicine, the first person who needed life saving care and they couldn’t get, I’d be committing insurance fraud. No way I could lie about abortion stuff-- and doctors HAVE TO LIE?! Man, did I take the red pill? Nope it sucks with both, women are always treated like breeding machines.
I don't need 10 choices.
When should you get a voice in whether abortion should be allowed? When it's YOUR abortion. Otherwise STFU and MYOB.
I wrote a list about the options the non uterus users have-
https://open.substack.com/pub/phezweb/p/dont-ever-have-sex-ever?r=tjqaw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
As one of those non uterus users, I'm good with this. Particularly partial to number 13.
Election results are an even more reliable indicator of public opinion than polls. And they keep on supporting abortion rights. The latest is the defeat of an incumbent Democratic anti-abortion legislator in Virginia (Morrissey) in favor of Lashrecse Aird, who is on track now to become a State Senator. The next one to watch out for (and work on) is the Aug. 8 election on Issue 1 in Ohio (not specifically about abortion but designed by Republicans to stifle a pro-abortion-rights petition in the works for November. Message for politicians: there is no downside to coming out strongly in favor of abortion rights (one exception might be for Republicans who fear getting primaried on the right, which is really sad). There is also a hopeful development in the Virginia results in that several nutcase Republicans lost their primary against more moderate challengers.
The anti-feminists drive me nuts. You think handmaid barret would be on the high court but for the doors kicked open by women like RBG? And the rights that Steinheim and Chisholm and all the other women's libbers fought for?? And then to spit on that legacy...shameful. I can't believe these girls actually want to go back to days where women couldn't even have a bank account in their name. These idiot conservative young women have no idea how privileged they are.
They are taught that submitting to the man is God’s will. That they should do it joyfully. And that, yes, if women would do it, it would be as close as we could get to heaven on earth.
I wish I were kidding. Advocating for this shit may be the only power many of them have in their lives.
Maybe voluntary self-enslavement of wives is heaven on earth for the men, but it is hell on earth for the women.
"Submitting to men is God's will"...gag me...
I wonder if they hold a belief of an imaginary 'golden age' in which men could take care of women? No such thing ever existed but like a lot of nostalgia it may have an appeal. They don't want to be responsible for themselves, and they think the only thing stopping men from being men and being the sole provider is changes in the world brought about by those awful feminists?
Jessica & Grace, I think you should be thanked daily for what you two do. Thank you for all your time & efforts & information. Jessica, thank you for providing this platform.
Even on days when no one writes a similar message, I hope you know that many are thankful for your efforts, hold you in high regard and are grateful to have access to this space with like minded people.
Sonderman reveals his position when he states: “On the other side of the coin, some blue, pro-choice states have doubled down on unfettered abortion access. In Colorado, it now seems that the whole thing is legal until the baby’s first birthday. Or do I exaggerate?”
Such bloviating nonsense.
I do notice that most of the BS written is coming from the white cis hetero male community. Sure they now have their white blonde woman token and other women here and there, but it constantly amazes me how the menfolk are just scared of us. Their need to control us is pathological.
What a fucking moron. 1 years old. Don’t you love how they use the same ol’ attention grabbing bullshit. Just proof they actually know zero about anything besides the size of their micro dicks.
And I just loved (/s) how he wrote that some women have been inconvenienced....tell that to the women almost dying or having emergency hysterectomies or any of the abhorrent trauma that these bans have inflicted.
Inconvenienced is when you are forced to listen to some old, rich, white, windbag whine about women having rights. Far from the horrifying destruction that pregnancy can cause.
Certainly see plenty of cis white women in anti-abortion too. Usually white supremacist types.
Absolutely, hence my comment about the token women. However, I could be wrong, but it feels like the overwhelming majority of these stories feature the white man.
Seems like half of the anti-abortion movement is women sadly. Certainly in the upper ranks.
I'm guessing that's for marketing purposes though? It's much easier to reject messaging on abortion from someone who biologically cannot become pregnant, so anti-abortion organizations want women to be the faces of their organizations.
Gallup polling shows nearly half of anti-abortion are women.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/244709/pro-choice-pro-life-2018-demographic-tables.aspx
Astounding!
There's still a pretty sizable gap there. The other interesting thing is this shows 'pro-choice' leading 'pro-life' only 52-44.
It would be interesting if someone could do a study of what Americans think fetal development looks like at various stages, compared to what it actually is, and then of what Americans think are the statistics about gestational age at, reason for, and method of, abortion, compared to what they actually are. I would bet the beliefs are nowhere near the truth, and that those of Republican voters are a good bit further, especially those of voters who identify as "pro-life". It would be useful to examine how much of voter opinion on abortion is determined by level of misinformation, as opposed to just different values. I was thinking about it when I read the question, "How did Republicans get to be the extremists?" If one were badly misinformed about the realities of fetal development and abortion, one might not understand why the Republican positions are so extreme. Misogyny isn't going anywhere, but I do think anti-abortion depends on misinformation to keep its support from completely collapsing. Hopefully an effect of this crisis will be that Americans become less uneducated about those realities.
Live stream I meant
I’ve always said too, let’s life stream various stages of abortions. Show what really is removed. Let’s solve the damn debate.
I was shown anti-abortion videos in school and church. I believed all abortion happened to fully-developed babies because every image showed that. I also had no fucking idea how my body worked or how babies happened. All to say, yes it’s REALLY bad in red states.
Reproductive anatomy education in red states SUCKS. When I ask my uni students what they learned about this in high school, it's usually just abstinence only and no fetal development. It's BAD.
Yeah, the people who want young adults to be anti-abortion want to make sure they're not taught fetal development.
There have been more than a few reports that when women receive the required sonogram in some states they are surprised by what they see. What is usually missing from those articles is why they are surprised as if the information should speak for itself, which to some degree it does.
For hardcore pro-life believers, I personally think the problematic miscarriage horror stories will make the most inroads in the “enlightenment” category. Many of my friends in the Deep South have daughters of childbearing age who are starting families and they have new 1st time fears about what ifs. Most turned on T in 2020, but their husbands didn’t. That is an electorate that needs enlightened… or as I wrote yesterday, at this point, I’m not above shaming them.
I think more stories on complications are needed, too. They seem to move the needle a bit, at least with female pro-lifers who read my recent articles and wanted to argue with me. A couple have been shocked and appalled by some of the stories I’ve shared, most from this newsletter.
They settled on abortion as the issue in the 1970s because it emotionally motivated women. No reason not to use their own tools against them to show the cruel, inhumane consequences of these bans.
100% this!!
It penetrates those with money because they realize that a crises miscarriage or a fetal anomaly, which most don’t learn about until 20 weeks, is time & care sensitive. It forces them to think about how they would deal with that from a logistical lens versus a monetary lens. In addition, they connect the dots that this could happen to their child, no matter how good of insurance, funds, doctors they have.
Another avenue that stays in my mind is how little history 60 year olds & younger know about how things were prior to Roe in regards to hospitals. There were floors dedicated to sepsis patients. That fact alone widens many eyes when I share it.
There was a study I think when I was in my master's midwifery program in 1996 that said they gave a group of doctors a paper and said "draw a fetus" and the vast majority of doctors drew a full fledged infant. So your point is well taken.
It's also about controlling women. Women who are pregnant again and again find it difficult, if not impossible, to be promoted, to be hired for high-paying, powerful positions, and many find it impossible to keep a low-wage, low-skill job because even though it's illegal to refuse to hire women simply because of their gender, it's done all the time and even in prestigious positions. I know of a physician radiology practice that was looking for another partner and wanted to hire a man because "women get pregnant and take time off". Forced pregnancy will mean far fewer female doctors, lawyers, politicians, upper management, and CEO/CFO's. With fewer women making the big decisions, once again every decision in America will be based on the male, and most likely, the white male, perspective and advantage. .
Having a baby in America is outrageously expensive, especially in light of the fact hat we have the worst infant and maternal mortality of any industrialized country. Pregnancy and delivery are expensive even if you health insurance. The US C-section rate is an outrageous 33% and of course, women who get a c-section have significantly higher delivery costs. The Kaiser Family Fund found in 2022 that the average cost of pregnancy and childbirth for c-sections is $26,280 with $3,314 out-of-pocket vs. vaginal birth at $14,768 with $2,655 out-of-pocket. There is also the loss of income for women who work. Women who quality for Medicaid will be covered retroactively but for women who don't qualify, the entire cost of an uninsured birth is the mother's responsibility. Add any complications for mom or baby, any NICU stays, or multiple births, and the costs skyrocket very quickly. Without exceptions for rape and incest, women who become pregnant after rape or incest will be burden with the entire cost of the pregnancy, delivery, and childcare as well as the emotional burden. Women who live in poverty are much easier to control than women with ample resources since their options are limited.
The republican stance on abortion stems for their complete lack of knowledge about all things female genitalia, menstruation, and pregnancy as well as the risks that come with pregnancy, the number of fetal diagnosis that are fatal or lead to profound medical problems that lead to infants who will never leave the ICU. republicans completely misunderstand what a D&C is, the risks and frequency of tubal pregnancies and retained miscarriage (the fetus is dead but still in the uterus). They don't understand that tubal pregnancies will always rupture and that causes hemorrhaging. Waiting until it ruptures is a very dangerous way to treat a tubal pregancy and it always means a loss in fertility on that side whereas a medication abortion can save the tube. Treatment after hemorrhaging begins means the women will have at best a long, complex recovery and at worst, she may die. republican do not understand the danger of a retained fetus and the risk of sepsis. Forcing women to wait until the fetus is fully dead or completely outlawing a D&C (which is an abortion procedure) is cruel and very very dangerous At best, the women will need IV antibiotics for a couple of weeks but most will require ICU care and have long recoveries and some will die.
Antiabortion zealots have spread so many lies about abortions and republicans believe those lies including that the trauma of rape protects the victim from getting pregnant. The female head of an antiabortion group repeated that nonsense recently. They refuse to consider real statistics like the frequency of the sexual assault of women and children across all spaces and across traditionally republican spaces including religion where we have seen a large number of Catholic priests and Baptists ministers grooming and sexually assaulting young children and women. In the evangelical and fundamentalist Mormon religions, it is very common for full-grown men to marry girls as young as 12 and again we see church leaders grooming and sexually abusing young kids. Unfortunately, the churches have all chosen to protect the abuser by quietly moving them to another church without notifying the new church of the dangers. Youth organizations like The Boy Scouts and athletic organizations like USA gymnastics and the National Women's Soccer League have had big scandals with coaches and/or doctors sexually assaulting children and women players over decades. Doctors and coaches at Ohio State, Michigan State, The University of Michigan and Penn State have been accused by male and female athletes of sexually assaulting players under the auspice of "providing medical care". In every situation, there are allegations that coworkers and staff were made aware of the allegations and they chose to protect the assailant for years or decades. I know several people we were treated by Larry Nassar at MSU, thankfully they don't believe they were abused.
The people who are making decisions about abortions don't understand anything that they are doing. We have already seen obstetricians leaving deep red states because they cannot stand by and watch their patients get critically ill or die before they can intervene and in some states, like Texas, it's still unclear if they can be charged criminally for treating dying women. OB residents are leaving these states because they need to learn to provide abortion care and they won't get proper training in these states. That leaves the women in these states with far fewer providers. Pregnancy in America is already dangerous business, especially for Black women, but it will be much more dangerous over the coming years. If they outlaw birth control it will be devastating for women. Birth control pills are used for much more than contraception. They are used to treat menstrual problem like menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, and other medical diagnosis that get worse around one's menstruation.
Wow, that's depressing.
And that's DOCTORS. People who should have some knowledge and some training about biology.
I think it's primarily about punishing women and misinformation is just used to justify that punishment. I don't think much can be done about the misinformation until they're called out for their underlying motivation.
Well that's the motivation to spread the misinformation, and I have no doubt that level of passion on the issue strongly correlates with misogyny. But for the average Republican voter I do wonder about the cause-effect, and sort of the chicken-and-egg problem.
I correct the misinfo all the time and it always ends in "well they need to suffer the consequences for their actions" or some variation. The "consequences" of course being literal babies.
Yeah, I'm probably thinking more of voters who are wishy-washy or think, 'Why can't we come to some compromise?' than voters who are unequivocally anti-abortion.
I see that a lot too. I get the impression many of those women are older 70-80, but I could be wrong. It was drilled into many in that age group by their own mother’s.
That Tish Warren Harrison (whatever) piece raised my blood pressure by 20 points when I first read it. For me it was the ‘continuous right to life’ which she insists is only fulfilled by starting with life at conception, even though an Episcopal priest should know that that’s not biblical (and neither is ‘heartbeat’) even if she personally follows Anglican or Catholic dogma. As a priest she has likely counseled many women, but I doubt she has counseled the hundreds of young low income women like I did in a maternal health/family planning clinic, where I was witness to many of the challenges of life with reproductive concerns layered on top of them. There is plenty of biblical bases to support caring for the sick, feeding the hungry and especially inviting in immigrants, and thousands of verses elevating concerns for those people living in poverty. Jesus didn’t mention abortion, but he did denounce oppression and injustice, which is what these abortion bans result in. And I believe she lives in Texas. Is she blind to the torture and suffering of women experience pregnancy complications?
They aren’t blind either. They’re unwilling to even entertain that people were NOT born with the same privileges as them. They all know one person that suffered as a child and became a self made millionaire, so they ignore the statistics that show the horror of anything- abortion bans, poverty, injustice. Cuz hey! My one friend of a friend did it, so everyone can! They need to check their privilege and own the impact of their bigotry.
They don’t even support feeding the poor, the homeless, the suffering, cuz that is socialism. They don’t help kids either in that situation, they should have picked better parents, who should have kept their legs closed. So them giving a fuck about women dying from abortions would shock me anyways. They love to use the Bible when it’s convenient. How handy to have a book available that absolves you of any real opinion, because they can twist the words to fit their narrative.
This "seamless garment" business is so creepy. They want to control both pregnancy and end-of-life decisions for us in the name of a cruel and inhuman ideal. It reminds me of the media circus in 2005 a bunch of religious zealots tried to force Terri Schiavo's family to keep her on life support against her will.
Brings to mind a Christopher Hitchens quote from his book on mother Theresa The Missionary Position, "MT [Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction." It is a literal cult of suffering.
You make a compelling case for why Christians should support reproductive rights and economic and social justice, but unfortunately it seems that a majority of the people who identify as Christian in this country do not demonstrate support for that, and rather more often demonstrate support for the opposite, at least judging by their political affiliation and activities. It also seems that Christian is more of an identity for them than a belief system, and so it may be less responsive to the argument that they misunderstand their faith. I don't know how else to better explain when their attitudes and actions stray so far from the teachings of Jesus.
The loudest voices are Catholic and Evangelical (who hold a well-established opposition to abortion that started during the post-happy meal period.
"Is she blind to the torture and suffering of women experiencing pregnancy complications?"
It seems these people are quite aware and even actively encourage the suffering. The cruelty is the point. Women need to be punished for their sexual behavior even if they're married with wanted pregnancies that went horribly wrong. It's God's "natural law" that they suffer for their "sins".
I think she doesn’t quite fit into that mold--she supports immigrant rights and is against the death penalty, but I do think she holds the ‘sacrifice for the unborn baby’ mindset which often extends to ‘women are selfish’ if they want to end a pregnancy.
It's consistent with Catholic teaching but the punishment of women's sins still underlies the ideology.
Sure. But medieval ‘humonculous’ language and seizing the moral high ground, in their minds, has many in the anti-abortion movement convinced it really is about fully-formed babies at conception.
I wonder if the willful ignorance of embryology could be related to the reluctance of religious people to let kids learn how humans start out with tails and proto-gills, since it sort of confirms the truth of evolution.
The truth of science most often conflicts with the ideas of the world that people get from religious texts. To remain a believer one either has to make their interpretation of the religious text much more flexible, or deny the legitimacy of science and the scientific method. Those who make the most noise about being believers seem to overwhelmingly choose the second option.
Ignorance of embryology and fetal development is pretty widespread, especially for people exposed to the homunculus images promoted by the anti-abortionists.
\o/ I live in Virginia and Aird just *aborted* scumbag Joe Morrisey in the Democratic primary! I'm so happy :D
(Sorry, couldn't help myself!)
Victoria, I’m in VB & also excited by this news! We got redistricted & have a lot of work to do for 2025 to try to change southern VB.
To ALL on this thread, we really need help electing pro-choice legislative (delegate) candidates in VA this November. It’s really an all hands on deck moment that can contain pro-life Youngkin (who no doubt has Presidential aspirations) and keep abortion accessible for families in VA, & surrounding states which have passed anti abortion policies.
Phil Hernandez in Norfolk is running in a competitive seat & needs $ & volunteers. As well as Aird. There are others. PLEASE consider helping.
Meanwhile in the NYT, we have more handwringing over Republicans “fighting” about this issue. 🙄🙄
https://news.yahoo.com/dobbs-republicans-push-risky-territory-114135532.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma
I hope their infighting about abortion rights signals the death knell of today's Republican party.
Agreed.