For the senators: that abortion care is about prioritizing women’s (and pregnant people’s, but it might not be the audience for inclusive language) lives, children’s lives and families. That fetuses and embryos are not alive without us and can’t make medical decisions. We are the parents making decisions for their and our own and our family’s future, seeing as, you know, 59% of the people who get abortions are already parents. We weigh all those factors when faced with an unplanned or a doomed pregnancy, not the least of which is whether or not THEY have provided us with the lifelong resources to raise a child. And they haven’t. They’ve only made choosing parenting harder.
I just finished listening to an excellent book: UNCULTURED, by Daniella Mestyanek Young. At 15, she left the Children of God cult and later joined the Army. She endured sexual and physical abuse from the time she was a very little girl. Much of what she writes rings true about anti-abortion zealots I’ve encountered (though the book isn’t at all about abortion): “Besides, I learned from the older kids that I could always tell on someone else. And then they might get hit too and that would make me feel better for a little while.” It is about group-think and patterns of abuse, how such behavior is enabled and how people become so numb to it and come to want to see it inflicted on others because it affirms them for a minute. And they believe, not only that abusing others doesn’t matter, but that they’ll be rewarded for it in heaven if they’re doling out punishment to people who are unworthy. Very interesting. People raised in a punitive, abusive environment like that are dehumanized from so young, it makes dehumanizing others not just second nature, but righteous. I’m big on understanding what makes people tick. I don’t know...it helps me...process, I guess.
This is such good news to hear that you will be representing so many women this week in DC. I would take the headlines off your columns and insist they use them as talking points:
-The Catholic Hospital System Killing Women
- Florida bill would ban abortions for children unless they're about to die
- Of Course They Want Us Dead
And then I would insist that they defer to their social media savvy young staff members to find all of the horrifying things that Repubs have said out loud and sequence them into an ad that plays during the Super Bowl. We need to blitz the airwaves every other week with how destructive these policies are for EVERYONE, not just the women who die or who are maimed.
Thank you so much, Jessica + Grace! I'm not sure what we would all do with out you!
How dare anyone tell any woman that she might have to die, or suffer permanent, irreversible damage because abortion laws assume that women don’t have agency over their own bodies like men. It’s unsupportable that women have now attained the status of Blacks as per the Constitution - three fifths of a person. Do we need another 14th amendment to make women full citizens? Since the Supreme Court decided that the right of women to live is no longer a right, that it is up to each state to determine our right to be alive, there is likely no choice. And based on “originalism”, shouldn’t the vote of Clarence Thomas only count for 3/5th of a vote? After all that’s what the Constitution says.
Please ensure that all senators know that this is an issue that will impact all their constituents! Many assume that if you have the money, you can find a doc, and get a safe, legal abortion. When abortion is illegal, there is no protection for the pregnant women from doctors who are not ethical, like the OB/GYN who sexually assaulted me immediately after an illegal abortion! I was 17, and there was no recourse. "REAL" doctors can also be sexual predators, and there will be no protection. And even if parents can afford to get a "real" GYN to provide an AB for their daughter, they can't ensure her safety, if the procedure itself is not legal. Thank you for considering including this little noticed issue, JV. I share all the other concerns posted, but this one never is seen!
* all birth control should be sold over the counter, accessible by everyone, FREE - stop making women run the gauntlet.
* repeal The Comstock Act and any other state laws banning abortion, contraceptive, mail, etc
* stop the bounties, stop private citizen lawsuits, stop counties from preventing opening Healthcare clinics
* the extremists have proven bans kill and women sufferr - make abortion legal in all states, NO gestation. Just like Oregon. It's the only thing that will protect women with lethal fetus diagnosis.
* neither a person or clinic or hospital supposed "religious rights" can never supersede an individual right to Health Care. That includes Pharmacy employees denying to service us under the guise of "religious freedom".
Grateful to your journalism and advocacy JV. I am hungry for courage. So that's what I want the Senators to know. There has been very little of it on display among the Dem Senate in the face of onslaught against basic democratic norms by the New Republican Party. They keep showing up with a butter knife to a gun fight, where the Republicans (candidates for president, Senators, talk show hosts) fire off their automatic weapons. I am tired of cowardice. I want to see clear, full-throated, genuine courage in standing up for decency, for democracy, and yes, for a huge range of policies supporting the dignity, healthcare, and freedom of the *only* group of people who can reproduce the next generation of Americans: young people with uteruses.
One of the things I really try to emphasize with folks is that the assumption is that those of us in states where abortion is legal like Colorado are doing okay. We're not okay. All the physical and emotional trauma of patients in distress from abortion ban states coming here transfers onto us - advocates, providers, the entire support network.
As Dr Rebecca Cohen put it in 5280 Magazine, “I’ve become an emotional support gynecologist,” Cohen says with a sad laugh. “Jokes aside, the injustice of it all is hard to handle day in and day out for us.” Perhaps the most difficult part, Cohen says, is that patients are hurting in ways they shouldn’t have to. “People who come here from states where abortion is banned are coming here alone, and they’re scared,” she says. “It’s too much of a legal burden to tell a friend. We have to hold their hands instead.”
I have been having a Bible study with my Southern Evangelical family. I believe in choice - no questions. I’m voting for Democrat for Democracy. With that clearly stated, what I have heard over the past couple years is those relatives who seem to be the most hard line to the “righteous” morally, also see the “fall” of Adam and Eve in Genesis and the idea of “man has being “sinful” because of Adam and Eve”. Those people who were less hardline, were more in tune with “He who is without sin can cast the first stone”. We are all flawed. This dichotomy in belief systems appears to be part of the “justification” some people are attempting to use to prevent a woman from receiving life saving Emergency abortion care. There is no medical “sense”, (I worked in a hospital), to attempt to “save” a dying or doomed fetus (unborn baby) and let a living woman or girl die. The one is a LIVING person, the other will not make it. It’s simple triage. Instead - I have seen comment after comment that the “unborn baby” is “innocent”. That Living woman/girl is a child of the same Almighty God so why are they letting her die when they could save her? That’s like not being the Good Samaritan and instead letting her die instead of the fetus/dying baby that wasn’t going to make it. The Lord Already Knew the baby wouldn’t make it. It was a test may have been were they going to save the woman and they flunked it. ALL babies are innocent and all babies go back to Heaven. I’ve had a glimpse - it’s incredible. My Evangelical family believes I saw it. The Lord has stepped in for me too many times. They can’t explain it.
If people don’t want abortions than do as much as possible to support pregnant women and girls including: food, housing medical care, child care, work support. Get them guaranteed income so they can take care of those children. That’s how to get the abortion numbers down. But that challenges the other side on whether they are willing to put their $$$$ where their mouth is?? Are they willing to follow their faith if it means parting with their money and acting as Good Shepherd’s?
Thank you, Jessica, for being the voice for all of us. We trust you to share the vital importance of what is happening to women and girls throughout the country and to try to bring some sense to Capitol Hill.
Thank you for your advocacy! You’re going to be awesome!
And please remind our senators that “viability” is nonsensical especially when it comes to nonviable pregnancies or babies that are expected to die shortly after birth!
For the senators: that abortion care is about prioritizing women’s (and pregnant people’s, but it might not be the audience for inclusive language) lives, children’s lives and families. That fetuses and embryos are not alive without us and can’t make medical decisions. We are the parents making decisions for their and our own and our family’s future, seeing as, you know, 59% of the people who get abortions are already parents. We weigh all those factors when faced with an unplanned or a doomed pregnancy, not the least of which is whether or not THEY have provided us with the lifelong resources to raise a child. And they haven’t. They’ve only made choosing parenting harder.
I just finished listening to an excellent book: UNCULTURED, by Daniella Mestyanek Young. At 15, she left the Children of God cult and later joined the Army. She endured sexual and physical abuse from the time she was a very little girl. Much of what she writes rings true about anti-abortion zealots I’ve encountered (though the book isn’t at all about abortion): “Besides, I learned from the older kids that I could always tell on someone else. And then they might get hit too and that would make me feel better for a little while.” It is about group-think and patterns of abuse, how such behavior is enabled and how people become so numb to it and come to want to see it inflicted on others because it affirms them for a minute. And they believe, not only that abusing others doesn’t matter, but that they’ll be rewarded for it in heaven if they’re doling out punishment to people who are unworthy. Very interesting. People raised in a punitive, abusive environment like that are dehumanized from so young, it makes dehumanizing others not just second nature, but righteous. I’m big on understanding what makes people tick. I don’t know...it helps me...process, I guess.
AMAZING! Congratulations!
This is such good news to hear that you will be representing so many women this week in DC. I would take the headlines off your columns and insist they use them as talking points:
-The Catholic Hospital System Killing Women
- Florida bill would ban abortions for children unless they're about to die
- Of Course They Want Us Dead
And then I would insist that they defer to their social media savvy young staff members to find all of the horrifying things that Repubs have said out loud and sequence them into an ad that plays during the Super Bowl. We need to blitz the airwaves every other week with how destructive these policies are for EVERYONE, not just the women who die or who are maimed.
Thank you so much, Jessica + Grace! I'm not sure what we would all do with out you!
How dare anyone tell any woman that she might have to die, or suffer permanent, irreversible damage because abortion laws assume that women don’t have agency over their own bodies like men. It’s unsupportable that women have now attained the status of Blacks as per the Constitution - three fifths of a person. Do we need another 14th amendment to make women full citizens? Since the Supreme Court decided that the right of women to live is no longer a right, that it is up to each state to determine our right to be alive, there is likely no choice. And based on “originalism”, shouldn’t the vote of Clarence Thomas only count for 3/5th of a vote? After all that’s what the Constitution says.
Please ensure that all senators know that this is an issue that will impact all their constituents! Many assume that if you have the money, you can find a doc, and get a safe, legal abortion. When abortion is illegal, there is no protection for the pregnant women from doctors who are not ethical, like the OB/GYN who sexually assaulted me immediately after an illegal abortion! I was 17, and there was no recourse. "REAL" doctors can also be sexual predators, and there will be no protection. And even if parents can afford to get a "real" GYN to provide an AB for their daughter, they can't ensure her safety, if the procedure itself is not legal. Thank you for considering including this little noticed issue, JV. I share all the other concerns posted, but this one never is seen!
* all birth control should be sold over the counter, accessible by everyone, FREE - stop making women run the gauntlet.
* repeal The Comstock Act and any other state laws banning abortion, contraceptive, mail, etc
* stop the bounties, stop private citizen lawsuits, stop counties from preventing opening Healthcare clinics
* the extremists have proven bans kill and women sufferr - make abortion legal in all states, NO gestation. Just like Oregon. It's the only thing that will protect women with lethal fetus diagnosis.
* neither a person or clinic or hospital supposed "religious rights" can never supersede an individual right to Health Care. That includes Pharmacy employees denying to service us under the guise of "religious freedom".
Grateful to your journalism and advocacy JV. I am hungry for courage. So that's what I want the Senators to know. There has been very little of it on display among the Dem Senate in the face of onslaught against basic democratic norms by the New Republican Party. They keep showing up with a butter knife to a gun fight, where the Republicans (candidates for president, Senators, talk show hosts) fire off their automatic weapons. I am tired of cowardice. I want to see clear, full-throated, genuine courage in standing up for decency, for democracy, and yes, for a huge range of policies supporting the dignity, healthcare, and freedom of the *only* group of people who can reproduce the next generation of Americans: young people with uteruses.
One of the things I really try to emphasize with folks is that the assumption is that those of us in states where abortion is legal like Colorado are doing okay. We're not okay. All the physical and emotional trauma of patients in distress from abortion ban states coming here transfers onto us - advocates, providers, the entire support network.
As Dr Rebecca Cohen put it in 5280 Magazine, “I’ve become an emotional support gynecologist,” Cohen says with a sad laugh. “Jokes aside, the injustice of it all is hard to handle day in and day out for us.” Perhaps the most difficult part, Cohen says, is that patients are hurting in ways they shouldn’t have to. “People who come here from states where abortion is banned are coming here alone, and they’re scared,” she says. “It’s too much of a legal burden to tell a friend. We have to hold their hands instead.”
I'd like a list of the Democrats that don't show up. Booooo to them!!!
I have been having a Bible study with my Southern Evangelical family. I believe in choice - no questions. I’m voting for Democrat for Democracy. With that clearly stated, what I have heard over the past couple years is those relatives who seem to be the most hard line to the “righteous” morally, also see the “fall” of Adam and Eve in Genesis and the idea of “man has being “sinful” because of Adam and Eve”. Those people who were less hardline, were more in tune with “He who is without sin can cast the first stone”. We are all flawed. This dichotomy in belief systems appears to be part of the “justification” some people are attempting to use to prevent a woman from receiving life saving Emergency abortion care. There is no medical “sense”, (I worked in a hospital), to attempt to “save” a dying or doomed fetus (unborn baby) and let a living woman or girl die. The one is a LIVING person, the other will not make it. It’s simple triage. Instead - I have seen comment after comment that the “unborn baby” is “innocent”. That Living woman/girl is a child of the same Almighty God so why are they letting her die when they could save her? That’s like not being the Good Samaritan and instead letting her die instead of the fetus/dying baby that wasn’t going to make it. The Lord Already Knew the baby wouldn’t make it. It was a test may have been were they going to save the woman and they flunked it. ALL babies are innocent and all babies go back to Heaven. I’ve had a glimpse - it’s incredible. My Evangelical family believes I saw it. The Lord has stepped in for me too many times. They can’t explain it.
If people don’t want abortions than do as much as possible to support pregnant women and girls including: food, housing medical care, child care, work support. Get them guaranteed income so they can take care of those children. That’s how to get the abortion numbers down. But that challenges the other side on whether they are willing to put their $$$$ where their mouth is?? Are they willing to follow their faith if it means parting with their money and acting as Good Shepherd’s?
A meet-up sounds like a great idea.
Isn't it scary how Trump probably relishes how much people are willing to suffer in the cold to see him. And they love it.
According to MSNBC, he actually said (paraphrased): go out tonight and caucus for me. You may pass away, but it will be worth it.
Can’t think of anyone more deserving to give testimony! Thank you for all that you and Grace do to keep this important issue front and center!
Thank you, Jessica, for being the voice for all of us. We trust you to share the vital importance of what is happening to women and girls throughout the country and to try to bring some sense to Capitol Hill.
Thank you for your advocacy! You’re going to be awesome!
And please remind our senators that “viability” is nonsensical especially when it comes to nonviable pregnancies or babies that are expected to die shortly after birth!