With these budget negotiations going on, we need to make sure the Democrats don't allow any tiny poison pills the Republicans attempt to sneak through in order to take away our rights.
Outside of the obvious and vile double standard of dehumanizing real, living, breathing people in an effort to call embryos or fetuses "people," does this rush to "personhood" create tax implications? Doesn't this open up the possibility that people with frozen embryos or that a pregnant person could claim these things as "dependents" on income tax returns?
Every time any politician or media person or anyone uses this verbiage unborn child it must immediately be corrected by using the word fetus. With force and no apology.
Thank you - appreciated. Finding the right language is extremely challenging. The full version has to include fetilized eggs, embryos and fetuses - since they want to treat all of these as if they already have a separate existence as legal persosn. As Evan D. Bernick and Jill Weber Lens explain in their recent law review article, Abortion, Original Public Meaning & the Ambiguities of Pregnancy: "A blastocyte is not an embryo is not a fetus" which is why these authors reject “fetal personhood” noting that it "threatens to mislead about the genealogy . . "
One day, women in some state, maybe Alabama, are going to wake up to find they can't renew their birth control. Then the sh-- will hit the fan and maybe they will stop voting against their own interests.
Right. If they claim it's a "person/child/unborn human" in a WOMB (gag) then it's a "person/child/unborn human" in a test tube. The fact that they -- the GOP, Trump, the Fox disinformation network - now want to make a carveout for IVF and leave the rest of us vulnerable to contraception bans, abortion bans, is unacceptable. It's the height of hypocrisy. They twist the laws and use them as shields to mask their oppression. (Except Trump. He just makes it up on the spot. 15, no 16 weeks because it's an even number. Close the border / no don't close it now because I want to win and if you solve that issue then I won't have an issue to run on. ")
We are not having it! We are not dumb. My jaw drops constantly.
The women in Alabama who have suffered through this oppression! It's unconscionable. Like they're property!
Subscribing to this substack is some of the best money spent! Thank you Jessica and Lynn. You pursue and fight even while encountering these horrible truths. Let’s not forget either the use of prison labor by many corporations. Cruel hypocrisy is running rampant in Alabama and other states.
I have a bumper sticker on my car that reads, "Abortion Is Against My Religion." I'm not a bumper sticker gal. Nonetheless, I slapped this one on (from the National Council of Jewish Women), because I grew up in TX and was used to being confronted/affronted by stickers such as: Honk If You Love Jesus, Jesus Saves, Have You Tried Jesus?, Jesus Is My Friend, and on and on. Oh, and the metal fish symbols on the backs of cars. And the megachurches with electronic billboards by the side of the highway. My grown children (conceived by IVF) are a bit appalled by my liberal lefty bumper sticker. I don't care. It's my turn. And I mean it.
If frozen embryos “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God” then why isn't Aladamnbama leaving it up to that hold God they value so highly to deal with the problem?
I am not a member of any Christian community, but it is important to take issue with a phrase in the first paragraph: "this decision, based on Christian theology...." The belief that fertilized eggs are the moral equivalent of human persons is based on a very particular Christian theology held by a small minority of Christians, and the government basing law on this particular theology will be as offensive to most Christians as it is to the rest of us.
It is very important that we isolate the theocratic radicals from the great majority of Christians who find their views as repellent as the rest of us.
I saw a great comment about Alabama rushing to protect IVF clinics while still oppressing women: "An embryo is more of a person than a woman, but less of a person than a business"
I believe they are arresting these women poor and Black, to be broodmares for their human puppy-mills they are planning to make, remember the Magdalene laundries?
"That means even if the Alabama legislature somehow acts to protect IVF, the legal personification of fertilized eggs, embryos or fetuses will still remain the law. Our outrage needs to go beyond one ruling about IVF. We must loudly decry and oppose all of Alabama’s laws, rulings and prosecutorial practices that legally personify the unborn. We cannot and should not settle for justice only for some people, and allow others to face criminalization and dehumanization based on disingenuous and theological constructions of the term 'child.'"
Yes!!
But this does need some parsing.
"... the legal personification of fertilized eggs, embryos or fetuses will still remain the law ..."
This sums up the whole problem. It is pointed out above that this language has been applied against women since (at least) 2006, long before the collapse of Roe v Wade. And so RvW did nothing to protect these women.
"We must loudly decry and oppose all of Alabama’s laws, rulings and prosecutorial practices that legally personify the unborn."
This is certainly a slip. At no time should voiced opposition to legally personifying fertilized eggs, embryos or fetuses include the bizarre term "unborn".
As for the rest, "We cannot and should not settle ...", I think it is enough to confront and expose the "... disingenuous and theological constructions of the term 'child'" The word "child" is a well behaved noun with some real meaning, but badly corrupted when mated with the weird term "unborn" as in "unborn child" or used to describe any part of gestation.
In general, I avoid comparing American fascism and theocracy to that in other countries because, often enough, we are worse. The overturning of Roe IS theocracy; it's not "like" theocracy somewhere else. Additionally, some of the worse terrorism against marginalized groups in other countries is the result of work of American Christian groups operating in those countries.
We need to own America's potent role in spreading theocracy at home and abroad.
All very good points. The comparisons might nevertheless be useful for Americans who aren't as aware, but then again maybe not, idk. You're quite right about America's culpability.
As a Christian I take issue with any of these organized groups that what they’re pedaling is Christian. We’re a free country with free exercise rights, but the ‘theo’ which is the focus of their indoctrination of those who are susceptible to it is equal to any other extremist movement with a religious veneer.
They'll use religion as a vehicle because of its protected status, as so many hucksters and snake-oil evangelists have done for millennia. Also the tax-free staus makes their take way richer.
Can this please be reprinted far and wide? Especially given that the rescue law "protecting ivf" that the governor of Alabama is likely to sign will expire just in time for a potential Republican executive branch January 2025.
I read yesterday that the bill AL passed yesterday protects doctors and clinics but it sounds like it doesn’t protect patients - did anyone else read this too? Also even if the Gov signs it into law, won’t the AL Supreme Court rule invalidate it?
Thank you, Jessica, for laying out the history and context for the AL IVF ruling. AL slowly working at this for years is a flashing red warning light for what’s happening in other red states and what the GOP is plotting. Sometimes freedoms are abolished overnight but more often it’s a slow chipping away for years while people aren’t paying attention.
With these budget negotiations going on, we need to make sure the Democrats don't allow any tiny poison pills the Republicans attempt to sneak through in order to take away our rights.
Have you had your history of your comments that were liked erased beyond the past few days? Mine was and I don't know how that happened.
Outside of the obvious and vile double standard of dehumanizing real, living, breathing people in an effort to call embryos or fetuses "people," does this rush to "personhood" create tax implications? Doesn't this open up the possibility that people with frozen embryos or that a pregnant person could claim these things as "dependents" on income tax returns?
They already do in Georgia at 6 weeks ! And that one went into effect with few alarm bells. Astonishing!
Unbelievable! Thanks for the reply - that's interesting.
Every time any politician or media person or anyone uses this verbiage unborn child it must immediately be corrected by using the word fetus. With force and no apology.
Thank you - appreciated. Finding the right language is extremely challenging. The full version has to include fetilized eggs, embryos and fetuses - since they want to treat all of these as if they already have a separate existence as legal persosn. As Evan D. Bernick and Jill Weber Lens explain in their recent law review article, Abortion, Original Public Meaning & the Ambiguities of Pregnancy: "A blastocyte is not an embryo is not a fetus" which is why these authors reject “fetal personhood” noting that it "threatens to mislead about the genealogy . . "
One day, women in some state, maybe Alabama, are going to wake up to find they can't renew their birth control. Then the sh-- will hit the fan and maybe they will stop voting against their own interests.
Right. If they claim it's a "person/child/unborn human" in a WOMB (gag) then it's a "person/child/unborn human" in a test tube. The fact that they -- the GOP, Trump, the Fox disinformation network - now want to make a carveout for IVF and leave the rest of us vulnerable to contraception bans, abortion bans, is unacceptable. It's the height of hypocrisy. They twist the laws and use them as shields to mask their oppression. (Except Trump. He just makes it up on the spot. 15, no 16 weeks because it's an even number. Close the border / no don't close it now because I want to win and if you solve that issue then I won't have an issue to run on. ")
We are not having it! We are not dumb. My jaw drops constantly.
The women in Alabama who have suffered through this oppression! It's unconscionable. Like they're property!
Subscribing to this substack is some of the best money spent! Thank you Jessica and Lynn. You pursue and fight even while encountering these horrible truths. Let’s not forget either the use of prison labor by many corporations. Cruel hypocrisy is running rampant in Alabama and other states.
I have a bumper sticker on my car that reads, "Abortion Is Against My Religion." I'm not a bumper sticker gal. Nonetheless, I slapped this one on (from the National Council of Jewish Women), because I grew up in TX and was used to being confronted/affronted by stickers such as: Honk If You Love Jesus, Jesus Saves, Have You Tried Jesus?, Jesus Is My Friend, and on and on. Oh, and the metal fish symbols on the backs of cars. And the megachurches with electronic billboards by the side of the highway. My grown children (conceived by IVF) are a bit appalled by my liberal lefty bumper sticker. I don't care. It's my turn. And I mean it.
If frozen embryos “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God” then why isn't Aladamnbama leaving it up to that hold God they value so highly to deal with the problem?
I am not a member of any Christian community, but it is important to take issue with a phrase in the first paragraph: "this decision, based on Christian theology...." The belief that fertilized eggs are the moral equivalent of human persons is based on a very particular Christian theology held by a small minority of Christians, and the government basing law on this particular theology will be as offensive to most Christians as it is to the rest of us.
It is very important that we isolate the theocratic radicals from the great majority of Christians who find their views as repellent as the rest of us.
Thanks for this - will get it right next time.
I saw a great comment about Alabama rushing to protect IVF clinics while still oppressing women: "An embryo is more of a person than a woman, but less of a person than a business"
Doesn't that align with the pro-billionaire bought-and-paid for Christian Nationalist right...sarcasm font.
I believe they are arresting these women poor and Black, to be broodmares for their human puppy-mills they are planning to make, remember the Magdalene laundries?
"That means even if the Alabama legislature somehow acts to protect IVF, the legal personification of fertilized eggs, embryos or fetuses will still remain the law. Our outrage needs to go beyond one ruling about IVF. We must loudly decry and oppose all of Alabama’s laws, rulings and prosecutorial practices that legally personify the unborn. We cannot and should not settle for justice only for some people, and allow others to face criminalization and dehumanization based on disingenuous and theological constructions of the term 'child.'"
Yes!!
But this does need some parsing.
"... the legal personification of fertilized eggs, embryos or fetuses will still remain the law ..."
This sums up the whole problem. It is pointed out above that this language has been applied against women since (at least) 2006, long before the collapse of Roe v Wade. And so RvW did nothing to protect these women.
"We must loudly decry and oppose all of Alabama’s laws, rulings and prosecutorial practices that legally personify the unborn."
This is certainly a slip. At no time should voiced opposition to legally personifying fertilized eggs, embryos or fetuses include the bizarre term "unborn".
As for the rest, "We cannot and should not settle ...", I think it is enough to confront and expose the "... disingenuous and theological constructions of the term 'child'" The word "child" is a well behaved noun with some real meaning, but badly corrupted when mated with the weird term "unborn" as in "unborn child" or used to describe any part of gestation.
This article should be front page in every major news outlet.
Substack in not working for me either.
In general, I avoid comparing American fascism and theocracy to that in other countries because, often enough, we are worse. The overturning of Roe IS theocracy; it's not "like" theocracy somewhere else. Additionally, some of the worse terrorism against marginalized groups in other countries is the result of work of American Christian groups operating in those countries.
We need to own America's potent role in spreading theocracy at home and abroad.
So true.
All very good points. The comparisons might nevertheless be useful for Americans who aren't as aware, but then again maybe not, idk. You're quite right about America's culpability.
As a Christian I take issue with any of these organized groups that what they’re pedaling is Christian. We’re a free country with free exercise rights, but the ‘theo’ which is the focus of their indoctrination of those who are susceptible to it is equal to any other extremist movement with a religious veneer.
Yes.
They'll use religion as a vehicle because of its protected status, as so many hucksters and snake-oil evangelists have done for millennia. Also the tax-free staus makes their take way richer.
Can this please be reprinted far and wide? Especially given that the rescue law "protecting ivf" that the governor of Alabama is likely to sign will expire just in time for a potential Republican executive branch January 2025.
!!!!!
I read yesterday that the bill AL passed yesterday protects doctors and clinics but it sounds like it doesn’t protect patients - did anyone else read this too? Also even if the Gov signs it into law, won’t the AL Supreme Court rule invalidate it?
Thank you, Jessica, for laying out the history and context for the AL IVF ruling. AL slowly working at this for years is a flashing red warning light for what’s happening in other red states and what the GOP is plotting. Sometimes freedoms are abolished overnight but more often it’s a slow chipping away for years while people aren’t paying attention.