Thanks once again Jessica. After what happened with the whole Terry Schiavo disaster, I am not surprised that a woman's death would be subservient to antiabortion ideology. This is a disaster for the family.
First, thanks, Jessica, for this jam-packed edition of AED. You are indefatiguable and we are so incredibly fortunate for your work, perseverence and acute insights and analyses.
I'd like to recommend the short documentary, "62 Days" about a Texas family challenging the law that kept their loved one on life support because she was pregnant. It is not only informative but upllifting because the family won in court! and in Texas! And were able to change the law!
Also, as some one who worked at Planned Parenthood for 3O years, I want to completely confirm that some of our medication abortion patients indeed went to the ER because they needed reassurance about their bleeding. They did this even though we always had a clinician on call, and had fully educated them in what to expect. This is a medical event happening at home, and like a miscarriage, there is a variable amount of bleeding that can cause fear and uncertainty. Sensibly , help was sought. Many people seek help at the ER for all sorts of concerns, for peace of mind.
Finally, NY state has a great template for teen health care and parental notification. In the wisdom of our DOH and legislature, there are three areas where teens have medical autonomy: Seeking and obtaining substance abuse treatment, seeking and obtaining mental health treatment, and seeking and obtaining reproductive health care, including, aboriton.
Someone I respect said that no one has to be responsible for the bills of an unmarried adult. The parents should NOT have to pay any medical bills for poor Adriana Smith since treatments are being done against their wishes. If the child actually survives this and is born, the state should provide medical insurance for the poor kid.
I think it’s important to push back against the language that she is being “kept alive” by machines. She is not; she is dead. Her body is being made to function as an incubator by machines. I’m not sure the best language to express that reality. I just feel it’s disrespectful and wrong to call what is being done to her “life.”
About your videos. I would love to steal your videos, but in my chrome browser, I see no way of linking of viewing your videos anywhere except your posts. I generally prefer to view videos posted at a website at their source which is usually X or YouTube. Are you aware of some other way of viewing your videos?
About the fertility clinic bombing. All the reports I heard say something about the suicide bomber as being an "antinatalist" and also a "promortalist". The reproductive rights community is not saying much about this. Was the guy an antiabortionist and it is being covered up? A strange case.
About the Rewire article on LGBTQ people being twice as likely to terminate a pregnancy. This naturally begs the question, how are LGBTQ people getting pregnant? We can comfortably restrict this sample to women. But these women are less likely to be participating in heterosexual sex. What the report is really saying is that for those LGBTQ women, they are more likely to have an abortion than heterosexual women. But really, LGBTQ women are far, far less likely to require birth control or abortion.
And forgot to attach the link to my most recent post which just came out. Hot off the presses!!! Yes, I'm dating myself. I'm very proud of my maps, so please check those out.
I'm posting about abortion and Virginia and I included a link to your substack. I always mention that I follow you, but this time I put a link in the article. I love your work. I find a have to take a break now and again, but I'm so grateful for your work. I want to write shorter posts with more graphics and it is nice to be able to link to your articles with all of the details behind current issues.
According to a JAMA study, only 5-6% of visits to ER for chest pain result in a diagnosis of heart attack. It's very important to go in with symptoms because it could be serious. But just think of the statistics that could be generated by bogus studies if the 94-95% of visits that aren't serious were counted as heart attacks! Still, a person needs to go in if they have symptoms.
Women concerned about scary symptoms after taking the medication for abortion should get that checked out, too, even tho it might end up to be no big deal.
Neither my ER visit for chest pain which turned out to be no big deal and not heart related, nor the ER visit of a woman surprised by the degree of the expected symptoms of abortion medication be labeled as 'serious adverse events'
Women aren't sure what amount of bleeding is too much, so if they unsure, then going to the ER is smart. It isn't your normal period, so you aren't sure how much is too much. And if you don't normally have heavy periods, you are more likely to think there is a problem. I bet the same people who categorized every visit for bleeding serious didn't have a problem with women bleeding out in parking lots when they really did have a problem with their pregnancy.
First they came for your third term abortions, because they knew the masses didn't know why, what, when or how rare these were. Then they came for your minor's abortions, because they banked on the protectiveness and invisible misogyny of middle America's families. Then they came for abortions in Red states, because who cared if Texas and the rest of the South didn't have abortion access so long as Roe hadn't been overturned. Then they came for Roe, and they slapped everybody's blind eye into the other. They will come for your mifepristone next, and then even Blue states will see what going underground means. By then how many will we have lost? How many more will we lose still?
When you snatch those speculums out of their hands and take them for yourself, you rip their laws off your ovaries. Because your body isn't a mystical medicalized space, and safe gentle abortion isn't an individual's affair nor is it rocket science nor is it out of reach.
But recovering women's rights from a oligarchic technocratic theocracy after this fall will be.
"If we don’t learn about our own bodies, somebody else is going to be in charge of what happens to us. It’s just that simple." -- American Feminist Visionary Carol Downer
"Because your body isn't a mystical medicalized space, and safe gentle abortion isn't an individual's affair nor is it rocket science nor is it out of reach."
"Your body isn't a mystical medicalized space". These are words that everyone can live by. Everyone needs to know more, much more about their bodies and how they work. And also, how they fit in with the vast march of all life which share so much of their characteristics with us.
totally agree. The family should not be on the hook for the bills. I was told legally no one has to pay for an unmarried adult's medical bills if that adult can't. But I'm not a lawyer.
Just donated. As a black woman I am disgusted that other influential (read:rich) people in our community have not stepped forward to support this family. The medical bills will be astronomical. Where is the public outcry from people who have, you know, tens of millions of followers? It would make a difference. Thank you Jessica for always being on the side of what is right and using your voice for change.
The news outlets aren't connecting he attack on the fertility clinic with the FACE act at all. Because it's fertility not abortion so its different. It's all still a bunch of misogynists making decisions because they feel entitled to do so. From what the perpetrator's father says the signs that this kid was violent were apparent for years. Hadn't seen his son in ten years. That made the kid 15 the last time he saw him. Stand out dad. It's being called terrorism. I wonder if they will use that word when this happens to an abortion clinic.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, the cynical Lord Henry says of philanthropists that they lose all sense of humanity. I think this sums up the so called “pro-life” movement; they claim to value “life” but they don’t understand what makes life valuable.
The bombing made the news in Melbourne/Naarm this week, but nothing about Adrianna Smith. As Always it is all about the tariffs which is just shameful.
It barely makes mainstream news here. The NYT had dozens of articles about every person the new pope ever met and is now breathlessly covering the book about Biden’s mental decline. But there’s almost no coverage of women’s lives and healthcare or the devastation of medical research. They keep saying Harvard was stripped of funding when it is biomedical and scientific research at Harvard (& Columbia, Northwestern, etc) that is being shut down. Public radio covered Smith’s story but I haven’t seen it elsewhere except here.
If I see another article about this pope or any pope being praised for their “liberalness”, I’m going to puke. Doing bare minimum virtue signaling (PR), but never actually working to change anything doesn’t deserve any praise. Their position on women and the queer community will never change.
Thanks once again Jessica. After what happened with the whole Terry Schiavo disaster, I am not surprised that a woman's death would be subservient to antiabortion ideology. This is a disaster for the family.
First, thanks, Jessica, for this jam-packed edition of AED. You are indefatiguable and we are so incredibly fortunate for your work, perseverence and acute insights and analyses.
I'd like to recommend the short documentary, "62 Days" about a Texas family challenging the law that kept their loved one on life support because she was pregnant. It is not only informative but upllifting because the family won in court! and in Texas! And were able to change the law!
Also, as some one who worked at Planned Parenthood for 3O years, I want to completely confirm that some of our medication abortion patients indeed went to the ER because they needed reassurance about their bleeding. They did this even though we always had a clinician on call, and had fully educated them in what to expect. This is a medical event happening at home, and like a miscarriage, there is a variable amount of bleeding that can cause fear and uncertainty. Sensibly , help was sought. Many people seek help at the ER for all sorts of concerns, for peace of mind.
Finally, NY state has a great template for teen health care and parental notification. In the wisdom of our DOH and legislature, there are three areas where teens have medical autonomy: Seeking and obtaining substance abuse treatment, seeking and obtaining mental health treatment, and seeking and obtaining reproductive health care, including, aboriton.
"But you have to fail to see the humanity of a person who is left to rot."
How many ways to hear: You.Are.Your.Rotting.Uterus.
Someone I respect said that no one has to be responsible for the bills of an unmarried adult. The parents should NOT have to pay any medical bills for poor Adriana Smith since treatments are being done against their wishes. If the child actually survives this and is born, the state should provide medical insurance for the poor kid.
I think it’s important to push back against the language that she is being “kept alive” by machines. She is not; she is dead. Her body is being made to function as an incubator by machines. I’m not sure the best language to express that reality. I just feel it’s disrespectful and wrong to call what is being done to her “life.”
A few things here.
About your videos. I would love to steal your videos, but in my chrome browser, I see no way of linking of viewing your videos anywhere except your posts. I generally prefer to view videos posted at a website at their source which is usually X or YouTube. Are you aware of some other way of viewing your videos?
About the fertility clinic bombing. All the reports I heard say something about the suicide bomber as being an "antinatalist" and also a "promortalist". The reproductive rights community is not saying much about this. Was the guy an antiabortionist and it is being covered up? A strange case.
About the Rewire article on LGBTQ people being twice as likely to terminate a pregnancy. This naturally begs the question, how are LGBTQ people getting pregnant? We can comfortably restrict this sample to women. But these women are less likely to be participating in heterosexual sex. What the report is really saying is that for those LGBTQ women, they are more likely to have an abortion than heterosexual women. But really, LGBTQ women are far, far less likely to require birth control or abortion.
And forgot to attach the link to my most recent post which just came out. Hot off the presses!!! Yes, I'm dating myself. I'm very proud of my maps, so please check those out.
https://talkaboutchoice.substack.com/p/it-was-not-a-mandate
I'm posting about abortion and Virginia and I included a link to your substack. I always mention that I follow you, but this time I put a link in the article. I love your work. I find a have to take a break now and again, but I'm so grateful for your work. I want to write shorter posts with more graphics and it is nice to be able to link to your articles with all of the details behind current issues.
According to a JAMA study, only 5-6% of visits to ER for chest pain result in a diagnosis of heart attack. It's very important to go in with symptoms because it could be serious. But just think of the statistics that could be generated by bogus studies if the 94-95% of visits that aren't serious were counted as heart attacks! Still, a person needs to go in if they have symptoms.
Women concerned about scary symptoms after taking the medication for abortion should get that checked out, too, even tho it might end up to be no big deal.
Neither my ER visit for chest pain which turned out to be no big deal and not heart related, nor the ER visit of a woman surprised by the degree of the expected symptoms of abortion medication be labeled as 'serious adverse events'
Women aren't sure what amount of bleeding is too much, so if they unsure, then going to the ER is smart. It isn't your normal period, so you aren't sure how much is too much. And if you don't normally have heavy periods, you are more likely to think there is a problem. I bet the same people who categorized every visit for bleeding serious didn't have a problem with women bleeding out in parking lots when they really did have a problem with their pregnancy.
First they came for your third term abortions, because they knew the masses didn't know why, what, when or how rare these were. Then they came for your minor's abortions, because they banked on the protectiveness and invisible misogyny of middle America's families. Then they came for abortions in Red states, because who cared if Texas and the rest of the South didn't have abortion access so long as Roe hadn't been overturned. Then they came for Roe, and they slapped everybody's blind eye into the other. They will come for your mifepristone next, and then even Blue states will see what going underground means. By then how many will we have lost? How many more will we lose still?
When you snatch those speculums out of their hands and take them for yourself, you rip their laws off your ovaries. Because your body isn't a mystical medicalized space, and safe gentle abortion isn't an individual's affair nor is it rocket science nor is it out of reach.
But recovering women's rights from a oligarchic technocratic theocracy after this fall will be.
"If we don’t learn about our own bodies, somebody else is going to be in charge of what happens to us. It’s just that simple." -- American Feminist Visionary Carol Downer
https://msmagazine.com/2025/05/04/carol-downer-abortion-history-menstrual-extraction-at-home-abortion/
"Because your body isn't a mystical medicalized space, and safe gentle abortion isn't an individual's affair nor is it rocket science nor is it out of reach."
"Your body isn't a mystical medicalized space". These are words that everyone can live by. Everyone needs to know more, much more about their bodies and how they work. And also, how they fit in with the vast march of all life which share so much of their characteristics with us.
The hospital should be made to absorb the cost of keeping Ms Smith on the ventilator.
After all, they forced the family to keep her on life support.
And if they deliver the baby, they should pay for that, too.
We should be GoFunding legal help for her family, not supporting the hospital.
totally agree. The family should not be on the hook for the bills. I was told legally no one has to pay for an unmarried adult's medical bills if that adult can't. But I'm not a lawyer.
I died briefly in a hospital when I had cancer. I saw the entrance to Heaven but was told to go back and “fight”.
The Lord knew this was coming. The Catholic Church knew this was coming. That’s why they chose Pope Leo and did so quickly.
These monstrous people are trying to grow a baby in a corpse!!!!
She’s Brain Dead!!
Where is her Spirt??
Where is the woman who was the being inhabiting the “little pot of clay” that Adrianna Smith??
She’s not in that corpse!!
Turn off the machines!!
If the Almighty wanted the baby to survive the woman would have survived!!
These horrible people are trying to play “god”!!!
What about those 10 Commandments they want everyone else to study and obey!!
Get the Log out of your own eye before you tell someone else about the splinter in theirs!!!
Just donated. As a black woman I am disgusted that other influential (read:rich) people in our community have not stepped forward to support this family. The medical bills will be astronomical. Where is the public outcry from people who have, you know, tens of millions of followers? It would make a difference. Thank you Jessica for always being on the side of what is right and using your voice for change.
The news outlets aren't connecting he attack on the fertility clinic with the FACE act at all. Because it's fertility not abortion so its different. It's all still a bunch of misogynists making decisions because they feel entitled to do so. From what the perpetrator's father says the signs that this kid was violent were apparent for years. Hadn't seen his son in ten years. That made the kid 15 the last time he saw him. Stand out dad. It's being called terrorism. I wonder if they will use that word when this happens to an abortion clinic.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, the cynical Lord Henry says of philanthropists that they lose all sense of humanity. I think this sums up the so called “pro-life” movement; they claim to value “life” but they don’t understand what makes life valuable.
The bombing made the news in Melbourne/Naarm this week, but nothing about Adrianna Smith. As Always it is all about the tariffs which is just shameful.
It barely makes mainstream news here. The NYT had dozens of articles about every person the new pope ever met and is now breathlessly covering the book about Biden’s mental decline. But there’s almost no coverage of women’s lives and healthcare or the devastation of medical research. They keep saying Harvard was stripped of funding when it is biomedical and scientific research at Harvard (& Columbia, Northwestern, etc) that is being shut down. Public radio covered Smith’s story but I haven’t seen it elsewhere except here.
If I see another article about this pope or any pope being praised for their “liberalness”, I’m going to puke. Doing bare minimum virtue signaling (PR), but never actually working to change anything doesn’t deserve any praise. Their position on women and the queer community will never change.
when did we stop being people?
Oh we were never full human beings capable of making informed decisions about our lives to them.