54 Comments

I thought that your constitutional rights end where mine begin. So ok....you have a right to free speech, but I also have a right to privacy. Your right does not supercede mine. You can shout all you want, just do it outside of my personal space.

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I’m telling you guys, the way to deal with these assholes who harass patients at clinics is with a great big dose of their own medicine. This can be accomplished two ways. I actually prefer showing up at their churches Sunday morning and “protesting” them the same way they do at Planned Parenthood: signs, yelling at people walking across the parking lot, etc. Any questions are answered with “This is what your pastor (music director, whatever) does to patients at Planned Parenthood. Get him to stop and so will we.” This proved amazingly effective, although I understand it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

The second and more traditional method is showing up at Planned Parenthood and screaming in THEIR faces. It has the unfortunate drawback of making the circus patients have to endure even louder and more obnoxious, but it’s also effective if done properly.

My sister took off work yesterday and we had lunch at a place near the Overland Park clinic. Afterwards, we drove by the clinic to discover a couple of orange vested assholes hanging out at the entrance to the parking lot trying to stop cars on the way in and give them literature. Since we had nothing special planned for the afternoon, we decided to stop and make their lives less pleasant.

It was two young-ish women, which my sister particularly despises. Bad enough when men pull this shit - why are you helping them? As we walked up, she told them “You might as well hang it up - you’re done for the day” and then proceeded to make good on her word by preventing from stopping one single car. After a couple of hours of being hectored as whores of the patriarchy, they packed up and left.

These two were particularly obnoxious and had several large orange traffic cones they used along with the orange vests to make people think they were somehow official. They’re apparently paid ($17/hr) to do this by one of the big anti-abortion orgs, which is how they can have people there during the week, so making them leave a couple of hours before their usual quitting time (which means they forfeit that pay) is a real accomplishment.

Sometimes it just takes somebody caring enough to show up.

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You and your sister are heroes! ❤️❤️❤️

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Good job! Thank you and your sister for your service!

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Whores of the patriarchy....I LOVE IT!!!!!

I love these ideas!

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Yes, maybe they'll look up what that word means, and learn something!

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founding
Jun 7·edited Jun 7

Looking around and with D-Day coverage and what is happening here, it is just plain that trump and his cadre of grifters, frauds, and amoral supporters are debilitating America from national security to rule of law and stability to rights for half its population. They are ceding America to Putin and Xi and other worse dictators. Don't just say democracy is in peril but explain how these people will have disfigured America for generations to come, America that is the technological hub, the intellectual capital, the leader of the free world even with its warts, and everything else that is good.

The prominent surrogates at least if not Biden should start naming names and calling out their actions to harm national security/rule of law, abortion healthcare, and others; illustrate, give examples/specifics.

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On Wednesday, June 12, 3-4 ET, the Brennan Center is having a virtual event, "What Originalism Means for Women, with legal scholars Madiba K. Dennie, Khiara M. Bridges, Emily Martin, and Alicia Bannon. RSVP link: https://go.brennancenter.org/e/557782/ism-register-ref-Insider060624/7vdqqf/1665187578/h/NZuekGqCAOQkptRL2I7fh0FzmcHLGTSEeq8NhZCmI3I. They will be discussing not only Dobbs but a case awaiting decision, United States v. Rahimi, a case "built entirely around the fact that domestic violence was not a crime in the 18th century, taking originalism to its logical but absurd end at the expense of women." The blurb says the program "will explore the 2023-2024 Supreme Court term through the lens of what it means for half the population."

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Wow. Horrifying

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Is anyone else concerned they will take away HRT from women? I am worried they will take it away as part of some trans ban and/or worry that it can be "hacked" to used as birth control. I could see them using data from the Women's Health Initiative that had design flaws and a sample that used much older women using oral estrogen and not the patch or ring. HRT is protective against stroke, osteoporosis, dementia, heart attack, not to mention quality of life. I could absolutely see them taking this away, as it relieves women of suffering, but doing under the guise of some 'benevolent' reason.

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oh yes. I take premarin since I was 40 and had a hysterectomy. They will go after anything feminine.

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Yes they absolutely will do that.

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I completely agree that's where they would (will) go next.

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In some of the IVF groups I am in, people were complaining about difficulty getting testosterone/estrogen in some states due to new anti-trans laws. They were able to get it eventually, but it took longer.

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HRT stands for Hormone Replacement Therapy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone_replacement_therapy

"Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), also known as menopausal hormone therapy or postmenopausal hormone therapy, is a form of hormone therapy used to treat symptoms associated with female menopause."

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I am a 50 year old woman. I am well-acquainted with HRT. lol. They do use the pill and IUD in women in perimenopause. My concern was access to estrogen and progesterone would disappear for fear that someone would try to do a DYI hormonal birth control using estrogen and progesterone (I don’t know if this is possible, but these GOPs like to cover their bases), or they would ban it altogether in an effort to deny trans people access to their hormones. I am also a little worried that they would ban it, just to spite women.

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I had no idea what HRT was, I had to look it up. I thought other viewers might also be confused.

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The acronym didn't register with me right away either, so I think your comment was helpful.

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Ah, ok! lol I thought you linked HRT to let me know I was wrong. Or that I didn’t have anything to worry about because HRT is not birth control. I went to great lengths in crafting my response so I wasn’t coming off as snarky. lol

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The fact that these anti-choice zealots are claiming to give “choice” back to the states is weird. How are they giving a choice to people who already had the right to choose? They have taken the choice AWAY. They have given other people the right to tell us what we can do for our own families. Some states don’t allow their citizens to propose ballot initiatives. This is going to take a long time to fix.

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The 'choice' to take others' human rights away. Yes, it takes more than democracy to solve.

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!!! It's astounding how they gaslight.

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Jun 7·edited Jun 7

"Does this mean that a person has the right to prevent pregnancy before the egg and sperm are fertilized or after? Does it mean a child has the right to prevent pregnancy from ever occurring by undergoing gender transition surgery?”

Why yes. Yes it does! All of it. Absolutely!

And it's none of Szoch's business! And her twisting of the reasons one goes through gender transition surgery... to avoid pregnancy? That's crazy. So in other words, she'd tell a girl that she can't gender transition because then she wouldn't be able to give birth? I can't even take that in it's so dystopian.

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Asking for a friend (I'm 71 so it doesn't apply) how often a woman is required to have sex so she isn't preventing pregnancy by not having sex? Is she only required to have sex during her predicted times of maximum fertility? If she doesn't have a husband or has one she doesn't like, is she entitled to conscript men who are more attractive so she can not prevent pregnancy by having sex with someone really hot?

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Ugh. That actually would be their next step, when their laws don't give them the number of (White) babies they want.

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That struck me, too. And then I wondered if it would include hysterectomies and vasectomies? How far does this insanity reach?

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There is no bottom. They are medically ignorant.

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The only limit is their imagination. Which is the broader problem with a Republican victory in the election; there will be nothing left in the system to stop them from doing anything they want.

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Sorry to say the morally superior xtians are proposing to limit women's healthcare for ERISA benefits.

"Conservative policymakers influential with former president Donald Trump are discussing how to use a little-known labor law to impose sweeping restrictions on private-employer-covered abortions, according to a public statement and two people with direct knowledge of labor policy discussions among Trump advisers..."

"Although Trump has not formally committed to anything and talks are ongoing, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has publicly called for using federal labor law to limit the ability of private employers to provide coverage that includes abortions in states with abortion restrictions."

Not like we need another reason to separate healthcare from employment, but there we are. No paywall: https://wapo.st/3RiGhfn

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Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I think it helps them having this kind of thing in the news. If they were going to enforce Comstock from day one, there would be no need for this, because abortions wouldn't be legal anywhere. At this point anything that makes Comstock look like hyperbole is a plus for them.

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Oh, and they may THINK there were no abortions in Arkansas in 2023, but you can bet your last dollar there were women who managed to wrest back control of their pregnancies despite the sexist crap that the forced birthers put in their way.

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agreed! it's not on the record. I bet there are many off the record. Curious how many were affluent and Catholic! I was catholic when I had my first and only abortion. 😉

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I was Catholic until I was 16. When I wore cut-offs to church on a hot summer night my mother had a fit, and that was the end of my religiosity. I thought god would care more about my attendance than my clothing. Apparently not.

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I agree with you. I think my catholic ended at around 18 yrs old.

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That's exactly what I told myself when I was reading the article......just because they didn't get an abortion in Arkansas doesn't mean they didn't go out of state or SMA.

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Or took smuggled in pills.

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The people in "Pro-Life" Inc, the activists and legislators - their behavior, and the results of that behavior, is truly monstrous.

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They have earned the title "Forced Birthers."

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The comments from Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council - - > so fucking egregious and fear-mongering. The word bitch comes to mind to describe her.

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The legislative chaos that has transpired, since the justices stripped our rights to abortion, continues to unfold daily. The ChristoFascist minority works tirelessly to find new sources of pain to inflict on women and children.

Something is mentallly lacking in these people. It seems they are obsessed with sex and gender, and in their perspectives, it’s all as ugly as Eve’s little escapade in the first known garden.

If I were still able to become pregnant, I’d be packing my medicine cabinet with mifepristone and birth control pills. I would lie to physicians in order to obtain them. If America is going to change its name to Gilead, women are going to have to do whatever they can to protect themselves and their daughters and granddaughters. Because God knows there will NEVER be any blame on the sperm throwers.

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I ponder do people out there not see that we are moving in the direction of the Taliban like status. Some people say my state of Texas we are not living in a democracy. Then again in you don't seek the truth one see's what they want to see.

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For many people it is better to listen than to speak. The indoctrination presented to us early in our childhoods forms our inability to challenge those we perceived to be superior to us (read men!). Secular thinkers are threats to those who have chosen to be congregants rather than leaders, and educated women pose the most danger to their dominance.

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agreed. I am fortunate that at an early age I pondered how come all the men are doing everything. No female mechanics, bus operators and in the children's books how come the girls were not rowing the boat but the boy was? I was a handful for my traditional Italian mother. I questioned so much. How come the alter boys? not girls. So...thankful I got to go to a technical school for internal combustion engines (first female) and then onto college for a Power Transmission Degree. I paved the way for other women and we are still fighting. I will not stop advocating for women's autonomy. So grateful my dad wanted me to have a career. :-) Love you Dad!

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🤜🏽🤛🏽

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Having had a very conservative Christian upbringing (which I fled when given the chance), I can attest to how warped the thinking is around sex. My mother had problems all her life. While I also have a few hang-ups, I rebelled at an early age so they're nothing like hers were. It is no surprise to me when I read some of the Christian right's thinking.

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Well said!!!

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It’s so frustrating in 2024 that good information is so easy to find but people are just lapping up crappy infotainment so they have no actual idea what is happening in our country.

Do we need to plaster news on Amazon packaging to find people?

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That's really a great idea!! Amazon, are you listening?

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What's almost as bad as their retrograde and misogynist polices is the way the GOP Senators regard us as fools. "There is no need for a law to protect access to contraceptives." And after those same GOP Senators cast votes to make acquiring contraceptives illegal, they will try to frame it as if some phantom elves appeared in the night and stole all the contraceptives away. *Poof!* Just like that, it wasn't THEIR doing. They must think we are very stupid.

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I think it's more that they consider voters irrelevant and their job is to pass legislation that protects their owners, sorry, donors, from regulation and taxes.

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True.

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They think most women are stupid. And the women who attain stature slept their way to get there.

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It's an especially odious type of pissing on our backs while trying to tell us it's rain.

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very well said.

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