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Follow what's going on with the Ken Paxton - Kate Cox forced pregnancy lawsuit and counter-appeal with this interactive relationship map. Check to see how many of the Texas Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Greg Abbott.

https://thedemlabs.org/2023/12/08/texas-judge-abortion-ruling-non-viable-pregnancy-paxton-lawsuit-map/

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There are conspiracy theories and then there are actual conspiracies. The tactics of the ultra right are the same across the world as though they all went to the same boot camps. Pick an emotional laden hot topic, e.g., abortion, freedom, immigration, vaccination, and run with it, using obfuscation, manipulation, the co-opting of religion, appeal to insecurities, character assassination, saying one thing one day, then the opposite the next to confuse the electorate, corruption of language, stealing the wording of the opposition and making it mean something else bad, twisting facts to create misinformation, and then blatantly outright lie, lie, lie once you have control of people’s minds so they will believe anything you say. If people hear the same lie three times they start to think there must be something to it. Mind control. Take over control of media outlets so the messaging can be constant. Warn people to mistrust other “liberal” media outlets to blank conflicting messaging. The United States is not the only country where this is happening. In the past few years, right wing governments have been elected throughout Europe, right.wing military coups are taking place in several African nations, even New Zealand has gone right in the last election. In Canada polls are suggesting it’s next federal election might bring in a right of right party that has been using all the same tactics.

The conspiracy of global right wing collective action is not just theory. Trump’s stated admiration of authoritarian styled leaders like Putin in Russia, Duterte in the Philippines, Erdogan in Turkey, Modi in India should have sent chills up the spine of every American. And let’s not forget his bromance with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. That is the kind of control Trump’s cadre of strategist’s are aiming for in 2025. Trump has already said he will put the opposition in jail. He is a useful tool and the Republican strategists pander to his thirst for revenge. Republicans tried demonizing immigrants in Trump’s first term but then they found being anti-abortion an even more useful tool to divide the country and control mouthy feminists who don’t do what they are told. Power and control.

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Dec 7, 2023·edited Dec 7, 2023

Outrageous that she has to ask permission from the state. It's pure subjugation.

"The endgame is to make it difficult, if not impossible, to test for abnormalities at all." That is such an infuriating possibility. We have to speak this to everyone we know. Awareness. I really think this will backfire on the fanatics.

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I’m in Dallas where Kate Cox lives and I just contacted the Center for Reproductive Rights to support her and offer to accompany her alone or with her husband to travel to New Mexico if it comes to that. (Hopefully not.)

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Everyone who believes in bodily autonomy should do this, volunteer to help any woman who needs help to leave any state that has these bans.

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We know the medical facts and need to get out in front of this disinformation. These delusional (since they choose not to believe in medical reality) assholes need to be smacked down, hard in a lawsuit. Hopefully this woman gets a sane judge.

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Texas Republicans are just sadistic. They ENJOY their cruelty. Pregnancy is a very complex health condition. The lack of knowledge and awareness of how human bodies function is unbelievable. Some abortions are elective, for various reasons. However, needing care for an incomplete miscarriage or a pregnancy that has no possibility of a positive outcome for the pregnant person or the fetus are some of the medically necessary reasons. No man would tolerate having his fertility endangered, like is happening to Texas women. The Texas legislature is enacting sexual violence on women, which is about power and control. It is legislative rape.

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founding

I'm actually surprised I haven't heard that phrase before - legislative rape. It's very astute. (Although like a lot of truths nowadays, it might sound like hyperbole to people in the 'middle'. Still it's very insightful.)

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Yes, they use their faux religion to be sadistic. A lot of it is misogyny, as well, they really want to punish women.

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I agree 100%. It is absolutely sexual violence. It should be a constitutional issue. The state is directly damaging women’s bodies.

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I don't know about you, but I am fed up with this messaging from the right that poor, helpless females need big government oversight when it comes to our reproductive health, sports, basic human rights. Men wouldn't stand for this crap--why are we?

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"They’re also pushing dubious “science” that says women are so traumatized by devastating fetal diagnoses, that their brains are incapable of making a rational decision about the pregnancy for at least 72 hours. And when all else fails, shame: telling women that they might be ending a healthy pregnancy, or that they’re “discriminating” against disabled children."

The lie that Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist is spread by Democrats, not Republicans.

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With all due respect Sanger was part of the eugenicist movement and racist. I'm a team lead with Planned Parenthood of America and we do a teach in about the history of PP. We are transparent about our past and talk about it freely. We learn from it and promote reproductive justice and are advocates of bodily autonomy.

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Prove it. Provide quotes.

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She was, I’ve read the quotes, & it’s painful to admit that the OG of PP was that. Just like it may be painful to admit our colonialist, racist US history, nothing will change for the better until we do face the truth & then not make the same mistakes going forward

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If you've read the quotes, provide the quotes.

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It is so fucking exhausting to be a woman in this country. Gaslit everywhere, all the time. Called hysterical. Treated like we lack basic cognitive function. I applaud Kate Cox for standing up to these (backspaces through much profanity) garbage humans, because of course they will make her pay and pay and pay.

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founding

It's brutal, because we need people to stand up, but I can't fault anyone for hiding in the shadows and trying to take care of their own health and their own family without a confrontation.

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Especially when processing the very taxing challenge (physically, emotionally, and mentally) of carrying a doomed but desperately wanted pregnancy.

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Agree wholeheartedly!! I remember when I was 22 pregnant and just graduated college. An unintended pregnancy was so stressful. I had an abortion and felt so much relief. Grateful it was available legally to me 40 yrs ago and my insurance paid for 50% of it. My dreams and hope for the future. I cannot imagine what it would be like to navigate what she is going through. Sending loving kindness to her and all pregnant people.

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founding

The theme of 2024 is going to be whether there is such a thing as truth anymore, or if our world is long past that point. The reason abortion is the vanguard issue is because it's where they can apply all of their strategies to their most extreme. If they can get away with this they can get away with anything.

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Back when I was going through my conversion from Republican to progressive liberal, I read an article about the problem with giving attorneys power. (No offense to any attorneys here.) But attorneys are trained to find every loophole and push the legal boundaries of every argument. At every level of government, we elect too many attorneys who apply their professional training too literally in every situation. Or they take indefensible positions because our broken legal processes allow them to obstruct and distract. This creates some, but by no means all, of our truth problem. Anyway, it made me pay more attention to a candidate's profession. I'm much more likely to support non-attorney candidates today.

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founding

Yes. The catch is that for attorneys, arguing is a skill, not a search for truth. The goal is to argue in the interest of a client, which means trying to make whatever that interest is into truth.

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Every time I read something like this, the main takeaway I get is that they see women who don’t have perfect pregnancies as expendable. It boggles the mind that the essentially zero chance that a doomed pregnancy will miraculously survive is worth more to them than this woman’s physical and mental health and her future fertility. It is cruel, it is anti-science, it is incredibly illogical and stupid.

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They see problem pregnancies as "trials from God" that women must endure because God gave them that cross to bear. It's all part of "Eve ate the fruit first and is the bigger sinner and therefore women must pay for all time" mentality. Which is also cruel, anti-science, and obscenely illogical and stupid. Yes.

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founding

Yes. They see all women as expendable. They're birthing appliances, nothing more. And if an appliance breaks, well, you just get a new one. 💔

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🎯I think they look forward to getting a newer model.

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At least their callousness is becoming clearer and clearer the more desperate they become. As they realize they’re on the wrong side, their ploys become more frantic and desperate.

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Excellent point Jenna!!

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It wasn't easy to click on "like" today. This is so terrible. We have a lot of work to do. I read yesterday that Trump will be a dictator on Day 1 (if elected).. I expect maybe a hundred executive orders to come out, all having been prepared in advance. One will likely be to prohibit all abortions with zero exceptions.

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That's the stated goal in Project 2025: They are ready to roll from the words "so help me God."

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Uhg. 💔 & 🤬 Thank you Jessica & Grace for all your work. The attack on science is incredibly hypocritical as they also use the argument that fetuses can be saved in utero yet at the same time they are making doctors fearful of trying. We really must vote and pushback on articles, like the one mentioned, at their source.

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If you want to give Steven Ertelt a piece of your mind you can do so via news@lifenews.com

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What bends my brain is how anti-choicers try to leverage scientific “advancements” as the reason behind blurring the viability line, for their bullshit “heartbeat” ban, and for their abortion “reversal” protocol. Yet by that same token, they question the science behind mifepristone’s safety, ignore actual imaging that reveals the truth about early pregnancy, and the efficacy of prenatal testing? Accusations of hypocrisy never stick to these soulless mfers because of course the cruelty is the point. I just hate that they’re introducing yet another “talking point” into the conversation that may get picked up and used against pregnant women, who KNOW what’s right for them in that situation.

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Yeah. No they don't care about logic or consistency at all. It's a war on our basic autonomy. They'll use whatever tool they have at the ready to further their oppressive agenda, whether the tools are lies, lawsuits, irrelevant information... Doesn't matter to them. Their ideology is that women are vessels first, and they'll do anything to cement that into their ruling form of government, even trashing Democracy to achieve it.

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