58 Comments

I pre-ordered your book. I just joined this website and I'm so happy to have discovered you. You seem very well educated and I hope you don't mind if I refrence you and your book in my own substacks.

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founding

I feel like media/TV do not report enough what the VP is doing on the campaign trail (it is all trump all the time). This interview is from yesterday for Wisconsin Public Radio (if you want to distribute it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8llKfnryzw

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I have been struggling - it's not that I didn't realize the enormity of these bans, or that I wasn't reading this Substack religiously - I think it is because there was a small piece of me that didn't let it in, if that makes sense. Since Kamala's speech, its a tidal wave of fresh grief. And many of my peers are still voting third party. I am scared, but resolute. Thank you as always for your important work.

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You really should explain they are helping evil win, by doing that. Our system does not reward "Protest votes".

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founding

How creepy is this? And how fundamentally unAmerican is this fucker? Sometimes we have to force ourselves to watch this and distribute it to wake people up. Because there are still people who think he is fit for the presidency. North Korean dictator was fake crying with women to birth more babies. This guy is taking cue from him and has reduced America to that low low bar. If you have any self respect and pride in your country, you will never ever consider trump and his enablers an option.

https://x.com/Acyn/status/1838385754466324847

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Check this map for the number of pregnancy related deaths Republicans have caused with their abortion bans. Which states have the highest rates of maternal mortality? Who are the MAGA Senators for that state? Mapping abortion deaths to the Republican responsible for that state can help hold them accountable. You can run (for office), but you cannot hide (from your abortion bans).

"Where can pregnancy be a death sentence?"

https://thedemlabs.org/2024/09/24/republican-abortion-bans-drive-up-maternal-mortality/

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11 hospitals have closed across the state of Georgia since the passage of the ACA. Why? Because the GA GOP (self-gerrymandered into uncompetitive seats) won't take the ACA Medicare expansion. Is this what the citizens of Georgia want? HELL NO! Consistent polling shows a hefty majority in our state want that expansion.

Yes, abortion bans are killing women in Georgia. But that's only half the story of the damage the GA GOP has done to the women & families of this state. Maybe allowing all our hospitals to go toes up is another reason GA maternal death rates are sky high.

Uncle Sam needs to send help soon! Southern women are doing our damndest to survive the "party of family values." The GOP is a failed institution for any person who cares about human heath & flourishing.

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I just have to get this out. Fucking GOP assholes are causing so much PTSD. Decades ago I had a friend who in her 38th week - 38th WEEK - was informed… no heartbeat. No issues through out her pregnancy, baby shower passed, sheet on the crib. No heartbeat detected. Her baby had passed. It’s so long ago my mind has blocked what the final diagnosis was. But I remember her doctor telling her the best resolution would be for her body to naturally figure out there’s a problem and proceed to end the pregnancy on its own. (He wouldn’t induce.) Now living in NYC people generally don’t talk to strangers… unless you’re hugely pregnant. It’s like everyone you pass wants to wish you well. For DAYS she had to walk around (to help/hope her body would start the natural process) and receive cheers of new babiness from strangers. She was 38 weeks. She arrived home from a walk once to hear her husband crying, out loud bawling, in the shower. We were all in shock and pain. It hurts so much to recollect this as I write. Finally after ?? A few days of my friend’s poor body not “resolving” this, the doctor decided to have her in to induce. To medically end the pregnancy. It was becoming a toxicity complication for my friend’s health. She was to report to the maternity ward. Being a large and busy NYC hospital, of course not everyone could know her situation. Of course many points of contact along her arrival - including some nurses in the maternity ward - did not know, and offered their happy baby cheers. My friend held her deceased daughter one time. Today when assholes talk about evil Democrats supporting late term abortions I think back to my friend. I can’t imagine the PTSD pain she feels - when my bystander PTSD is so palpable. WTF America. Please let’s move on from this chapter. Leave people alone. Trust women. Trust doctors. Thanks for letting me share and I’m sorry for causing any PTSD to anyone reading. I feel you.

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I am really kind of creeped out by all these reports of parents holding their dead and dying babies after giving birth. Is this something they request to do, or is it offered -- "suggested" -- by the staff and doctors?

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That I understand because they are saying goodbye, but Rick Santorum bringing his home in a jar to show the kids was macabre.

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Closure.

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I think we need to keep hammering the issue that if it is up to states, pregnant people will die. The potential of a national ban is of course an issue we need to be worried about, but women are dying here and now because of what has already been done, and we can't lose the focus on that by allowing the issue to be some phantom in the future.

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founding

The crisis and chaos are already here and will continue to get worse.

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This.

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These republican bans make me really angry 😠. I hope there is a huge blue wave in every state, just to let the fucking republican politicians that we will NOT stand for their goddamned bans. This also goes for the republicans running for lower offices like school boards and city councils. A BLUE WAVE is coming in November!!

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Sorry if this is the wrong spot to post but... I pre-ordered your book! I was so glad to do it and may order more copies, presuming each extra one helps just as much as pre-ordering one? I think it would be a great holiday gift for a few folks in my life.

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Update: bought it for two more people. Best wishes for the launch @Jessica Valenti!

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We just did, too!

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Gotta say, I am so glad/grateful/lucky Ron Wyden is my senator. He just seems like a good solid dude all around. (A rarity!)

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You are so lucky, we here in Florida have the Voldemort clone (P)Rick Scott.

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Anti-choice OBGYN Ingrid Skop, for example, wrote in an op-ed that “pro-abortion media have unreasonably frightened doctors about when they can intervene in a pregnancy emergency,”

Does Skop assume that the nation has forgotten Ken Paxton’s threat to go after the doctor who was told by a judge that Kate Cox could receive an abortion? We haven’t. They complied with the law and Paxton said, “Hell, no!” This is why doctors hesitate.

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Sorry not sorry Republicans, it's too little and way too late. You're spouting anything you can, because you got caught-NOT because you really care about the wanton cruelty these Trump abortion bans have inflicted upon women.

We know what you're doing, and will not be voting for you. We aren't fools. Treating women badly has consequences, and it's high time you all recognize that. While you're at it, stop treating us like garbage. Trust, and respect, must be earned; you will learn that and have to work to get it back.

I'm glad to hear Sen. Wyden sent some letters to hospitals about not properly treating women. EMTALA is still in effect, even though states with Trump abortion bans want to play fast and sloppy with the law. I wish letters would be sent to every state attorney general to remind them as well.

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Thank you.

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The use of the word “viability” concerns me. Who draws that line? Some people seem to think there is a remedy for an ectopic pregnancy, when a fertilized egg has implanted early in a fallopian tube rather than making it to the uterus. Just to be clear, this fertilized egg cannot be saved and moved to the uterus, the implantation phase has passed.

Viability for a fetus to survive outside the uterus depends on the health of both the pregnant person and the fetus. A fetus with half a head will never be viable. A pregnant person convulsing from eclampsia cannot support the life of her fetus. This is still a medical decision, not a legal decision.

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Sure. "Viability" is a political term. It tries to evade the real medical and biological issue which is, when and why does birth occur? What triggers birth? It must be something in gestation where the fetus, now a neonate, sends some sort of signal or creates some sort of condition that triggers it.

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Exactly. Perfectly illustrated real life examples.

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