It almost seems like conflating birth control and abortion has always been the goal. This is the inverse of, “What about the people who use abortion as birth control?” I know many fairly informed people that still don’t understand this narrative is completely false. It shows the success of the antiabortion movement and a huge gap in education and knowledge on the subject. The NYT (which I subscribe to) is especially ignorant and infuriating. I think many mainstream media outlets are living in fear right now. Soon we will be whispering in fields somewhere.
At one time barrier methods were also illegal. All birth control was illegal. For Catholics, all birth control is forbidden except the rhythm method, barrier methods are also forbidden.
Do other birth control methods that induce hormonal behavior cause abortions? Look again and see that the argument is really moot. At the early stages of pregnancy, if birth control caused abortions, who can tell? It is an abstract argument of no real relevance. If a woman who missed a period resumed or introduced a birth control regime and got her period back, who could say if an abortion had occurred?
I say again, who cares if hormonal based birth control induces abortions? But there is a risk that if women came to believe this, then they might rely on applying birth control to induce abortions only to find this unreliable.
There really is not enough popular understanding of how hormones work in women regarding their reproductive cycle. Understanding this better would further advance the cause of defending hormonal birth control whether it induces abortion or not.
Hi fellow Abortion readers. I have two doses each of mife and miso (just to have on hand) and they expire soon. I want to give them away to someone who needs them. I’m in Illinois and will give/ship them for free. Please help me connect with someone who needs them.
A notice was published in the Federal Register (the official record of federal rules) on January 15 (90 Fed. Reg. 3728) withdrawing the joint Health and Human Services, IRS, and Department of Labor proposed regulations that would have required employment-related health plans and insurers to provide 100% coverage of over-the-counter contraceptives. The proposals would have eliminated the glitch where insurance policies and work-related health plans covered prescription contraceptive pills but not the newly introduced OTC pills. The three agencies said they needed to "focus on other matters," so they withdrew the regulation. Sure, Jan. What probably really happened is that they withdrew the regulations instead of having them struck down under the Congressional Review Act--because once a regulation is eliminated that way, the agency is not allowed to issue subsequent regulations on the same subject that, presumably, satisfy objections. The subject is deemed closed (unless Congress can pass an authorizing statute).
See Irving Washington and Hagere Yilma, "Misleading Narratives and Social Media Shape Contraception Perceptions," The Monitor/KFF (Jan. 16, 2025), https://www.kff.org/the-monitor/misleading-harratives-ahd-social [...] covering misleading claims about birth control, eg, describing emergency contraceptives as abortifacients. This article studies how social media, especially postings calling fertility awareness a superior alternative to contraceptives, influence what people think about the efficacy and safety of contraceptives. The article notes that it is common for doctors--especially male doctors and more religiously devout doctors--to hold mistaken beliefs about contraceptives and abortifacients.
The bottom line is that these anti-abortion folks think that women are promiscuous. Stopping abortion, which they see only as a convenient way for women to get away with having sex, is only the first step. Next is birth control so that you have to bear a child if you have sex - the only valid reason they see for having sex anyway. It is a matter of them wanting your life to reflect that which does not offend them. Complete control is the goal.
I'm very worried that a lot of women's rage has shifted into despair at this point? After the illegitimate president bragged about stealing the election and we've seen how our systems don't hold people accountable and the rich get away with everything
I am most appalled at the ob/gyn whose name keeps popping up in these discussions - Donna Harrison - who is she and where did she come from? She is an anomaly in the profession in my experience as a women's healthcare nurse and obstetrics clinical instructor. She perverts the reality of conception and pregnancy and how difficult and personal these decisions are for women and their families. And instead of helping them, she is torturing them and turning their circumstances into criminal enterprises deserving of witch hunts and lifelong suffering. She needs to go to before a review board and explain herself.
Trump pardons antiabortion activists who blocked access to clinics
By Salvador Rizzo
President Donald Trump granted pardons Thursday to 23 people who were convicted of blocking access to reproductive health clinics, fulfilling another campaign promise to reward political supporters who have run afoul of the law.
Trump announced the clemency grants in an Oval Office signing ceremony, days after pardoning more than 1,500 people accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said of the antiabortion activists. “Many of them are elderly people. … This is a great honor to sign this. They’ll be very happy.”
Ten of the protesters were convicted in D.C. federal court in separate proceedings in 2023, after they were found to have pushed their way into the Washington Surgi-Clinic, near George Washington University’s campus, injuring a medical staffer and hounding patients in October 2020.
Defense attorneys for the defendants called them peaceful demonstrators emulating protesters from the Civil Rights Era. Federal prosecutors in court documents described their efforts as “organized invasions” carried out with physical force, chains, ropes and locks — all of it carefully planned and live-streamed.
The other pardon recipients were convicted of similar offenses in federal courts in New York, Michigan and Tennessee. Prosecutors had alleged they violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it a felony to use threats of force, obstruction and property damage to interfere with reproductive health care services.
The pardon recipients include Lauren Handy, Paula “Paulette” Harlow, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Jonathan Darnel, Heather Idoni, Paul Vaughn, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, Paul Place, James Zastrow, Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Calvin Zastrow, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Christopher Moscinski and Bevelyn Williams.
The antiabortion Thomas More Society, in a letter to Trump on Jan. 14, requested pardons for all of them, calling them a group of “peaceful pro-life Americans” that included “grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest.”
I think it's great that there is a potentially new option for women seeking abortion. The antis are going to use any opportunity to attack any new Research on drugs used for abortion. The more drugs and methods for abortion the better.
This is why it’s so important to seek out independent journalism. Thank you Jessica for all the work you do and for reporting on all the things we need to know that legacy media is either too afraid to report on or blatantly ignoring.
I replied to several comments and happy to report, the majority were highly critical of the anti-abortion stance on Ella and its ability to be used in conjunction with misoprostol as a medical abortion pill.
Well, if this isn't timed well.
It will backfire.
People-women-are really sick of this and other shit.
It almost seems like conflating birth control and abortion has always been the goal. This is the inverse of, “What about the people who use abortion as birth control?” I know many fairly informed people that still don’t understand this narrative is completely false. It shows the success of the antiabortion movement and a huge gap in education and knowledge on the subject. The NYT (which I subscribe to) is especially ignorant and infuriating. I think many mainstream media outlets are living in fear right now. Soon we will be whispering in fields somewhere.
At one time barrier methods were also illegal. All birth control was illegal. For Catholics, all birth control is forbidden except the rhythm method, barrier methods are also forbidden.
Do other birth control methods that induce hormonal behavior cause abortions? Look again and see that the argument is really moot. At the early stages of pregnancy, if birth control caused abortions, who can tell? It is an abstract argument of no real relevance. If a woman who missed a period resumed or introduced a birth control regime and got her period back, who could say if an abortion had occurred?
I say again, who cares if hormonal based birth control induces abortions? But there is a risk that if women came to believe this, then they might rely on applying birth control to induce abortions only to find this unreliable.
There really is not enough popular understanding of how hormones work in women regarding their reproductive cycle. Understanding this better would further advance the cause of defending hormonal birth control whether it induces abortion or not.
They are fanatics!
Hi fellow Abortion readers. I have two doses each of mife and miso (just to have on hand) and they expire soon. I want to give them away to someone who needs them. I’m in Illinois and will give/ship them for free. Please help me connect with someone who needs them.
A notice was published in the Federal Register (the official record of federal rules) on January 15 (90 Fed. Reg. 3728) withdrawing the joint Health and Human Services, IRS, and Department of Labor proposed regulations that would have required employment-related health plans and insurers to provide 100% coverage of over-the-counter contraceptives. The proposals would have eliminated the glitch where insurance policies and work-related health plans covered prescription contraceptive pills but not the newly introduced OTC pills. The three agencies said they needed to "focus on other matters," so they withdrew the regulation. Sure, Jan. What probably really happened is that they withdrew the regulations instead of having them struck down under the Congressional Review Act--because once a regulation is eliminated that way, the agency is not allowed to issue subsequent regulations on the same subject that, presumably, satisfy objections. The subject is deemed closed (unless Congress can pass an authorizing statute).
See Irving Washington and Hagere Yilma, "Misleading Narratives and Social Media Shape Contraception Perceptions," The Monitor/KFF (Jan. 16, 2025), https://www.kff.org/the-monitor/misleading-harratives-ahd-social [...] covering misleading claims about birth control, eg, describing emergency contraceptives as abortifacients. This article studies how social media, especially postings calling fertility awareness a superior alternative to contraceptives, influence what people think about the efficacy and safety of contraceptives. The article notes that it is common for doctors--especially male doctors and more religiously devout doctors--to hold mistaken beliefs about contraceptives and abortifacients.
The bottom line is that these anti-abortion folks think that women are promiscuous. Stopping abortion, which they see only as a convenient way for women to get away with having sex, is only the first step. Next is birth control so that you have to bear a child if you have sex - the only valid reason they see for having sex anyway. It is a matter of them wanting your life to reflect that which does not offend them. Complete control is the goal.
I'm very worried that a lot of women's rage has shifted into despair at this point? After the illegitimate president bragged about stealing the election and we've seen how our systems don't hold people accountable and the rich get away with everything
I am most appalled at the ob/gyn whose name keeps popping up in these discussions - Donna Harrison - who is she and where did she come from? She is an anomaly in the profession in my experience as a women's healthcare nurse and obstetrics clinical instructor. She perverts the reality of conception and pregnancy and how difficult and personal these decisions are for women and their families. And instead of helping them, she is torturing them and turning their circumstances into criminal enterprises deserving of witch hunts and lifelong suffering. She needs to go to before a review board and explain herself.
From the Washington Post, 6:24 p.m., January 23, 2025: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/23/trump-pardons-antiabortion-activists/
Trump pardons antiabortion activists who blocked access to clinics
By Salvador Rizzo
President Donald Trump granted pardons Thursday to 23 people who were convicted of blocking access to reproductive health clinics, fulfilling another campaign promise to reward political supporters who have run afoul of the law.
Trump announced the clemency grants in an Oval Office signing ceremony, days after pardoning more than 1,500 people accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said of the antiabortion activists. “Many of them are elderly people. … This is a great honor to sign this. They’ll be very happy.”
Ten of the protesters were convicted in D.C. federal court in separate proceedings in 2023, after they were found to have pushed their way into the Washington Surgi-Clinic, near George Washington University’s campus, injuring a medical staffer and hounding patients in October 2020.
Defense attorneys for the defendants called them peaceful demonstrators emulating protesters from the Civil Rights Era. Federal prosecutors in court documents described their efforts as “organized invasions” carried out with physical force, chains, ropes and locks — all of it carefully planned and live-streamed.
The other pardon recipients were convicted of similar offenses in federal courts in New York, Michigan and Tennessee. Prosecutors had alleged they violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it a felony to use threats of force, obstruction and property damage to interfere with reproductive health care services.
The pardon recipients include Lauren Handy, Paula “Paulette” Harlow, Jean Marshall, Joan Bell, John Hinshaw, William Goodman, Jonathan Darnel, Heather Idoni, Paul Vaughn, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, Paul Place, James Zastrow, Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, Chester Gallagher, Calvin Zastrow, Joel Curry, Justin Phillips, Christopher Moscinski and Bevelyn Williams.
The antiabortion Thomas More Society, in a letter to Trump on Jan. 14, requested pardons for all of them, calling them a group of “peaceful pro-life Americans” that included “grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Thanks Stephanie, I was just going to post this news but you did it much better than I could have.
Surely there must be a cohort of Trumpy men, incels aside, who have an interest in keeping BC around.
I think it's great that there is a potentially new option for women seeking abortion. The antis are going to use any opportunity to attack any new Research on drugs used for abortion. The more drugs and methods for abortion the better.
I hate how anti-fact the NYT has become. Seriously, they fired Pamela Paul and still didn't miss a beat.
This is why it’s so important to seek out independent journalism. Thank you Jessica for all the work you do and for reporting on all the things we need to know that legacy media is either too afraid to report on or blatantly ignoring.
Just wrote to Emily Bazelon at NYT with a link to your response. Thank you as ever.
I just checked the NYT article. NYT closed the comments on the article after only 47 comments. Is the NYT so afraid of Trump?
I am on the NYT website and can comment on the article. Now I have to read it first...but I WILL make my thoughts known!
I subscribe and wear to comment, and it was closed
In addition to this story, Trump has announced that he will pardon forced birthers who were convicted under the FACE Act.
I replied to several comments and happy to report, the majority were highly critical of the anti-abortion stance on Ella and its ability to be used in conjunction with misoprostol as a medical abortion pill.
Good to know!