Thank you for keeping us all aware of this stuff, Jessica. It's depressing but also makes it clear we need to keep active and resist the actions politicians are taking. I especially dislike the phony pregnancy centers.
One-cell "babies"?! Let's try Religion, Science, Constitution, and Solutions or Civil War, which would be our second war over slavery. Feminism within the larger American-Western Enlighnment VS. Slavery-Authoritarian context. See REQUEST at the end of this comment.
1) RELIGION: It's Pythagoras, a pre-Christian mathematician/philosopher who came up with his doctrine of ensoulment: "The Spirit of Life enters the Product of Conception" VS. Bible-Judeo-Christian doctrine that a new life begins at birth (Books of Exodus and Genesis). The two major versions of the Ensoulment Doctrine within Christianity are: Fertilized Egg - Pythagorean-Church of Rome-Christian (PRC) VS. At Birth: Bible-Judeo-Christian (BJC).
2) SCIENCE: The life of a Human Being starts with the first functioning of a very large number of neural circuits in the grey matter of the brain, just sufficient for giving rise to beginning mental life. (Is there a human being with merely physiological responses, but no mental life??)
3) CONSTITUTION: (i) The First Amendment bans BOTH government ESTABLISHING religion by force of law AND prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The anti-American clergy and their followers want THEIR version of doctrine (PRC) to be the law of the land AND to prohibit anyone from living in accordance with the BJC version
(ii) The Thirteenth Amendment bans slavery and involuntary servitude. No one can deny that the FORCED labor of pregnancy is involuntary servitude based upon laws granting rights of possession (dominance and control) of all vaginas and uteri of those people between puberty and menopause. What is the FORCE? Fear of death by hemorrhage, infection, or by execution by anti-female-life clergy and Republican politicians for the "homicide" of fertilized eggs, too?
4) SOLUTIONS OR CIVIL WAR?: Instead of bodily and religious enslavement, do cause-and-effect solutions: What are the CAUSES of choosing to abort? What SOLUTIONS to minimize ABORTIONS while PROHIBITING bodily and religious ENSLAVEMENT? Accessible contraception? REAL child support, but within real world LIMITS? Other?
REQUEST: Are there readers of this column who would like to form a working group to form a package of solutions rather than just commenting? If so, please so state in your replys and how you wish to be contacted.
You know what would help women fight these crazed, blood thirsty misogynists? The Equal Rights Amendment. Biden had four years to make sure the Archivist published it. But here’s what he says today:
They are and yes we need the ERA! Democrats complete inaction over the past decade or more has me absolutely enraged. I think it’s somewhat purposeful and also a failure to focus on the intersectionality of race, gender, and class. Also, republicans are very good at creating distractions so no one is paying attention to their horrific policies and legislation. We need to take the attention back.
“Adolescent females”? I harp on this, but I think it is important because language matters. Female is an adjective not a noun. When people refer to girls and women as females, they are dehumanizing us. It’s a huge red flag.
From Jessica's post, "they associate their home with abortion, and fake ‘science’ insisting that the medication messes with the 'reproductive system of the adolescent female.'"
I think they were trying to sound scientific, as if this were something they discerned through the eyes of determined biologists. Right? As if house cats or cows might be using mifepristone.
Your friend seems prepared to dial down her own expectations in order to protect her sons’ security. I think this is exactly why the Maga/“christian” nationalist push for women to be either pregnant or confined by motherhood. It makes many women so much easier to control when there are emotional hostages. I hope you are able to stay around as a supportive friend, as much as it will hurt to bite your tongue continuously, because one day she may really need you.
This lack of knowledge of birth control has me thinking of my friend who was 44 (like me) and got pregnant last year after stopping IUD contraception she had relied on for years and years. 14 years ago (before I knew her) she had gotten pregnant by a boyfriend ten years her senior and they decided to get married “because of the pregnancy.” They are both white suburban middle-class types but she was admittedly unhappy and I met her in recovery. In the last 5 years that we have become very close friends, I had watched her come into her own more and more. She was thinking more seriously about career paths and questioning her husband’s misogyny and racism and she was even having me talk to her son to be an influence for him that was non-conservative, ie not sexist/racist so he would experience other influences. (ex: Me explaining and answering “why is MLK such a big deal?”)
But suddenly last year she announced to me that “condoms” were so “unfun” and even though she was already unhappy with their sex life they were using “the pull-out method.” Our other friend and I immediately pointed out “wtf! are you a pre-teen? you know that is risky”… to which she blabbed on citing inaccurate facts (maybe he gave her?) about pre-ejac not having high sperm counts. She even said “well getting pregnant wouldn’t be the worst thing” and cut to a MONTH later she found out she was pregnant. Her husband’s first reaction was “get an abortion or get a divorce.” It would be hilarious if not so heartbreaking because this was just a few months before his Republican party’s abortion ban at 6 weeks was taking effect here in FL. He apparently “came around” and she agreed to quit her job and move into the baby’s room so she could be up with the child like their first son because her husband’s “sleep was very important.” I tried being supportive but she had fallen so far back into the pretending everything is roses vibe like when I first met her. Part of me is just so sad for her because I know she had financial insecurities based (accurately) on him making much more money than she could and maybe being pregnant she felt she has to tamp down her independence. But the other part of me thinks she self-sabotaged just to get back behind the safety of his white male privilege. And now she is raising two sons with this father role-model.
What does this say about the death penalty itself? I think for a lot of these people the death penalty is nothing more than government subsidized public entertainment. It wouldn't be the first time.
It never slows down, does it? Day after day we read the stories of despair and injustice toward women, many of them already mothers. To imprison a woman, or end her life, because for any reason at all she doesn’t want to birth a child.
This is inhumanity at its finest. Red states trying to one-up each other on how ruthlessly they plan to punish women.
These legislators, along with many a pastor, are shaming us publicly as they seek even greater control. Bringing your blood into the hospital so they can determine whether or not you aborted? WTF!!!!! Isn’t a miscarriage enough trauma?
Something’s gotta give here. This is a travesty against women (and little girls) like no other. To remove our autonomy in controlling our bodies, they have diminished our reasons to thrive. And while I know that they’re proud of themselves for their efforts, they have given us no reason to trust or respect them.
I've been thinking about how people in some countries hate America. Well , I hate white republican politicians, mostly male, for their hatred towards women and girls. You know what, fuck them and their fragile little egos. If you get in my face, I will gut you...just sayin'.
And I'd also like to say, if republican politicians keep this up, there will be millions of really angry women to show up at your door or your office. I would advise you to back off.
Thank you for keeping us all aware of this stuff, Jessica. It's depressing but also makes it clear we need to keep active and resist the actions politicians are taking. I especially dislike the phony pregnancy centers.
Thank you for bringing attention to Christine’s story.
—
Ashlyn Preaux, South Carolina
Palmetto State Abortion Fund
One-cell "babies"?! Let's try Religion, Science, Constitution, and Solutions or Civil War, which would be our second war over slavery. Feminism within the larger American-Western Enlighnment VS. Slavery-Authoritarian context. See REQUEST at the end of this comment.
1) RELIGION: It's Pythagoras, a pre-Christian mathematician/philosopher who came up with his doctrine of ensoulment: "The Spirit of Life enters the Product of Conception" VS. Bible-Judeo-Christian doctrine that a new life begins at birth (Books of Exodus and Genesis). The two major versions of the Ensoulment Doctrine within Christianity are: Fertilized Egg - Pythagorean-Church of Rome-Christian (PRC) VS. At Birth: Bible-Judeo-Christian (BJC).
2) SCIENCE: The life of a Human Being starts with the first functioning of a very large number of neural circuits in the grey matter of the brain, just sufficient for giving rise to beginning mental life. (Is there a human being with merely physiological responses, but no mental life??)
3) CONSTITUTION: (i) The First Amendment bans BOTH government ESTABLISHING religion by force of law AND prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The anti-American clergy and their followers want THEIR version of doctrine (PRC) to be the law of the land AND to prohibit anyone from living in accordance with the BJC version
(ii) The Thirteenth Amendment bans slavery and involuntary servitude. No one can deny that the FORCED labor of pregnancy is involuntary servitude based upon laws granting rights of possession (dominance and control) of all vaginas and uteri of those people between puberty and menopause. What is the FORCE? Fear of death by hemorrhage, infection, or by execution by anti-female-life clergy and Republican politicians for the "homicide" of fertilized eggs, too?
4) SOLUTIONS OR CIVIL WAR?: Instead of bodily and religious enslavement, do cause-and-effect solutions: What are the CAUSES of choosing to abort? What SOLUTIONS to minimize ABORTIONS while PROHIBITING bodily and religious ENSLAVEMENT? Accessible contraception? REAL child support, but within real world LIMITS? Other?
REQUEST: Are there readers of this column who would like to form a working group to form a package of solutions rather than just commenting? If so, please so state in your replys and how you wish to be contacted.
You know what would help women fight these crazed, blood thirsty misogynists? The Equal Rights Amendment. Biden had four years to make sure the Archivist published it. But here’s what he says today:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/us/politics/equal-rights-amendment-constitution-biden.html?unlocked_article_code=1.p04.lV6O.D3iSPOluRkVA&smid=url-share
Honestly, Democrats are really letting women down.
At least Biden. He should have directed the archivist to place it into the Constitution.
Now I see Lawrence Tribe and the Alice Paul Institute are declaring the ERA officially the 25th Amendment…
They are and yes we need the ERA! Democrats complete inaction over the past decade or more has me absolutely enraged. I think it’s somewhat purposeful and also a failure to focus on the intersectionality of race, gender, and class. Also, republicans are very good at creating distractions so no one is paying attention to their horrific policies and legislation. We need to take the attention back.
“Adolescent females”? I harp on this, but I think it is important because language matters. Female is an adjective not a noun. When people refer to girls and women as females, they are dehumanizing us. It’s a huge red flag.
From Jessica's post, "they associate their home with abortion, and fake ‘science’ insisting that the medication messes with the 'reproductive system of the adolescent female.'"
I think they were trying to sound scientific, as if this were something they discerned through the eyes of determined biologists. Right? As if house cats or cows might be using mifepristone.
Your friend seems prepared to dial down her own expectations in order to protect her sons’ security. I think this is exactly why the Maga/“christian” nationalist push for women to be either pregnant or confined by motherhood. It makes many women so much easier to control when there are emotional hostages. I hope you are able to stay around as a supportive friend, as much as it will hurt to bite your tongue continuously, because one day she may really need you.
This lack of knowledge of birth control has me thinking of my friend who was 44 (like me) and got pregnant last year after stopping IUD contraception she had relied on for years and years. 14 years ago (before I knew her) she had gotten pregnant by a boyfriend ten years her senior and they decided to get married “because of the pregnancy.” They are both white suburban middle-class types but she was admittedly unhappy and I met her in recovery. In the last 5 years that we have become very close friends, I had watched her come into her own more and more. She was thinking more seriously about career paths and questioning her husband’s misogyny and racism and she was even having me talk to her son to be an influence for him that was non-conservative, ie not sexist/racist so he would experience other influences. (ex: Me explaining and answering “why is MLK such a big deal?”)
But suddenly last year she announced to me that “condoms” were so “unfun” and even though she was already unhappy with their sex life they were using “the pull-out method.” Our other friend and I immediately pointed out “wtf! are you a pre-teen? you know that is risky”… to which she blabbed on citing inaccurate facts (maybe he gave her?) about pre-ejac not having high sperm counts. She even said “well getting pregnant wouldn’t be the worst thing” and cut to a MONTH later she found out she was pregnant. Her husband’s first reaction was “get an abortion or get a divorce.” It would be hilarious if not so heartbreaking because this was just a few months before his Republican party’s abortion ban at 6 weeks was taking effect here in FL. He apparently “came around” and she agreed to quit her job and move into the baby’s room so she could be up with the child like their first son because her husband’s “sleep was very important.” I tried being supportive but she had fallen so far back into the pretending everything is roses vibe like when I first met her. Part of me is just so sad for her because I know she had financial insecurities based (accurately) on him making much more money than she could and maybe being pregnant she felt she has to tamp down her independence. But the other part of me thinks she self-sabotaged just to get back behind the safety of his white male privilege. And now she is raising two sons with this father role-model.
What does this say about the death penalty itself? I think for a lot of these people the death penalty is nothing more than government subsidized public entertainment. It wouldn't be the first time.
It never slows down, does it? Day after day we read the stories of despair and injustice toward women, many of them already mothers. To imprison a woman, or end her life, because for any reason at all she doesn’t want to birth a child.
This is inhumanity at its finest. Red states trying to one-up each other on how ruthlessly they plan to punish women.
These legislators, along with many a pastor, are shaming us publicly as they seek even greater control. Bringing your blood into the hospital so they can determine whether or not you aborted? WTF!!!!! Isn’t a miscarriage enough trauma?
Something’s gotta give here. This is a travesty against women (and little girls) like no other. To remove our autonomy in controlling our bodies, they have diminished our reasons to thrive. And while I know that they’re proud of themselves for their efforts, they have given us no reason to trust or respect them.
I've been thinking about how people in some countries hate America. Well , I hate white republican politicians, mostly male, for their hatred towards women and girls. You know what, fuck them and their fragile little egos. If you get in my face, I will gut you...just sayin'.
And I'd also like to say, if republican politicians keep this up, there will be millions of really angry women to show up at your door or your office. I would advise you to back off.
Another good write-up of Kaczmarek's lawlessness from Law Dork, here: https://open.substack.com/pub/chrisgeidner/p/breaking-judge-who-wanted-to-ban?r=44hlk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I haven’t even read this yet but my blood is boiling: WHERE ARE THE LAWSUITS AGAINST LEGISLATORS AND HOSPITALS MURDERING WOMEN AND GIRLS?!