When they overturned RvW I was ready to become a Jane, myself. I had already read about them way back in 1998, just by accident, while going down a menstrual extraction google search wormhole (was so tired of my period, I wondered if I could just suck it all out with some contraption. Alas, no, but I discovered the Janes.) To anyone wanting more info about abortion I highly recommend The Means of Reproduction, by Michelle Goldberg, which was amazingly informative about how simple, safe abortion became politicized.
Recently I keep ruminating this thought. Men, you will NEVER EVER KNOW What it is like to be pregnant. To have a menstrual cycle or be concerned about your period and or pregnancy.
Thus. You don’t get a say in it. Plain and simple.
The zygote grows in my body I take all the risks. YOU DO NOT.
I'd also like to comment that self-management of abortion actually continued to be necessary post Roe. Perhaps this was one of our biggest mistakes. Many thought that legislative change (Roe) was the pinnacle of what was needed and so abortion became medicalized and fully turned over to medical "experts". That affected access and, in part, brought us to where we are today. We (those who are not health care providers ) had shown that we could take care of ourselves and one another. But that power was handed over and/or taken away. I think we need to reflect on that.
Thanks for this important article. I think about the networks that have been created throughout Latin America since the early 2000s, empowering pregnant people to use over-the-counter misoprostol for their abortions. These accompaniment networks have been absolutely key to abortion access. The (mostly) women launching the networks (first was Las Libres in Mexico) had a similar trajectory in terms of first connecting with ObGyns, then reading the literature, including WHO guidelines, to turn to themselves as sources of information and accompaniment. We've made 2 documentaries about this for those who are interested.
In terms of the Janes, I do believe there's one error in the article (please correct me if I'm wrong)- they were not doing D&Cs but created homemade aspiration kits (the precursor of MVA). The procedures are different and aspiration is safer.
I used to think that the lawmakers (mostly white male Republicans) who are passing anti-abortion laws are ignorant. Surely they wouldn’t pass such draconian laws if they knew how women would be harmed? But that is exactly what they did.
The situation is actually worse than ignorance, because lawmakers KNEW women would be harmed and passed anti-abortion laws despite the warnings they got from medical experts before passing the bans.
Now the Republican lawmakers are hearing the same stories we all hear — horror stories which are told by the women who are being harmed by the anti-abortion laws. So, instead of fixing the mess they’ve created, now these lawmakers are ignoring the women as well as the medical experts.
This means the lawmakers are NOT ignorant, they are willfully cruel. This means Republicans are willing to let women suffer, risk permanent impairment and death. This. Is. Not. Okay.
Women who want access to abortion care do not want anything special. (What’s special about wanting to live?)
Woman want bodily autonomy and accurate information to make important healthcare decisions which affect our lives and those of our families — you know, the way women have had for about the past 50 years and, oh yeah, like men have had for centuries!
We don’t want to hear lies like “abortion is not healthcare” or “carrying your dead fetus to term will help you grieve” or anything of the sort.
We don’t want medically unnecessary tests or waiting periods with multiple office visits or health clinics required to be stocked like medi-surgical centers for open-heart surgery. (Tele-medicine is safe and works quite well, thank you very much.)
We don’t want protestors screaming at us as we enter and exit the clinic. We don’t need stupid scripts read to us or any of the other nonsense meant to shame and harass us — and don’t lie and tell us you’re worried about our safety because clearly you are not. (The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is a scandal — do something about THAT if you are sincere about helping pregnant women survive.)
We don’t need the government in our private lives or threatening to punish doctors if they dare to use their skill and training to provide women with standard medical care.
We trust women to raise children. We must trust women to decide when, and if, we have children. We should never require women to become septic (blood poisoning can be deadly) before medical intervention starts. We shouldn’t have laws that make doctors afraid to administer healthcare to pregnant women (or any other patient).
Why is this so hard? Lawmakers need to stop treating pregnant women like imbeciles. When they do, we’ll all be better off.
I have an idea. Lawmakers (and everyone else) should just mind your own damn business and let women make our own decisions. Women deserve better than we’re getting from Republican lawmakers, that’s for sure.
Here’s another idea. Republicans need to be voted out of office until they learn to trust and respect women. Also, I cannot forget that Donald Trump did this and he tells us he’s proud to have gotten Roe overturned. (If he’s re-elected it will only get worse. Google “Project 2025” and see what I mean, abortion is mentioned almost 200 times and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.)
I hope you will vote for Democrats up and down the ballot, so we can restore reproductive rights and protect our freedoms.
Video of Hadley Duvall @ the DNC. Very powerful line: "... He calls it a beautiful thing. What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent's child?"
Great article, thank you Moira. Although these women were certainly ordinary in many ways, they were also hugely courageous. It looks like we need to harness that courage again in the post Dobbs world. Women helping women. We can’t count on anyone else, not our government, doctors, clergy, politicians, no one. It’s up to us as a supportive sisterhood.
Hi folks - here to ask for a favor from anyone local to the Kansas City area AND free during the day this coming Wednesday. The “Abolitionist” arm of the anti-abortion movement is planning some huge gathering at a local Planned Parenthood clinic. My sister has to work, but I’m planning to join at least one other Clinic Defender to make their time there less pleasant. If you’re free, here’s your chance to work out some of those pent-up frustrations.
Requires nothing but a loud voice, a quick wit, and a surly disregard for the opinions of idiots.
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Planned Parenthood Great Plains
4401 West 109th Street
Overland Park, KS 66211
(Just south of the 435 Freeway at Roe Blvd)
Look for the PRO WOMEN - PRO CHOICE signs. Be prepared for a LOT of them and not many of us. It helps if you’re a little crazy yourself. 😁 Not to worry - you’ll be fine. We expect a heavy police presence. Come join us - show Trump his side aren’t the only fighters.
I always give them a hard time about that. "Abolitionist? This is Kansas, sonny. Abolitionists bled and died for a cause they believed in. Y'all are just a bunch of punks too chickenshit to even block the driveway! Abolitionists my ass!" Haven't yet provoked one of them into getting himself arrested but hope springs eternal.
Love Donegan's reportage for The Guardian, whenever I see her byline I know I'm in for some powerful writing/education! And so important to note how imperfect all of this history is, real life is nuanced and full of gray areas.
It deserves mentioning that a good part of the pre-Roe existence of abortion services revolved around the sex trade and organized crime that had other uses for medical services outside of the law. Certainly women in the sex trade would rather go to other women who had more mutual interests than some doctor picking up extra cash from the sex trade.
Thank you - this is an important article. It's hard to believe, but the situation is even more dangerous for some women today than it was in the time of The Janes -- I'm thinking about the women being turned away for care with issues like ectopic and other non-viable pregnancies. This is the result of medical care being legislated for political reasons, by ignorant politicians.
Please, everyone, consider the parties, the people, and the referendums you vote for this year!
When they overturned RvW I was ready to become a Jane, myself. I had already read about them way back in 1998, just by accident, while going down a menstrual extraction google search wormhole (was so tired of my period, I wondered if I could just suck it all out with some contraption. Alas, no, but I discovered the Janes.) To anyone wanting more info about abortion I highly recommend The Means of Reproduction, by Michelle Goldberg, which was amazingly informative about how simple, safe abortion became politicized.
Excellent article. Thank you!
Recently I keep ruminating this thought. Men, you will NEVER EVER KNOW What it is like to be pregnant. To have a menstrual cycle or be concerned about your period and or pregnancy.
Thus. You don’t get a say in it. Plain and simple.
The zygote grows in my body I take all the risks. YOU DO NOT.
That’s all I got.
I'd also like to comment that self-management of abortion actually continued to be necessary post Roe. Perhaps this was one of our biggest mistakes. Many thought that legislative change (Roe) was the pinnacle of what was needed and so abortion became medicalized and fully turned over to medical "experts". That affected access and, in part, brought us to where we are today. We (those who are not health care providers ) had shown that we could take care of ourselves and one another. But that power was handed over and/or taken away. I think we need to reflect on that.
Thanks for this important article. I think about the networks that have been created throughout Latin America since the early 2000s, empowering pregnant people to use over-the-counter misoprostol for their abortions. These accompaniment networks have been absolutely key to abortion access. The (mostly) women launching the networks (first was Las Libres in Mexico) had a similar trajectory in terms of first connecting with ObGyns, then reading the literature, including WHO guidelines, to turn to themselves as sources of information and accompaniment. We've made 2 documentaries about this for those who are interested.
In terms of the Janes, I do believe there's one error in the article (please correct me if I'm wrong)- they were not doing D&Cs but created homemade aspiration kits (the precursor of MVA). The procedures are different and aspiration is safer.
I remember having a book that showed how to make one with Mason jars and tubing.
Yes! I think that's included in Our Bodies, Ourselves.
I used to think that the lawmakers (mostly white male Republicans) who are passing anti-abortion laws are ignorant. Surely they wouldn’t pass such draconian laws if they knew how women would be harmed? But that is exactly what they did.
The situation is actually worse than ignorance, because lawmakers KNEW women would be harmed and passed anti-abortion laws despite the warnings they got from medical experts before passing the bans.
Now the Republican lawmakers are hearing the same stories we all hear — horror stories which are told by the women who are being harmed by the anti-abortion laws. So, instead of fixing the mess they’ve created, now these lawmakers are ignoring the women as well as the medical experts.
This means the lawmakers are NOT ignorant, they are willfully cruel. This means Republicans are willing to let women suffer, risk permanent impairment and death. This. Is. Not. Okay.
Women who want access to abortion care do not want anything special. (What’s special about wanting to live?)
Woman want bodily autonomy and accurate information to make important healthcare decisions which affect our lives and those of our families — you know, the way women have had for about the past 50 years and, oh yeah, like men have had for centuries!
We don’t want to hear lies like “abortion is not healthcare” or “carrying your dead fetus to term will help you grieve” or anything of the sort.
We don’t want medically unnecessary tests or waiting periods with multiple office visits or health clinics required to be stocked like medi-surgical centers for open-heart surgery. (Tele-medicine is safe and works quite well, thank you very much.)
We don’t want protestors screaming at us as we enter and exit the clinic. We don’t need stupid scripts read to us or any of the other nonsense meant to shame and harass us — and don’t lie and tell us you’re worried about our safety because clearly you are not. (The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is a scandal — do something about THAT if you are sincere about helping pregnant women survive.)
We don’t need the government in our private lives or threatening to punish doctors if they dare to use their skill and training to provide women with standard medical care.
We trust women to raise children. We must trust women to decide when, and if, we have children. We should never require women to become septic (blood poisoning can be deadly) before medical intervention starts. We shouldn’t have laws that make doctors afraid to administer healthcare to pregnant women (or any other patient).
Why is this so hard? Lawmakers need to stop treating pregnant women like imbeciles. When they do, we’ll all be better off.
I have an idea. Lawmakers (and everyone else) should just mind your own damn business and let women make our own decisions. Women deserve better than we’re getting from Republican lawmakers, that’s for sure.
Here’s another idea. Republicans need to be voted out of office until they learn to trust and respect women. Also, I cannot forget that Donald Trump did this and he tells us he’s proud to have gotten Roe overturned. (If he’s re-elected it will only get worse. Google “Project 2025” and see what I mean, abortion is mentioned almost 200 times and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.)
I hope you will vote for Democrats up and down the ballot, so we can restore reproductive rights and protect our freedoms.
Video of Hadley Duvall @ the DNC. Very powerful line: "... He calls it a beautiful thing. What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent's child?"
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1825726615122538900
Great article, thank you Moira. Although these women were certainly ordinary in many ways, they were also hugely courageous. It looks like we need to harness that courage again in the post Dobbs world. Women helping women. We can’t count on anyone else, not our government, doctors, clergy, politicians, no one. It’s up to us as a supportive sisterhood.
Great book. We may need it again. I also read a book on menstrual extractions. Very interesting.
Hi folks - here to ask for a favor from anyone local to the Kansas City area AND free during the day this coming Wednesday. The “Abolitionist” arm of the anti-abortion movement is planning some huge gathering at a local Planned Parenthood clinic. My sister has to work, but I’m planning to join at least one other Clinic Defender to make their time there less pleasant. If you’re free, here’s your chance to work out some of those pent-up frustrations.
Requires nothing but a loud voice, a quick wit, and a surly disregard for the opinions of idiots.
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Planned Parenthood Great Plains
4401 West 109th Street
Overland Park, KS 66211
(Just south of the 435 Freeway at Roe Blvd)
Look for the PRO WOMEN - PRO CHOICE signs. Be prepared for a LOT of them and not many of us. It helps if you’re a little crazy yourself. 😁 Not to worry - you’ll be fine. We expect a heavy police presence. Come join us - show Trump his side aren’t the only fighters.
Thank you for sharing. The anti-abortionists are vile liars......Abolitionists are worse.
Yes! And what a disgusting reframing of the word abolition!
I always give them a hard time about that. "Abolitionist? This is Kansas, sonny. Abolitionists bled and died for a cause they believed in. Y'all are just a bunch of punks too chickenshit to even block the driveway! Abolitionists my ass!" Haven't yet provoked one of them into getting himself arrested but hope springs eternal.
10 AM - 2 PM
Love Donegan's reportage for The Guardian, whenever I see her byline I know I'm in for some powerful writing/education! And so important to note how imperfect all of this history is, real life is nuanced and full of gray areas.
Thanks, Jessica, for posting this article.
It deserves mentioning that a good part of the pre-Roe existence of abortion services revolved around the sex trade and organized crime that had other uses for medical services outside of the law. Certainly women in the sex trade would rather go to other women who had more mutual interests than some doctor picking up extra cash from the sex trade.
Thank you, Jessica. This is SO important.
Thank you - this is an important article. It's hard to believe, but the situation is even more dangerous for some women today than it was in the time of The Janes -- I'm thinking about the women being turned away for care with issues like ectopic and other non-viable pregnancies. This is the result of medical care being legislated for political reasons, by ignorant politicians.
Please, everyone, consider the parties, the people, and the referendums you vote for this year!
Hear hear! Let's vote the bastards out this November, up and down the ballot!
This was such a good, rounded description of these brave women. Thank you!
If you’re interested, I also recommend this documentary called The Janes. Eye-opening.
https://www.hbo.com/movies/the-janes