Indeed. Nobody I knew trusted the guy as far as we could throw him. Uphill. With a boulder tied to his nuts. When he first ran for governor, his political platform consisted of "We're gonna clean up the mess at Berkeley." He was referring to the Free Speech Movement--in large part led by veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, some of whom had gone South to register Black people to vote. When Reagan ran for president in 1980, he made his announcement close to a town named Philadelphia, Mississippi. Just a few years before, three young civil rights workers had been abducted, tortured, and murdered by the Klan in that town. Some people (still) chalk Reagan's racism, and his hatred of youth, up to early dementia. Nope. The guy was quite aware of what he was doing, and willing to follow through. He was willing to justify imprisoning and even killing innocent people--and did. Office workers like me, and women dying from illegal abortions, would have just been more collateral damage, meaningless to Reagan and his ilk. As today we are, still, to his political heirs.
Funny, I don't think of my life as wild, or unusual. I was just looking for a job at the time and there was a "Help Wanted Women" ad in the paper (yes, sex-segregated want ads for employment were still a thing) and I went in and filled out an application. Even working at that doctor's office was mostly routine. That's true for most people's lives, I think: years of routine and boredom, punctuated by moments of--well, shall we say, non-routine, when every second counts and you've got to be level-headed rather than freaking out. (Or, freaking out after it's all over.) It wasn't til *after* I got this particular job that I realized how, er, unusual it could be at times. The doctor I worked for died in 2000, and his obits never mentioned his involvement with doing abortions pre-Roe. Even then, thirty years later, there was such a stigma that either he never talked about that period of his life, or he didn't think of his work as being at all heroic or unusual or anything. I wasn't either. I was just an average person doing a job. It still surprises me that people think of that job as weird or different or noteworthy because it didn't seem so at the time. Now, sure, it has historical significance--but at the time, no. It was just people doing what people had to do. I agree that all of us who had those experiences need to talk, record them. Brings to mind the incredible work done in the 1930s where people went out and interviewed formerly enslaved people, most of them quite elderly by then. I have several books on my shelves that contain such stories. They would have been lost to us without the work done back then. Like Maimonides said, "In order to know where you are going, you must know from whence you came."
I’m wondering if there is a chart somewhere showing each state with laws passed regarding abortion and laws being considered. I’ve been doubling down on not bringing/sending my dollars to states that limit abortion rights. Texas, Florida, and Idaho are no-brainers, but so many others seem to be in flux right now and it would helpful to have a reference.
And remember, I was only 20. The office I worked in was about a mile from UC Berkeley, probably the most liberal area in liberal California. The doctor I worked for was willing to take risks to do what he did. He had a supportive staff--three nurses, receptionists like me, and a medical records manager. We all knew where and how to hide records, in case the office got raided. (Yes, there were such cases.) The doc sat on panels that approved abortions under California law. So his patients had all that going for them. In other places, in the same state--not so much. Other people have much more horrific stories than I have, and much longer or much more direct experience than I ever did. When I say "carnage", I'm only talking about what I personally saw, in one office, near one hospital, during about a year and a half in that job, pre-Roe.
Yes, I do know what pregnancy does to the body of a child--or a very small woman. My sister is 4'7" tall, because her medical condition was not caught until she was 20. After ten years of hormone therapy, she finally went through menarche and got pregnant. While she was in labor with her daughter, her husband and the doctors feared for her life because she was so tiny. Finally the surgeon was forced to perform a caesarean surgery. She had endless complications that eventually included a hysterectomy. And this was in another country, where medical care was nationalized. She's 65 now and still has many medical problems--some due to the pregnancy, some with other origins. *My sister was lucky!* Many children will not be.
It's very hard to understand why Democrats would ever be talking about anything else right now. Is there anything else Republicans are doing, or could do, that would be as remotely unpopular or toxic as what I read in this newsletter every day? I don't know how it could be more obvious. If Democrats can't do anything with this then we can officially declare democracy dead in this country and focus on a revolution.
Yeah, I love his work. You can read him on so many levels.
Indeed. Nobody I knew trusted the guy as far as we could throw him. Uphill. With a boulder tied to his nuts. When he first ran for governor, his political platform consisted of "We're gonna clean up the mess at Berkeley." He was referring to the Free Speech Movement--in large part led by veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, some of whom had gone South to register Black people to vote. When Reagan ran for president in 1980, he made his announcement close to a town named Philadelphia, Mississippi. Just a few years before, three young civil rights workers had been abducted, tortured, and murdered by the Klan in that town. Some people (still) chalk Reagan's racism, and his hatred of youth, up to early dementia. Nope. The guy was quite aware of what he was doing, and willing to follow through. He was willing to justify imprisoning and even killing innocent people--and did. Office workers like me, and women dying from illegal abortions, would have just been more collateral damage, meaningless to Reagan and his ilk. As today we are, still, to his political heirs.
Funny, I don't think of my life as wild, or unusual. I was just looking for a job at the time and there was a "Help Wanted Women" ad in the paper (yes, sex-segregated want ads for employment were still a thing) and I went in and filled out an application. Even working at that doctor's office was mostly routine. That's true for most people's lives, I think: years of routine and boredom, punctuated by moments of--well, shall we say, non-routine, when every second counts and you've got to be level-headed rather than freaking out. (Or, freaking out after it's all over.) It wasn't til *after* I got this particular job that I realized how, er, unusual it could be at times. The doctor I worked for died in 2000, and his obits never mentioned his involvement with doing abortions pre-Roe. Even then, thirty years later, there was such a stigma that either he never talked about that period of his life, or he didn't think of his work as being at all heroic or unusual or anything. I wasn't either. I was just an average person doing a job. It still surprises me that people think of that job as weird or different or noteworthy because it didn't seem so at the time. Now, sure, it has historical significance--but at the time, no. It was just people doing what people had to do. I agree that all of us who had those experiences need to talk, record them. Brings to mind the incredible work done in the 1930s where people went out and interviewed formerly enslaved people, most of them quite elderly by then. I have several books on my shelves that contain such stories. They would have been lost to us without the work done back then. Like Maimonides said, "In order to know where you are going, you must know from whence you came."
I’m wondering if there is a chart somewhere showing each state with laws passed regarding abortion and laws being considered. I’ve been doubling down on not bringing/sending my dollars to states that limit abortion rights. Texas, Florida, and Idaho are no-brainers, but so many others seem to be in flux right now and it would helpful to have a reference.
And remember, I was only 20. The office I worked in was about a mile from UC Berkeley, probably the most liberal area in liberal California. The doctor I worked for was willing to take risks to do what he did. He had a supportive staff--three nurses, receptionists like me, and a medical records manager. We all knew where and how to hide records, in case the office got raided. (Yes, there were such cases.) The doc sat on panels that approved abortions under California law. So his patients had all that going for them. In other places, in the same state--not so much. Other people have much more horrific stories than I have, and much longer or much more direct experience than I ever did. When I say "carnage", I'm only talking about what I personally saw, in one office, near one hospital, during about a year and a half in that job, pre-Roe.
Yes, I do know what pregnancy does to the body of a child--or a very small woman. My sister is 4'7" tall, because her medical condition was not caught until she was 20. After ten years of hormone therapy, she finally went through menarche and got pregnant. While she was in labor with her daughter, her husband and the doctors feared for her life because she was so tiny. Finally the surgeon was forced to perform a caesarean surgery. She had endless complications that eventually included a hysterectomy. And this was in another country, where medical care was nationalized. She's 65 now and still has many medical problems--some due to the pregnancy, some with other origins. *My sister was lucky!* Many children will not be.
I really just can’t anymore! Every day the news becomes more depressing.
I suggest we call all Republicans Women Killers, members of the Party to Murder Women. I'm sure there are those who will have better names.
"...if both states banned abortion, the South’s access to care would be decimated."
It is not a coincidence that all the former slave states are now anti-abortion. Same story. New generation.
It's very hard to understand why Democrats would ever be talking about anything else right now. Is there anything else Republicans are doing, or could do, that would be as remotely unpopular or toxic as what I read in this newsletter every day? I don't know how it could be more obvious. If Democrats can't do anything with this then we can officially declare democracy dead in this country and focus on a revolution.