Reproductive rights under assault

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Reproductive rights under assault

1sturlington
mei 20, 2016, 6:51 am

All I can say is, why aren't women angrier?

Oklahoma Passes Bill That Would Subject Abortion Doctors to Felony Charges http://nyti.ms/1rXvfOp

2sparemethecensor
mei 20, 2016, 8:35 am

I'm angry! I'm angry every time! The only thing I can think is that it happens so often in so many places that women are starting to give up.

I've heard a fair number of progressives respond to this by saying, "Well Scotus will just strike it down," but that isn't immediate. A lot of people will be harmed, and imprisoned, in the meantime.

3sturlington
mei 20, 2016, 9:10 am

>2 sparemethecensor: Also, that's not a sustainable solution. They keep trying and trying, and each time, we rely on the courts to knock it down. What if Trump gets elected and puts even one or two of those people he named on the court? They are trying to wear us down, and they are winning.

I'm angry too. But I don't see widespread anger. I'm too young to remember the time before Roe v Wade, but I remember that one reason why the tide turned was that people were angry and upset about seeing so many women harmed by botched abortions. It seems to me like we're heading back to a time where we have to see women dying from back-alley abortions before we get up the gumption to fight back.

4sparemethecensor
mei 20, 2016, 11:09 am

>3 sturlington: Gosh, I hope it doesn't come to that. But I believe the pattern. I see it in people who don't want to vaccinate their children -- if large numbers of people were still paralyzed from polio and dying from smallpox, I bet people would take herd immunity more seriously.

5sparemethecensor
jun 15, 2016, 12:57 pm

A really powerful read that reinforces why reproductive rights are so important, and why even the small chipping away affects women EVERY DAY:
http://jezebel.com/interview-with-a-woman-who-recently-had-an-abortion-at-178197...

This really stuck with me:

Another thing I want to say is that yes, I had this very particular, horrible situation—but if I had had an abortion at 20 weeks just because I didn’t feel ready, that should be okay, too. Like it or not, all of our rights are intertwined. Maybe there’s some woman who has had four abortions and maybe that feels really wrong to you. But my rights are wrapped up with hers, so I have to fight like fuck for her to have as many as she wants—not just for her sake, but for mine, too. If I ever have a daughter, the way things are currently going, she’s going to be fucked if she ever goes through this.

Given the stats given in this piece about how many abortion providers are left in America, and how few of the younger generation are coming in to replace them, I worry for our future.

6lorax
jun 15, 2016, 1:08 pm

>1 sturlington:

Are you familiar with the term "outrage fatigue?" I think it's pertinent here.

As a lesbian who's been concerned with the erosion of reproductive rights for a long time (including when there were damn few straight women who would speak up for my own rights), and who has long been dismayed at how few people understand that the legal underpinnings of Griswold are exactly those of Roe and who are thus *shocked* when having succeeded in making abortion unavailable those who want to control women's bodies start coming for birth control, I just can't be angry any more. All it does is raise my blood pressure.

7lilithcat
jun 15, 2016, 1:12 pm

>1 sturlington:

Who says we're not?

9sturlington
Bewerkt: jun 15, 2016, 1:17 pm

>6 lorax: Very familiar. This is why eroding our rights gradually is proving such an effective strategy.

10LolaWalser
okt 6, 2016, 9:33 am

Post-communist Poland has systematically deprived women of freedoms and rights, but the process finally seems to be halting, maybe even turning somewhat... it's still a long way from even getting where they used to be. "We want doctors, not missionaries!", chanted the crowds in Warsaw on Monday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/05/polish-government-performs-u-turn-...

12southernbooklady
okt 20, 2016, 8:35 am

That...was really, really hard to read. I want everyone on the internet to read it.

13sturlington
nov 17, 2016, 10:55 am

14LolaWalser
nov 17, 2016, 11:25 am

>13 sturlington:

Disgusting.

But I wonder if they realise that the more they "shake things up", the more it stuns people out of complacency.

I was amused by the comments on another story on that website, about the Trumpet who threw a tantrum in the Starbucks for not being served fast enough. Someone commented these people are so angry BECAUSE Trump won. It rings with truth! They were counting with some riots and gut busting, a good four-year long whinge about "Killary", not getting saddled with business.

15sturlington
dec 13, 2016, 12:37 pm

16Taphophile13
dec 13, 2016, 12:47 pm

>15 sturlington: I thought that must be an Onion report when I read that the bill includes nursing homes. Does Oklahoma have a problem with senior citizens seeking abortions?

17Bookmarque
dec 13, 2016, 12:50 pm

So, have they also increased the Oklahoma budget for housing, schools, food stamps, welfare, rent-relief, medicaid, day care etc?

18southernbooklady
dec 13, 2016, 1:11 pm

>15 sturlington: It would be funny if places complied by posting information on gun safety, anti-pollution messages, anti-smoking data, and detailed safe sex information. That would all be "pro life," wouldn't it?

19LolaWalser
dec 13, 2016, 1:15 pm

Let's hear it for vandalism!

20sturlington
dec 13, 2016, 1:16 pm

Having one of those days where I'm finding nothing funny. Appreciate the effort though.

21Taphophile13
Bewerkt: dec 13, 2016, 1:25 pm

>20 sturlington: Me too. I feel more depressed as each choice for a position in the new administration is announced. Even the thought of "slutty" grandmas defacing signs doesn't cheer me up.

22LolaWalser
dec 13, 2016, 1:37 pm

>21 Taphophile13:

Ha, that reminds me--check out the T-shirt modelled by someone's grandma:

Inappropriate Merch for this Holiday Season | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS

23LolaWalser
jan 27, 2017, 1:00 pm

From the anti-choice rally today:



I take it yellow dickheads are a response to pink pussyhats.

24MyriadBooks
jan 27, 2017, 1:07 pm

Well, very few things symbolize a healthy dick like that screaming yellow color.

25elenchus
jan 27, 2017, 2:32 pm

>18 southernbooklady:

I love that. Snark with a heart.

26RidgewayGirl
jan 27, 2017, 4:42 pm

>23 LolaWalser: & >24 MyriadBooks: Why must they be so very unoriginal? Why copy the Women's March when they've spent so much time and effort mocking the pink pussy hats? Why not use their imagination and knit scarves? And those all look machine-knitted - bet they were ordered from some factory in Asia in order to give the appearance that they are crafty. Not buying it.

27norabelle414
jan 27, 2017, 6:16 pm

I've seen a fair number of "March for Forced Birth"-ers today, but none wearing those hats. (My neighborhood is a hot spot for people headed to the Mall to park their charter buses)

Metro is reporting fewer rides today than yesterday (though there are usually fewer rides on Fridays).

28sturlington
apr 27, 2017, 7:22 am

“Let’s stop the humiliation of trying to persuade the powers that be to legalize abortion,” Ms. Rothman, who died in 2007, told an interviewer. “Let’s just take back the technology, the tools, the skills, and the information to perform early abortions and be in charge of our own reproduction.”

Spreading Plan C to End Pregnancy https://nyti.ms/2poxWea

29southernbooklady
apr 27, 2017, 9:11 am

>28 sturlington: this effort to render a crisis of access by making the 'back street' safer -- it's very counterintuitive for a lot of the older figures in the movement.

I admit, it makes me very uneasy. Not because I'm "nervous about leaving women to their own devices" as the article suggests, but because of the lack of transparency and accountability in such transactions. The absence of any recourse if there is malfeasance. Women looking for morning after pills online are already in a vulnerable and desperate state. They need solutions and they may well be willing to convince themselves they've found one. Think how many people order all sorts of crazy weight loss crap online, trying one thing after another. I know if I thought I might be pregnant and had nowhere else to turn, I would be able to convince myself to order off a website no matter even if the transaction felt a little iffy.

Women deserve accountability, some assurance that what they are getting meets medical standards, and is actually what they paid for.

But I am in favor to increased access (with concurrent good information) to morning after and "plan c" drugs and really anything that does, in fact, put the control of a woman's pregnancy in her own hands and under her own control.

30sturlington
apr 27, 2017, 9:16 am

>29 southernbooklady: I've been reading a bit about abortion access before it was legal in the US and the Jane organization. I think in the current political climate, something along those lines is needed again, a trusted but underground network that women can turn to. The good news is that we have advanced beyond the coat hanger, at least for early abortions, and these medical options are much safer, even if distributed "under the counter."

But your points are well taken. There is a lot of room for malfeasance, predator behavior, etc. where desperation is involved.

31southernbooklady
apr 27, 2017, 9:26 am

I have this horror of contraception going the way of something like marijuana...anyone can get it, everyone knows someone who knows someone, but what you actually get is anyone's guess. Sometimes it's the good stuff, sometimes it's oregano. And while it doesn't usually raise any eyebrows when friends smoke it, it's a damn good excuse for law enforcement to throw you in jail and take all your stuff.

(I obviously don't think pot should be illegal. :-))

32LolaWalser
apr 27, 2017, 11:54 am

a trusted but underground network that women can turn to.

jfc to think this is the US in the 21st century we are talking about...

33LolaWalser
nov 14, 2017, 11:10 am

US groups pour millions into anti-abortion campaign in Latin America and Caribbean

Natalia Acevedo Guerrero, of Profamilia, the largest reproductive healthcare provider in Colombia, said: “We’re used to opposition. But in the last few years, we’ve seen anti-rights groups become more organised. They’ve professionalised. They aren’t old ladies with rosaries any more. They’re lawyers engaged in sophisticated discourse, they’re doing lobbying … They have money, they have people in the courts, they have people in the congress.”

34sturlington
mei 5, 2018, 8:15 am

Iowa has passed the strictest antiabortion law in the country, banning all abortions after six week, or if there is a fetal heartbeat: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/04/iowa-fetal-heartbeat-abo...

35LolaWalser
mei 5, 2018, 9:56 am

Awful. I was almost eight weeks pregnant before I even realised. I wonder how often that happens? I'd bet, very often.

36sturlington
mei 5, 2018, 10:30 am

>34 sturlington: It's basically designed to eliminate almost all abortions and provide a possible Supreme Court case to overturn Roe v Wade.

37LolaWalser
mei 5, 2018, 10:50 am

Chilling. Have you seen by any chance Samantha Bee's Full Frontal segment about the supposed "blue wave"? I feel like I should be apologising but truly these days I can only take the news filtered through the comics... (Don't Be So Sure About That Blue Wave | May 2, 2018 Act 3 | Full Frontal on TBS)

I wonder and worry.

38LolaWalser
apr 6, 2022, 9:15 pm

Six years after the first post

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23012348/oklahoma-abortion-bill-ban

Abortion is now prohibited in Oklahoma even in the cases of rape and incest.

Americans should read this:

The Man Behind the Texas Abortion Ban Now Has an Even More Radical Plan to Reshape American Law

39susanbooks
apr 7, 2022, 9:58 am

I taught the Handmaid's Tale in an adult ed class about 15 years ago & one woman was obstreperous in her dislike of the book because of its lack of realism. "First," she said, "they could never outlaw abortion. It's a Supreme Court ruling." I tried to explain what Atwood was seeing in the world that made her write the book but she was firm in her belief. I wonder what she thinks now. She was a former Planned Parenthood lawyer.

40LolaWalser
mei 3, 2022, 1:54 pm

Beyond parody, beyond belief... they actually source shit from 17th century witch-hunters.

In Leaked Abortion Decision, Justice Alito Relies on Jurist Who Supported Marital Rape, Executed 'Witches' (Jezebel)

41southernbooklady
mei 3, 2022, 3:30 pm

I was up when the news broke last night and I didn't sleep at all.

42LolaWalser
mei 3, 2022, 3:42 pm

I'm so sorry. Can't really express it...

It does look like a prelude to overturning a whole host of other decisions based on "privacy" so who knows where this could end.

43southernbooklady
mei 3, 2022, 3:47 pm

>42 LolaWalser: I'd move to an island but with climate change that wouldn't be a very long-term solution!

44krazy4katz
mei 3, 2022, 7:54 pm

We can't even get the Equal Rights Amendment passed. This will be even more difficult to conquer.

45cjbanning
Bewerkt: mei 4, 2022, 11:12 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

46cjbanning
Bewerkt: mei 4, 2022, 11:13 am

>44 krazy4katz:

I can see an argument that it will be easier to get the ERA passed if SCOTUS explicitly rules that the 14th amendment doesn't already do what the ERA is supposed to do.

The problem is we would then need to pass a version of the ERA (or add an article to an omnibus ERA) for EVERY protected class (including those not currently enjoying federal recognition, but which ought to)--to protect not only from sex-based discrimination, but also discrimination on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and so forth.

I'm still not sure that isn't more feasible in the long run to just restore balance to the Court and then get them to rule that all this is *already* protected by the Constitution.

47krazy4katz
Bewerkt: mei 4, 2022, 9:15 pm

>46 cjbanning: I never thought about this, but maybe you are right. Just use the 14th Amendment.

How do you think we should restore balance to the Court? If we could, that would be great but, as they say, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". i.e. what I like and you like might not be what others like. Democracy! So hard!

48susanbooks
mei 6, 2022, 10:45 am

At Verso books, Jenny Brown's Without Apology is available for free download. I haven't read it, but it's certainly timely. https://www.versobooks.com/authors/2401-jenny-brown

Here's what they say at Verso:
An indispensable guide to building a fighting feminist movement for reproductive freedom

With an antiabortion majority on the Supreme Court and several states attempting to outlaw abortion altogether, many activists are on the defensive, hoping to hold on to reproductive rights in a few places and cases. This spirited book shows how feminism can start winning again.

Jenny Brown uncovers a century of legal abortion in the United States until 1873, recalls women’s experiences in the illegal days, and shows how the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s really won abortion rights. She draws inspiration and lessons from the radicals of Redstockings, the Army of Three, and the Jane Collective, putting together a road map for today’s organizers from the black feminist argument for reproductive justice, the successful fight to make the morning-after pill available over the counter, and the recent mass movement to repeal Ireland’s abortion ban.

Brown argues that politically conservative nonprofits have been setting the agenda, emphasizing rare tragic cases and relying on the rhetoric of choice and privacy. Instead, it is time to return to the fundamental ideas that won legal abortion in the first place: Women publicly telling the full truth of their own experience, demanding repeal of all abortion restrictions, and showing how abortion and birth control are the key demands in the struggle for women’s freedom.

49krazy4katz
mei 6, 2022, 7:23 pm

>48 susanbooks: Thank you!

50southernbooklady
mei 25, 2022, 10:07 am

This twitter thread is making the rounds again in my social media circles

I’m a mother of six, and a Mormon. I have a good understanding of arguments surrounding abortion, religious and otherwise. I've been listening to men grandstand about women's reproductive rights, and I'm convinced men actually have zero interest in stopping abortion. Here's why…

If you want to stop abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And men are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies. No for real, they are. Perhaps you are thinking: IT TAKES TWO! And yes, it does take two for _intentional_ pregnancies.

But ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don’t believe me? Let me walk you through it....


She goes on for about thirty posts.

https://twitter.com/designmom/status/1040363431893725184

51southernbooklady
aug 3, 2022, 10:12 am

The people have spoken:

Kansas Votes to Preserve Abortion Rights Protections in Its Constitution

Kansas, of all places. A redder than red state.

52krazy4katz
Bewerkt: aug 4, 2022, 10:29 pm

>51 southernbooklady: Yes!! If any of you are interested in promoting the "blue" perspective, you can join Postcards to Voters, which focuses (kindly) on reminding Democrats to vote in key elections at many levels all over the country where the results might be close. I participated in that for Kansas because putting this constitutional amendment on the ballot during the primary was meant to confuse a lot of Democrats, who typically do not show up to vote in primaries as much as Republicans.

ETA: 200,000 postcards were written to Kansas Democrats!

Yay!!!

53LolaWalser
aug 4, 2022, 1:34 pm

>51 southernbooklady:

I'm reminded of what Michael Moore indefatigably repeats about the majority of Americans--that they support gun control, abortion etc. Presumably that's regardless of party affiliation.

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