The last several days have seen a Republican stampede to distance the party from the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision of a week ago, when it ruled that embryos frozen for in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be considered children and that their injury can be treated like injury to a child. That decision has led major healthcare providers in Alabama to stop IVF procedures out of fear of prosecution.
Heather Cox Richardson we continue to spread the truth of these matters in the face of the constant attack on democracy and our rights. The pernicious aggression towards women, rights and social freedoms has to be shut down and stopped.
Thanks to all freedom fighters and your continuing beacon Professor ⭐.
Ad the media won't report any of this - not the fact that Trump had to refer to a card to name his own children and still managed to forget Eric and Lara, Friday night - not the increasingly looney stuff he spouts. If Biden said 5% ot what Trump says and had the failures of memory and intellect Trump has, there would be a hue and cry about Biden bveing unfit. But they want Trump back because they've lost 60% of their viewers since 2020 and their owners can't get rid of them if they aren't "profitable," so since they can't see further than the end of their owner's nose, we get public idiocy from allegedly smart people like Kirsten Welker (who got her bullshit called by Gavin Newsom today to the point she went to another topic).
I am just heartsick at the possibility that the House will not get to vote on the aid package for Ukraine! Zelensky said that 31,000+ Ukrainians have already died and thousands more have been injured. Troops needed to retreat due to a lack of ammunition and equipment. Russia has kidnapped untold numbers of Ukrainian children.
All of the Ukrainian losses will have been in vain and it will be the fault of Trump's lackeys in the House of Representatives. We will have blood on our hands. Sure, history will blame House leadership, but that will be cold, cold comfort!
I have a dear young friend who also went through IVF. She told me that heartache of not having viable eggs numerous times was so awful. Plus, she had had 5 miscarriages, all at the 3 month stage. Finally, last year, while on IVF, she and her husband could proclaim that she was pregnant. Three months ago, she gave birth to a handsome son. She is 38 years of age. No couple should have the rug pulled out from them because some white guy thinks he’s got all the answers. No man should be informing women what she can or cannot do…PERIOD!
Even if Joe Biden is infirm, feeble and a poor communicator he can be relied upon to surround himself with smart, experienced and articulate advisers and staff. Trump will surround himself with people like himself. Your choice.
I believee the Alabama Supreme Court made a colossal mistake in its supreme judgment. Here is why:
Scientifically and biologically speaking, the Alabama Supreme Court's recent ruling equating fertilized embryos outside the womb with legal "personhood" and rights equal to born children does not align with the realities of human embryological development.
For an embryo to progress into a viable fetus and eventually a child, it requires the nurturing environment of the uterus/womb. The intricate processes of - cell division, differentiation, implantation, placental formation, etc. - can only occur properly within the physiological conditions provided by the mother's body during gestation.
A fertilized embryo outside of that context, such as those created through IVF and frozen for potential transfer, lacks the biological ability to develop into a child autonomously.
It remains in a suspended, undifferentiated state without the biochemical signaling, protection, and nutrient exchange facilitated by the uterine environment.
From a strictly scientific perspective, the Alabama court's ruling ascribing full legal "personhood" to embryos outside the womb at the point of fertilization is extremely tenuous & wrong. The biological dependence on the maternal conditions for any realistic chance at further development undermines the rationale for considering such embryos ontologically and legally equivalent to children.
Judges, you need to get this right because it impacts thousands of families. Currently, your logic appears seriously flawed.
Republicans offer nothing that is good to the American people. They seem to be friends only of oligarchs, racists, and totalitarians. For sure, they are enemies of democracy and anything that resembles freedom.
I’m happy that I know several of people I used to send this now subscribe and read you everyday.
One note of caution for everyone: Mike Allen of Axios is the journalist who recently made a big deal of Biden using note cards (because Biden’s old) when we know everyone (who’s smart) uses them at one time or other.
We Americans are playing a chess game. By way of the Oath of Office, our politicians have agreed to play by certain rules. The ultimate power of American democracy is that we ask each and every American to act in good faith and play by those rules, too. Donald Trump, the Republican Party, certain corporations, certain billionaires and the MAGA horde are acting in bad faith. In a fit of pique, they want to upend the game board and scatter the chess pieces, the Tantrum Gambit. At the State of the Union Address, Joe Biden must declare the Republican Party a domestic terror organization, and he must clearly state that Trump is not the Second Coming; MAGA is not the Master Race; Fascism is not the future of America.
While listening to the arguments before the Supreme Court over the Colorado case to exclude Trump from the November ballot, I found it interesting how much emphasis was placed by both conservative and liberal justices on the confusion which would result if some states included him while other states didn't.
Okay, fair question, but did they show the same concern in the Dobbs decision of the chaos which would result with some states allowing, some states forbidding, a woman's right to autonomy?
Wow. Not what I expected from Heather. But Yes. We have been infiltrated. We are in big trouble.
Here is the simple truth. Regardless of any concerns you might have... IF you don't vote for Biden and every other Democrat on any ticket ... you are voting for NAZIS. THIS IS WAR.
Who are we? Are we people who love or are we people who hate? Choose now. You either choose or you are complicit.
"...the leaders of the Republican Party are working to overthrow democracy."
Boom. There it is, in black and white, put down as plainly as could be. We need to do everything we can as individual citizens to amplify and spread the message, in terms just as blunt and plain. Let WaPo and NYT editors hear it, again and again, as well as the other MSM directors. Help voters who haven't been paying attention or can't figure out what's happening to understand what's going on and why it's so important that they vote.
Generally across society we have for a long time been denying and dancing around the truth that HCR just laid out so succinctly. There can be no more avoidance, no more denial. Time is running short. Our democracy is very much in jeopardy, and the only people who can save it is us.
Heather Cox Richardson we continue to spread the truth of these matters in the face of the constant attack on democracy and our rights. The pernicious aggression towards women, rights and social freedoms has to be shut down and stopped.
Thanks to all freedom fighters and your continuing beacon Professor ⭐.
Ad the media won't report any of this - not the fact that Trump had to refer to a card to name his own children and still managed to forget Eric and Lara, Friday night - not the increasingly looney stuff he spouts. If Biden said 5% ot what Trump says and had the failures of memory and intellect Trump has, there would be a hue and cry about Biden bveing unfit. But they want Trump back because they've lost 60% of their viewers since 2020 and their owners can't get rid of them if they aren't "profitable," so since they can't see further than the end of their owner's nose, we get public idiocy from allegedly smart people like Kirsten Welker (who got her bullshit called by Gavin Newsom today to the point she went to another topic).
I am just heartsick at the possibility that the House will not get to vote on the aid package for Ukraine! Zelensky said that 31,000+ Ukrainians have already died and thousands more have been injured. Troops needed to retreat due to a lack of ammunition and equipment. Russia has kidnapped untold numbers of Ukrainian children.
All of the Ukrainian losses will have been in vain and it will be the fault of Trump's lackeys in the House of Representatives. We will have blood on our hands. Sure, history will blame House leadership, but that will be cold, cold comfort!
I have a dear young friend who also went through IVF. She told me that heartache of not having viable eggs numerous times was so awful. Plus, she had had 5 miscarriages, all at the 3 month stage. Finally, last year, while on IVF, she and her husband could proclaim that she was pregnant. Three months ago, she gave birth to a handsome son. She is 38 years of age. No couple should have the rug pulled out from them because some white guy thinks he’s got all the answers. No man should be informing women what she can or cannot do…PERIOD!
Even if Joe Biden is infirm, feeble and a poor communicator he can be relied upon to surround himself with smart, experienced and articulate advisers and staff. Trump will surround himself with people like himself. Your choice.
I believee the Alabama Supreme Court made a colossal mistake in its supreme judgment. Here is why:
Scientifically and biologically speaking, the Alabama Supreme Court's recent ruling equating fertilized embryos outside the womb with legal "personhood" and rights equal to born children does not align with the realities of human embryological development.
For an embryo to progress into a viable fetus and eventually a child, it requires the nurturing environment of the uterus/womb. The intricate processes of - cell division, differentiation, implantation, placental formation, etc. - can only occur properly within the physiological conditions provided by the mother's body during gestation.
A fertilized embryo outside of that context, such as those created through IVF and frozen for potential transfer, lacks the biological ability to develop into a child autonomously.
It remains in a suspended, undifferentiated state without the biochemical signaling, protection, and nutrient exchange facilitated by the uterine environment.
From a strictly scientific perspective, the Alabama court's ruling ascribing full legal "personhood" to embryos outside the womb at the point of fertilization is extremely tenuous & wrong. The biological dependence on the maternal conditions for any realistic chance at further development undermines the rationale for considering such embryos ontologically and legally equivalent to children.
Judges, you need to get this right because it impacts thousands of families. Currently, your logic appears seriously flawed.
“PITY THE NATION” Lawrence Ferlinghetti (After Khalil Gibran) 2007
Pity the nation whose people are sheep And whose shepherds mislead them
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars Whose sages are silenced And whose bigots haunt the airwaves
Pity the nation that raises not its voice Except to praise conquerors And acclaim the bully as hero And aims to rule the world By force and by torture
Pity the nation that knows No other language but its own And no other culture but its own
Pity the nation whose breath is money And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed
Pity the nation oh pity the people who allow their rights to erode and their freedoms to be washed away
My country, tears of thee Sweet land of liberty!
copyright Lawrence Ferlingetti
Republicans offer nothing that is good to the American people. They seem to be friends only of oligarchs, racists, and totalitarians. For sure, they are enemies of democracy and anything that resembles freedom.
I so appreciate your writing to us each day. Thank you for helping me get through this mess we find our selves in as a country. 💙
Love this, Heather, as usual.
I’m happy that I know several of people I used to send this now subscribe and read you everyday.
One note of caution for everyone: Mike Allen of Axios is the journalist who recently made a big deal of Biden using note cards (because Biden’s old) when we know everyone (who’s smart) uses them at one time or other.
We Americans are playing a chess game. By way of the Oath of Office, our politicians have agreed to play by certain rules. The ultimate power of American democracy is that we ask each and every American to act in good faith and play by those rules, too. Donald Trump, the Republican Party, certain corporations, certain billionaires and the MAGA horde are acting in bad faith. In a fit of pique, they want to upend the game board and scatter the chess pieces, the Tantrum Gambit. At the State of the Union Address, Joe Biden must declare the Republican Party a domestic terror organization, and he must clearly state that Trump is not the Second Coming; MAGA is not the Master Race; Fascism is not the future of America.
While listening to the arguments before the Supreme Court over the Colorado case to exclude Trump from the November ballot, I found it interesting how much emphasis was placed by both conservative and liberal justices on the confusion which would result if some states included him while other states didn't.
Okay, fair question, but did they show the same concern in the Dobbs decision of the chaos which would result with some states allowing, some states forbidding, a woman's right to autonomy?
Wow. Not what I expected from Heather. But Yes. We have been infiltrated. We are in big trouble.
Here is the simple truth. Regardless of any concerns you might have... IF you don't vote for Biden and every other Democrat on any ticket ... you are voting for NAZIS. THIS IS WAR.
Who are we? Are we people who love or are we people who hate? Choose now. You either choose or you are complicit.
Thank you for this clear message about what is happening. Many thanks!
"...the leaders of the Republican Party are working to overthrow democracy."
Boom. There it is, in black and white, put down as plainly as could be. We need to do everything we can as individual citizens to amplify and spread the message, in terms just as blunt and plain. Let WaPo and NYT editors hear it, again and again, as well as the other MSM directors. Help voters who haven't been paying attention or can't figure out what's happening to understand what's going on and why it's so important that they vote.
Generally across society we have for a long time been denying and dancing around the truth that HCR just laid out so succinctly. There can be no more avoidance, no more denial. Time is running short. Our democracy is very much in jeopardy, and the only people who can save it is us.
Our Substack is being misappropriated.. what a word!
Your clarity, HCR, is pure as last night’s full moon! Keep bringing your message to all of us!