My wife and I attended Syracuse University in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War. I was draft age, making the war a constant cloud over me and all of my male classmates. It was also a time when social issues were coming to our attention daily. We were all ready to deal with them, as well as attend and work at our classes for our education and grades. The first Earth Day was a campus wide event filling our quad with displays of respect and solutions for our planet. Hendrix Chapel was both my nondenominational church and our near weekly national speakers forum. It was there that the student body turned out to hear a relatively unknown Bill Baird talk about women across the nation dying from coat hanger abortions. We already knew a some female students who had "back ally" abortions. One of my highschool classmates at SU had dropped out as a freshman when she got pregnant. Bill Baird made a tremendous impression on all of us on how brutal anti abortion laws were to women and families who for so many economic, health, age and family reasons could not carry a pregnancy to term and were seeking deadly and debilitating alternatives.
Planned Parenthood became my wife's first healthcare provider when we got married. Their family planning and birth control assistance were attractive as primary and preventive care services. We have supported Planned Parenthood ever since.
When I was less than 9 years old, my mother who was pregnant gave me instructions not to let anyone take her to the Catholic hospital in our community because she feared they would save the baby over her life if there were a problem. She explained that she had three children at home who needed a mother.
New York State legalized first trimester abortions in 1970, a few years after Bill Baird's talk at Hendrix Chapel, and three years before Roe v. Wade.
My wife bought a first edition of "Our Bodies Ourselves" a women's paper back health guide and referred to it frequently. Women's health had been a mystery even to many women until the abortion rights movement that focused as much on women's health as "pro choice" with the idea that knowing your body and your health choices make you a more healthy, productive and happier person for a better society. Certainly the cruelty of most "Pro Life" measures and many of their advocates are not pro life.
My mom experienced an ectopic pregnancy in 1956 when I was two years old. The doctors at the Catholic hospital my dad took her to would not perform surgery to remove the fallopian tube with the fetus inside. Had my mom’s best friend, who was a nurse, not intervened and convinced my dad to take her to a different hospital, she probably would have died.
I turned 18 in 1972. I voted for McGovern and so did my devoutly Catholic parents. Funny how a near death experience can clear the fog of what is moral and what isn’t. Pro birth is NOT pro life. Those bastards don’t care about anything except power, money and control.
Back to working to get out the vote and convincing my federal politicians to pass voting laws. Thanks for sharing this perspective David.
I would go so far as to say that CHA, a major Catholic hospitals association, has an anti-abortion policy of forcing closed non-sectarian community hospitals so that they are the only game in town. They will construct a new hospital with more services, (or purchase the original hospital,) tell doctors they cannot have admission privileges if they also see patients at the community hospital, then slowly bring that hospital to its financial knees. I know this because I once worked at the community hospital. An anecdotal story of another CHA hospital was refusing to perform a D&C on a bleeding woman, clearly in the stages of miscarriage, so that she was forced to go to the nearest city 60 miles away for treatment.
I want to clarify my own dilemma. I have loved ones who are devout Catholics, and I give to some excellent Catholic charitable organizations. There is much to like about the faith and their sense of community service. I do not like, repeat, do not like at all, the controlling conservative wing of Catholicism. It is more than anti-abortion. It is duplicitous, misogynist, and politically willful. It operates with a lack of transparency and with dark donor money. I wish there was a way to explore this, but alas they are a form of oligarchy with religious exemptions.
Despite some occasional good works, the Catholic Church as an institution has been mostly malign ever since Constantine decided to make them the official church of the Roman Empire. The priests were out killing off the "wise women" in the villages who could help people in ways the frocked moron never could (thus becoming an alternative power, which couldn't be tolerated), calling them witches; when the wise woman was killed, so were her cats. And then the rats, without a predator, gained in population, and when the Black Death came, it spread far more than it would have, had the priests not killed the wise women over the previous century. One of the good things of the Black Death is it killed so many people they began to question the Catholic Church, which ultimately led to the Reformation.
Historically, the Catholic Church, once Constantine approved it, has always come down on the side of those in power, has always opposed anything that questioned those powers. Right up to Pius XII going along with the Nazis about the Holocaust (since the Church was the greatest purveyor of anti-Semitism throughout its history - I have heard many stories from Jewish friends in many communities across this country about how in the 50s they all had to be careful during Holy Week when the local Catholic School pushed all the Irish hoodlums to hold a pogrom against the "Christ killers."
As an institution, the Catholic Church is "the enemy." The people like Pope Francis and John XXIII were and are anomalies, and the institutional church does its best to oppose them when they show up and to destroy their legacies as fast as possible when they're gone.
We won't even get into the Church's leading role in the genocide of the Americas once they showed up in the New World with Columbus, Cortez and Pizarro.
I want to make certain no one reads what I said as "anti-Catholic." I've known many very sincere Catholics, and they have been laudable people. I'll never forget meeting Ammon Hennacy, who with Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker movement, and when I met him ran a house in Salt Lake City where anyone could come for shelter for as long as they needed it (so long as they were willing to become a part of the community and participate in keeping things going so others could be helped). But he, along with Dorothy Day, had been threatened with Excommunication by the Catholic Church in America for being "communists," so my critique of the institution stands. I think of him as one of the first people I ever recognized as a "saint," though the Church never would. I believe in "saints," but not the way the Church does. I believe in them as living measuring sticks for the rest of us to see how short the rest of us come up on the scale of being a good and worthwhile person who really Does The Right Thing. Most of the saints I have known would be considered Enemies of the Church were they Catholics (and some were).
You might add that Evangelical Christians, while they haven’t been at it for as long, are at least as bad, and probably worse, than Catholics on most issues, and their voting record is substantially worse.
This was built into the Catholic faith from the foundation.
There is a lot of question about exactly when and how the Jesus stories came into being, but historians tend to uniformly date Paul's writings around CE 50, well before the destruction of Jerusalem in CE 70; by his own account, he was running around "persecuting Christians" before becoming a convert and one of the first proselytes. These would all have been Christian Jews, and his letters (the authentic ones) are sent to communities all over Asia Minor and Macedonia. We know these communities were already widespread in Rome in the 50's, because we have Tacitus' record of Nero's infamous garden party in CD 64, in which he blamed the Great Fire on the Christians.
After CE 70, much of the population of Jerusalem was scattered as slaves throughout the Roman Empire, and these early Christians -- like the fundamentalist Christian sects in North America -- became extremely heterodox, syncretistic, and spread like wildfire through the slave class. They became a constant irritation to Roman power.
It wasn't until the early CE 300's, after numerous generational attempts to exterminate the religion, that Constantine convened the Council of Nicea to try something different: rather than try to destroy Christianity, he would unify it and make it part of the Roman Empire. The imprimatur under which the Nicene Council deliberated had the express objective of "unifying the Christian faith." The resulting document was The Bible, a selection of Jewish and Christian sacred documents.
The Nicene Council was the event that created the Catholic (universal) Church.
You can think of it as a massive historical redaction of the troublesome Christian beliefs of the early fourth century, and its entire reason for existence was Constantine's order that Christianity be unified.
Its primary function from the start was to suppress heterodoxy. Its authority derived from Emperor Constantine, who had just reunified Rome under a single Emperor (for a while) after defeating Licinius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, so the Church's authority in matters of religion was absolute.
It has never really deviated from that in its 17-century existence. It suppresses heterodoxy, and considers its authority absolute. I find it quite amusing that its absolute authority derives from a Pagan emperor.
Followed a few centuries later by Charlemagne who forced conversion to the Catholic Church at the point of a sword (and massacred 4,500 in Verden during the Saxon Wars), later followed by the colonizing Crusades and Inquisition.
Hi TC. I have read your comments with attention, particularly, in the last couple of days. Substance calmed the time. I would like to copy this post and email it to friend. Please reply when you have a chance. Cheers!
I would not give to any Catholic organization no matter what good works they do. I was a converted Catholic for about a decade, but no more. It does little or nothing for the millions who feed its machine for building wealth and exerting control over everything. I don't need to explore it, I just walked away from it and give to non-sectarian groups who are doing very good works without the repression.
I agree; I went to them thinking that it would be good for my young children and my husband's family was Catholic. The only thing they wanted to know was what I could do for them $. I ran the other way. Not a fan in any way, shape or form.
I worked for 6 months as a full time, live-in volunteer at an AIDS hospice/convent in Denver that was run by the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa's organization). I was truly amazed at the selflessness of many of the other volunteers who donated a day or two here and there. I came to love so many aspects of the Catholic family that I came into contact with.
Yet... I also came into contact with the dark underbelly of the Catholic Church. So much hypocrisy, so much self-serving, so much lying to oneself... I'm not going to enumerate any of the negatives here, just suffice it to say that I came to the conclusion that the Catholic Church, at its best, does much more harm to humankind than good. For all of the good works, and there are multitudes, it is rotten to the core.
The Catholic Church has failed largely because it has no will, and no way to study the darker impulses of humankind. And without that study and implementation of increasing the light in humankind, it will always seek out the darkness.
Your recognition of this is what is powerful, Hope. There are layers of perspective in many things. I feel blessed that we as humans are given the power of discernment.
Yes, Hope, but look up the National Catholic Reporter, a lay run newspaper(ncronline.org) that has called out and investigated the many dark sides of the institutional church. See especially the early artcles from the 80's on clergy sexual abuse by Jason Berry and more recent articles about the money behind the anti-Pope Francis movement ( led by Cardinal Burke and one time U.S. Papal Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, fueled by money from the Napa Institute's Tim Busch, among others.) There is pushback from progressives within the church but unfortunately the divide in the U.S. church mirrors that of our country, with the bulk of U.S. Bishops in bed with the ultra-right end of the culture war continuum.
The "roots" of the clergy sexual /power abuse can be traced right back through the power inequality lineage laid out by TCinLA below.
David, that same Catholic Hospital you mentioned, is the same one that heavy handedly convinced the single daughter of a friend who was raped in their parking lot to not take a morning after pill and "its the Lord's way" if she were to become pregnant. The Hospital insisted on "counseling" her through her situation. She did become pregnant from that rape and was forced to give birth to a Down's Syndrome baby that she, though wouldn't trade has had to raise alone.
"The Lord's way" has given misguided authority to too many for too long. As an ordained, graduate Seminarian I have long been angered by the abuse of Scripture to force specific ideologies upon people. All "in the name of Christ", no less!
"Beware the hypocrites." Beware the wolves who come to you dressed in sheep's cloth. I tend to shy away from quoting Holy Scripture because so many who do are the self-righteous apostates.
My parents divorced when I was 6. My mom was Catholic, my dad Protestant. I alternated churches every other weekend, which left me with a lot of questions about contradictory dogma.
In the early 60s, our next door neighbor who was Catholic, nearly died delivering her second child. Her doctor said complications made it likely that having a third child would kill her and recommended using birth control. She asked permission from the parish priest, who told her she couldn’t have communion if she did. So she didn’t and got pregnant again. When she started miscarrying in the second trimester, she was hemorrhaging and her husband took her to the community hospital. The miscarriage required surgical completion and while she was under anesthesia, her doctor talked to her husband. They agreed on a tubal ligation to avoid further risk. After she recovered, she told the priest what had happened and was denied communion. That was the end of my interest in the Catholic church
Not to mention the Catholic church's history of mishandling the molestation of children by priests... Oh damn, and I said not to mention that whole episode of its history. I will say that Catholic charities do an incredible job in so many ways with refugees and the poor, but they also take in an awful lot of money that is spent very wastefully as well.
Christine, your comment brought to mind the fact that for many things, like the anti-vaxxers against measles/mumps vaccine, who say, "Nobody gets/dies from measles any more", neglect to admit that's because the vaccines were so effective at eradicating it. Same with small pox, polio, etc. And same with the horrors of back-alley abortions. Young women today can't know the terror many women felt (and not just women who had sex 'outside of marriage'), when they were confronted with a pregnancy they knew they could not carry to term. For many married women, it was even worse, because they were expected to be brood mares, if that's what their husbands' expectations were. Forget that they may have been exhausted, physically and mentally, by tending to several children, usually under the age of 10. I believe one of my family member's mental illness can be traced back to just such a situation, with an abusive husband, to boot.
To those who have pointed out that this is, at the root, about controlling women, you are spot on. These misogynistic bastards know that by controlling a woman's reproductive life, you control her. We already know that part of why career women are paid less than their male counterparts is the red herring that, "you'll drop out to start a family, and all that training and time and effort we put into making you a good employee will be wasted." And of course, when they DO start a family, that heavily dings their retirement savings as well as their real time monetary wellbeing, whether or not they drop out of the work force permanently.
Thank you for sharing this. Before my time, the young woman who would become my mom barely survived a coerced back ally coat hanger abortion. Beginning with and because of that, this Catholic is an unapologetic Pro Choice advocate who, like you, finds the Pro Life movement to be disingenuous.
With much appreciation for sharing your wife's and your education concerning women's health, reproduction issues and abortion, included the horrors that illegal abortion brought to woman and there families -- that includes death.
NYS displayed bold action in 1970. At that time, Planned Parenthood in Syracuse, under the leadership of of Ellen Fairchild, provided safe, affordable 1st trimester abortion procedures at their outpatient clinic on E GeneseevSt. The focus was on "planned" parenthood and providing quality reproductive health care and services to prevent unintended pregnancies. The clinic was also the primary source of health care for most of the women who received services. Comprehensive care, including counseling and educational services were provided. The delivery of exceptional care to me Is "pro-life" and pro-choice.
East Genesee St PP is where we went. A former Victorian single family house with a large wrap around covered porch. The overall healthcare for my wife was our purpose.
Yes, PPC Syracuse believed in treating the "total package" and were committed to excellence in health care. Ellen Fairchild was a courageous and inspirational servant leader; her husband was a leader in palliative health care. They made the world a better place.
On 1971 I worked at a free clinic in Michigan, giving women phone numbers to get legal abortions in New York, and to get financial support for the trip. Lifesavers.
Thank you for that snapshot of time. I'm a bit younger than you (I was attending Jackson Elementary in 1968) and really appreciate the "I was there" component you've shared.
I completely lack any sort of Christian education (both of my parents left their churches as young adults; my Dad a Methodist and my Mom an Episcopal) and as such really have a "missing link" as to how something such as religion can be so influential in a way of thinking when what is being espoused clearly makes no sense or is contradictory.
to clarify, William Baird was a leader in the case Eisenstaft v Baird 1972 for promotion contraception for all women, married or not. (Unfortunately his promotion of vaginal foam was somewhat misguided and problematic-allergies etc. and what about male responsibility?) But Massachusetts law was stuck down that forbade the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried women after Griswold V Ct:)
I worked for an abortion clinic asa patient educator, for those that chose the procedure and wanted to get ‘their tubes tied’ after, I had to refer them to the non-sectarian health system, because the Catholic health system wouldn’t accommodate their request. And that wasn’t very many years ago!
It will not end with Texas—other “red states” are set to follow suit, including South Dakota and Florida. Abortion is about to be criminalized in a huge section of the country. Of course, this will have little impact on wealthier, white residents of Texas (or the other states which enact similar laws)—they’ll still be able to fly/drive to states where the procedure remains legal. That option will not be available to poorer residents of those same states.
One other thing: Rush Limbaugh’s despicable use of the term “Feminazi”‘always used to infuriate me. My mother’s entire family was wiped out by the Nazis in the Holocaust. To trivialize how truly evil that regime was by comparing Feminists to it demonstrated both historical ignorance and how deceitful and evil Limbaugh actually was. I hated him when he was alive, shed not a single tear when he died, and continue to curse his malign impact on the country.
100000%%%%%. I hated him when he was alive, shed not a single tear when he died, and continue to curse his malign impact on the country. It is not possible to be pro-woman (even in a nuclear-family-good-ole-days-suppress-those-with-vaginas sense) and support that despicable pile of matter. Hate him with all my being . . .And I try VERY hard not to hate because it is so powerful.
Limbaugh saying "Feminazi" exposed him as a Nazi for all to see. I am saddened for your loss. Now we must know our enemies. I am a NY Jew who watches them as they out themselves.
Ian, I would add, those wealthy white women won’t need to fly/drive anywhere. There will be plenty of white male doctors that will be able/allowed to fly under the radar to “help” them.
In 1975 I was working as an RN on a surgical unit of a community hospital. One evening I answered a call light for a woman who was cramping post D&C and needed a bedpan. I helped her, then came back a few minutes later to check on her. She said she was feeling so much better after passing that last big clot. I don't know if anyone ever told her it was a 5 inch fetus.
This bizarre “law” is mind-bogglingly, crushingly stupid above all else. In the first place we have laws for the good and necessary reason that none of us wants to live in a vigilante society. It’s a contradiction in terms to create a law that enables, not to say, promotes, vigilantism. This alone should make it a non-starter at the Supreme Court.
Secondly it allows virtually anyone to squeeze the trigger. Because it’s writers were undoubtedly completely vexed and at a loss as to where to draw the line as to who could sue, the door is open for anyone with knowledge of an impending abortion to sue. This, I’m sure satisfied those bright souls who legislate on behalf of Republican Party in the great Republic of Texas. But they have, in fact, hurled a hard rubber ball against a wall and expected it not to fly back and hit them.
Consider: it has been widely assumed in the past few days that, in the immortal phrase from The Great Gatsby, “The rich are different”. I have heard over and over again in the past two days that the wealthy will simply go to Los Angeles or New York to get an abortion, in the face of this law. “The burden of the law will fall on the poor” has been oft-repeated without due consideration.
I disagree. This law will have the consequence of chilling everyone. The wealthy know more people than do the poor. They are the ones with the now anachronistic Rolodexes. They will wonder who they can tell safely that this is their plan. Most of the wealthy have declared or undeclared enemies. They may *feel* it unlikely that someone inimical to them will not find out nor, if they do, will have the chutzpah to out themselves by suing. But they won’t be *sure* and paranoia is a feature of our age. They know that everywhere they go, they leave a trail. They will worry that if they tell someone it’s as good as telling everyone. They will worry about an unexplained absence from work. They will worry that their children will know and might tell someone. They will think about the moral consequences of having their children know they are breaking the law. They will speculate that so and so is living well beyond their means and might not look the gift horse of $10000 in the mouth…
Of course, they will ultimately conclude that their fears are groundless and go ahead anyway and probably in 1000 cases out of 1000, nothing will come of it. But fear is cunning beast and we don’t control our irrational selves. I can’t see the wealthy white women of the suburbs being comfortable in the slightest with this slimy and slippery new law. And they have clout.
One last point - will we not see a flood of cases in which the man who impregnated the woman ends up suing her a few weeks down the road. After all, who knows more about her intentions? There are of course many cases in which the man wants the child even less than the woman. But it is equally true that there are heaps of relationships hanging by a thread. And a woman planning an abortion might say the wrong thing and cause her problematic partner to sue her. This will do wonders for social cohesion.
In short, no good will come of this law and plenty of evil will. Abbott, who signed it into effect, may be sowing the wind.
Hi Eric. All you discuss suggests that it is a terrible thing that it was allowed to pass through the “shadow docket”. That term itself sounds evil.
You know, Fern made a comment that has stuck with me. The evil dogs of Lone Star Texas have caught the car and what are they to do now? They might find their “prey” has a lot more inherent power than they have considered. They went after women. But what they actually went after was Love. Which has no opposite. And is the most powerful of all.
That comment of Heather’s struck me as well. It was very apposite. Or at least it has the power to be so. Perhaps in the end it will be just another “I can’t believe they’d stoop that low”, while it’s victims are fitted anew for a more pinched and straitened life. However, for now at least, it has struck a raw nerve. That is a good sign.
The shadow docket is increasingly bizarre and of a piece with what other regressions are being suffered. I do not know enough of the Supreme Court to have any idea of what, if anything, there may be to countermand it’s new use. On the face of it, it makes SCOTUS look devious of course. But too they must bear the censure of being seen as cowards by acting in such a way in matters of the most important.
They are begging to be reformed, especially inasmuch as they do not seem to have the vaguest notion that their lofty standing is self-imperiled.
And lastly, I think the opposite of love is indifference. It resonates in this case - a government indifferent to the needs of they who are governed, possibly facing a rising tide of those who want to express love in its highest ideal - platonic.
This was the most telling paragraph of Professor Cox's letter today:
In a 2011 article in the Yale Law Journal, they showed that opposition to the eventual Roe v. Wade decision began in 1972—the year before the decision—and that it was a deliberate attempt to polarize American politics.
This is the game politicians, and especially Republican politicians, have played since Nixon and Watergate. Reagan solidified this dynamic with his embrace of the Moral Majority, and Trump was the reality star master-mind of divide and conquer politics.
Poet and activist Audre Lorde called these horizontal battles, intended to "becloud more pressing issues of oppression." Vertical battles are fought by the members of a democracy against the "structure at the top which desires changelessness and which profits from these apparently endless kitchen wars."
This week alone Texas has deputized vigilantes, who now have unprecedented access to guns, to go after women when they are in one of the most vulnerable positions they can be in and to freely intimidate voters in their capacities as partisan poll watchers.
Shadow decisions rapidly increased during the past administration at the urging of the Solicitor General, 19 such ‘decisions’ vs singular digits during Obama years. This year there have already been 19 decisions which are really ‘no decision’ sine the court does not comment as to why? Obviously, the cowards way out!
I agree with what you have said. I only note that calling having or assisting in an abortion constitutes a "crime" or "breaking" the law is an oxymoron, and illogical. Abortion is a legal act according to well established (48 years) legal precedent. How can it be a crime to engage in or assist with a legal activity?
And there are very strong HIPAA protections across our land s, if one of those "vigilante thugs" crosses that privacy line, he or she can be dealt with.
A woman's healthcare is strictly between her and her healthcare provider.
That occurred to me as well. "The Privacy Rule, a Federal law, gives you rights over your health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive your health information. The Privacy Rule applies to all forms of individuals' protected health information, whether electronic, written, or oral. The Security Rule is a Federal law that requires security for health information in electronic form." https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials-for-consumers/index.html
Seems to me that anyone acquiring information to substantiate that a woman has had a post-6 week abortion would be in violation of HIPAA, a criminal act.
My point was that I think they will. Not in their pocketbook. Not in their ability to evade it. But in an uprising of fear that someone vengeful to them will it them in the docket.
This fear will not likely be realized in fact. But fear itself can be crippling.
Yes, the news last nite showed Ron DeathSantis considering how to follow his rival idiot Greg Abbott's lead. Oh, and this asswipe "governor" actually tried to get flags flown at half-staff in Palm Beach Co. for that disgusting piece of shit Rush Limbaugh. I think the county refused.
I think deathSantis is probably much more interested in how to write a law that encourages vigilanteism for some mandating masks and vaccines or other such interference in killing off his constituents.
At Limbaugh's death, I had two women at my dog training club express great sorrow at his passing. I chuckled and said, "Femi-nazi." They looked at me like I was nuts. I didn't say any more. Both are great Trump supporters, but thankfully quiet about it.
NH has already gone there-The Republican majority legislature has passed a near total ban on any abortion after 24 weeks and mandates ultrasounds before ANY abortion, regardless of duration of the pregnancy. The R Governor signed the bill, even though he claims to be "Pro Choice". The only exception is to save the life of the mother. In addition there are both financial and jail time consequences for any physician who participates in a late term abortion. Those include a fine of $10 to 100K and jail time of 3.5to 5 years in prison.
My favorite graphic so far on the Texas abortion law is one showing Sponge Bob with cowboy hat on a stick pony. The caption is Texas: where a virus has reproductive right ... and a woman doesn't. Love the double whammy with the mask mandates. The WSJ had an oped that supports what Heather is saying -- that Texas Abortion Law is a Blunder. Very glad to hear that!
The understanding of the relationship between religion and abortion is complex. At least some Islamic interpretations of the Koran suggest that abortion is permitted before 120 days of pregnancy. Christian positions vary but generally, like the Koran, allow abortion to save the life of the mother. I remember a Jesuit article long ago citing that it takes "seven days" for the sperm to successfully unite with the egg. So, at least in that interpretation, the morning after pill would be allowed. Also in the acceptance of the "natural" rhythm method it seems sex without the "possibility" of insemination is acceptable.
It seems that Roe v Wade was a threading the needle effort between these religious views. Then along came medical science that said that the sign of a heartbeat indicated full human life.
All of this religious, political, medical and judicial threading of the needle seems to all be for the purpose of taking away from women of their right to chose.
Where is the "religious" caring for the born fully alive human? It seems it is alive in the Democratic party. Child care, education support, Medicaid for pregnant women and their children. Let's show love and care for the children born either in or outside of marriage and for their single or married poor mother. When the anti-abortionists show care for the child and mother after birth they might be able to somehow justify their concern prior to birth.
Medical science does not say that the sign of a heartbeat indicates “full human life”. That’s what anti-abortionists in places like Texas want people to believe. Medical science indicates that the potential viability of the fetus comes somewhere around the beginning of the third trimester.
I heard an OB/GYN interviewed yesterday that said that a fetal heartbeat isn't even really a fetal heartbeat. Our heartbeats are created by the flow of blood controlled by our valves, and a fetus has no valves. What is heard in ultrasounds is electrical pulses and the "sound" called a heartbeat is actually created by the machinery.
Exactly, JR. Earthworms have a "heartbeat." What the "beat" refers to is a specialized muscle that is capable of rhythmic movement. To become a human heart a great deal more development and organ specificity must happen. This particular heartbeat argument is precisely why abortion should remain a medical decision, not a political one. The ignorance and folktales are appalling.
Indeed. The appeal of the "heartbeat" is an effort to suggest that when the embryo (not yet even a fetus ) emits a detectable signal, it is capable of human emotion. At this point, there is only the very beginning of neural development, first forming the neural tube and then over many months generating the cells that will become brain cells. These neural cells will have to move to appropriate locations, and even then will not finish the first phases of interconnection until weeks after birth. Is it the heart that differentiates humans form other animals? I would argue that brain development is crucial. The connections between the brain and the heart that form the basis of emotion are still a long way away when those first rhythmic signals are detected. Viability (the statistical point at which 50% of fetuses are likely to survive if born at that point) is still a long way away.
I wish women knew this b/c our natural instinct is to protect the vulnerable, especially when they are so dear. But our emotions are being exploited to the point where reason is totally obliterated! Many woman (and maybe men) are too sentimental,imo, about this issue because we haven't been taught this biology.
My father went to Catholic school as a child in the 1930s and 1940s. He was taught by the Christian Brothers. He remembers the Brothers quite plainly teaching that "it's not a baby until it's born", until the baby breathes in the Holy Ghost on its' own. Back then miscarriages, pre-term births and stillbirths were more common and occurred at home. Interesting how the teaching changes...
Approximately how many lives have been cumulatively lost in this country's avid search for war opportunities? Adult lives? Combatants - ours and theirs? Civilians?Children? Who have been the major war hawks? the abortion "issue" is, as Heather points out, a big fat red herring that brutalizes women in service to venal political interests. Now if the Democrats fail to make political hay out of this, if they fail, Biden ,in particular, fails to protect women and our right to choose then start burning the Constitution. It's politics over substance. It's politics in service to mammon. The tiny big rich and corporations have devoured us.
How can they justify their concern “prior to birth” that turns any opinion of abortion to be paramount over a woman’s choice of her body. There is no justifying forcing birth upon a woman.
Good question. But it does sound rather selfish to me. As a woman I believe we have to also ask Is there really another human life living within me that I'm responsible for now? (To which I answer No.) This is the crux of the matter for me b/c I wouldn't want to be responsible for ending another's life.
Wish I was younger and healthier. The Democrats badly need a mega shot of energy. We should all be in the streets, and should have been for every chipping away of our Democracy. The party itself should be mobilized at each one of these affronts. It’s on us that things have gotten so out of hand. We let them happen. We “talk”. Republicans strategize and do.
This latest is truly dystopian. Friends and neighbors turning in their friends and neighbors for a chance at $10,000. A bounty on catching women. Chilling doesn't come close to saying it.
I’m marching. I’ve never been pro-choice or pro-birth, I have always sidestepped this issue. Gregg Abbott and his GQP have placed it squarely in our path so I cannot sidestep it. I must march or be marched upon.
I literally saw it in action yesterday. Millennials and Gens are armed up with their access and know how to social media. With every type of response from legal to sarcastic to pointed to raging to satiric to shared story and many etc’s! It’s amazing. And they damn well will vote. And march in solidarity in October.
Republicans will find the have unleashed the Furies of Greek mythology. An existing gender gap in the American electorate is only likely to widen as women push back on restriction on reproductive freedom. My own personal belief is abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. There is hard data that shows there are policies and programs that can reduce the number of abortions. Unfortunately, Republicans oppose those programs including - informed sex education for children and teens, free and easy access to all forms of birth control, improved access to affordable healthcare and Medicaid expansion, affordable child and dependent care, refundable child tax credits. There is hard data showing all of these have a powerful influence on reducing the number of abortions, but Republicans oppose each of them. The truth is Republicans are not a pro-life party, they are an anti-science, anti-fact, anti-compassion party. I believe the most likely result of this decision will be electoral defeats for Republicans, federal legislation that modified Roe v. Wade in law, and the successful expansion of the number of Supreme Court Justices, and the death of the filibuster. Republicans will regret unleashing the Furies.
I have always been a very optimistic person...until trump was elected. During the 2016 election process, every time something unbelievable came out about trump, we'd say "ok, that should take care of him"! But nothing he did changed a thing with his cult. Instead, the republican party grouped in behind him. We found out just how many believed as he professed. My feelings have been through all this that there are reasonable republicans and after he lost the election, they would come forth and say, we didn't mean it, let's get all this stuff straightened out. Instead, they're fighting even harder. I love what you said and hope like hell that you are right but the optimist in me has taken a hit and it's just hard for her to believe anything will change these people now.
Yes, but there are more of us than there are of them. In American elections, we rarely get greater than a turnout number greater than 65% of eligible voters in elections. If we can turn out even 25% of those non-voters, there is nowhere in America we cannot win elections. It is far easier to turn a non-voter into a voter than to turn a conservative into a progressive. We need to be sure we are speaking to the concerns of non-voters who feel they are ignored, forgotten, and that the issues they are concerned about and face in their everyday lives are not addressed by politicians. They need to see those issues and concerns are addressed by candidates and when those candidates are elected they get something done about them.
What good does it do to win elections when Republican state legislators give themselves or their party's appointees the power to overturn those elections?
That's the way I feel and have felt, Pam. I kept waiting for the Trump nightmare to be over. I'm still trying to understand how such ugliness could could have become so powerful. HCR has helped me to understand that today's flames are from old, smoldering fires. Things were never as good as I thought. I understand now the extreme importance of a good education, honest media, and active involvement in community and politics. I had taken good things for granted, and we must not.
People are motivated by fears and needs. The more our officials tell us all what there is to fear, the more fearful people become. The more chaotic the world appears. When you are fearful, you look for someone to ameliorate that fear. When you perceive chaos (because you have been told about it repeatedly -- covid, immigrants, the borders, the shrinking White population-- you want someone to bring order. When you are afraid of the future, you nestle into your belief about the afterlife or the ability of the divine to intervene, and you accept plans officials make to make the future more certain.
We are a country of fearful people. We want order. Strongmen provide that so we vote for them. They stir up more chaos and fear, and we retrench, get angry, get violent, exclude, exact retribution, and worse. This is the big picture here.
Yes that's true but there are plenty who want restrictions on access to birth control as well and I expect the R's will jump on that bandwagon as well. They don''t want women have any control options.
And that is how they wish to control women. These fundamental extremists do not want people to be educated, they do not want women to freedom. They want to have power. They are petrified of us becoming powerful and uncontrollable. Matrix.
I agree with your stance on abortion. I call the Republican party the party of death because right now that's where their policies lead including their stance on the pandemic, masks, and vaccines. Here in Oregon, some hospitals have ordered those morgue trucks.
Bruce, you couldn't be more correct. I fully expect these red state legislatures, if not the US Senate, to try to criminalize all forms of birth control next. As has been noted, this is really about controlling women's bodies, and therefore, their lives.
Absolutely OK. My own Representative and both of my Senators, loathsome Republicans all, as well as my Texas State Representative and Senator hear from me on a weekly if not more frequent basis.
Here is a link to a Huffington Post article that also includes hard data showing the effectiveness of these programs in reducing the number of abortions:
These policies are far more effective in reducing abortions than restricting access to abortions. There is no evidence, none, zero, that restricting access reduced the number of abortions. All it does is impact how safely, and where the abortions are done. Restricting access to abortions puts women's lives and health in jeopardy and is done solely to placate the far-right of the Republican party including many who claim religious motivations for their views. Restricting abortion and overturning Roe v. Wade does not poll well in America and Republicans advocating these positions need to look carefully at the data if they believe this is good for them politically. It may help them in Republican primaries, but even in rural America, it does not poll well for the general election electorate.
From The Guardian: TikTokers flood Texas abortion whistleblower site with Shrek memes, fake reports and porn ... Critics of Texas’ new law have been filing hundreds of fake reports to the whistleblowing website in hopes of crashing it.
Pro-choice users on TikTok and Reddit have launched a guerrilla effort to thwart Texas’s extreme new abortion law, flooding an online tip website that encourages people to report violators of the law with false reports, Shrek memes, and porn.
When I got to my daughter today, she and her online feeds were busting the bank of stupid. And this was as she held my new baby grand that she chose to give birth to. The millennials know the freedom and importance of choice that is fought for. They are not about to sit out this rodeo.
Question. Under this Handmaiden/Maoist law, how will Texas courts handle the deluge of cases resulting from the massive increase in orders for Mifepristone to be delivered by US Postal employees? Am appalled at the dystopian law circumventing existing law.
As written their knowledge or lack of knowledge would be determined in lawsuits? My point is that this vigilante promoting law put the burden on those who aid (intentionally or not?) and abet while abortion drugs are available from sources outside Texas.
Think I’ll keep my concerns and energies focused on the women in need of clinic services. I have yet to suspect postal service employees of snooping in the mail they are paid to protect.
In recent years, it has become public that the catholic orphanage here in Burlington VT was, for years and years, sheer hell for the children that lived there. The stories are hard to hear and the pain is still apparent on the grown up faces of the survivors who called the orphanage home a long time ago. It makes you wonder about all of the other orphanages and other programs run by the church in the name of God. And is just another example of how the catholic church says one thing yet does another. How is an abortion worse than deliberate pain inflicted on helpless children, day in and day out, year after year? The hypocrisy is astounding.
Many years ago right after I graduated from college I applied for a teaching job at a local Catholic school. They asked me what I thought about abortion. I said as a Catholic and as a mother I was against it but also said that I had been in schools where children were abused and beaten with a lead pipe and didn’t think that children should be brought into a world that would abuse them so. Needless to say, I did not get the job.
Let us not forget the horror inflicted upon those young men called to service as Altar Boys who then are called to service the Priests who "counsel" them.
I’m a pianist at a Catholic church. Employees and other service folk are required by our archdiocese to receive anual instruction on keeping an eye out for predatory behavior - in order to keep children safe. I’m pleased we do this.
As a once worker at Hope Haven/Madonna Manor of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, I can attest to that as well. It was a very old boys’ home that finally folded under mounting lawsuits from former boys who were abused by Priests, Brothers & Nuns before I worked there. While I worked there one of the 2 remaining Brothers was implicated in sexual abuse of a boy. No legal action, he was sent off to some other Catholic facility in Texas.
My little-girl eyes back then would look upon our monsignor (the head hauncho of our little Catholic school) with awe, wishing I was a boy so he would look at me like he looked at all the little boys surrounding him. Today I remember what it really was that my little-girl eyes saw.
In that it’s not even about the embryo’s fate but all about controlling women it is worse than hypocrisy and untenable. Maybe those of us who deeply know the pain of those survivors need to parade around the homes and capitols of these wretched, ugly, ugly, unloving and unlovable characters with some giant sized uzi’s slung over our shoulders.
I am astonished by the richness of Heather’s daily, middle-of-the-night essays crafted with such cadenced scholarship. I was a history/economics professor from age 58 to 80. If I had ventured to write midnight essays, my readers would have been reminded of Ur’s Tower of Babel. A few years ago I twirled my three-wheeled walker doing the Zumba with the Princeton Precision Dance Team but, as the raven saith ‘nevermore.’ (Edgar Allen Poe for Google fact checkers)
I so agree with your first sentence. Her writing is immensely authoritative and helps us lesser mortals to put the now into the perspective of the then and before. I have not yet reached 80 (not far off though) and would certainly have difficulty in putting together anything that got anywhere near that quality - especially in the middle of the night.
Not sure how long you've been subscribing but when The Loser was in office, 2:00 a.m. was the earliest we would see a post from HCR. Since Biden took office is when she shifted to mostly 10:00 p.m.!
We're seeing play out what McConnell and Trump bestowed upon the nation. The damage is just beginning unless the court is expanded, which appears highly unlikely. In my long life, I've never seen the credibility of the court at such a low ebb.
Texas is the state that persists in falling near to last in child health and welfare—cruelly failing the tiny beating hearts already under its jurisdiction. Their incompetent governance has no business reforming abortion law.
I wish Statista had normalized the states according to population in rates per 100,000, like they have done in their other graphs of femicide. As is, it shows the bluest of blue states to be about as dangerous for women as the reddest of red states.
I apparently didn't see it. I worked with a county Medical Examiner who had noted a statistically significant occurrence of murder/suicides in our county carried out by men against their domestic partners (some married, some not, all of them women). He has researched and published it (at least at the level of regional Medical Examiners) and I had the opportunity to talk to him about it at a class we attended together on suicide intervention. I was able to tell him about several that he had missed (investigated by my agency) including one of mine where the instigator missed the murder part by less than an inch before killing himself in front of her two sons.
He and I are both retired now, but I will share this link with him.
Ally, femicide is a grim, "under recognized" statistic. My mention of it yesterday was to bring awareness of the fact that the open gun carry with no licensing is sure to cause a significant up tick in occurrences.
I also posted Women Count a database compiled by Dana Wilcox, a nurse in Texas. Wilcox began Women Count "after the killings of Cecil the lion and Harambe the gorilla. There was such outrage over the animals’ deaths, and while Wilcox is an animal lover, she didn’t understand why there wasn’t the same level of concern for murdered women. “People are starting petitions and they’re marching and I’m like I just heard about three women killed today, what about them?”
It's sickening that people value the lives of women so little, but it's not unexpected. Not citing femicide, glossing over or ignoring the occurrences of femicide is a horrible reality and part of the misogyny baked into our daily lives. Texas's decisions on abortion and guns reflect the official position that women and girl's lives don't matter.
The work you and your associate did in the field is important. Thank you.
PS - Ally, it's unreasonable for me to expect people to weight information and statistics with the same significance that I do. Everyone has their own triggers and levels of "alarm".
So, let's give men more permission to openly carry a gun. All the better to shoot women accused of looking for an abortion. The hell with the $10,000. (Can you tell I'm pissed?)
The moral differences in humans will always be utilized as a political divide to manipulate the masses.. Does anyone believe that a single Republican Senator truly gives a flip about fetuses?
Also how is a court defined as one that abstains from listening?
Every single philandering Republiqan senator cares a great deal about the fetuses they create in their mistresses/assignations/flings. Just not publicly.
Morning, Ally!! In light of the coming surge of Texliban wannabes' "pro-life" legislation, it would be interesting to know how they will handle their unplanned mistresses' pregnancies
Three items on the to-do list: end/radically limit the filibuster so that the Despicables cannot block the legislation; ratify ERA (it technically has enough state votes to be ratified, I think); pass voters' rights legislation. Until women become fully persons under law--included their uteruses--women will be subject to the whims of white men who want unfettered access to them.
Thanks for these links, Christine. I just contacted my two senators to urge they sign on to co-sponsor removing deadline for ERA. They've already voted to ratify.
I’ve already contacted some groups with many young millennials after reading Linda’s post. There was NO idea that “ratification” had been stalled for so long of the ERA.
I am grateful that I never became pregnant and had to confront such a terrible choice. I think the decision SHOULD be private. Even from the often considered obligatory doctor. I come to this as a matter of not only ‘choice’ but of responsibility. The world’s population is so immense. Finally, I believe ‘with all my heart’ that no male person should have any ‘say’ about abortion. You can support, but never decide.
Yes, ma'am, the responsibility/burden of (not) bringing a child into this world of (potentially rapid) extinction of humans should be about that person and her body. We are an invasive species on the planet and She can do without us.
Or the responsibility OF bringing a child into the world. It is confounding to me that anyone can argue the right of choice. It is who we are as humans.
Busy and productive. Keeping me out of trouble by keeping me occupied. Outrage at the events in this country. Plus, I've been reading/listening to guy McPherson and reading Dair Jamail (End of Ice) about near-term extinction and I'm working to live the life of most excellent integrity. Harvesting and creating habitat for the creatures still here. All the best to you.
Well, well, well, Thank you, Professor Richardson. As many have come to know, it takes a rendering of history and a snapshot of a particular time to give a background of support to what a person is feeling about a subject whether it be a vote of Yea or Nay. I wondered about the lack of coverage on Fox News and it’s ilk. Now I understand more deeply why.
Knowing the history of things clears up some memory gas.
The saying comes to mind….”you’ve made your bed, now lie in it.” Looks like history shows who is afraid of the truth. Right, Tuckems?
Solidarity of women and men FOR the health, safety, security, and the light of WOMEN.
This piece and today's comments are really good in stirring the mind about this issue. It's a tough one in some ways. No obvious right answer for me. At 17 I got pregnant for the first time, alone and confused in the late '60's at an art school I had not wanted to attend. I was reeling from the chaos of all that was going on in that era and actually wanted to get a job, not go to school. My parents plucked me out of that school and that relationship, seeing that something unfortunate had happened to me possibly because they had forced me into a situation I had not wanted, and hauled me off to Puerto Rico to have an abortion. More confusion. It was a medical procedure with an attached profound, vast dimension. If they had not done that, my life would have been much different than it has turned out to be. I still feel wrenched by the issue- being pregnant by the wrong guy at the wrong time in one's life is a tragedy, but so is having an abortion. Abortion can be seen as the lesser of two evils, certainly when you factor in the dreadful orphanages run by churches or other corrupt organizations. But there are many belief systems that counsel against it. Basically, there is a price to pay for everything we do. I would not wish a back alley abortion on anyone, nor an unwanted child who cannot be cared for properly and whose very existence condemns the parents to a life of hardship. What Texas is doing, what the supreme court is doing, is wrong, in any event, and though I cannot ever celebrate the famous "woman's right to choose," given my own history which had very little choosing on my part, I can say that it seems like cruelty to eliminate options with such callous disregard for those who will suffer.
Agree wholeheartedly, Lauri. I shared yesterday about my sister’s pregnancy, but didn’t go on to say, I later was 17 and pregnant. I had just graduated high school and was scheduled to leave for college. That didn’t happen. I decided to have my baby…scared about what my parents might do to me, I hid my pregnancy as long as I could. I married the father. Not a great marriage, but he took care of us when we needed it. My teenage pregnancy is 49 years old now. She one time asked me if “she was a mistake.” I answered, “you were an accident; never a mistake.” I have reflected on my choices many times, but always conclude that I am happy with my decision. But that was MY CHOICE! I have also seen the devastating, conflictive consequence of having an abortion in such circumstances. Decades later, some women have debilitating guilt. My opinion is that guilt is mostly perpetuated by the right wing political movement that Heather talks about in her Letter. As Jen Psaki said yesterday, (paraphrasing) these women are making excruciatingly hard decisions.
I agree that guilt, shame, and life-long devastation was created by anti-women people. Getting pregnant accidentally should not be a source of shame or guilt. Either should terminating that pregnancy, especially early on. The baggage religious people put on women is terribly wrong.
I never have had an abortion because I convinced my Catholic parents when I was 17 (back in the 70s) to sanction my desire to take birth control pills. Meanwhile, friends were playing Russian Roulette and some lost.
I married young and had 4 miscarriages before doctors realized what was wrong. One was at a Catholic hospital where they buried the 11 week fetal remains without my permission. This is what drives people to feel guilt and shame. Yet it should be a medical condition for which the avenues are sought for the woman without heaping on guilt.
As a mother of four daughters, I told them when they were about 14 or 15 that we were not going to raise any babies in our house. They were to start using birth control when they wanted to be sexually active. Our Women's hospital had/has a wonderful teen program. I allowed my kids to skip school to take their sexually active friends to that program to learn what they didn't know. They all left with some condoms, but at least also with knowledge. I was shocked at the parents, mostly Catholic but not all, who refused to discuss sex or birth control with their kids. Kids were having sex and hoping for the best. I lectured boys that came around about their responsibilities.
My younger adopted sister got pregnant at 17. She couldn't believe it because she thought girls got pregnant during their periods (and she refused to listen to any of us talk about sex or read about it because "she wasn't that kind of girl"). She wanted an abortion. My parents were not against it on the basis of principle, but talked about adoption, her own birth mother having also been 16. She went to a "home for unwed mothers," an expensive place near my college. She gave her baby up and was happy and relieved to do so. She wonders about him but has never looked up her birth mother and does not want to interfere in his life either. It was wonderful to be raised by intelligent and thoughtful parents who, despite their religious beliefs or ethical ideas, did not force anything on us and instead allowed us to determine that aspect of our lives. I did the same for my 4 daughters.
Elizabeth, I have many more stories, but the important message is…my body, my choice. I also don’t like to hear women denigrate other women who have chosen to have their babies, not that you were. Women can be brutal sometimes.
Thank you for sharing this, Lauri. I think it touches us all in different ways. As I was at the kitchen sink, just a couple of minutes ago, it occurred to me that I didn't even consider sharing my own story about having an abortion. Wondering why I didn't was cut short because I didn't even want to remember it.
Yes Fern, “it touches us all in different ways.” No woman, including me, ever makes this decision easily. We have many powerful, heart rending stories about this pivotal point in our lives. May we rise up to meet this cruelty with determination.
It’s so bittersweet to me thinking about “kitchen sink” moments. I’ll bet every woman on this forum have had at least one. What is it? The running water? What stills us to contemplate something important at the kitchen sink? I wonder if there has ever been a painting or a poem about it.
Thank you for sharing your history, Lauri. It is a reminder of how difficult it is for women to make the decision to have an abortion. Your parents didn't give you the choice. The state of TX has become the "all knowing parent" for all women.
My wife and I attended Syracuse University in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War. I was draft age, making the war a constant cloud over me and all of my male classmates. It was also a time when social issues were coming to our attention daily. We were all ready to deal with them, as well as attend and work at our classes for our education and grades. The first Earth Day was a campus wide event filling our quad with displays of respect and solutions for our planet. Hendrix Chapel was both my nondenominational church and our near weekly national speakers forum. It was there that the student body turned out to hear a relatively unknown Bill Baird talk about women across the nation dying from coat hanger abortions. We already knew a some female students who had "back ally" abortions. One of my highschool classmates at SU had dropped out as a freshman when she got pregnant. Bill Baird made a tremendous impression on all of us on how brutal anti abortion laws were to women and families who for so many economic, health, age and family reasons could not carry a pregnancy to term and were seeking deadly and debilitating alternatives.
https://www.veteranfeministsofamerica.org/legacy/Bill_Baird.htm
Planned Parenthood became my wife's first healthcare provider when we got married. Their family planning and birth control assistance were attractive as primary and preventive care services. We have supported Planned Parenthood ever since.
When I was less than 9 years old, my mother who was pregnant gave me instructions not to let anyone take her to the Catholic hospital in our community because she feared they would save the baby over her life if there were a problem. She explained that she had three children at home who needed a mother.
New York State legalized first trimester abortions in 1970, a few years after Bill Baird's talk at Hendrix Chapel, and three years before Roe v. Wade.
My wife bought a first edition of "Our Bodies Ourselves" a women's paper back health guide and referred to it frequently. Women's health had been a mystery even to many women until the abortion rights movement that focused as much on women's health as "pro choice" with the idea that knowing your body and your health choices make you a more healthy, productive and happier person for a better society. Certainly the cruelty of most "Pro Life" measures and many of their advocates are not pro life.
My mom experienced an ectopic pregnancy in 1956 when I was two years old. The doctors at the Catholic hospital my dad took her to would not perform surgery to remove the fallopian tube with the fetus inside. Had my mom’s best friend, who was a nurse, not intervened and convinced my dad to take her to a different hospital, she probably would have died.
I turned 18 in 1972. I voted for McGovern and so did my devoutly Catholic parents. Funny how a near death experience can clear the fog of what is moral and what isn’t. Pro birth is NOT pro life. Those bastards don’t care about anything except power, money and control.
Back to working to get out the vote and convincing my federal politicians to pass voting laws. Thanks for sharing this perspective David.
I would go so far as to say that CHA, a major Catholic hospitals association, has an anti-abortion policy of forcing closed non-sectarian community hospitals so that they are the only game in town. They will construct a new hospital with more services, (or purchase the original hospital,) tell doctors they cannot have admission privileges if they also see patients at the community hospital, then slowly bring that hospital to its financial knees. I know this because I once worked at the community hospital. An anecdotal story of another CHA hospital was refusing to perform a D&C on a bleeding woman, clearly in the stages of miscarriage, so that she was forced to go to the nearest city 60 miles away for treatment.
I want to clarify my own dilemma. I have loved ones who are devout Catholics, and I give to some excellent Catholic charitable organizations. There is much to like about the faith and their sense of community service. I do not like, repeat, do not like at all, the controlling conservative wing of Catholicism. It is more than anti-abortion. It is duplicitous, misogynist, and politically willful. It operates with a lack of transparency and with dark donor money. I wish there was a way to explore this, but alas they are a form of oligarchy with religious exemptions.
Despite some occasional good works, the Catholic Church as an institution has been mostly malign ever since Constantine decided to make them the official church of the Roman Empire. The priests were out killing off the "wise women" in the villages who could help people in ways the frocked moron never could (thus becoming an alternative power, which couldn't be tolerated), calling them witches; when the wise woman was killed, so were her cats. And then the rats, without a predator, gained in population, and when the Black Death came, it spread far more than it would have, had the priests not killed the wise women over the previous century. One of the good things of the Black Death is it killed so many people they began to question the Catholic Church, which ultimately led to the Reformation.
Historically, the Catholic Church, once Constantine approved it, has always come down on the side of those in power, has always opposed anything that questioned those powers. Right up to Pius XII going along with the Nazis about the Holocaust (since the Church was the greatest purveyor of anti-Semitism throughout its history - I have heard many stories from Jewish friends in many communities across this country about how in the 50s they all had to be careful during Holy Week when the local Catholic School pushed all the Irish hoodlums to hold a pogrom against the "Christ killers."
As an institution, the Catholic Church is "the enemy." The people like Pope Francis and John XXIII were and are anomalies, and the institutional church does its best to oppose them when they show up and to destroy their legacies as fast as possible when they're gone.
We won't even get into the Church's leading role in the genocide of the Americas once they showed up in the New World with Columbus, Cortez and Pizarro.
I want to make certain no one reads what I said as "anti-Catholic." I've known many very sincere Catholics, and they have been laudable people. I'll never forget meeting Ammon Hennacy, who with Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker movement, and when I met him ran a house in Salt Lake City where anyone could come for shelter for as long as they needed it (so long as they were willing to become a part of the community and participate in keeping things going so others could be helped). But he, along with Dorothy Day, had been threatened with Excommunication by the Catholic Church in America for being "communists," so my critique of the institution stands. I think of him as one of the first people I ever recognized as a "saint," though the Church never would. I believe in "saints," but not the way the Church does. I believe in them as living measuring sticks for the rest of us to see how short the rest of us come up on the scale of being a good and worthwhile person who really Does The Right Thing. Most of the saints I have known would be considered Enemies of the Church were they Catholics (and some were).
You might add that Evangelical Christians, while they haven’t been at it for as long, are at least as bad, and probably worse, than Catholics on most issues, and their voting record is substantially worse.
Oh yes, indeed. Interestingly enough, they didn't get really bad till Jerry Falwell came along to organize them in the "Moral" Minority.
Amen.
LOL, and Ah-women! (This is just messing around, and real language gender fixing could go on forever!)
Yes.
Wherever there is power to be grabbed and people to be exploited, predators will be on the prowl.
This was built into the Catholic faith from the foundation.
There is a lot of question about exactly when and how the Jesus stories came into being, but historians tend to uniformly date Paul's writings around CE 50, well before the destruction of Jerusalem in CE 70; by his own account, he was running around "persecuting Christians" before becoming a convert and one of the first proselytes. These would all have been Christian Jews, and his letters (the authentic ones) are sent to communities all over Asia Minor and Macedonia. We know these communities were already widespread in Rome in the 50's, because we have Tacitus' record of Nero's infamous garden party in CD 64, in which he blamed the Great Fire on the Christians.
After CE 70, much of the population of Jerusalem was scattered as slaves throughout the Roman Empire, and these early Christians -- like the fundamentalist Christian sects in North America -- became extremely heterodox, syncretistic, and spread like wildfire through the slave class. They became a constant irritation to Roman power.
It wasn't until the early CE 300's, after numerous generational attempts to exterminate the religion, that Constantine convened the Council of Nicea to try something different: rather than try to destroy Christianity, he would unify it and make it part of the Roman Empire. The imprimatur under which the Nicene Council deliberated had the express objective of "unifying the Christian faith." The resulting document was The Bible, a selection of Jewish and Christian sacred documents.
The Nicene Council was the event that created the Catholic (universal) Church.
You can think of it as a massive historical redaction of the troublesome Christian beliefs of the early fourth century, and its entire reason for existence was Constantine's order that Christianity be unified.
Its primary function from the start was to suppress heterodoxy. Its authority derived from Emperor Constantine, who had just reunified Rome under a single Emperor (for a while) after defeating Licinius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, so the Church's authority in matters of religion was absolute.
It has never really deviated from that in its 17-century existence. It suppresses heterodoxy, and considers its authority absolute. I find it quite amusing that its absolute authority derives from a Pagan emperor.
Interesting history.
Followed a few centuries later by Charlemagne who forced conversion to the Catholic Church at the point of a sword (and massacred 4,500 in Verden during the Saxon Wars), later followed by the colonizing Crusades and Inquisition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Verden
And of course, only the Muslims are accused of "spreading religion by the sword" as they "swarmed out of Arabia."
If the Crusades weren't a holy war, I don't know what is!
Hi TC. I have read your comments with attention, particularly, in the last couple of days. Substance calmed the time. I would like to copy this post and email it to friend. Please reply when you have a chance. Cheers!
All my stuff here is "open source" Fern, so copy away.
Thank you.
I would not give to any Catholic organization no matter what good works they do. I was a converted Catholic for about a decade, but no more. It does little or nothing for the millions who feed its machine for building wealth and exerting control over everything. I don't need to explore it, I just walked away from it and give to non-sectarian groups who are doing very good works without the repression.
I agree; I went to them thinking that it would be good for my young children and my husband's family was Catholic. The only thing they wanted to know was what I could do for them $. I ran the other way. Not a fan in any way, shape or form.
I get it. That you continue to give is good and godly.
Its a powerful patriarchy with no accountability. Nothing charitable about that.
Oh, for a minute I thought you were describing the Party of Sedition Against American Democracy AD: 2016-2021+.
I worked for 6 months as a full time, live-in volunteer at an AIDS hospice/convent in Denver that was run by the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa's organization). I was truly amazed at the selflessness of many of the other volunteers who donated a day or two here and there. I came to love so many aspects of the Catholic family that I came into contact with.
Yet... I also came into contact with the dark underbelly of the Catholic Church. So much hypocrisy, so much self-serving, so much lying to oneself... I'm not going to enumerate any of the negatives here, just suffice it to say that I came to the conclusion that the Catholic Church, at its best, does much more harm to humankind than good. For all of the good works, and there are multitudes, it is rotten to the core.
The Catholic Church has failed largely because it has no will, and no way to study the darker impulses of humankind. And without that study and implementation of increasing the light in humankind, it will always seek out the darkness.
Your recognition of this is what is powerful, Hope. There are layers of perspective in many things. I feel blessed that we as humans are given the power of discernment.
Yes, exactly! Albeit, good discernment requires good standards. In this day and age, that can take some digging.
I agree. In the Catholic Church - as in many souls and institutions - the Devil can be found in at least some of the details.
Yes, Hope, but look up the National Catholic Reporter, a lay run newspaper(ncronline.org) that has called out and investigated the many dark sides of the institutional church. See especially the early artcles from the 80's on clergy sexual abuse by Jason Berry and more recent articles about the money behind the anti-Pope Francis movement ( led by Cardinal Burke and one time U.S. Papal Nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, fueled by money from the Napa Institute's Tim Busch, among others.) There is pushback from progressives within the church but unfortunately the divide in the U.S. church mirrors that of our country, with the bulk of U.S. Bishops in bed with the ultra-right end of the culture war continuum.
The "roots" of the clergy sexual /power abuse can be traced right back through the power inequality lineage laid out by TCinLA below.
David, that same Catholic Hospital you mentioned, is the same one that heavy handedly convinced the single daughter of a friend who was raped in their parking lot to not take a morning after pill and "its the Lord's way" if she were to become pregnant. The Hospital insisted on "counseling" her through her situation. She did become pregnant from that rape and was forced to give birth to a Down's Syndrome baby that she, though wouldn't trade has had to raise alone.
Your Mother's fear of that Hospital was accurate.
"The Lord's way" has given misguided authority to too many for too long. As an ordained, graduate Seminarian I have long been angered by the abuse of Scripture to force specific ideologies upon people. All "in the name of Christ", no less!
Indeed. Christ had/has a good many things to say to hypocrites.
"Beware the hypocrites." Beware the wolves who come to you dressed in sheep's cloth. I tend to shy away from quoting Holy Scripture because so many who do are the self-righteous apostates.
:’-(
My parents divorced when I was 6. My mom was Catholic, my dad Protestant. I alternated churches every other weekend, which left me with a lot of questions about contradictory dogma.
In the early 60s, our next door neighbor who was Catholic, nearly died delivering her second child. Her doctor said complications made it likely that having a third child would kill her and recommended using birth control. She asked permission from the parish priest, who told her she couldn’t have communion if she did. So she didn’t and got pregnant again. When she started miscarrying in the second trimester, she was hemorrhaging and her husband took her to the community hospital. The miscarriage required surgical completion and while she was under anesthesia, her doctor talked to her husband. They agreed on a tubal ligation to avoid further risk. After she recovered, she told the priest what had happened and was denied communion. That was the end of my interest in the Catholic church
Not to mention the Catholic church's history of mishandling the molestation of children by priests... Oh damn, and I said not to mention that whole episode of its history. I will say that Catholic charities do an incredible job in so many ways with refugees and the poor, but they also take in an awful lot of money that is spent very wastefully as well.
I will just throw in--- have you seen the movie Philomena?
such a sad story
John, I cried like a baby at that movie.
Well, David. You just explained some more history. Thank you to you and your partner’s and your mom’s stories. That’s what makes history.
Christine, your comment brought to mind the fact that for many things, like the anti-vaxxers against measles/mumps vaccine, who say, "Nobody gets/dies from measles any more", neglect to admit that's because the vaccines were so effective at eradicating it. Same with small pox, polio, etc. And same with the horrors of back-alley abortions. Young women today can't know the terror many women felt (and not just women who had sex 'outside of marriage'), when they were confronted with a pregnancy they knew they could not carry to term. For many married women, it was even worse, because they were expected to be brood mares, if that's what their husbands' expectations were. Forget that they may have been exhausted, physically and mentally, by tending to several children, usually under the age of 10. I believe one of my family member's mental illness can be traced back to just such a situation, with an abusive husband, to boot.
To those who have pointed out that this is, at the root, about controlling women, you are spot on. These misogynistic bastards know that by controlling a woman's reproductive life, you control her. We already know that part of why career women are paid less than their male counterparts is the red herring that, "you'll drop out to start a family, and all that training and time and effort we put into making you a good employee will be wasted." And of course, when they DO start a family, that heavily dings their retirement savings as well as their real time monetary wellbeing, whether or not they drop out of the work force permanently.
Thank you for sharing this. Before my time, the young woman who would become my mom barely survived a coerced back ally coat hanger abortion. Beginning with and because of that, this Catholic is an unapologetic Pro Choice advocate who, like you, finds the Pro Life movement to be disingenuous.
With much appreciation for sharing your wife's and your education concerning women's health, reproduction issues and abortion, included the horrors that illegal abortion brought to woman and there families -- that includes death.
Thank you for your comments.
NYS displayed bold action in 1970. At that time, Planned Parenthood in Syracuse, under the leadership of of Ellen Fairchild, provided safe, affordable 1st trimester abortion procedures at their outpatient clinic on E GeneseevSt. The focus was on "planned" parenthood and providing quality reproductive health care and services to prevent unintended pregnancies. The clinic was also the primary source of health care for most of the women who received services. Comprehensive care, including counseling and educational services were provided. The delivery of exceptional care to me Is "pro-life" and pro-choice.
East Genesee St PP is where we went. A former Victorian single family house with a large wrap around covered porch. The overall healthcare for my wife was our purpose.
Yes, PPC Syracuse believed in treating the "total package" and were committed to excellence in health care. Ellen Fairchild was a courageous and inspirational servant leader; her husband was a leader in palliative health care. They made the world a better place.
On 1971 I worked at a free clinic in Michigan, giving women phone numbers to get legal abortions in New York, and to get financial support for the trip. Lifesavers.
Thank you for that snapshot of time. I'm a bit younger than you (I was attending Jackson Elementary in 1968) and really appreciate the "I was there" component you've shared.
I completely lack any sort of Christian education (both of my parents left their churches as young adults; my Dad a Methodist and my Mom an Episcopal) and as such really have a "missing link" as to how something such as religion can be so influential in a way of thinking when what is being espoused clearly makes no sense or is contradictory.
As we’ve seen, religion isn’t the only source of ideological fervor.
I was so happy to read that book back then.
A great snap shot of life at that time, David. Thank you for this.
to clarify, William Baird was a leader in the case Eisenstaft v Baird 1972 for promotion contraception for all women, married or not. (Unfortunately his promotion of vaginal foam was somewhat misguided and problematic-allergies etc. and what about male responsibility?) But Massachusetts law was stuck down that forbade the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried women after Griswold V Ct:)
I worked for an abortion clinic asa patient educator, for those that chose the procedure and wanted to get ‘their tubes tied’ after, I had to refer them to the non-sectarian health system, because the Catholic health system wouldn’t accommodate their request. And that wasn’t very many years ago!
such and important story, David. Thank you for posting.
It will not end with Texas—other “red states” are set to follow suit, including South Dakota and Florida. Abortion is about to be criminalized in a huge section of the country. Of course, this will have little impact on wealthier, white residents of Texas (or the other states which enact similar laws)—they’ll still be able to fly/drive to states where the procedure remains legal. That option will not be available to poorer residents of those same states.
One other thing: Rush Limbaugh’s despicable use of the term “Feminazi”‘always used to infuriate me. My mother’s entire family was wiped out by the Nazis in the Holocaust. To trivialize how truly evil that regime was by comparing Feminists to it demonstrated both historical ignorance and how deceitful and evil Limbaugh actually was. I hated him when he was alive, shed not a single tear when he died, and continue to curse his malign impact on the country.
And Bannon who picked up the torch from Hell.
100000%%%%%. I hated him when he was alive, shed not a single tear when he died, and continue to curse his malign impact on the country. It is not possible to be pro-woman (even in a nuclear-family-good-ole-days-suppress-those-with-vaginas sense) and support that despicable pile of matter. Hate him with all my being . . .And I try VERY hard not to hate because it is so powerful.
Limbaugh saying "Feminazi" exposed him as a Nazi for all to see. I am saddened for your loss. Now we must know our enemies. I am a NY Jew who watches them as they out themselves.
Ian, I would add, those wealthy white women won’t need to fly/drive anywhere. There will be plenty of white male doctors that will be able/allowed to fly under the radar to “help” them.
So true. I am old enough to remember when Catholic women had a "D&C" for "menstrual problems" as a way to cover up an early abortion.
Absolutely true! During the 70s, my mother, her sisters and friends had no problem getting D&Cs for “late periods”.
By the way, my mother has always been anti-abortion. But D&C, that’s a necessary medical procedure, in her opinion.
In 1975 I was working as an RN on a surgical unit of a community hospital. One evening I answered a call light for a woman who was cramping post D&C and needed a bedpan. I helped her, then came back a few minutes later to check on her. She said she was feeling so much better after passing that last big clot. I don't know if anyone ever told her it was a 5 inch fetus.
This bizarre “law” is mind-bogglingly, crushingly stupid above all else. In the first place we have laws for the good and necessary reason that none of us wants to live in a vigilante society. It’s a contradiction in terms to create a law that enables, not to say, promotes, vigilantism. This alone should make it a non-starter at the Supreme Court.
Secondly it allows virtually anyone to squeeze the trigger. Because it’s writers were undoubtedly completely vexed and at a loss as to where to draw the line as to who could sue, the door is open for anyone with knowledge of an impending abortion to sue. This, I’m sure satisfied those bright souls who legislate on behalf of Republican Party in the great Republic of Texas. But they have, in fact, hurled a hard rubber ball against a wall and expected it not to fly back and hit them.
Consider: it has been widely assumed in the past few days that, in the immortal phrase from The Great Gatsby, “The rich are different”. I have heard over and over again in the past two days that the wealthy will simply go to Los Angeles or New York to get an abortion, in the face of this law. “The burden of the law will fall on the poor” has been oft-repeated without due consideration.
I disagree. This law will have the consequence of chilling everyone. The wealthy know more people than do the poor. They are the ones with the now anachronistic Rolodexes. They will wonder who they can tell safely that this is their plan. Most of the wealthy have declared or undeclared enemies. They may *feel* it unlikely that someone inimical to them will not find out nor, if they do, will have the chutzpah to out themselves by suing. But they won’t be *sure* and paranoia is a feature of our age. They know that everywhere they go, they leave a trail. They will worry that if they tell someone it’s as good as telling everyone. They will worry about an unexplained absence from work. They will worry that their children will know and might tell someone. They will think about the moral consequences of having their children know they are breaking the law. They will speculate that so and so is living well beyond their means and might not look the gift horse of $10000 in the mouth…
Of course, they will ultimately conclude that their fears are groundless and go ahead anyway and probably in 1000 cases out of 1000, nothing will come of it. But fear is cunning beast and we don’t control our irrational selves. I can’t see the wealthy white women of the suburbs being comfortable in the slightest with this slimy and slippery new law. And they have clout.
One last point - will we not see a flood of cases in which the man who impregnated the woman ends up suing her a few weeks down the road. After all, who knows more about her intentions? There are of course many cases in which the man wants the child even less than the woman. But it is equally true that there are heaps of relationships hanging by a thread. And a woman planning an abortion might say the wrong thing and cause her problematic partner to sue her. This will do wonders for social cohesion.
In short, no good will come of this law and plenty of evil will. Abbott, who signed it into effect, may be sowing the wind.
Hi Eric. All you discuss suggests that it is a terrible thing that it was allowed to pass through the “shadow docket”. That term itself sounds evil.
You know, Fern made a comment that has stuck with me. The evil dogs of Lone Star Texas have caught the car and what are they to do now? They might find their “prey” has a lot more inherent power than they have considered. They went after women. But what they actually went after was Love. Which has no opposite. And is the most powerful of all.
They are screwed, so to speak.
That comment of Heather’s struck me as well. It was very apposite. Or at least it has the power to be so. Perhaps in the end it will be just another “I can’t believe they’d stoop that low”, while it’s victims are fitted anew for a more pinched and straitened life. However, for now at least, it has struck a raw nerve. That is a good sign.
The shadow docket is increasingly bizarre and of a piece with what other regressions are being suffered. I do not know enough of the Supreme Court to have any idea of what, if anything, there may be to countermand it’s new use. On the face of it, it makes SCOTUS look devious of course. But too they must bear the censure of being seen as cowards by acting in such a way in matters of the most important.
They are begging to be reformed, especially inasmuch as they do not seem to have the vaguest notion that their lofty standing is self-imperiled.
And lastly, I think the opposite of love is indifference. It resonates in this case - a government indifferent to the needs of they who are governed, possibly facing a rising tide of those who want to express love in its highest ideal - platonic.
I don't think they have any idea what they have awakened and how strong love and women can be, and even more so when backed by good men and others.
This was the most telling paragraph of Professor Cox's letter today:
In a 2011 article in the Yale Law Journal, they showed that opposition to the eventual Roe v. Wade decision began in 1972—the year before the decision—and that it was a deliberate attempt to polarize American politics.
This is the game politicians, and especially Republican politicians, have played since Nixon and Watergate. Reagan solidified this dynamic with his embrace of the Moral Majority, and Trump was the reality star master-mind of divide and conquer politics.
Poet and activist Audre Lorde called these horizontal battles, intended to "becloud more pressing issues of oppression." Vertical battles are fought by the members of a democracy against the "structure at the top which desires changelessness and which profits from these apparently endless kitchen wars."
This week alone Texas has deputized vigilantes, who now have unprecedented access to guns, to go after women when they are in one of the most vulnerable positions they can be in and to freely intimidate voters in their capacities as partisan poll watchers.
USSC…..United States Star Chamber?
I've had that thought as well.
Shadow decisions rapidly increased during the past administration at the urging of the Solicitor General, 19 such ‘decisions’ vs singular digits during Obama years. This year there have already been 19 decisions which are really ‘no decision’ sine the court does not comment as to why? Obviously, the cowards way out!
Hahahah! With no sex involved!
I agree with what you have said. I only note that calling having or assisting in an abortion constitutes a "crime" or "breaking" the law is an oxymoron, and illogical. Abortion is a legal act according to well established (48 years) legal precedent. How can it be a crime to engage in or assist with a legal activity?
And there are very strong HIPAA protections across our land s, if one of those "vigilante thugs" crosses that privacy line, he or she can be dealt with.
A woman's healthcare is strictly between her and her healthcare provider.
That occurred to me as well. "The Privacy Rule, a Federal law, gives you rights over your health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive your health information. The Privacy Rule applies to all forms of individuals' protected health information, whether electronic, written, or oral. The Security Rule is a Federal law that requires security for health information in electronic form." https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials-for-consumers/index.html
Seems to me that anyone acquiring information to substantiate that a woman has had a post-6 week abortion would be in violation of HIPAA, a criminal act.
Also very possible. Either way, the economically powerful will not feel the impact of this law.
My point was that I think they will. Not in their pocketbook. Not in their ability to evade it. But in an uprising of fear that someone vengeful to them will it them in the docket.
This fear will not likely be realized in fact. But fear itself can be crippling.
appreciate your comments, even though they are gut-wrenching. The entire situation we find ourselves in still seems surreal.
Geez, have you ever said a terse, clear, potent mouthful, Beverly Falls.
Yes, the news last nite showed Ron DeathSantis considering how to follow his rival idiot Greg Abbott's lead. Oh, and this asswipe "governor" actually tried to get flags flown at half-staff in Palm Beach Co. for that disgusting piece of shit Rush Limbaugh. I think the county refused.
I think deathSantis is probably much more interested in how to write a law that encourages vigilanteism for some mandating masks and vaccines or other such interference in killing off his constituents.
C'mon guys, can't we call him Ron DeathShiitis?
Tantum de mortuis loqui bonum. Only speak good about the dead.
Rush Limbaugh is dead.
Good.
At Limbaugh's death, I had two women at my dog training club express great sorrow at his passing. I chuckled and said, "Femi-nazi." They looked at me like I was nuts. I didn't say any more. Both are great Trump supporters, but thankfully quiet about it.
NH has already gone there-The Republican majority legislature has passed a near total ban on any abortion after 24 weeks and mandates ultrasounds before ANY abortion, regardless of duration of the pregnancy. The R Governor signed the bill, even though he claims to be "Pro Choice". The only exception is to save the life of the mother. In addition there are both financial and jail time consequences for any physician who participates in a late term abortion. Those include a fine of $10 to 100K and jail time of 3.5to 5 years in prison.
My favorite graphic so far on the Texas abortion law is one showing Sponge Bob with cowboy hat on a stick pony. The caption is Texas: where a virus has reproductive right ... and a woman doesn't. Love the double whammy with the mask mandates. The WSJ had an oped that supports what Heather is saying -- that Texas Abortion Law is a Blunder. Very glad to hear that!
Fantastic! -- For the image, see https://ifunny.co/picture/even-the-dissonance-is-bigger-in-texas-texas-where-a-2JbkYvPt8
The picture did it. Thanks for putting picture to Cathy's words.
Perfect.
The understanding of the relationship between religion and abortion is complex. At least some Islamic interpretations of the Koran suggest that abortion is permitted before 120 days of pregnancy. Christian positions vary but generally, like the Koran, allow abortion to save the life of the mother. I remember a Jesuit article long ago citing that it takes "seven days" for the sperm to successfully unite with the egg. So, at least in that interpretation, the morning after pill would be allowed. Also in the acceptance of the "natural" rhythm method it seems sex without the "possibility" of insemination is acceptable.
It seems that Roe v Wade was a threading the needle effort between these religious views. Then along came medical science that said that the sign of a heartbeat indicated full human life.
All of this religious, political, medical and judicial threading of the needle seems to all be for the purpose of taking away from women of their right to chose.
Where is the "religious" caring for the born fully alive human? It seems it is alive in the Democratic party. Child care, education support, Medicaid for pregnant women and their children. Let's show love and care for the children born either in or outside of marriage and for their single or married poor mother. When the anti-abortionists show care for the child and mother after birth they might be able to somehow justify their concern prior to birth.
Medical science does not say that the sign of a heartbeat indicates “full human life”. That’s what anti-abortionists in places like Texas want people to believe. Medical science indicates that the potential viability of the fetus comes somewhere around the beginning of the third trimester.
I heard an OB/GYN interviewed yesterday that said that a fetal heartbeat isn't even really a fetal heartbeat. Our heartbeats are created by the flow of blood controlled by our valves, and a fetus has no valves. What is heard in ultrasounds is electrical pulses and the "sound" called a heartbeat is actually created by the machinery.
Exactly, JR. Earthworms have a "heartbeat." What the "beat" refers to is a specialized muscle that is capable of rhythmic movement. To become a human heart a great deal more development and organ specificity must happen. This particular heartbeat argument is precisely why abortion should remain a medical decision, not a political one. The ignorance and folktales are appalling.
Indeed. The appeal of the "heartbeat" is an effort to suggest that when the embryo (not yet even a fetus ) emits a detectable signal, it is capable of human emotion. At this point, there is only the very beginning of neural development, first forming the neural tube and then over many months generating the cells that will become brain cells. These neural cells will have to move to appropriate locations, and even then will not finish the first phases of interconnection until weeks after birth. Is it the heart that differentiates humans form other animals? I would argue that brain development is crucial. The connections between the brain and the heart that form the basis of emotion are still a long way away when those first rhythmic signals are detected. Viability (the statistical point at which 50% of fetuses are likely to survive if born at that point) is still a long way away.
Can we look to biologists to tell us when human life begins? That science recognizes 5 developmental stages from fertilization to viability outside the womb and birth itself. A fuller discussion of when human life begins or doesn't begin: https://theconversation.com/when-human-life-begins-is-a-question-of-politics-not-biology-165514?
I wish women knew this b/c our natural instinct is to protect the vulnerable, especially when they are so dear. But our emotions are being exploited to the point where reason is totally obliterated! Many woman (and maybe men) are too sentimental,imo, about this issue because we haven't been taught this biology.
Charles, you have written a thoughtful comment reflecting the true meaning of pro-life. Thank you.
My father went to Catholic school as a child in the 1930s and 1940s. He was taught by the Christian Brothers. He remembers the Brothers quite plainly teaching that "it's not a baby until it's born", until the baby breathes in the Holy Ghost on its' own. Back then miscarriages, pre-term births and stillbirths were more common and occurred at home. Interesting how the teaching changes...
Approximately how many lives have been cumulatively lost in this country's avid search for war opportunities? Adult lives? Combatants - ours and theirs? Civilians?Children? Who have been the major war hawks? the abortion "issue" is, as Heather points out, a big fat red herring that brutalizes women in service to venal political interests. Now if the Democrats fail to make political hay out of this, if they fail, Biden ,in particular, fails to protect women and our right to choose then start burning the Constitution. It's politics over substance. It's politics in service to mammon. The tiny big rich and corporations have devoured us.
Exactly. How can anyone call themselves pro-life when they support war, the death penalty, and other forms of state-sponsored killing?
How can they justify their concern “prior to birth” that turns any opinion of abortion to be paramount over a woman’s choice of her body. There is no justifying forcing birth upon a woman.
EXACTLY
Good question. But it does sound rather selfish to me. As a woman I believe we have to also ask Is there really another human life living within me that I'm responsible for now? (To which I answer No.) This is the crux of the matter for me b/c I wouldn't want to be responsible for ending another's life.
Wish I was younger and healthier. The Democrats badly need a mega shot of energy. We should all be in the streets, and should have been for every chipping away of our Democracy. The party itself should be mobilized at each one of these affronts. It’s on us that things have gotten so out of hand. We let them happen. We “talk”. Republicans strategize and do.
This latest is truly dystopian. Friends and neighbors turning in their friends and neighbors for a chance at $10,000. A bounty on catching women. Chilling doesn't come close to saying it.
You can register to march on October 2nd!
https://womensmarch.com/mobilize
I’m marching. I’ve never been pro-choice or pro-birth, I have always sidestepped this issue. Gregg Abbott and his GQP have placed it squarely in our path so I cannot sidestep it. I must march or be marched upon.
Just signed up. I’ll gather many friends to join
Signed up.
Thanks for this link, Jeanne. Stay the course!
I will march and miss my daughter’s u14 soccer game. I will march and miss the game to protect the rights of every 14 year old on that team.
Right there with you!
The younger generations have other tools at their disposal. Like jamming websites to make them non functioning! Hats off to them!!
I literally saw it in action yesterday. Millennials and Gens are armed up with their access and know how to social media. With every type of response from legal to sarcastic to pointed to raging to satiric to shared story and many etc’s! It’s amazing. And they damn well will vote. And march in solidarity in October.
Yes the voting is the most powerful
I love seeing them participate in the discourse. It’s revving them up to vote.
Agreed.
Republicans will find the have unleashed the Furies of Greek mythology. An existing gender gap in the American electorate is only likely to widen as women push back on restriction on reproductive freedom. My own personal belief is abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. There is hard data that shows there are policies and programs that can reduce the number of abortions. Unfortunately, Republicans oppose those programs including - informed sex education for children and teens, free and easy access to all forms of birth control, improved access to affordable healthcare and Medicaid expansion, affordable child and dependent care, refundable child tax credits. There is hard data showing all of these have a powerful influence on reducing the number of abortions, but Republicans oppose each of them. The truth is Republicans are not a pro-life party, they are an anti-science, anti-fact, anti-compassion party. I believe the most likely result of this decision will be electoral defeats for Republicans, federal legislation that modified Roe v. Wade in law, and the successful expansion of the number of Supreme Court Justices, and the death of the filibuster. Republicans will regret unleashing the Furies.
I have always been a very optimistic person...until trump was elected. During the 2016 election process, every time something unbelievable came out about trump, we'd say "ok, that should take care of him"! But nothing he did changed a thing with his cult. Instead, the republican party grouped in behind him. We found out just how many believed as he professed. My feelings have been through all this that there are reasonable republicans and after he lost the election, they would come forth and say, we didn't mean it, let's get all this stuff straightened out. Instead, they're fighting even harder. I love what you said and hope like hell that you are right but the optimist in me has taken a hit and it's just hard for her to believe anything will change these people now.
Yes, but there are more of us than there are of them. In American elections, we rarely get greater than a turnout number greater than 65% of eligible voters in elections. If we can turn out even 25% of those non-voters, there is nowhere in America we cannot win elections. It is far easier to turn a non-voter into a voter than to turn a conservative into a progressive. We need to be sure we are speaking to the concerns of non-voters who feel they are ignored, forgotten, and that the issues they are concerned about and face in their everyday lives are not addressed by politicians. They need to see those issues and concerns are addressed by candidates and when those candidates are elected they get something done about them.
What good does it do to win elections when Republican state legislators give themselves or their party's appointees the power to overturn those elections?
That's the way I feel and have felt, Pam. I kept waiting for the Trump nightmare to be over. I'm still trying to understand how such ugliness could could have become so powerful. HCR has helped me to understand that today's flames are from old, smoldering fires. Things were never as good as I thought. I understand now the extreme importance of a good education, honest media, and active involvement in community and politics. I had taken good things for granted, and we must not.
People are motivated by fears and needs. The more our officials tell us all what there is to fear, the more fearful people become. The more chaotic the world appears. When you are fearful, you look for someone to ameliorate that fear. When you perceive chaos (because you have been told about it repeatedly -- covid, immigrants, the borders, the shrinking White population-- you want someone to bring order. When you are afraid of the future, you nestle into your belief about the afterlife or the ability of the divine to intervene, and you accept plans officials make to make the future more certain.
We are a country of fearful people. We want order. Strongmen provide that so we vote for them. They stir up more chaos and fear, and we retrench, get angry, get violent, exclude, exact retribution, and worse. This is the big picture here.
From your lips Bruce. I hope with all my heart you are correct.
You typed it so I didn't have to, Diane.
Well said. Access to birth control and sex education are key to controlling reproduction, and when there is access, abortion rates drop.
Yes that's true but there are plenty who want restrictions on access to birth control as well and I expect the R's will jump on that bandwagon as well. They don''t want women have any control options.
And that is how they wish to control women. These fundamental extremists do not want people to be educated, they do not want women to freedom. They want to have power. They are petrified of us becoming powerful and uncontrollable. Matrix.
Yep. Unleashing the furies. Lovely image. or "Hell hath no fury..."
“Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd." from the 1697 play The Mourning Bride.
It is so comforting to be amongst the literati.
https://images.app.goo.gl/cPLJbjXdfDTQodmV6
Written in 1697.
As I said and thought about every minute yesterday.
Light a candle tonight Charlie or set some crystals out in the moonlight soon.
Will do both.
I hope all of your beliefs regarding this decision come true…in 2022!!!
I agree with your stance on abortion. I call the Republican party the party of death because right now that's where their policies lead including their stance on the pandemic, masks, and vaccines. Here in Oregon, some hospitals have ordered those morgue trucks.
Bruce, you couldn't be more correct. I fully expect these red state legislatures, if not the US Senate, to try to criminalize all forms of birth control next. As has been noted, this is really about controlling women's bodies, and therefore, their lives.
Sandra, We are going to scare the living daylights out of them before they try it again.
I can't wait, Fern!😁
We're ready, aren't we, Sandra. I like your face. That's the one to show them.
Well if this doesnt tick multiple numbers of women off - dont know what would!
A solution panel, including you and Nancy Pelosi would be just fine with me.
Nancy Pelosi is the smartest and strongest person in Washington, D.C.
I bless her leadership and send her Love and protection every dang day!
Professor Bruce C in ‘da house. I’m sending your comment to ‘da House in DC with your permission, sir.
Absolutely OK. My own Representative and both of my Senators, loathsome Republicans all, as well as my Texas State Representative and Senator hear from me on a weekly if not more frequent basis.
Here is a link to a Huffington Post article that also includes hard data showing the effectiveness of these programs in reducing the number of abortions:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reducing-abortion-rates-policy_n_589b8ea5e4b09bd304bfd920
These policies are far more effective in reducing abortions than restricting access to abortions. There is no evidence, none, zero, that restricting access reduced the number of abortions. All it does is impact how safely, and where the abortions are done. Restricting access to abortions puts women's lives and health in jeopardy and is done solely to placate the far-right of the Republican party including many who claim religious motivations for their views. Restricting abortion and overturning Roe v. Wade does not poll well in America and Republicans advocating these positions need to look carefully at the data if they believe this is good for them politically. It may help them in Republican primaries, but even in rural America, it does not poll well for the general election electorate.
Exactamente.
Absolutely - the "mantra" should be just that - safe, legal and rare!
Have to add - good, intelligent sex education & access to birth control. All of which is perfectly obvious to anyone with common sense.
You left out "anti-sex."
You forgot they are an anti-woman and POC party as well.
God (whomevers') I so hope you are right Bruce!!
I truly hope your assessment is correct!
I hope you're right!
Here’s hoping.
Good trouble!!!
From The Guardian: TikTokers flood Texas abortion whistleblower site with Shrek memes, fake reports and porn ... Critics of Texas’ new law have been filing hundreds of fake reports to the whistleblowing website in hopes of crashing it.
Pro-choice users on TikTok and Reddit have launched a guerrilla effort to thwart Texas’s extreme new abortion law, flooding an online tip website that encourages people to report violators of the law with false reports, Shrek memes, and porn.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/02/texas-abortion-law-tiktok-reddit-whistleblower
Bless our Millennials! This news made my day!
When I got to my daughter today, she and her online feeds were busting the bank of stupid. And this was as she held my new baby grand that she chose to give birth to. The millennials know the freedom and importance of choice that is fought for. They are not about to sit out this rodeo.
Congratulations on your new grandchild Christine! And for raising a daughter with an activist heart.
Smartly using technology to frustrate the knuckledraggers
:-)
Brilliant! -- I have re-posted on my FB page. I recommend the same for others.
I posted as well on FB. Now to Twitter!!!
Question. Under this Handmaiden/Maoist law, how will Texas courts handle the deluge of cases resulting from the massive increase in orders for Mifepristone to be delivered by US Postal employees? Am appalled at the dystopian law circumventing existing law.
How are postal employees supposed to know what’s inside a parcel?
As written their knowledge or lack of knowledge would be determined in lawsuits? My point is that this vigilante promoting law put the burden on those who aid (intentionally or not?) and abet while abortion drugs are available from sources outside Texas.
I guess I’m asking who’s going to know or how will anyone know such things unless someone commits a crime and opens another person’s mail?
Or sees the product and open package? Or is snoping.
Think I’ll keep my concerns and energies focused on the women in need of clinic services. I have yet to suspect postal service employees of snooping in the mail they are paid to protect.
Protesting 2021 style!
And it is undoubtedly easier and more effective that a protest march in the street.
💯💯
Fantastic news! ❤️🤍💙
Forgot to say thanks for this article! I sent it to FB and now on to twitter.
In recent years, it has become public that the catholic orphanage here in Burlington VT was, for years and years, sheer hell for the children that lived there. The stories are hard to hear and the pain is still apparent on the grown up faces of the survivors who called the orphanage home a long time ago. It makes you wonder about all of the other orphanages and other programs run by the church in the name of God. And is just another example of how the catholic church says one thing yet does another. How is an abortion worse than deliberate pain inflicted on helpless children, day in and day out, year after year? The hypocrisy is astounding.
Many years ago right after I graduated from college I applied for a teaching job at a local Catholic school. They asked me what I thought about abortion. I said as a Catholic and as a mother I was against it but also said that I had been in schools where children were abused and beaten with a lead pipe and didn’t think that children should be brought into a world that would abuse them so. Needless to say, I did not get the job.
Thank goodness.
Sending a hug of support to you.
:’-(
Hugs, Annette!
And that says it all, doesnt it?
Let us not forget the horror inflicted upon those young men called to service as Altar Boys who then are called to service the Priests who "counsel" them.
I’m a pianist at a Catholic church. Employees and other service folk are required by our archdiocese to receive anual instruction on keeping an eye out for predatory behavior - in order to keep children safe. I’m pleased we do this.
Ahhh...."Safe Environment Training". I've taken it myself as I have coached an "Odyssey of the Mind" team at my granddaughter's Catholic school!
As a went-to-a-Catholic-grade-school survivor, I can attest to what you say , Kim.
As a once worker at Hope Haven/Madonna Manor of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, I can attest to that as well. It was a very old boys’ home that finally folded under mounting lawsuits from former boys who were abused by Priests, Brothers & Nuns before I worked there. While I worked there one of the 2 remaining Brothers was implicated in sexual abuse of a boy. No legal action, he was sent off to some other Catholic facility in Texas.
My little-girl eyes back then would look upon our monsignor (the head hauncho of our little Catholic school) with awe, wishing I was a boy so he would look at me like he looked at all the little boys surrounding him. Today I remember what it really was that my little-girl eyes saw.
Oh Lynell. That truly is what is termed, “gut wrenching”. 😩
:’-(
Magdalene Laundries, Ireland
Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Pennsylvania
Just two off the top of my head
:’-(
In that it’s not even about the embryo’s fate but all about controlling women it is worse than hypocrisy and untenable. Maybe those of us who deeply know the pain of those survivors need to parade around the homes and capitols of these wretched, ugly, ugly, unloving and unlovable characters with some giant sized uzi’s slung over our shoulders.
The hypocrisy is indeed astounding, and, as goes my faith, the unrepentant hypocrites will not receive an eternal pass.
You’ll get no argument from me!
Elaine! Our resident troll!! And Hugh Hewitt's cousin, sister, brother, mother, partner????
Hi Kim. I'm a Burlingtonian, too!
Hi Hope and Kim-I'm a Vermonter by birth and lived in Middlebury till I moved to NH for nursing school and stayed.
I am astonished by the richness of Heather’s daily, middle-of-the-night essays crafted with such cadenced scholarship. I was a history/economics professor from age 58 to 80. If I had ventured to write midnight essays, my readers would have been reminded of Ur’s Tower of Babel. A few years ago I twirled my three-wheeled walker doing the Zumba with the Princeton Precision Dance Team but, as the raven saith ‘nevermore.’ (Edgar Allen Poe for Google fact checkers)
I so agree with your first sentence. Her writing is immensely authoritative and helps us lesser mortals to put the now into the perspective of the then and before. I have not yet reached 80 (not far off though) and would certainly have difficulty in putting together anything that got anywhere near that quality - especially in the middle of the night.
I agree. How does she do it? I'm just so grateful that she does!
Your Zumba days may be over, but I hope you keep posting for many years to come!
Not sure how long you've been subscribing but when The Loser was in office, 2:00 a.m. was the earliest we would see a post from HCR. Since Biden took office is when she shifted to mostly 10:00 p.m.!
I too have noticed this earlier time for HCR posts.... great for us out here on the West Coast. I read her posts most nights before bed.
Prof Wheelock, you sound like a fabulous hoot! Glad to have you here with us, as I’m certain Princeton and beyond have!
We're seeing play out what McConnell and Trump bestowed upon the nation. The damage is just beginning unless the court is expanded, which appears highly unlikely. In my long life, I've never seen the credibility of the court at such a low ebb.
Once upon a time, it feels long ago, I respected the Supreme Court. No more.
The "supreme" court is no longer "Supreme." It's just another political arm of the right. No more respect. No more trust in their decisions.
All the more reason to understand who paid off Kavenaugh’s debt and what sword is now hanging over his head?
Texas is the state that persists in falling near to last in child health and welfare—cruelly failing the tiny beating hearts already under its jurisdiction. Their incompetent governance has no business reforming abortion law.
Texas also leads the US in femicide.
Where is that ANGRY emoji.
😡🤬😾
https://www.statista.com/statistics/327462/women-murdered-by-men-united-states/
Thanks! I actually posted that yesterday and interestingly it went pretty much unnoticed. I was surprised, to say the least.
There were almost as many comments yesterday as likes. I missed your post and I invested some time in them. Stats like that need repeat posts. 🙂
Morning, Daria!! I saw that you posted it yesterday. Seems timing is everything!
Morning, Lynell! Seems so.
I wish Statista had normalized the states according to population in rates per 100,000, like they have done in their other graphs of femicide. As is, it shows the bluest of blue states to be about as dangerous for women as the reddest of red states.
Yes, it's odd that the US stats aren't as defined as those of other regions.
I apparently didn't see it. I worked with a county Medical Examiner who had noted a statistically significant occurrence of murder/suicides in our county carried out by men against their domestic partners (some married, some not, all of them women). He has researched and published it (at least at the level of regional Medical Examiners) and I had the opportunity to talk to him about it at a class we attended together on suicide intervention. I was able to tell him about several that he had missed (investigated by my agency) including one of mine where the instigator missed the murder part by less than an inch before killing himself in front of her two sons.
He and I are both retired now, but I will share this link with him.
Ally, femicide is a grim, "under recognized" statistic. My mention of it yesterday was to bring awareness of the fact that the open gun carry with no licensing is sure to cause a significant up tick in occurrences.
I also posted Women Count a database compiled by Dana Wilcox, a nurse in Texas. Wilcox began Women Count "after the killings of Cecil the lion and Harambe the gorilla. There was such outrage over the animals’ deaths, and while Wilcox is an animal lover, she didn’t understand why there wasn’t the same level of concern for murdered women. “People are starting petitions and they’re marching and I’m like I just heard about three women killed today, what about them?”
It's sickening that people value the lives of women so little, but it's not unexpected. Not citing femicide, glossing over or ignoring the occurrences of femicide is a horrible reality and part of the misogyny baked into our daily lives. Texas's decisions on abortion and guns reflect the official position that women and girl's lives don't matter.
The work you and your associate did in the field is important. Thank you.
https://womencountusa.org/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/11/the-nurse-tracking-americas-epidemic-of-murdered-women
PS - Ally, it's unreasonable for me to expect people to weight information and statistics with the same significance that I do. Everyone has their own triggers and levels of "alarm".
So, let's give men more permission to openly carry a gun. All the better to shoot women accused of looking for an abortion. The hell with the $10,000. (Can you tell I'm pissed?)
Yeah, I can tell you're pissed - that was pretty much my comment yesterday...more guns, more dead women. All for a lousy 10k.
I guess Texas has monetized women's bodies. I would have never believed this.
😳 😤 😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬
Wash,rinse,repeat
The moral differences in humans will always be utilized as a political divide to manipulate the masses.. Does anyone believe that a single Republican Senator truly gives a flip about fetuses?
Also how is a court defined as one that abstains from listening?
I have a few words and phrases that may apply.
“kangaroo court” comes to mind.
SKCOTUS--I like this name for this fascist court
Every single philandering Republiqan senator cares a great deal about the fetuses they create in their mistresses/assignations/flings. Just not publicly.
Morning, Ally!! In light of the coming surge of Texliban wannabes' "pro-life" legislation, it would be interesting to know how they will handle their unplanned mistresses' pregnancies
Easy. They take them on a trip to Cancun. 🙄
So they can be charged under this law by anyone suspecting that they are assisting an abortion.
If they are caught and the person reporting it has proof, yup. But you just know they'll find a way out of it. 😑
True, this...though they probably will be sending them, not taking them!
A much better word, Lynell, and closer to the truth.
“also how is a court defined as one that abstains from listening?”
Its defined as “partisan purposeful, intentional neglect”
Three items on the to-do list: end/radically limit the filibuster so that the Despicables cannot block the legislation; ratify ERA (it technically has enough state votes to be ratified, I think); pass voters' rights legislation. Until women become fully persons under law--included their uteruses--women will be subject to the whims of white men who want unfettered access to them.
Showing of states that have ratified. And some more info. Thank you for ERA alert, Linda.
Definitely a to-do to prioritize.
https://drexel.edu/vision2020/news/blog/2018/June/ERA/
https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era-ratification-map
Thanks for these links, Christine. I just contacted my two senators to urge they sign on to co-sponsor removing deadline for ERA. They've already voted to ratify.
My Rep in House ratified and already signed on!
I’ve already contacted some groups with many young millennials after reading Linda’s post. There was NO idea that “ratification” had been stalled for so long of the ERA.
You are so genius, Linda.
Add to that stacking the court.
Agree!
Sounds like a plan to me.
I am grateful that I never became pregnant and had to confront such a terrible choice. I think the decision SHOULD be private. Even from the often considered obligatory doctor. I come to this as a matter of not only ‘choice’ but of responsibility. The world’s population is so immense. Finally, I believe ‘with all my heart’ that no male person should have any ‘say’ about abortion. You can support, but never decide.
Yes, ma'am, the responsibility/burden of (not) bringing a child into this world of (potentially rapid) extinction of humans should be about that person and her body. We are an invasive species on the planet and She can do without us.
Or the responsibility OF bringing a child into the world. It is confounding to me that anyone can argue the right of choice. It is who we are as humans.
How is the garden, kim?
Busy and productive. Keeping me out of trouble by keeping me occupied. Outrage at the events in this country. Plus, I've been reading/listening to guy McPherson and reading Dair Jamail (End of Ice) about near-term extinction and I'm working to live the life of most excellent integrity. Harvesting and creating habitat for the creatures still here. All the best to you.
Totally agree, thanks.
Thanks, Liz. My sentiments exactly.
👍
Well, well, well, Thank you, Professor Richardson. As many have come to know, it takes a rendering of history and a snapshot of a particular time to give a background of support to what a person is feeling about a subject whether it be a vote of Yea or Nay. I wondered about the lack of coverage on Fox News and it’s ilk. Now I understand more deeply why.
Knowing the history of things clears up some memory gas.
The saying comes to mind….”you’ve made your bed, now lie in it.” Looks like history shows who is afraid of the truth. Right, Tuckems?
Solidarity of women and men FOR the health, safety, security, and the light of WOMEN.
Morning, Christine!! I'll see your "memory gas" and raise you this Frum analysis: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/texas-republicans-abortion-ban-backfire/619956/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20210902&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20Daily
Right. Sometimes it’s just calling their bluff.
Salud, Lynell. Time for a🥂today!
This piece and today's comments are really good in stirring the mind about this issue. It's a tough one in some ways. No obvious right answer for me. At 17 I got pregnant for the first time, alone and confused in the late '60's at an art school I had not wanted to attend. I was reeling from the chaos of all that was going on in that era and actually wanted to get a job, not go to school. My parents plucked me out of that school and that relationship, seeing that something unfortunate had happened to me possibly because they had forced me into a situation I had not wanted, and hauled me off to Puerto Rico to have an abortion. More confusion. It was a medical procedure with an attached profound, vast dimension. If they had not done that, my life would have been much different than it has turned out to be. I still feel wrenched by the issue- being pregnant by the wrong guy at the wrong time in one's life is a tragedy, but so is having an abortion. Abortion can be seen as the lesser of two evils, certainly when you factor in the dreadful orphanages run by churches or other corrupt organizations. But there are many belief systems that counsel against it. Basically, there is a price to pay for everything we do. I would not wish a back alley abortion on anyone, nor an unwanted child who cannot be cared for properly and whose very existence condemns the parents to a life of hardship. What Texas is doing, what the supreme court is doing, is wrong, in any event, and though I cannot ever celebrate the famous "woman's right to choose," given my own history which had very little choosing on my part, I can say that it seems like cruelty to eliminate options with such callous disregard for those who will suffer.
Agree wholeheartedly, Lauri. I shared yesterday about my sister’s pregnancy, but didn’t go on to say, I later was 17 and pregnant. I had just graduated high school and was scheduled to leave for college. That didn’t happen. I decided to have my baby…scared about what my parents might do to me, I hid my pregnancy as long as I could. I married the father. Not a great marriage, but he took care of us when we needed it. My teenage pregnancy is 49 years old now. She one time asked me if “she was a mistake.” I answered, “you were an accident; never a mistake.” I have reflected on my choices many times, but always conclude that I am happy with my decision. But that was MY CHOICE! I have also seen the devastating, conflictive consequence of having an abortion in such circumstances. Decades later, some women have debilitating guilt. My opinion is that guilt is mostly perpetuated by the right wing political movement that Heather talks about in her Letter. As Jen Psaki said yesterday, (paraphrasing) these women are making excruciatingly hard decisions.
I agree that guilt, shame, and life-long devastation was created by anti-women people. Getting pregnant accidentally should not be a source of shame or guilt. Either should terminating that pregnancy, especially early on. The baggage religious people put on women is terribly wrong.
I never have had an abortion because I convinced my Catholic parents when I was 17 (back in the 70s) to sanction my desire to take birth control pills. Meanwhile, friends were playing Russian Roulette and some lost.
I married young and had 4 miscarriages before doctors realized what was wrong. One was at a Catholic hospital where they buried the 11 week fetal remains without my permission. This is what drives people to feel guilt and shame. Yet it should be a medical condition for which the avenues are sought for the woman without heaping on guilt.
As a mother of four daughters, I told them when they were about 14 or 15 that we were not going to raise any babies in our house. They were to start using birth control when they wanted to be sexually active. Our Women's hospital had/has a wonderful teen program. I allowed my kids to skip school to take their sexually active friends to that program to learn what they didn't know. They all left with some condoms, but at least also with knowledge. I was shocked at the parents, mostly Catholic but not all, who refused to discuss sex or birth control with their kids. Kids were having sex and hoping for the best. I lectured boys that came around about their responsibilities.
My younger adopted sister got pregnant at 17. She couldn't believe it because she thought girls got pregnant during their periods (and she refused to listen to any of us talk about sex or read about it because "she wasn't that kind of girl"). She wanted an abortion. My parents were not against it on the basis of principle, but talked about adoption, her own birth mother having also been 16. She went to a "home for unwed mothers," an expensive place near my college. She gave her baby up and was happy and relieved to do so. She wonders about him but has never looked up her birth mother and does not want to interfere in his life either. It was wonderful to be raised by intelligent and thoughtful parents who, despite their religious beliefs or ethical ideas, did not force anything on us and instead allowed us to determine that aspect of our lives. I did the same for my 4 daughters.
Elizabeth, I have many more stories, but the important message is…my body, my choice. I also don’t like to hear women denigrate other women who have chosen to have their babies, not that you were. Women can be brutal sometimes.
Ladies, thank YOU for sharing your CHOICES!! We should all get to choose.
Your daughters deserve your compassionate and responsible support of their choices. Thank you!
Thank you so much for telling your story. You are a very courageous woman. Very moving to read what you have shared with us.
Thank you, Cheri, for expressing these difficult ideas and sharing your hard-earned wisdom.
Thank you for sharing this, Lauri. I think it touches us all in different ways. As I was at the kitchen sink, just a couple of minutes ago, it occurred to me that I didn't even consider sharing my own story about having an abortion. Wondering why I didn't was cut short because I didn't even want to remember it.
Yes Fern, “it touches us all in different ways.” No woman, including me, ever makes this decision easily. We have many powerful, heart rending stories about this pivotal point in our lives. May we rise up to meet this cruelty with determination.
Thank you, Diane.
Oh Fern….
It’s so bittersweet to me thinking about “kitchen sink” moments. I’ll bet every woman on this forum have had at least one. What is it? The running water? What stills us to contemplate something important at the kitchen sink? I wonder if there has ever been a painting or a poem about it.
Brava!
So very true Christine. Tired at the end of a long day, washing dishes, alone with our thoughts, memories rush in like a flash flood.
Thank you for sharing your history, Lauri. It is a reminder of how difficult it is for women to make the decision to have an abortion. Your parents didn't give you the choice. The state of TX has become the "all knowing parent" for all women.
Wow, eloquent, Lauri.