White male Republicans are silent and equivocate while women die and suffer tragedy. I hope women realize this and vote. We are over half the population.
I'm an old white man and I couldn't agree more. In the FIRST pregnancy I was involved in my wife had a miscarriage. I rushed her to the hospital (this was in 1974) and she received what I didn't understand at the time was an "abortion." I try to picture if we lived in Texas today and this happened we wouldn't have had the money to travel elsewhere to get the procedure (although, in my mind I believe I would have found a way - she was BLEEDING profusely as I drove her to the hospital) Thanks to that procedure we had TWO healthy beautiful daughters in the next few years and, every-time I think about this, I shudder at what the possibilities could have been.
I'm an old white man too. The GOP is digging its own burial hole. How can any man want his beloved daughter or wife to suffer or risk death? Ever? Denying my wife's autonomy was never part of the deal.
Swbv, I suspect there are a lot of white men who do not want their daughters or wife to suffer, however, I suspect a lot of those same men would be OK if it were someone else's daughters or wife, "the will of god," you know. We need white men to stand up more forcefully stating that abortion is healthcare and no politician should have anything to say about it unless she wants to comment about her own experience. That would solve this pretty quickly. I like Walz's comment, "mind your own damn business." That does not work for everything but it does when it comes to a woman's need to make her own health-related choices.
Hawley’s wife is a militant fighting attorney against any and all abortions. She was involved in the case before the Supreme Court when the case was heard. Rabid attorney against women’s rights in this case!
Thank you for sharing this, showing so clearly how frightening this issue is for men too! I must be about your age and remember the times before Roe. I’m still shocked by the ignorance and cruelty of those who write these abortion bans. The most idiotic thing is people like Trump saying state legislatures should decide this issue.
I haven’t met anyone yet who has said if they were in one of these fraught situations they would for sure want to seek the wisdom of their state legislators.
Jessica Valenti of Abortion. Everyday Substack says pregnancy is too complicated to legislate. Women literally put their lives on the line when they become pregnant. It is a health condition. These male legislators, who often don't understand how female anatomy works, want to step in between a person and her doctor in making healthcare care decisions. Men's bodies are not policed in such ways. I am so glad I am not a young woman today! Being 70 years old is looking pretty good now.
I'm 67 and I still see the government interference in women's health care a problem for all of us. Governmental meddling in gender affirming care, for example, is no different. And if a child is raped and becomes pregnant as a result, this is a family decision to be made with the child's doctor, not politicians.
I can’t help but feel terribly sorry for pregnant women today. I hope this ship gets righted in this next election. Also, I believe there are many young men out there who don’t want to become fathers before their time and may vote for reproductive rights this time around.
Barbara, I can't think of anyone either, but our Supreme Court has told us all that they should have the final say as to what agencies in our federal government do. The SC conservatives are not the brightest bulbs in any string and they think we want them to decide about our environment or food safety or drugs? It is certainly true for a lot of folks; they get some power and think they know everything and deserve respect and homage beyond any actual knowledge they might have. Yep, power does corrupt!
That recent ruling was a violation of the separation of powers. It's SC overreach. Do I want them deciding whether drugs are toxic or unsafe, or that dangerous pesticides shouldn't be banned because some billionaire with stock in a petrochemical company took them on a yacht ride or flew them around in their private jet?
It really is disturbing, but the SC is bit by bit encroaching on the territory of the Executive and legislative branches, something the Constitution does not approve of. Then, they don't care much for our Constitution either, just certain parts that let them do all kinds of things that should be illegal. We need serious SC reform!
The Supreme Court might want to think about why they would rofl (spend a minute or two picturing this) @ the suggestion that appeals courts be composed of doctors or expert auto mechanics or theoretical physicists.
Barbara, alas, I am not sure the SC cons think about much beyond who they can get to donate to their coffers next. They clearly do not care about the people of this nation, but love the oligarchs and despise people of color and women, love fundamental religious groups well, if they claim to be christian. There is no real justice with this crew and the non-cons have little to no influence because, well, they are strong women and even Amy can't stand that.
I am so sorry for what you went through and very happy for your joyful ending! I have been fortunate to not personally experience any of the horror stories told, but certainly have many family members & friends who would have suffered horribly under the new laws.
My wish is for white men and BIPOC men like yourself to become as loud and insistent as the right-wing supremacists. It's time for good, compassionate guys to stand firmly against the authoritarian, aggressive, and greedy types who dominate the news lately.
Say no to Project 2025. Tell the Heritage Foundation men they are far behind the times, and vote for legislation to halt the I T and corporate greed that is sapping America's strength. You are much appreciated, David. End Toxic Masculinity!
One more time... If the mother dies, the fetus dies. I still don't get the treatment (or non treatment) of pregnant women with non viable pregnancies. Also... I've never heard anyone of authority talk about this. It seems so obvious to me. But I'm just a woman.
Not that I know so much, but it has to do with a fetal heartbeat, which is, of itself, an error. In the early days after conception, a specific 'heart -tube" develops a rhythm that the non-medical dolts have agreed is the "heart." It's not, but it is a precursor for the heart's development. It's my understanding that, if detected, the 'heartbeat' means a viable fetus that cannot be aborted. Calling the MAGA legislators and wanna-be Nationalists qualified is a very long stretch.
**Week 5: The neural tube (brain, spinal cord, and other neural tissue of the central nervous system) forms. The tiny “heart” tube will pulse 110 times a minute by the end of the fifth week. Week 6: Tiny buds that become arms and legs also develop.
I'm reminded that SCOTUS confused harmless nitrous oxide with harmful nitric oxide. How can they be expected to know the difference between fallopian vs endocardial tubes. It's only going to get worse now that Chevron repeal means that experts have even less of a role vs judges. We should just acknowledge that SCOTUS is always right and stop complaining....
Or vote the GOP out of existence so that this black stain on America becomes a distant memory....
Female Republicans are silent and equivocate. Heck, I bet black Republicans equivocate too, regardless of gender. I think it a mistake to cast this as a white/male/Republican thing. You either believe women should be largely, if not totally, in charge of whatever happens inside them, or you don't.
As for there being more voting women, the data totally supports you on that::
The difference (3-5%) is bigger than I recalled. So yeh, in the five(6?) states where abortion is on the ballot, we can assume a good upswing to the Dems. What is depressing is all those other states.
This is such an outrage, a cruel war on women and yes, we do not want to go back. Alas,the march backwards has already started.My state of Ohio has the cruel Heartbeat Law in place where we have already had a 12 year old child who was raped by her stepfather having to go out-of-state to get the care she so desperately needed. This,THIS is where we are now as a country.The only way forward is to cut the head off of the orange snake who has made no secret that he will suspend our Constitution and install himself as dictator from Day One.
That initiative is currently working through the court system. A lawsuit filed 3 months after the heartbeat law went into effect has resulted in an injunction with the judge issuing a ruling on Aug 29. Depending on the ruling, there might be a massive turnout at the polls with a referendum. Doctors in Ohio are still wary of emergency reproductive care despite the injunction because the law, and lawsuits, have created so much confusion.
The exceptions are purposely vague as to make them useless. That is by design so a state can say they have exemptions in place to protect pregnant women. However one still has to jump through legal hoops that ultimately jeopardize a woman’s health.
Yes, I totally agree with you. Even though voters voted for the initiative, it is still iffy for women to get abortions and other reproductive care here. Ohio is a red state.
I was not speaking to any ballot initiatives or propositions for the Nov ballot. From what I've been able to glean from a a few news sources (IANAL or from Ohio) there was an initiative that voters had already voted for but has been appealed by the opposition and is currently in the court system. Separate from that is an earlier lawsuit filed after the heartbeat law went into effect that a judge will issue a ruling for on Aug 29. An injunction was set in place on the heartbeat law in the interim but the laws are so confusing that doctors remain wary of reproduction care procedures. My thought is that if the judge rules in support of the heartbeat law, it may galvanize voters this election cycle to vote against candidates that support complete abortion bans and for gov officials that will work towards whatever the majority of Ohioans support. Which is not, it seems, a 6 to 12 week abortion ban.
To better answer your question, the opposition has stated in several arguments that Issue 1 is unconstitutional, that the General Assembly loses power, and that the topic is too controversial. While
appellees make the argument that since Issue 1 is now in the Ohio Constitution, Preterm-Cleveland v. Yost is no longer relevant.
So, even tho Issue 1 was codified into the Ohio Constitution in Dec, the ongoing lawsuits challenging the 2019 law and the confusing injunction are still making what is legal and what isn't murky.
It is oddly difficult to find out the status, though tbh I didn't drill down farther than roughly 10 varied browser searches and a few pages down for each. The most common language is that the initiative (Issue 1, Nov 2023 ballot) along with numerous other legal challenges to that and the 2019 law prohibiting most abortions are slowly working their way through the Ohio court system. Yost has been prolific with Ohio Attorney General statements and releases regarding the "detrimental effects" that will result from modifying Ohio’s abortion rights laws. Below is text grabbed from an Ohio Capital Journal story from May 6. I have thoughts on the subtext.
** Blocking enforcement of the laws at issue in the lawsuit “would irreparably harm the public,” Yost concluded. The public interest would be at stake in the lawsuit as well, “because the General Assembly is democratically elected to represent the public interest of the state as a whole.” **
With Missouri putting this abortion amendment on the ballot for November, I’m hoping we’ll see big crowds. Josh Hawley has a much stronger opponent in Lucas Kunce than Schmitt had. Dems Elad Gross for AG and Crystal Quade for governor. There’s going to be movement in this state for sure. Purple would be better than red. Because red Missouri is awful.
Josh Hawley creeps me out. I don't trust him or his convictions farther than I can throw him. He'll slide into whatever is the newest and shiniest MAGA model with nary a thought about either prior convictions or, in this moment, the value of supporting women's life, autonomy, and health. He's all about starring in the feral MAGA moment. His defeat would be a national blessing.
Josh Hawley is disgusting. And he doesn’t live here. He uses his sister’s address and says he rents a room. It’s total bs. He lives, and has lived for years, in Virginia.
I'd like that charade to be called out in the local papers every other day or so. In bold headlines. Even the MAGA crowd must know when they are being skunked.
It’s my understanding Tuberville lives in the Florida panhandle. I’m f’n tired of these residency violations that leave my state without true representation.
Women, everywhere, need to turn out and vote even if abortion isn’t on your ballot. We need to VOTE BLUE up and down the ballot to preserve our Democracy. We cannot just say it doesn’t affect me because I’m too old or I’m not able and the generations to come to have children. We need to stand together, women and men, for this generation and generations to come. This vote for me is for my grandchildren. If you haven’t checked to see if you are registered got to Vote.gov now!! Please join me in doing what you can to save our DEMOCRACY. As Joyce says, “We’re in this together!”
We recently learned from Joyce’s Five Questions guest that since 1950 over half of white women have always voted Republican. This is the year that has to change.
I hope women realize that voting is a private personal thing. You don’t have to vote the same way your husband votes. I hope this is the year that we can see the evolvement of women with regard to voting.
1/2 of those who vote might vote Republican, but there are a lot of untapped voters who could vote but don't, and who would vote Democrat. Only about 66 % of those eligible to vote actually do. Encourage those you know to vote and be sure they know why it is important.
I think the voting behavior of so much of our citizenry is abysmal and lazy. It is my experience that many complainers are people who do not participate when provided the opportunity. They don’t deserve the freedoms and privileges that democracy affords.
They certainly don’t deserve to complain if they haven’t voted. Voting gives the right to comment on government, if you don’t vote, you have no right to say anything about government.
I live among them in SC. Do they think they will be immune from such health related issues? I think the word itself, abortion, has been equated only to the birth control aspect rather than a part of women’s healthcare. I’m 77. When I was 17 my mother had pregnancy complications and what would probably be considered an abortion today and she probably would have died.
No consideration was given to what women’s healthcare really could encompass when roe was overturned. What a mess. This is why I trend Democratic. There are many things that need national regulation rather than being left to the states. Someone in my family once said that we don’t need national rules because we should be able to rely on people’s good intentions. I just stared at her. We know how that works.
This is true. You can't afford to vote for even a Republican committed to the Constitution (if you can find one, which is increasingly difficult but not yet impossible) because he/she could constitute part of a Republican state or national majority that could
1.)conspire to overturn an election
2) enable a Project 2025 Governor or President.
3) foil the voice of the people on health care (reproductive or otherwise. ).
I am thankfully past a reproductive age, but I care passionately about this issue because I have what Trump and his minions appear to lack. It’s called empathy. As I talk with my psychotherapy clients about the trauma of incest or rape, they are clear that if these abuses had resulted in pregnancy, the added layer of trauma would have been so great, they would have committed suicide. I’ve talked with countless women who were saved by the procedures some of these states are outlawing. I have 3 adult daughters, and would be utterly devastated if they could not exert control over their bodies, especially if this meant risking their lives. (They live in Minnesota, so they are safe. Thank you, Governor Walz!) There is nothing “pro life” about continually placing women in danger. Let’s not kid ourselves. This is cruel.
They are also ignorant. There was a time when women’s physiology was a taboo subject among men — too icky— all that blood and all. And it’s pretty complicated, especially when you get into pregnancy. Many male legislators are still wallowing in that ignorance.
Hard to imagine being a young couple planning to start a family and living in a state where the wife might die unnecessarily while pregnant. Even in a second or third pregnancy when that would leave young children motherless unnecessarily.
One of the amazing things about pregnancy is how totally a woman’s body prioritizes the nurture of the child. Those wonderful hormones often put the same commitment in the mother’s spirit and emotions to strengthen her for the risk and pain that are part of pregnancy. Committing to pregnancy is joyful and necessary and brave. Shameful to see unnecessary risk added. Better to find ways to reduce our high (among so called first world countries) maternal mortality.
You are so right pointing out the lack of empathy don-old and jd have. Project 2025 is the antithesis for empathy for all people except for the top 1% rich.
As a young woman I almost died from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. It was in the early 1970s and ultrasounds were a new technology and the hospital I was in did not have one. I lay in the hospital in horrific pain for days until my tube ruptured and they rushed me in for emergency surgery. I can’t believe that young women are now going through this horror thanks to ignorant law makers and jurists.
Fallopian tubes have the same nerve structure as testicles. Do you think that they would pass laws denying men treatment for an exploding testicle?
I was very close to death. If I had a less robust physical condition I probably wouldn’t have made it. The anesthesiologist had such sadness in his eyes when he put me under, he didn’t think I was going to live.
It’s not “abortion” it’s women’s health and safety and our right to live.
Thanks Marla. It was from so long ago I didn't remember the source. Wasn't she also the one who said something to the effect of, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"? Speaking as a happily childless cat lady, I have to agree.
Should women need a reminder of the urgency to vote on November 5, they need only remember JD Vance's following comment:
"Should a woman be forced to cary a child to term after she has been the victim of incest or rape? My view on this has been very clear, and I think the question betrays a certain presumption that is wrong. It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term. It's whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of the child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society...."
Vance's position could not be clearer: The "inconvenience" to women for being raped does not outweigh the need to compel the raped woman to give birth to the rapist's child.
With Trump going into his 80's in the next couple of years and already showing symptoms of physical and mental debilitation, JD Vance would only be a single heartbeat away from being the President of the United States.
Much less than a heartbeat— a decision by VP Vance and a cabinet of Proj2025 alumni to invoke the 25A for mental incapacity. Some people think that’s actually the plan and why the Ologarch exploited Trump’s weakness to get the obviously damaged and unfit Vance is. His qualification is that he’s all in on Proj 2025 and changing the Constitution.
Secure in his narcissistic fog, Trump is, of course, unaware of the plan to oust him. A
After doing some Googling on this, given the context of Shire's comment, it would appear that she is referring to Proverb 25-4 in the Bible which has been interpreted to mean "Remove the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith.". In the context of her comment, it would appear that she is saying that once the impurity, meaning Donald Trump, is removed, the people pulling his strings can take charge.
No doubt that the near- mid goal is to oust Trump whose ego and dementia would be a real nuisance. If they steal the election tgey can do it after jan6 and the statutory succession kicks in. I suppose president vsnce once inaugurated will pardon Trump, but
An interesting theory, which raises the prospect that Trump, if elected, may be planning to resign shortly before his term expires to enable his successor to pardon him, assuming he can’t pardon himself.
I think that when he’s President trump could order the federal prosecutions stopped. Can’t stop the state/local prosecutions of course but the president can’t pardon himself or anyone else on those.
A bit of perhaps forgotten history under what has become a Crusade in modern dress. Before Roe and for at least six years after, abortion was not the moral issue for the religious right it is now. Evangelicals considered abortion a "Catholic" issue for most of the '70s. In fact, in 1971, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution calling to legalize abortion. The response to Roe was silence or acceptance that it was appropriate in confirming the separation of church and state, and that between personal morality and state regulation of individual behavior. W.A. Criswell, one of the most famous fundamentalists of the 20th c., in fact, was pleased: “I've always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person,” he said, “and it's always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”
It wasn't until 1980 that abortion was seized upon by conservatives as a way to interest the religious right in politics in an attempt to deny Jimmy Carter a second term. The original effort to rile it up over protecting private, segregated schools didn't gain enough interest from a political standpoint and neither did such other social issues as pornography or women's rights. It's no longer a question of "catching the car;" to their political chagrin, they've done that. Now they have to deal with a speeding semi.
I signed the abortion rights ballot initiative in MO as soon as I could. The MO AG, Bailey, then tried various moves to keep it from the November ballot. At one point, he wanted language attached to the initiative that estimated millions of dollars from lost future revenue due to abortions that would be allowed. He lost all of his maneuvers in court, including this one. This is the same AG who wanted to stop Trump's gag order in the NYC case and to stop the state from sentencing him. This, of course, got dismissed by the Supreme Court. We'll also have three other ballot initiatives in November raising the minimum wage, dealing with sports betting, and requiring funding for certain law enforcement activities. MO rebuffed a right-to-work move, expanded Medicaid, got legal medicinal and recreational marijuana all through ballot initiatives. The Republican majority keeps trying to increase the thresholds for these initiatives to prevent them from passing but since they can't legislate, these measures never get passed. It's exhausting living in a Red state but we keep fighting back.
My jaw dropped at the argument that language attached to the initiative re "... estimated ... lost future revenue due to abortions that would be allowed".
I am floored by the idea that terminating an ectopic pregnancy would be illegal. Ectopic pregnancies can never be carried to term, and they will kill the mother sooner rather than later. I remember that when my sister had an ectopic pregnancy, the doctors thought she was just being a hypochondriac with the pain she reported. She was finally able to get care, but that attitude was as insane as banning the termination of such pregnancies. It upsets me that the laws pay no attention to the fact that people can't control things like ectopic implantation of an embryo or genetics that cause a severely defective fetus. The first Texas story that got to me was Amanda Zurawski, and her courage and activism since are amazing. Women shouldn't have to go through things like that for treatments that are medically necessary. I hope that all women get out and vote to stand up for their rights.
As archaic and downright cruel the abortion laws are I'm always astounded more isn't made regarding the bounties placed by some states on those who aid or assist women in need of an abortion. What kind of civilized society would do such a thing? In 2024?
As far as original intent was concerned, US life expectancy was in the 40s for people born before 1800. It's safe to say the founders/framers didn't expect many justices to serve into their eighties. (the quality of healthcare maintaining mental as well as physical capacity would also factor in. ) (I suspect their ages @ appointment were lower too. I'm finding it hard to research this in a satisfactory way because of the hard start @ 1789.)
White male Republicans are silent and equivocate while women die and suffer tragedy. I hope women realize this and vote. We are over half the population.
I'm an old white man and I couldn't agree more. In the FIRST pregnancy I was involved in my wife had a miscarriage. I rushed her to the hospital (this was in 1974) and she received what I didn't understand at the time was an "abortion." I try to picture if we lived in Texas today and this happened we wouldn't have had the money to travel elsewhere to get the procedure (although, in my mind I believe I would have found a way - she was BLEEDING profusely as I drove her to the hospital) Thanks to that procedure we had TWO healthy beautiful daughters in the next few years and, every-time I think about this, I shudder at what the possibilities could have been.
I'm an old white man too. The GOP is digging its own burial hole. How can any man want his beloved daughter or wife to suffer or risk death? Ever? Denying my wife's autonomy was never part of the deal.
Swbv, I suspect there are a lot of white men who do not want their daughters or wife to suffer, however, I suspect a lot of those same men would be OK if it were someone else's daughters or wife, "the will of god," you know. We need white men to stand up more forcefully stating that abortion is healthcare and no politician should have anything to say about it unless she wants to comment about her own experience. That would solve this pretty quickly. I like Walz's comment, "mind your own damn business." That does not work for everything but it does when it comes to a woman's need to make her own health-related choices.
1. Missouri is wide open. Kunce can beat Hawley, who has the worst unfavorable ratings in Congress!!!!!Dominionist!
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2. Katrina Christiansen is up 3 points in N.Dakota! https://www.katrinaforussenate.com/
3. Register more Democrats to sweep. https://www.fieldteam6.org/
It would be wonderful if Lucas Kunce sent cowardly Josh Hawley packing.
Hawley’s wife is a militant fighting attorney against any and all abortions. She was involved in the case before the Supreme Court when the case was heard. Rabid attorney against women’s rights in this case!
VOTE Blue and get Hawley out of the Senate!
Thanks for the reminder. I donated to him and to Tester who is running behind by 6 points.
The second a "god" is introduced, women go down the toilet.
Thank you for sharing this, showing so clearly how frightening this issue is for men too! I must be about your age and remember the times before Roe. I’m still shocked by the ignorance and cruelty of those who write these abortion bans. The most idiotic thing is people like Trump saying state legislatures should decide this issue.
I haven’t met anyone yet who has said if they were in one of these fraught situations they would for sure want to seek the wisdom of their state legislators.
Jessica Valenti of Abortion. Everyday Substack says pregnancy is too complicated to legislate. Women literally put their lives on the line when they become pregnant. It is a health condition. These male legislators, who often don't understand how female anatomy works, want to step in between a person and her doctor in making healthcare care decisions. Men's bodies are not policed in such ways. I am so glad I am not a young woman today! Being 70 years old is looking pretty good now.
I'm 67 and I still see the government interference in women's health care a problem for all of us. Governmental meddling in gender affirming care, for example, is no different. And if a child is raped and becomes pregnant as a result, this is a family decision to be made with the child's doctor, not politicians.
Perhaps 30 years ago, I was visiting someone in Texas. As we drove along a highway, I spotted a billboard advertising vasectomies.
I can’t help but feel terribly sorry for pregnant women today. I hope this ship gets righted in this next election. Also, I believe there are many young men out there who don’t want to become fathers before their time and may vote for reproductive rights this time around.
Barbara, I can't think of anyone either, but our Supreme Court has told us all that they should have the final say as to what agencies in our federal government do. The SC conservatives are not the brightest bulbs in any string and they think we want them to decide about our environment or food safety or drugs? It is certainly true for a lot of folks; they get some power and think they know everything and deserve respect and homage beyond any actual knowledge they might have. Yep, power does corrupt!
That recent ruling was a violation of the separation of powers. It's SC overreach. Do I want them deciding whether drugs are toxic or unsafe, or that dangerous pesticides shouldn't be banned because some billionaire with stock in a petrochemical company took them on a yacht ride or flew them around in their private jet?
It really is disturbing, but the SC is bit by bit encroaching on the territory of the Executive and legislative branches, something the Constitution does not approve of. Then, they don't care much for our Constitution either, just certain parts that let them do all kinds of things that should be illegal. We need serious SC reform!
The Supreme Court might want to think about why they would rofl (spend a minute or two picturing this) @ the suggestion that appeals courts be composed of doctors or expert auto mechanics or theoretical physicists.
Barbara, alas, I am not sure the SC cons think about much beyond who they can get to donate to their coffers next. They clearly do not care about the people of this nation, but love the oligarchs and despise people of color and women, love fundamental religious groups well, if they claim to be christian. There is no real justice with this crew and the non-cons have little to no influence because, well, they are strong women and even Amy can't stand that.
I am so sorry for what you went through and very happy for your joyful ending! I have been fortunate to not personally experience any of the horror stories told, but certainly have many family members & friends who would have suffered horribly under the new laws.
My wish is for white men and BIPOC men like yourself to become as loud and insistent as the right-wing supremacists. It's time for good, compassionate guys to stand firmly against the authoritarian, aggressive, and greedy types who dominate the news lately.
Say no to Project 2025. Tell the Heritage Foundation men they are far behind the times, and vote for legislation to halt the I T and corporate greed that is sapping America's strength. You are much appreciated, David. End Toxic Masculinity!
I wouldn’t be surprised if certain Supreme Court justices invested in companies that make coat hangers. Their company stock will most certainly rise.
Sorry, but that's a really horrible comment.
One more time... If the mother dies, the fetus dies. I still don't get the treatment (or non treatment) of pregnant women with non viable pregnancies. Also... I've never heard anyone of authority talk about this. It seems so obvious to me. But I'm just a woman.
Not that I know so much, but it has to do with a fetal heartbeat, which is, of itself, an error. In the early days after conception, a specific 'heart -tube" develops a rhythm that the non-medical dolts have agreed is the "heart." It's not, but it is a precursor for the heart's development. It's my understanding that, if detected, the 'heartbeat' means a viable fetus that cannot be aborted. Calling the MAGA legislators and wanna-be Nationalists qualified is a very long stretch.
**Week 5: The neural tube (brain, spinal cord, and other neural tissue of the central nervous system) forms. The tiny “heart” tube will pulse 110 times a minute by the end of the fifth week. Week 6: Tiny buds that become arms and legs also develop.
Just goes to show you why politicians should keep their noses out of health care. I think it's a control thing and they enjoy watching women suffer
I'm reminded that SCOTUS confused harmless nitrous oxide with harmful nitric oxide. How can they be expected to know the difference between fallopian vs endocardial tubes. It's only going to get worse now that Chevron repeal means that experts have even less of a role vs judges. We should just acknowledge that SCOTUS is always right and stop complaining....
Or vote the GOP out of existence so that this black stain on America becomes a distant memory....
YES!!!
Female Republicans are silent and equivocate. Heck, I bet black Republicans equivocate too, regardless of gender. I think it a mistake to cast this as a white/male/Republican thing. You either believe women should be largely, if not totally, in charge of whatever happens inside them, or you don't.
As for there being more voting women, the data totally supports you on that::
https://cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/voters/gender-differences-voter-turnout
The difference (3-5%) is bigger than I recalled. So yeh, in the five(6?) states where abortion is on the ballot, we can assume a good upswing to the Dems. What is depressing is all those other states.
Come on ladies!!!! We need you.
This is such an outrage, a cruel war on women and yes, we do not want to go back. Alas,the march backwards has already started.My state of Ohio has the cruel Heartbeat Law in place where we have already had a 12 year old child who was raped by her stepfather having to go out-of-state to get the care she so desperately needed. This,THIS is where we are now as a country.The only way forward is to cut the head off of the orange snake who has made no secret that he will suspend our Constitution and install himself as dictator from Day One.
Ohio passed an initiative last year making abortion legal.
That initiative is currently working through the court system. A lawsuit filed 3 months after the heartbeat law went into effect has resulted in an injunction with the judge issuing a ruling on Aug 29. Depending on the ruling, there might be a massive turnout at the polls with a referendum. Doctors in Ohio are still wary of emergency reproductive care despite the injunction because the law, and lawsuits, have created so much confusion.
The exceptions are purposely vague as to make them useless. That is by design so a state can say they have exemptions in place to protect pregnant women. However one still has to jump through legal hoops that ultimately jeopardize a woman’s health.
Yes, I totally agree with you. Even though voters voted for the initiative, it is still iffy for women to get abortions and other reproductive care here. Ohio is a red state.
Ohio may well be in play.
Can you clarify Heidi? Is there a referendum question already planned for this year? If not then it is awfully late to get one on the ballot.
I was not speaking to any ballot initiatives or propositions for the Nov ballot. From what I've been able to glean from a a few news sources (IANAL or from Ohio) there was an initiative that voters had already voted for but has been appealed by the opposition and is currently in the court system. Separate from that is an earlier lawsuit filed after the heartbeat law went into effect that a judge will issue a ruling for on Aug 29. An injunction was set in place on the heartbeat law in the interim but the laws are so confusing that doctors remain wary of reproduction care procedures. My thought is that if the judge rules in support of the heartbeat law, it may galvanize voters this election cycle to vote against candidates that support complete abortion bans and for gov officials that will work towards whatever the majority of Ohioans support. Which is not, it seems, a 6 to 12 week abortion ban.
Heidi - do you know what the appeal of the voter-approved Ohio ballot initiative is based?
To better answer your question, the opposition has stated in several arguments that Issue 1 is unconstitutional, that the General Assembly loses power, and that the topic is too controversial. While
appellees make the argument that since Issue 1 is now in the Ohio Constitution, Preterm-Cleveland v. Yost is no longer relevant.
So, even tho Issue 1 was codified into the Ohio Constitution in Dec, the ongoing lawsuits challenging the 2019 law and the confusing injunction are still making what is legal and what isn't murky.
It is oddly difficult to find out the status, though tbh I didn't drill down farther than roughly 10 varied browser searches and a few pages down for each. The most common language is that the initiative (Issue 1, Nov 2023 ballot) along with numerous other legal challenges to that and the 2019 law prohibiting most abortions are slowly working their way through the Ohio court system. Yost has been prolific with Ohio Attorney General statements and releases regarding the "detrimental effects" that will result from modifying Ohio’s abortion rights laws. Below is text grabbed from an Ohio Capital Journal story from May 6. I have thoughts on the subtext.
** Blocking enforcement of the laws at issue in the lawsuit “would irreparably harm the public,” Yost concluded. The public interest would be at stake in the lawsuit as well, “because the General Assembly is democratically elected to represent the public interest of the state as a whole.” **
With Missouri putting this abortion amendment on the ballot for November, I’m hoping we’ll see big crowds. Josh Hawley has a much stronger opponent in Lucas Kunce than Schmitt had. Dems Elad Gross for AG and Crystal Quade for governor. There’s going to be movement in this state for sure. Purple would be better than red. Because red Missouri is awful.
Josh Hawley creeps me out. I don't trust him or his convictions farther than I can throw him. He'll slide into whatever is the newest and shiniest MAGA model with nary a thought about either prior convictions or, in this moment, the value of supporting women's life, autonomy, and health. He's all about starring in the feral MAGA moment. His defeat would be a national blessing.
Josh Hawley is disgusting. And he doesn’t live here. He uses his sister’s address and says he rents a room. It’s total bs. He lives, and has lived for years, in Virginia.
I'd like that charade to be called out in the local papers every other day or so. In bold headlines. Even the MAGA crowd must know when they are being skunked.
It’s my understanding Tuberville lives in the Florida panhandle. I’m f’n tired of these residency violations that leave my state without true representation.
I can believe almost anything about Tuberville since his own grasp on the truth seems so tenuous
Go Lucas!
Purple is a beautiful color. 🟣
It would be in this state. It’s hard to believe we had a democratic governor ten years ago.
Sounds like it could be Missohio there.
Umm, more like Misshoma. Ohio is not great, but Oklahoma is downright crazy.
Women, everywhere, need to turn out and vote even if abortion isn’t on your ballot. We need to VOTE BLUE up and down the ballot to preserve our Democracy. We cannot just say it doesn’t affect me because I’m too old or I’m not able and the generations to come to have children. We need to stand together, women and men, for this generation and generations to come. This vote for me is for my grandchildren. If you haven’t checked to see if you are registered got to Vote.gov now!! Please join me in doing what you can to save our DEMOCRACY. As Joyce says, “We’re in this together!”
We recently learned from Joyce’s Five Questions guest that since 1950 over half of white women have always voted Republican. This is the year that has to change.
I hope women realize that voting is a private personal thing. You don’t have to vote the same way your husband votes. I hope this is the year that we can see the evolvement of women with regard to voting.
You don't even have to tell anyone how you voted.
1/2 of those who vote might vote Republican, but there are a lot of untapped voters who could vote but don't, and who would vote Democrat. Only about 66 % of those eligible to vote actually do. Encourage those you know to vote and be sure they know why it is important.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/the-partisanship-and-ideology-of-american-voters/
I think the voting behavior of so much of our citizenry is abysmal and lazy. It is my experience that many complainers are people who do not participate when provided the opportunity. They don’t deserve the freedoms and privileges that democracy affords.
They certainly don’t deserve to complain if they haven’t voted. Voting gives the right to comment on government, if you don’t vote, you have no right to say anything about government.
I live among them in SC. Do they think they will be immune from such health related issues? I think the word itself, abortion, has been equated only to the birth control aspect rather than a part of women’s healthcare. I’m 77. When I was 17 my mother had pregnancy complications and what would probably be considered an abortion today and she probably would have died.
No consideration was given to what women’s healthcare really could encompass when roe was overturned. What a mess. This is why I trend Democratic. There are many things that need national regulation rather than being left to the states. Someone in my family once said that we don’t need national rules because we should be able to rely on people’s good intentions. I just stared at her. We know how that works.
I agree. Why should women's healthcare be determined by what state you live in? Makes no sense.
Could an outbreak of rational thought, honesty, & integrity be occurring? We can only hope...!
www.npr.org/2024/08/13/g-s1-16886/republicans-for-harris-haley-voters-trump-conservatives-gop-democrats
Hope springs eternal!
This is true. You can't afford to vote for even a Republican committed to the Constitution (if you can find one, which is increasingly difficult but not yet impossible) because he/she could constitute part of a Republican state or national majority that could
1.)conspire to overturn an election
2) enable a Project 2025 Governor or President.
3) foil the voice of the people on health care (reproductive or otherwise. ).
4) Rewrite the Constitution of the US.
I am thankfully past a reproductive age, but I care passionately about this issue because I have what Trump and his minions appear to lack. It’s called empathy. As I talk with my psychotherapy clients about the trauma of incest or rape, they are clear that if these abuses had resulted in pregnancy, the added layer of trauma would have been so great, they would have committed suicide. I’ve talked with countless women who were saved by the procedures some of these states are outlawing. I have 3 adult daughters, and would be utterly devastated if they could not exert control over their bodies, especially if this meant risking their lives. (They live in Minnesota, so they are safe. Thank you, Governor Walz!) There is nothing “pro life” about continually placing women in danger. Let’s not kid ourselves. This is cruel.
They are also ignorant. There was a time when women’s physiology was a taboo subject among men — too icky— all that blood and all. And it’s pretty complicated, especially when you get into pregnancy. Many male legislators are still wallowing in that ignorance.
I would think, as state legislatures try to out-do themselves in creating their own private Gilead (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/supreme-court-roe-handmaids-tale-abortion-margaret-atwood/629833/), that young women of high school age would start looking for colleges in blue states. And maybe whole families would make similar decisions to re-locate. It may not be immediate, but it sure would be profound.
Hard to imagine being a young couple planning to start a family and living in a state where the wife might die unnecessarily while pregnant. Even in a second or third pregnancy when that would leave young children motherless unnecessarily.
One of the amazing things about pregnancy is how totally a woman’s body prioritizes the nurture of the child. Those wonderful hormones often put the same commitment in the mother’s spirit and emotions to strengthen her for the risk and pain that are part of pregnancy. Committing to pregnancy is joyful and necessary and brave. Shameful to see unnecessary risk added. Better to find ways to reduce our high (among so called first world countries) maternal mortality.
You are so right pointing out the lack of empathy don-old and jd have. Project 2025 is the antithesis for empathy for all people except for the top 1% rich.
As a young woman I almost died from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. It was in the early 1970s and ultrasounds were a new technology and the hospital I was in did not have one. I lay in the hospital in horrific pain for days until my tube ruptured and they rushed me in for emergency surgery. I can’t believe that young women are now going through this horror thanks to ignorant law makers and jurists.
Fallopian tubes have the same nerve structure as testicles. Do you think that they would pass laws denying men treatment for an exploding testicle?
I was very close to death. If I had a less robust physical condition I probably wouldn’t have made it. The anesthesiologist had such sadness in his eyes when he put me under, he didn’t think I was going to live.
It’s not “abortion” it’s women’s health and safety and our right to live.
I stand in awe of this:
“Fallopian tubes have the same nerve structure as testicles. Do you think that they would pass laws denying men treatment for an exploding testicle?”
If men could get pregnant we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.
Or as the old saying went, "If it were men who became pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."
You can thank Flo Kennedy for that one.
Thanks Marla. It was from so long ago I didn't remember the source. Wasn't she also the one who said something to the effect of, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"? Speaking as a happily childless cat lady, I have to agree.
Should women need a reminder of the urgency to vote on November 5, they need only remember JD Vance's following comment:
"Should a woman be forced to cary a child to term after she has been the victim of incest or rape? My view on this has been very clear, and I think the question betrays a certain presumption that is wrong. It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term. It's whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of the child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society...."
Vance's position could not be clearer: The "inconvenience" to women for being raped does not outweigh the need to compel the raped woman to give birth to the rapist's child.
With Trump going into his 80's in the next couple of years and already showing symptoms of physical and mental debilitation, JD Vance would only be a single heartbeat away from being the President of the United States.
Much less than a heartbeat— a decision by VP Vance and a cabinet of Proj2025 alumni to invoke the 25A for mental incapacity. Some people think that’s actually the plan and why the Ologarch exploited Trump’s weakness to get the obviously damaged and unfit Vance is. His qualification is that he’s all in on Proj 2025 and changing the Constitution.
Secure in his narcissistic fog, Trump is, of course, unaware of the plan to oust him. A
I’ve thought this for quite some time! Frightening isn’t it?!
IMO, the people pulling the useful idiot $tring$ plan to 25/4 right away, given the opportunity. Let's not give any of them the opportunity.
What does 25/4 mean?
Maybe 25A meaning 25th amendment to remove a president.
After doing some Googling on this, given the context of Shire's comment, it would appear that she is referring to Proverb 25-4 in the Bible which has been interpreted to mean "Remove the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith.". In the context of her comment, it would appear that she is saying that once the impurity, meaning Donald Trump, is removed, the people pulling his strings can take charge.
No doubt that the near- mid goal is to oust Trump whose ego and dementia would be a real nuisance. If they steal the election tgey can do it after jan6 and the statutory succession kicks in. I suppose president vsnce once inaugurated will pardon Trump, but
Trump won’t know what hit him.
An interesting theory, which raises the prospect that Trump, if elected, may be planning to resign shortly before his term expires to enable his successor to pardon him, assuming he can’t pardon himself.
I think that when he’s President trump could order the federal prosecutions stopped. Can’t stop the state/local prosecutions of course but the president can’t pardon himself or anyone else on those.
I think it would be after January 20 (Inauguration Day) once he's sworn in as president.
My apologies 25th Amendment Section 4 (what Pence should have done 1/7/21) IMO.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxxv
Another really frightening thought.
And Vance could have the cabinet use the 25th Amendment to declare Trump unfit so he could become President.
Technically “acting president”
A bit of perhaps forgotten history under what has become a Crusade in modern dress. Before Roe and for at least six years after, abortion was not the moral issue for the religious right it is now. Evangelicals considered abortion a "Catholic" issue for most of the '70s. In fact, in 1971, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution calling to legalize abortion. The response to Roe was silence or acceptance that it was appropriate in confirming the separation of church and state, and that between personal morality and state regulation of individual behavior. W.A. Criswell, one of the most famous fundamentalists of the 20th c., in fact, was pleased: “I've always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person,” he said, “and it's always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”
It wasn't until 1980 that abortion was seized upon by conservatives as a way to interest the religious right in politics in an attempt to deny Jimmy Carter a second term. The original effort to rile it up over protecting private, segregated schools didn't gain enough interest from a political standpoint and neither did such other social issues as pornography or women's rights. It's no longer a question of "catching the car;" to their political chagrin, they've done that. Now they have to deal with a speeding semi.
They played with women’s rights to control their bodies to win elections. The same crew that stopped the Equal Rights Amendment from being passed.
I signed the abortion rights ballot initiative in MO as soon as I could. The MO AG, Bailey, then tried various moves to keep it from the November ballot. At one point, he wanted language attached to the initiative that estimated millions of dollars from lost future revenue due to abortions that would be allowed. He lost all of his maneuvers in court, including this one. This is the same AG who wanted to stop Trump's gag order in the NYC case and to stop the state from sentencing him. This, of course, got dismissed by the Supreme Court. We'll also have three other ballot initiatives in November raising the minimum wage, dealing with sports betting, and requiring funding for certain law enforcement activities. MO rebuffed a right-to-work move, expanded Medicaid, got legal medicinal and recreational marijuana all through ballot initiatives. The Republican majority keeps trying to increase the thresholds for these initiatives to prevent them from passing but since they can't legislate, these measures never get passed. It's exhausting living in a Red state but we keep fighting back.
My jaw dropped at the argument that language attached to the initiative re "... estimated ... lost future revenue due to abortions that would be allowed".
I am floored by the idea that terminating an ectopic pregnancy would be illegal. Ectopic pregnancies can never be carried to term, and they will kill the mother sooner rather than later. I remember that when my sister had an ectopic pregnancy, the doctors thought she was just being a hypochondriac with the pain she reported. She was finally able to get care, but that attitude was as insane as banning the termination of such pregnancies. It upsets me that the laws pay no attention to the fact that people can't control things like ectopic implantation of an embryo or genetics that cause a severely defective fetus. The first Texas story that got to me was Amanda Zurawski, and her courage and activism since are amazing. Women shouldn't have to go through things like that for treatments that are medically necessary. I hope that all women get out and vote to stand up for their rights.
As archaic and downright cruel the abortion laws are I'm always astounded more isn't made regarding the bounties placed by some states on those who aid or assist women in need of an abortion. What kind of civilized society would do such a thing? In 2024?
Orwellian.
Courts and Congress “mind your own damn business's!
The murder or assault of women isn’t a crime in the eyes of too many men. The anti-abortion movement spreads this cruelty.
The "conservative" Justices have blood on their hands. Not that they care. We must support President Biden's efforts to hold the Court accountable.
As far as original intent was concerned, US life expectancy was in the 40s for people born before 1800. It's safe to say the founders/framers didn't expect many justices to serve into their eighties. (the quality of healthcare maintaining mental as well as physical capacity would also factor in. ) (I suspect their ages @ appointment were lower too. I'm finding it hard to research this in a satisfactory way because of the hard start @ 1789.)
Women's Healthcare is a freedom and a must !
It’s a right.