I’m so sorry you & your wife went through that hell, and happy you were able to have your two children. I’m well past my childbearing years, but I suffered 3 miscarriages. One was due to trisomy 18, the other from an infection, & the third unknown cause. Each time I needed a D&C, which were performed quickly and legally. Unfortunately, I am childless. The pain of those 3 ordeals haunts me to this day. And I’m furious & horrified about this war against women. Women’s lives will be lost in an inexcusably cruel way. It is barbaric, and I can’t wait to vote these despicable people out.
These are the stories that will help illustrate the inhumanity behind the ostensibly (if not Orwellian) "life respecting" policies that Republicans and their Christian Taliban supporters are in some places succeeding in putting into law and practice. We need to call this Republican revanchist effort out for what it is - the attempt to trap women into roles and responsibilities that hope to keep them silent and sequestered to prevent them from competing as individuals in the workplace, academia, and the political sphere. I reject that position (and those results) wholly and vociferously on behalf of my spouse, my children and my grandchildren. Republican gender terrorists are about to discover (again!) that America's women will not yield all that they have fought and bled for their entire lives. May women be as merciless at the polls as these reactionary abusive cretins have been in the legislatures.
Thanks for sharing your story. YES.....Debbie would be dead or infertile or maimed if this happened now in Republican states. The Republican Christian Taliban hates women.
1. It's our job to suffer because of the garden of eden
2. We must be controlled by men
3. We are not real people b/c we come from adam's rib.
This is the science fiction shit they preach and indoctrinate "followers" on. And dont forget about all the conspiracy theories they believe and spew. I was hoping the eclipse would have taken them all away in their rapture. Lol
"Pro-lifers" (in quotes, because they aren't) have no problems with giving people choice and control over their own bodies when it's THEIR bodies. They're all in favor of it.
It's only *other people* who need to have their choices removed.
If the laws had been what they are today in Texas, I would have bled to death in an Austin parking lot as I miscarried at 14 weeks. No one would have helped me and I would not have lived to see my two sons grow up into the fabulous humans they are today. It’s a backwards step for women in ways that cannot be measured except with death. Vote Blue no matter who.
Not sure. I think it might be fear of women, plus “power over” by men who feel powerless in many areas of their lives. The cruelty is just an extra benefit.
I have 3 children, but had at least 3 (I believe 6 total) miscarriages... 3 being early enough that I hadn't confirmed pregnancy... But the 3 that were miscarriages got progressively worse, the last one resulted in the need for an abortion to save my life. I took was in a blue state and pre Dobbs but worry about my daughters choices and medical needs one day
The same thing almost happened to my mother pre Roe. There was a distinct risk she might die carrying my baby brother and she was informed as long as his heart was beating they could not perform an abortion. Fortunately for both of them she managed to successfully give birth to my brother albeit with an emergency c section a month early.
Thank you for sharing your deeply personal and heartbreaking story. I’m glad you were blessed with your two daughters. The Republicans must be stopped. Vote Blue like you and your loved ones’ lives depend upon it, because they do.
Thank you for sharing your tender personal story. I had multiple miscarriages including one at 16 weeks and this post Dobbs world fills me with rage and terror.
Every pregnancy has the potential to be "life threatening" for both mother and child.
In 1985, after a healthy pregnancy, I almost died in childbirth. Modern medicine - an emergency C-section plus expert care afterwards saved me and my son.
The right wing wants to remove the skills and knowledge of obstetricians and replace them with gov't rules and regulations. They literally want to reduce women's healthcare to medieval levels.
Consider this: When Republicans aren’t outright banning abortion, they are promising to limit abortion access after X weeks. It may be 6 weeks (before most women know they are pregnant) 24 weeks (commonly stated as when a fetus becomes viable) or somewhere in between. But what is to happen to women who have pregnancy complications after X weeks? Should they be denied an abortion (which is simply medical care to safely end a pregnancy) OR denied care and told to wait until they are closer to death to warrant medical treatment?
Medicine doesn’t work on a rigid timeline — a doctor can’t accurately predict the latest possible moment when care can be provided and the patient still survive — and the laws shouldn’t be written to make the doctor guess.
Qualified doctors have the training, skill, and experience to know what to do to care for the patient in front of them. Laws that force patients to wait for that medical care, to become sicker, is not only cruel, but can be fatal for the women. We don’t make men wait for medical care until they become septic. There’s no acceptable reason to make pregnant woman wait for medical care either. Yet, Republicans tell us the laws are working as intended. Clearly. They. Do. Not. Care. Who. Is. Harmed.
Instead of fixing the mess they have created, the Republicans (mostly white males with little or no understanding of female anatomy or human reproduction) clamor to do more harm: ban books, ban contraception, ban same-sex marriage, and take away ballot access.
Republicans hear the same horror stories we all hear and deny there’s a problem. They say it doesn’t happen. Or it doesn’t happen often. Query: How many women in miscarriage should be allowed to die an avoidable death as a result of abortion restrictions? Answer: One is too many.
The anti-abortion folks falsely claim abortions happen after the 9th month, after the baby is born. (That’s not happening. They are lying.) They have pushed for “fetal personhood” laws, not only putting IVF at risk (as ruled by the Alabama SC), but making women second class citizens, subordinate to the fetus, even when it has no chance of surviving. Helping women have babies is a good thing, but the Republicans want to control women, so they can’t abide access to IVF if it gets in the way of their abortion bans. For example, Senator Tammy Duckworth introduced a bill to protect IVF and said the Republicans claimed they couldn’t support her bill because IVF could lead to birth of hybrid human animal chimera. (I wish I was making that up, but I’m not. They are lying, again.) Now that’s a new kind of stupid, even for the anti-abortion folks.
Most pregnant women already have children. If she is denied appropriate medical care, an abortion, or care is delayed, and she dies, who will care for her existing children?
It shouldn’t matter if a pregnant woman’s life is threatened before or after X weeks. When she needs medical care, she needs medical care. Medical complications should be professionally treated no matter when they arise during pregnancy.
If we pass and enforce laws that deny women autonomy over their own bodies, laws which threaten doctors with prosecution if they provide standard medical care and give the fetus priority (even when the fetus has little or no chance of survival), then we will be letting the women suffer, risk permanent disability, and death. Needlessly. Clearly, Republicans don’t care because if they did, they would fix the mess they’ve created.
To return to my original point: Pregnancy complications can happen at any time in the 9 months of pregnancy. For example, fetal development occurs during all 9 months, so some tests cannot be administered until the third trimester. One of many examples: The brain develops in the third trimester. If the fetus does not have a brain, it will not survive. If for any reason the fetus cannot survive outside the womb and is a threat to the woman’s life while the fetus is inside the womb, then there is no rational reason to deny a woman an abortion. If the fetus is already dead, I shouldn’t have to explain why the woman should be permitted an abortion. Yet, here we are — with laws which deny women the right to standard medical care just because they are pregnant.
People who support anti-abortion laws, self-describe as “pro-life” and say they want to give a voice to the voiceless unborn. Okay, sounds like a laudable goal. But, after hearing the horror stories about pregnant women in distress who have been denied (or delayed in receiving) appropriate medical care, because of the so-called “pro-life” laws, I have figured out what “pro-life” really means. I have come to believe that when they say they are “pro-life” what they really mean is this: Let the women die.
Women need accurate medical advice from qualified medical professionals and the opportunity to unfettered access to abortion — for ALL the months of her pregnancy.
It is the woman who should decide what medical care she receives based upon the best available medical advice.
No laws should require medically unnecessary tests. No laws should mandate clinics be designed and equipped as medical-surgical centers (with the associated costs for medicine and equipment never used in reproductive health care). No laws should require hospital admitting privileges for doctors providing abortion care. No laws should threaten prosecution (or loss of license) for qualified medical professionals who provide standard medical care. No laws should force women to travel hundreds of miles to seek reproductive health care or to be registered in a database, or any of the other nonsense harassment cooked up by the zealots who, in the end, just want to tell other women how to live their lives. I say to those pushing for abortion restrictions: Mind your own business. You live your life and let the rest of us live ours.
Women can be trusted with reproductive healthcare decisions for their entire pregnancy. Republican lawmakers have proven they cannot be trusted to protect women. “Abortion on demand and without apology” is what makes the most sense for women.
I’m so sorry you & your wife went through that hell, and happy you were able to have your two children. I’m well past my childbearing years, but I suffered 3 miscarriages. One was due to trisomy 18, the other from an infection, & the third unknown cause. Each time I needed a D&C, which were performed quickly and legally. Unfortunately, I am childless. The pain of those 3 ordeals haunts me to this day. And I’m furious & horrified about this war against women. Women’s lives will be lost in an inexcusably cruel way. It is barbaric, and I can’t wait to vote these despicable people out.
I'm so sorry you went through all that. Hugs (& VoteBlue)
Thank you for your kindness. And I will always vote 💙💙💙💯
These are the stories that will help illustrate the inhumanity behind the ostensibly (if not Orwellian) "life respecting" policies that Republicans and their Christian Taliban supporters are in some places succeeding in putting into law and practice. We need to call this Republican revanchist effort out for what it is - the attempt to trap women into roles and responsibilities that hope to keep them silent and sequestered to prevent them from competing as individuals in the workplace, academia, and the political sphere. I reject that position (and those results) wholly and vociferously on behalf of my spouse, my children and my grandchildren. Republican gender terrorists are about to discover (again!) that America's women will not yield all that they have fought and bled for their entire lives. May women be as merciless at the polls as these reactionary abusive cretins have been in the legislatures.
Gender terrorists. Perfect phrase.
“Christian Taliban” and “gender terrorists” — perfect phrases. That’s what I’m using to describe them from now on.
The nerve of them to say they want to “protect women.” It makes me scream.
You can count on that. I’ve no problem with mercilessness being directed at object evil.
Thanks for sharing your story. YES.....Debbie would be dead or infertile or maimed if this happened now in Republican states. The Republican Christian Taliban hates women.
1. It's our job to suffer because of the garden of eden
2. We must be controlled by men
3. We are not real people b/c we come from adam's rib.
This is the science fiction shit they preach and indoctrinate "followers" on. And dont forget about all the conspiracy theories they believe and spew. I was hoping the eclipse would have taken them all away in their rapture. Lol
Pro-lifers assume this issue is so black and white. It never is.
"Pro-lifers" (in quotes, because they aren't) have no problems with giving people choice and control over their own bodies when it's THEIR bodies. They're all in favor of it.
It's only *other people* who need to have their choices removed.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/15/1857976/--The-Only-Moral-Abortion-is-My-Abortion-an-article-by-Joyce-Arthur
Yes. The hypocrisy is off the charts.
Thanks for sharing this-very illuminating!
They're not "pro-life."
They're forced-birthers.
Because if they were pro-life, they'd be providing more prenatal care and sufficient support for children in poverty.
THIS. Heartless Forced Birthers!
Yeah, you’re right. I stand corrected.
Barney Frank said that Republicans were prolife "from conception until birth." That phrasing has resonated with me since the 1980s.
If the laws had been what they are today in Texas, I would have bled to death in an Austin parking lot as I miscarried at 14 weeks. No one would have helped me and I would not have lived to see my two sons grow up into the fabulous humans they are today. It’s a backwards step for women in ways that cannot be measured except with death. Vote Blue no matter who.
Cruelty is the entire point of the GOP's "policies".
Not sure. I think it might be fear of women, plus “power over” by men who feel powerless in many areas of their lives. The cruelty is just an extra benefit.
I have 3 children, but had at least 3 (I believe 6 total) miscarriages... 3 being early enough that I hadn't confirmed pregnancy... But the 3 that were miscarriages got progressively worse, the last one resulted in the need for an abortion to save my life. I took was in a blue state and pre Dobbs but worry about my daughters choices and medical needs one day
Absolutely heartbreaking. I have no words for the people who would inflict this pain on others.
The same thing almost happened to my mother pre Roe. There was a distinct risk she might die carrying my baby brother and she was informed as long as his heart was beating they could not perform an abortion. Fortunately for both of them she managed to successfully give birth to my brother albeit with an emergency c section a month early.
Thank you for sharing your deeply personal and heartbreaking story. I’m glad you were blessed with your two daughters. The Republicans must be stopped. Vote Blue like you and your loved ones’ lives depend upon it, because they do.
One son, one daughter. I'm a surrogate dad for Lila. That's a whole other story I'll get into some time in the near future.
I look forward to it. Relatively new subscriber here, but I love your posts!
Thank you!
Justin... thank you for sharing this.
Thank you for sharing your tender personal story. I had multiple miscarriages including one at 16 weeks and this post Dobbs world fills me with rage and terror.
Thank you for writing this. I’m so glad your wife is okay.
Every pregnancy has the potential to be "life threatening" for both mother and child.
In 1985, after a healthy pregnancy, I almost died in childbirth. Modern medicine - an emergency C-section plus expert care afterwards saved me and my son.
The right wing wants to remove the skills and knowledge of obstetricians and replace them with gov't rules and regulations. They literally want to reduce women's healthcare to medieval levels.
Thank you for telling yours & your wife’s story.
Consider this: When Republicans aren’t outright banning abortion, they are promising to limit abortion access after X weeks. It may be 6 weeks (before most women know they are pregnant) 24 weeks (commonly stated as when a fetus becomes viable) or somewhere in between. But what is to happen to women who have pregnancy complications after X weeks? Should they be denied an abortion (which is simply medical care to safely end a pregnancy) OR denied care and told to wait until they are closer to death to warrant medical treatment?
Medicine doesn’t work on a rigid timeline — a doctor can’t accurately predict the latest possible moment when care can be provided and the patient still survive — and the laws shouldn’t be written to make the doctor guess.
Qualified doctors have the training, skill, and experience to know what to do to care for the patient in front of them. Laws that force patients to wait for that medical care, to become sicker, is not only cruel, but can be fatal for the women. We don’t make men wait for medical care until they become septic. There’s no acceptable reason to make pregnant woman wait for medical care either. Yet, Republicans tell us the laws are working as intended. Clearly. They. Do. Not. Care. Who. Is. Harmed.
Instead of fixing the mess they have created, the Republicans (mostly white males with little or no understanding of female anatomy or human reproduction) clamor to do more harm: ban books, ban contraception, ban same-sex marriage, and take away ballot access.
Republicans hear the same horror stories we all hear and deny there’s a problem. They say it doesn’t happen. Or it doesn’t happen often. Query: How many women in miscarriage should be allowed to die an avoidable death as a result of abortion restrictions? Answer: One is too many.
The anti-abortion folks falsely claim abortions happen after the 9th month, after the baby is born. (That’s not happening. They are lying.) They have pushed for “fetal personhood” laws, not only putting IVF at risk (as ruled by the Alabama SC), but making women second class citizens, subordinate to the fetus, even when it has no chance of surviving. Helping women have babies is a good thing, but the Republicans want to control women, so they can’t abide access to IVF if it gets in the way of their abortion bans. For example, Senator Tammy Duckworth introduced a bill to protect IVF and said the Republicans claimed they couldn’t support her bill because IVF could lead to birth of hybrid human animal chimera. (I wish I was making that up, but I’m not. They are lying, again.) Now that’s a new kind of stupid, even for the anti-abortion folks.
Most pregnant women already have children. If she is denied appropriate medical care, an abortion, or care is delayed, and she dies, who will care for her existing children?
It shouldn’t matter if a pregnant woman’s life is threatened before or after X weeks. When she needs medical care, she needs medical care. Medical complications should be professionally treated no matter when they arise during pregnancy.
If we pass and enforce laws that deny women autonomy over their own bodies, laws which threaten doctors with prosecution if they provide standard medical care and give the fetus priority (even when the fetus has little or no chance of survival), then we will be letting the women suffer, risk permanent disability, and death. Needlessly. Clearly, Republicans don’t care because if they did, they would fix the mess they’ve created.
To return to my original point: Pregnancy complications can happen at any time in the 9 months of pregnancy. For example, fetal development occurs during all 9 months, so some tests cannot be administered until the third trimester. One of many examples: The brain develops in the third trimester. If the fetus does not have a brain, it will not survive. If for any reason the fetus cannot survive outside the womb and is a threat to the woman’s life while the fetus is inside the womb, then there is no rational reason to deny a woman an abortion. If the fetus is already dead, I shouldn’t have to explain why the woman should be permitted an abortion. Yet, here we are — with laws which deny women the right to standard medical care just because they are pregnant.
People who support anti-abortion laws, self-describe as “pro-life” and say they want to give a voice to the voiceless unborn. Okay, sounds like a laudable goal. But, after hearing the horror stories about pregnant women in distress who have been denied (or delayed in receiving) appropriate medical care, because of the so-called “pro-life” laws, I have figured out what “pro-life” really means. I have come to believe that when they say they are “pro-life” what they really mean is this: Let the women die.
Women need accurate medical advice from qualified medical professionals and the opportunity to unfettered access to abortion — for ALL the months of her pregnancy.
It is the woman who should decide what medical care she receives based upon the best available medical advice.
No laws should require medically unnecessary tests. No laws should mandate clinics be designed and equipped as medical-surgical centers (with the associated costs for medicine and equipment never used in reproductive health care). No laws should require hospital admitting privileges for doctors providing abortion care. No laws should threaten prosecution (or loss of license) for qualified medical professionals who provide standard medical care. No laws should force women to travel hundreds of miles to seek reproductive health care or to be registered in a database, or any of the other nonsense harassment cooked up by the zealots who, in the end, just want to tell other women how to live their lives. I say to those pushing for abortion restrictions: Mind your own business. You live your life and let the rest of us live ours.
Women can be trusted with reproductive healthcare decisions for their entire pregnancy. Republican lawmakers have proven they cannot be trusted to protect women. “Abortion on demand and without apology” is what makes the most sense for women.