Repro Rights Roundup: Now Let's Have EVERY State Vote On Abortion

Legal abortion: It's what the people want.

It's been one of the better weeks for abortion rights in quite some time now, with six — six! — states either voting to put the right to abortion in their constitutions or voting against banning abortion in their constitutions. It's almost as if people do not actually want abortion to be illegal, in reality. As much as they may enjoy the hypothetical idea of other sluts they don't know being punished for their wicked ways by being forced to bear children against their will, they probably wouldn't want that to happen to themselves or someone they love. Weird!

Can We Please Be Clear That Abortion Is An Economic Issue?

There was a lot of stupidity this week about how "Oh we thought this election was gonna be about the economy and inflation and that people were going to vote for Republicans because of that, despite the fact that they had no plan and historically are not very good for the economy!"

Abortion is an economic issue. It is unbelievably expensive to be pregnant and give birth in this country, not to mention it is very expensive to raise a child. Having a child is a choice that affects not just parents economically, but also any other children they might have. It is an economic issue because we do not have much in the way of a social safety net in this country. It is an economic issue because people who get pregnant at a young age and are forced to have children may have to give up educational and career opportunities that could affect their economic futures.

The fact is, as much as people may like to bicker about it, there are no social issues that are not, in some sense, also economic issues — especially when we are talking about dealing with social issues through legislation.

Abortion Rights Activists Hope To Bring Abortion Vote To South Dakota

This week's election has proven one thing — when abortion is literally on the ballot, people vote to keep it legal.

South Dakota did not vote on abortion this year, but they did vote on expanding Medicaid, and the very, very red state voted to expand the low-income healthcare program through a ballot initiative. This means that 40,000 more South Dakotans will now have access to healthcare, which is pretty incredible.

The vote has emboldened abortion rights activists, who now very much believe they will win if abortion is put to a vote in the state.

Rick Weiland, co-founder of the group Dakotans for Health, one of the groups that organized on the ground for the Medicaid expansion measure, told Bloomberg News that “We’re already in the streets collecting for 2024,” gathering signatures for a ballot initiative on abortion.

... And To Idaho

The day after losing her bid to become governor of Idaho, Democrat Terri Pickens Manweiler announced that her next venture will be pushing for an abortion ballot initiative in the state. It's a pretty good bet that it will be successful there as well. As red as Idaho may be, voters are pretty evenly split on abortion. Forty-five percent say it should be legal in all/most cases, 49 percent say it should be illegal in all/most cases and six percent are unsure.

At this point we may need to consider putting damn near everything to ballot measure votes because it's clearly much easier to get people to vote for specific leftwing policies and initiatives than it is to get them to vote for Democrats. I would find this more surprising if I did not very regularly see "hardcore conservatives" in various forums around the internet insisting that Republicans are the ones supporting many of these policies, such as allowing Medicare to be able to negotiate drug prices, progressive criminal justice reform, and yes, even universal, socialized health care.

Twitter Also Terrible About Abortion This Week

In just one of the many, many ways Twitter turned into a massive trash fire this week, someone on the site took the time to flag a tweet about medication abortions as "promoting suicide or self-harm."

Abortion rights advocate and PhD student Hayley McMahon tweeted earlier this week about the World Health Organization's protocols for self-managed abortions (as opposed to people doing something that could actually harm themselves) and on Tuesday receive an email from Twitter reading, “You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm. When we receive reports that a person is threatening suicide or self-harm, we may take a number of steps to assist them, such as reaching out to that person and providing resources such as contact information for our mental health partners.”

“I’m sure a lot of you repro folks follow Hayley McMahon. She’s and I are Board members for @HollerHealth and she was suspended on Twitter today for simply tweeting out how to self manage abortion. This was taken down for “self harm” even though it’s literally the opposite.”

— a they/she desi (@a they/she desi) 1667935390 

Her account was also locked.

The abortion pill is a safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy whether it is self-managed or prescribed by a doctor. And just like all forms of abortion when performed correctly, significantly safer than actually giving birth. Especially in this country.

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .

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