88 Comments
User's avatar
Alexis's avatar

The study you are quoting has severe problems, notably conflating Plan B, which PREVENTS a pregnancy, with abortion, which ENDS a pregnancy.

Expand full comment
V Carlson's avatar

Botulinum toxin is a natural product. Just sayin’.

Expand full comment
Zyxomma's avatar

Ta, Robyn. This is too fucking sick.

Expand full comment
Opalescent Riddles's avatar

I almost noped out of reading. Judging by the number of comments, others were similarly conflicted. But I'm glad I did read, and sad that it ever needed to be written.

Expand full comment
subterrene's avatar

This is your legacy, Chief Justice Roberts. Making this country less equal and more dangerous for women. You bastard.

Expand full comment
Shananigan's avatar

Why are they including Plan B in the SMA statistics? It's not abortifacient.

Expand full comment
TakingAmes's avatar

These people think IUDs are abortifacients.

Expand full comment
Nemo's avatar

I need to share my thoughts. The whole case for restricting abortion is bullshit. It's based on Aristotle's bald assertion that humans have a "soul", whatever the fuck that is, and that it's immortal. All that is pure narcissism by a penis haver. We know a lot more about the boundary between life and death now, but it's still not understood. To paraphrase Wittgenstein, when you don't know what you're talking about, you should just shut the fuck up.

Women have been managing their fertility for thousands of years, with scant help and often cruel obstruction from the males of the species. That needs to be encouraged lest we completely trash this nice planet.

Expand full comment
Mx.le Maerin's Luxury Comedy's avatar

Oh but you see, if we let the women manage their fertility, a woman might choose, or might have chosen, not to have the baby that would grow up to be *them*. And that thought absolutely terrifies them. They didn't like the power mommy had over them when they were little so they want to make damn sure she can't have any more power now.

Expand full comment
Lynn Veit's avatar

That thought -- that mommy issues might be driving this, at least in part -- has crossed my mind as well. You are the only other commentator I know of who has articulated this idea in a forum like this. Of course, I may have missed something since I don't have as much time as I would like to read up on various subjects.

JFC, men are such lily-livered cowards. Imagine the kind of self-aggrandissment it takes to think your tiny little fee-fees being hurt is a valid reason to think that every woman who ends her pregnancy affects *THEM* somehow, so therefore they are entitled to weigh in on the private lives and healthcare decisions of total strangers.

Jesus fucking Chris in a sidecar.

Expand full comment
Mx.le Maerin's Luxury Comedy's avatar

My thinking on such matters has been shaped by a variety of sources - my interests are all over the place - but among them is the concept of Dominator culture. This is an updated version of what used to be called the patriarchy, that looks to reflect the fact that men too are harmed by it. And I see a lot of what’s going on right now as an epic struggle between that and a more inclusive approach - will the old way manage to reassert itself, or has its day passed to let something new enter the scene?

Another pivotal source for me is Starhawk’s book ‘Dreaming the Dark’. She goes quite a bit into the psychological aspects, and what a healthy concept of masculinity might look like in a more equitable system. Of course, being Starhawk, she uses a pagan worldview in looking at this, but as I recall one can treat that as the metaphor being used rather than an integral part one must accept for the argument to hold.

Thanks for letting me ramble on here - and reminding me I need to refresh my memory on things I haven’t read in too many years.

Expand full comment
Lynn Veit's avatar

I enjoy reading others' thoughts on everything going on around us. sometimes it is edifying, sometimes encouraging, and always reminding that I'm not alone. :)

Expand full comment
rlcornelius's avatar

My mom's pastor is one of those people. She said he's really against abortion because his mom was going to have an abortion. I don't remember why she didn't, but she ended up putting him up for adoption instead. So he almost got aborted and almost didn't exist. And he wants to make sure all other potential people have a chance to exist.

Expand full comment
Mx.le Maerin's Luxury Comedy's avatar

And if that dog hadn’t’ve stopped to shit, he woulda caught that rabbit.

I mean, if ghod really wanted pastor buddy incarnated here on this earth, he coulda found a new host body. Cause he’s all powerful, right? The decision of one human woman couldn’t possibly thwart his intentions in the matter (is that the Great Plan, or the Ineffable Plan?). I guess for these folks, incarnation isn’t like public transport - you missed this one, catch the next that comes along - but a personal service that can’t be rescheduled if missed.

Expand full comment
Nemo's avatar

The combination of all powerful but just fucking lazy is telling. When I was in school, there were classmates who were amazingly bright but never accomplished anything. Utterly useless, just like Gawd

Expand full comment
(((What Fresh Hell Is This)))'s avatar

I'd like to go after all the woo-meisters and quackery artists who are pushing so-called "natural abortifacients", like pennyroyal and mugwort. They're actively harming people.

Expand full comment
Gary Seven in Space's avatar

Barbaric....

Expand full comment
TootsStansbury 🇺🇦's avatar

This is fucking infuriating. Fucking god-bothering misogynistic freaks.

Expand full comment
Bagels of Doom's avatar

Pennyroyal/Mentha pulegium can cause multiple organ failure because it's so damn toxic, and I suspect that women want to be *extra sure* and use too much of that stuff.

it also has its very own entry in a cancer center's database https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/pennyroyal

Expand full comment
Rhand Holm's avatar

"The pills are said to contain four ingredients, namely, two grains of extract of cotton root bark, one-fourth grain of extract of hellebore, one-half grain of iron sulphate, one-half grain of aloes."

Expand full comment
Bagels of Doom's avatar

Aloë and Hellebore give you cramps. both are also used as a laxatives. iron sulfate as an...iron supplement?!? (I can't even)

Hellebore is also really toxic, and with Aloë, toxicity and compounds found in the resin vary across species.

needless to say that none of this is safe except for the iron.

Expand full comment
SkeptiKC's avatar

I'll be back likely in the early afternoon. Fight now I have to go get cleaned up and as decent looking as possible for a doctor's appointment. Right now I have to dial down this anxiety attack and get my scrawny ass in the shower.

Stay cool, my Yank comrades. Be kind to one another while I'm gone.

Expand full comment
Rhand Holm's avatar

That ad, good grief. Coopting words and associations to instill a sense of trust in their product.

However, "Chichester’s Pennyroyal Pills, it would later turn out, did not contain any pennyroyal and would not end a pregnancy." Whenever a company goes to such lengths, it's obviously BS.

Expand full comment
No Quid Bro Code's avatar

Back before the Administrative State stomped out all our freedumbs.

Expand full comment
Cock Blockula's avatar

One of my family's stories passed down to me was that my great-great aunt died around 1910 of a botched abortion. This is the type of medical care the RWNJs want a return to.

Let's turn the tide and smash these nosy, uneducated, prurient weirdo creeps at the polls.

Expand full comment
Nemo's avatar

Can we drag Anthony Comstock's rotting corpse out of the ground to be hanged, drawn and quartered, and then put on display? That worked with Cromwell.

Expand full comment
Hemp Dogbane's avatar

Same here, a relative of my mom died of a botched abortion performed by her husband.

Expand full comment
ᴄᴏɢꜱᴡᴇʟʟ's avatar

That brings me back to this bumper sticker: Don't like abortions? Ignore them like you do school shootings.

Expand full comment
You Should Ice That Burn's avatar

That's good.

Expand full comment
IMPOed's avatar

Puritanical terrorism, this is so fucked up!

Expand full comment
Garbageman's avatar

So, this is sorta OT but still interesting, and I previously did not know all the details (from Salon's Amanda Marcotte) . . .

'In the days following Vance being named running mate, a silly meme exploded across the internet, falsely claiming that he had written about having sex with a couch in his book "Hillbilly Elegy." The person who concocted this rumor meant it as a joke and, as far as I can tell, everyone who has repeated it also means it as a joke. Even though no one believes the couch story is literally true, the meme spread like wildfire. As the guy who wrote the joke told Business Insider, he was inspired by filmmaker Werner Herzog's concept of "ecstatic truths," which can both be technically false but "make some essence of the man visible." In this case, the "essence" of Vance is that he's got some weird and inhumane views on human sexuality and gender relations. He was a poor pick as running mate for this reason, and yet Trump's choice was its own "ecstatic truth," revealing how deeply screwed up MAGA is about sex and gender.'

https://www.salon.com/2024/07/31/kamala-harris-is-wise-to-target-jd-cat-lady-vance--the-gops-incel-platform-repels/

Expand full comment
Runfastandwin's avatar

Not no one. I believe it.

Expand full comment
Nemo's avatar

Just like PAB is a crimey criminal who crimes, Jerking Dick Vance is a creepy creep who creeps. Sorta like a cockroach.

Expand full comment
PrimerGray's avatar

This isn't like that Richard Gere/gerbil, Rod Stewart/stomach pumping thing, is it?

Expand full comment
Eileen's avatar

Doesn't appear to be.

Expand full comment
Cock Blockula's avatar

I non-commented yesterday that this person needs to be given an honorary membership to our vile little snark mob Wonkette club.

Expand full comment
Hemp Dogbane's avatar

The seminal sofa joker.

Expand full comment