Today Should Be The 51st Anniversary Of Roe V. Wade
It would have been too, if it weren't for that meddling SCOTUS and their talking dog.
Today is the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Or it should be and it would have been if the Supreme Court hadn’t overturned it.
Statistically, it’s looking as though once it’s all counted out, there will have been more abortions last year than there were in 2020 — which, despite COVID, was actually a pretty big year for pregnancy termination (likely for reasons of “If Roe is overturned, we don’t want to end up with more kids than we can handle without having to star in a TLC reality series”). One in five abortion patients traveled out of state to get care, which heavily suggests that even with the increasing numbers, a whole lot of people who didn’t want to give birth or have children were forced to anyway.
We don’t know how many women in abortion ban states self-managed their abortions, either.
We certainly know that a whole lot of lives were risked or even lost because those in emergency situations could not get care. We don’t know what the maternal mortality rate for the post-Roe years are yet (the most recent numbers are from 2021), but by last July, anecdotal evidence from ob-gyns suggested there had been a significant increase.
On the bright(ish) side, every time abortion rights have been on the ballot, they have won. 52 percent of Americans identify as pro-choice. The percent of Americans who believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances has dwindled down to 13 — the lowest percentage ever having been 12. At the same time, those who believe it should be legal in any circumstances is up to 34 percent, the second highest it’s been since 1975.
I’ve said this before, but it was a whole lot easier to find support for banning abortion before a lot of people knew what that actually looked like. They didn’t think it would look like hearing about doctors telling families that they can’t do anything to help until their loved one is teetering on the edge of death.
How Are The Worst People You Know ‘Celebrating’ This Anniversary?’
Forced birthers have not given up, even as some Republicans running for office are trying to back away slowly for fear that pushing further crackdowns will cause them to lose. This weekend was the annual “National Pro-Life Summit,” at which many complained that Republicans were not pushing hard enough for the total abortion bans they'd had their hearts set on, just because of how those bans are extremely unpopular.
Via The Guardian:
“We meet today amid a pro-abortion media narrative of smug triumphalism,” [Heritage Foundation President Kevin] Roberts told hundreds of young abortion foes, who had gathered in the ballroom from across the country to hear him and other anti-abortion leaders speak.”
“You’ve heard the story. Less than two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the abortion-industrial complex is celebrating an unprecedented political winning streak. Across the country, pro-life bills have failed. Abortion referenda have passed. Democrat leaders are crowing while too many Republican leaders are cowering from the fight.”
As well they should be.
Another speaker at the event blamed everything on our hating his God and loving chaos.
“These people love chaos. That is the Left. The Left is inherently chaotic at its core,” said Will Witt, a conservative influencer who, like Roberts, spoke at the morning address to all attendees.
After quoting from the Bible in an effort to demonstrate that God originated order, Witt continued: “This is why the Left, this is why these pro-choicers, this is why they hate God. Because God represents order in the world, whereas they love chaos.”
Yes, we’re definitely the ones who love chaos, people who are again going to vote for Donald Trump to be president of the United States.
Most speakers agreed that they weren’t losing elections because people weren’t too keen on how everything turned out after Roe was overturned, but because we spent so much more money than they did on these elections. This would be a good argument if we were talking about an issue that people didn’t fully understand, but we are talking about that. No politician or television ad or advocacy group is ever going to be anywhere near as effective as people fully comprehending the reality of the situation.
Will Anything Get Better For People Now Or Do We Have To Wait For November?
President Biden is expected to announce today new federal provisions that are meant to increase patient access to contraception, emergency abortions and abortion medication.
Federal agencies will issue guidance to make no-cost contraception medication more available through Obamacare and for federal employees’ health plans.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra will send a (sternly worded?) letter to health insurers reminding them of their obligation to offer no-cost birth control.
The HHS will also be creating a team to deal specifically with violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, to ensure that those who need emergency abortions will be able to get them regardless of what their state laws say.
The administration will also create a plan to ensure people know about their rights under EMTALA
These are all good things. I am personally glad that more attention is being paid to getting more aggressive with EMTALA as there have been some enforcement issues with that as of late.
It’s going to take work, and while some of that work can be done legislatively, not everyone lives in a state where their legislators are going to be especially sympathetic. So we all need to work to help people in abortion ban states get abortion rights measures on their ballots, we need to keep funding groups that help people in these states leave them in order to get abortions and doing what we can to help in general. So that maybe, just maybe, we may someday actually get to live in a country with even more solid abortion rights protections than we had under Roe.
PREVIOUSLY:
I have let Young Werewolfess, who is a university freshman in in Texas, know that if need be, she can tell me simply "Abba, I need to visit you", and I will get her a ticket to San Diego and an appointment with Planned Parenthood. She was appreciative.
Am I a bad person because I told my misogynistic right wing nut job sister that elections have consequences?! My niece, her daughter, is 37 yrs old, married, with 2 young daughters. She and her husband are trying for a boy now, being that it's considered shameful in their family to only have daughters. She's had 2 miscarriages recently, both in the 2nd trimester but is going to keep trying.
So I told my sister that she's pretty brave to a be a Texan in her late 30s with a history of miscarriage trying again and that I hope she has a successful pregnancy but elections have consequences if my niece is ever in a situation similar to Kate Cox. My sister thinks it was a bitchy thing to say but I see it as just stating facts.