I wish there were more ads about the realities women face from overturning RvW. I’m thinking there are a lot of low information people out there who do not yet understand the ramifications of how this affects women. Only when they are exposed to the unvarnished truth will these voters see through the MAGA hype. I sure hope it’s very soon!
I wear a bracelet that is inscribed " Remember Who The Fuck You Are"; purchased @ the FEM website.
All women need to realize that there is only 1 occupant per coffin unless a fetus/ stillborn is involved.
The Democrats in Congress should call for a 2 day showing of PBS's Series on Gestation/ Birth, refukkkans are ignorant of the process after the sperm is introduced to the Ova. They never were taught anything other than how to put the penis in a vagina and pump until they come.
Only ignorance/ just don't t give a shit attitudes could lead to this need to control Uteri possessors.
Women have fought to long, just as the Black race has fought to long, against re-regulation to invisibility.
These men/ women in the refukkksns House/ Senate have proven how they regard the female members of their families.
Hey ,Ladies( All Ethnices / Races " Remember Who The Fuck You Are"
Hi, can you share the link to the FEM website? I found one and it was really all about research. There were no products to purchase. I want one. Thanks!
It’s been two years since Donald Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Now, more than 1 in 3 women of reproductive age live under an abortion ban.
GOP is completely terrified that voters will vote out of anger due to their restrictions - and yet they've made NO attempt at ALL to slow down those attempts or say they'll stop. They just keep going. Give them what they deserve in November!
My wife likes wearing this pro-Roe t-shirt here, in Arkansas 👇
Not just abortion bans. Women have become second class citizens in EVERY vile red state, and the fascists mean to make certain the rest of the country licks their boots.
JP, I honestly do not think the rabid Republican men who started this anti-abortion BS back in the 1970s care what actually happens. They wanted a cause the Republican party could rally around because at the time they had nothing. They had Nixon who sometimes cared about this nation and then Ford who had nothing important to offer anyone and proved it by pardoning Nixon. Then came Reagan, who as governor called in the National Guard on students, killing more than one. (I couldn't find the actual number), and the Republican leaders and their female surrogates pushed anti-abortion as something easy to say and put on posters as "pro-life." They were of course not "pro-life" or pro-women in any way, they just used and still use women. Somehow thousands of women would gather to hear a woman lawyer, Phyllis Schlafley, tell them they should be stay-at-home moms popping babies for the good of the country (race). I thought of her at the time as the "hypocrite-in-chief" for her espousal of exactly opposite of who and what she was. That has become the Republican practice, so I have been referring to them as the "Hypocrican Party." Claiming life begins at conception, a Medieval idea put out before conception was even understood is ridiculous, then pretending an embryo or zygote is a child is just plain wrong. So, what are we women going to do? There are some male allies, but if things are going to be made right for women and our bodily autonomy, women are going to have to do it.
Ruth, if you were talking about Kent State, it was 4 killed, 9 wounded. I think I may have heard Phyllis Schlafley extolled at my church in the 90s and beyond, but never knew much about her.
I hope you'll forgive my saying this, but the biologist in me would point out that human life really does begin at conception; the sperm and the ovum are alive, and the embryo wouldn't develop into a child if it weren't alive. That said, the concept of a single-celled just created embryo being a child is absolutely wrong. It's really too bad the republicans couldn't come up with a real issue to put out there, and then work on resolving it in a way that was positive for the country.
Susan, I was not talking about Kent State, although that was pretty bad and Under Nixon. I was referring to the students at Berkeley in 1967 or 8. Gov. Reagan unleashed the CA National Guard on unarmed students. Some students were beaten, at least one killed, and a whole lot of students were gassed. I guess it made Reagan look tough or something. At the time, I just thought it was scary and something Hitler and his guys would have done, and probably did. Reagan conveniently forgot about that when running for president and I think Carter did too. That's too bad because people do need to know how their "heroes" really treat other people. I don't get that somehow people who do and say terrible things are seen as strong and worthy of being followed. They rarely are good for anything positive.
Weird, I was in California when that happened, and didn't remember it. I do remember disliking Reagan intensely both as California governor and as president. I personally believe that Reagan was as immoral as any of the other GOP presidents we've had, starting with Nixon.
Dianne, you are correct about the "low information people out there" when considering this issue. After the Roe v Wade decision I was disappointed to hear my educated friends and colleagues complain to me how women and doctors were now permitted to kill fetuses as their heads were exiting the mother's body. My religious friends seemed to gain some gruesome, entertaining-shock value out of describing in detail how doctors were crushing the baby's skull as it emerged.
As a consequence I decided to include Roe in my Criminology syllabus for many years until I retired.
It is not accurate to say Roe permitted abortion. The court's decision was a compromise. If you read it you will see that the court said abortion was lawful on demand during the first trimester. It was a decision strictly between the woman and her doctor. The states could control abortion during the second trimester as their legislatures saw fit. During the third trimester, abortion was a crime except under only the most extreme circumstances related to the health of the woman. So one could almost say that far from legalizing abortion; Roe outlawed it on a national scale for the first time.
I was quite surprised at all the misinformation back then. It has gotten considerably worse since. The quackery and lunacy currently turning abortion into a political football is something I could not have imagined.
Gerald, the problem, scared white Republican men needed a cause! There was so much talk about it in 1973 or so that it jumped out at them as "THE ONE!" And, it would "kill two birds with one stone (or cause)": give Republicans something to run on and keep women away from the public sphere except in places white men thought they should be, and out of colleges and universities. It went right along with telling everyone that boys/men were naturally better at math and science than women so women shouldn't bother their pretty little heads about either of them. Those same rich white men who are addicted to money and power keep refining their message and their weapons against women and somehow, we women keep taking it. It's time we truly stand up, stop voting for men and their female surrogates who hate and want to control women. Then we need more female doctors, judges, prosecutors, police officers who care about women's rights and won't go along with the legislative BS against women. I wish I were younger and could be more in the struggle.
Ruth, your comment really got my brain spinning, based on my life experience. My mother was a human computer (working for my father) and she was very good at it; she also learned scientific programming on the job, working for The Rand Corporation. After she married my father she had three children, all female, and was consistentlyabusive in many ways to all of them on a daily basis. Given that, the concept of all women should stay home and have/raise babies, doesn't sit well with me. I think that women should have the same options in life that men do.
Susan, oh, are you right about women needing the same options as men! My mother too was amazing in what she could do. She could organize anything. Before she was married, she assisted the manager of a Grants department store, made sure all the displays were in order as well as all the merchandise. She designed and decorated the windows in her spare time because she was also the secretary/receptionist. She got pregnant quickly after her marriage, moved in with her in-laws and all day or most of it, she was housekeeping and very soon, a mother with a child who was visually-impaired as was her second child, me. We lived in a nice apartment, but not much room with 3 kids. Our house was better at accommodating 5 kids Mom's total number. Mom was angry nearly all the time at us 5 girls: we weren't doing a good enough job cleaning up, doing dishes, dusting, or whatever task we were given. She volunteered at our elementary school as head librarian until she was replaced by a "trained" librarian whom my mother had to teach how to run a library.
Finally, she got a paid job and things got better, not only financially but also because she got respect for what she was doing for the school district. She ultimately worked 26 years for the district in many different jobs and in all of them, she was excellent. Poverty is the reason she didn't go to college. My dad is the one who pushed her to go out to get a job because she was so unhappy at home. She, at first, resented him for that. Three of the 5 of us graduated from college and two of us hold advanced degrees. One sister trained on computers and is good at everything she does, working 25+ years as an executive assistant for an engineering firm. My other sister was a wiz at whatever she started, except feeling lost that she couldn't get pregnant. She had bought the idea that to be a good woman one has to have a child. Mom did push us toward independence and wanted us to do the work that made us happy. That wasn't too hard because we saw how unhappy she was stuck at home with too many kids.
Oh, Ruth, I am so sorry that you, too, had to live with an angry mother. Mine believed that everything us kids did was deliberate; no such thing as an accident, and never mind that she rarely liked anything we did. Mine went back to work at the end of my freshman year in college (I'm the oldest), but that didn't really help her temperament any, from what I remember. I had to do many years of work to get beyond all the abuse (from both parents), and one of the things I realized after doing that work, is that we kids apparently triggered her childhood memories that she was trying to keep buried. That is why she had so much explosive anger. The only way my mother pushed us was away from her, and then when we were grown, she really wanted our company. I was able to do that for a few years, but it didn't last. Her desire to live in the past led her to a state of dementia. By that time I was living on the other side of the country, so I didn't have to see that, but I do wonder how I'd end up if I lost my husband.
Susan, my mom and I were not really close, although we had times of a lovely accord. I always thought she didn't care about what we accomplished and found out later that she was bragging to her colleagues about us. When my mom was older, she was fun to be with. She didn't totally lose her anger, but mostly it had drifted away. She, too entered dementia, but she was pleasant and would drift in and out of memories. My mom's sister told me Mom used to be really fun, before she married. I wonder if she was just not meant to be married and did it because that was what women around 1950 did. I feel lucky that I realized very young that marriage would never be for me. I have not regretted that decision. What has been done to women over the millennia is appalling and it is time it stops. We have to raise more caring assertive women. Setting goals for girls that involve having kids, marriage, certain careers, is a really bad idea. If women choose those ways of life is fine as long as they don't force that on other women, or men for that matter.
And before abortion was made illegal in the 19th century and the early 20th century, it was legal in the U.S.:
“From the American Revolution to the mid-19th century abortion was not an issue of significant controversy; most held to the traditional Protestant Christian belief that personhood began at quickening, sometime between 18 and 21 weeks. It was legal prior to quickening in every state under the common law.[8][9][10][11] Connecticut was the first state to regulate abortion in 1821; it outlawed abortion after quickening, the moment in pregnancy when the pregnant woman starts to feel the fetus's movement in the uterus, and forbade the use of poisons to induce one post-quickening.” — Wikipedia
“1847: Formation of the American Medical Association (AMA)
“In 1847, doctors banded together to form the AMA. It became the male-dominated authority on medical practices. The AMA scrutinized reproductive health care workers, like midwives and nurses, and the obstetric services they provided were phased out.
“AMA members believed they should have the power to decide when an abortion could be legally performed. At the same time, the AMA was composed of physicians who lacked expertise in pregnancy and reproductive health.
“AMA members launched a full-fledged criminalization campaign against abortion and female abortion providers. State legislatures moved to ban abortion.
“1880s: Criminalization and Vilification
“This backlash kicked off a “century of criminalization,” which was ended by Roe v. Wade in 1973 (see below).
“Laws restricting abortion access became the norm.
“By 1880, all states had laws to restrict abortion — with exceptions in some states if a doctor said the abortion was needed to save the life or health of the patient, or for therapeutic reasons.
“As abortion became criminalized, the stigma surrounding it grew.
“1910: Abortion Bans Nationwide
“By 1910, abortion was not only restricted but outright illegal at every stage in pregnancy in every state in the country. These abortion bans had some exceptions in instances to save the patient’s life — a decision that only doctors, 95% of whom were men, had the power to make.
“By this time, America had experienced several decades of increased immigration. Worried about losing their hold on the country, white men in power supported abortion bans as a way to get upper-class white women to have more children.” — PlannedParenthood.org
The last paragraph above is an important point of abortion law in the U.S.
Thanks Stephanie for the history note. It is important for all of us to know that abortion was a practice during the time of the Constitution despite Alito's lie that it was illegal. Even the Catholic Church that has been such a strong opponent of abortion didn't outlaw abortion until around 1868. That means during most of Christianity's existence, it was at least accepted. I am guessing the next Republican power addiction cause will be the LGBTQ+ community. They are already moving in that direction with "bathroom" laws and laws about restricting care for trans youth. Let's see, what will follow that and there will definitely be something to follow that because Republicans thrive on hate, fear, misinformation, and using people to feed their addiction to money and power. We the People need to use some "tough love" on these guys, like maybe, wealth taxes, limiting political contributions, an independent legal body selecting candidates to be nominated for our courts, and a whole range of other actions to curb Republican addiction.
I had an abortion in the 60's. Back then there was an underground network that could provide information on who to go to for an abortion. Doctors and nurses did it "under the radar" of the athorities. I paid $200 for the procedure which was basically a D and C in a doctor's office. I went out of state to have it done. People became rather wealthy doing the procedure, but had to hide their wealth to not be arrested on suspicion. That will happen again if the extremists have their way with banning abortion.
Just wait until til some MAGAT daughter starts hemorrhaging from a spontaneous abortion, aka miscarriage, and the Docs have to wait it out until there is no heartbeat of a non viable fetus. Politicians do not belong in the conversation between a woman and her physician.
I agree, my Mother, for instance was horrified when I read to her a newspaper article about a young woman in a southern state who went thrice to her local emergency room complaining ofabdominall pain, and begging for help for the child she was afraid she was miscarrying. Thrice she was sent home with a diagnosis of a bladder infection or some such nonsense. When she returned via ambulance a fourth time, the paramedics informed the ER that she has called 911 after having miscarried her 6 month old fetus in her toilet and she couldn't stop the bleeding. Paramedics said they found her child wrapped in a towel in a bucket in the bathroom. When asked why she had removed her baby from the toilet (what?!!) She said that she HAD to keep on flushing as she bled out or her landlord would be angry about the mess! The lifeless corpse of her almost full term pregnancy she had three times tried to SAVE by going to her local ER when the pain in her abdomen started, the same ER that went on to call the police after the paramedics left and have them come charged this poor woman with some sort of a crime against the corpse I don't remember exactly which one but it was a felony. How outrageous! People dont think of the numerous, numerous cases similar to this one that have been made possible thanka
The Handmaid's Tale. I don't these guys have a right to an opinion on this subject. They have no skin in the game. It is truly about control and subjugation. I know a lot about that topic having been married to a Moroccan guy for quite some time. Has taken me several decades to recover and I have, mostly. I read in something today that Putin is comparing tRump to Gorbachev and believes your uncle, Mary, will win the election. Then he and Xi Jin Peng will usher in a new world order. That is scary. However, ever since Putin cozied up to the idiot in N. Korea, I'm not sure if this could happen. Putin has sort of alienated China. I wish we could teleport them to another universe where they could all live in splendid isolation forever and ever.
Women and right (as in correct)-thinking men! And those who don't conform to patriarchal gender roles. We are all queer as far as the fascist christian nationalists are concerned.
I love this. And we will show them in November what happens when you fuck with women’s reproductive freedom.
Two year’s ago, I was broken and scared the Handmaid’s Tale was starting, but my rage has taken over. I haven’t talked to one woman who was not angry about it. Let’s spread the word! I hope my paid subscription helps.
I actually interacted with a person Tracey, and the conversation felt off, then came the offer of a business proposal. I’m smarter than that, usually. If you click on that link you can see that it isn’t Mary. I put it to her in a comment.
Yeah, it looked legit, then for a fleeting moment I thought “Oooo, she wants to talk to me!” Then it started showing up after every comment and twice on some, and I quickly realized I was not in fact special! Hopefully Mary can get rid of whoever is messing around.
I also want to thank you, Mary, for your column. I would like to add that it's much more than voting for Joe Biden. We must vote Blue down ballot as well. If not, we won't have the Senate and House, both federal and state, to enable Biden to reinstate women's rights nor to change the corrupt Supreme Court.
And it goes beyond just the Senate and the House. School boards, city councils, local judges... anything that comes up on a ballot is important at this point! We must stop the right-wing candidates at EVERY level on the ballot.
Your point that we must vote BLUE completely all the way down ballot so our elected officials don’t undermine every person’s rights from the local level all the way to the U.S. Congress & Senate. VOTE BLUE!
I was 16 when Roe became part of American life. At the time, being kind of a teenager with very little social life, I was glad Roe had passed but I didn’t fully appreciate it. Now, it’s still hard to comprehend that those fuckers actually have done this. Poof, it’s gone. Fighting back really can turn the tide.
I was 11, the same age my twins are now. I knew what was at stake. I am terrified. So are they. I wish women and men actually understood what this will do to their lives. I'm not sure many fully comprehend where this is headed, but when they take your birthcontrol it will be too late.
I am reminded or the movie "Love With The Proper Stranger" (1963), which was about a woman getting an abortion, pre-Roe. Fortunately it had a good ending, but it gives an idea of what couples can go through when getting an illegal abortion.
We know the women haters in the Regressive Party will not stop their assault on the rights of women. We know this for a fact. And, while the rights of women to control their own bodies is under attack, any man who has a wife, a daughter, a girlfriend, or any women in their lives they care about, has to realize this is his fight, too.
Damn right it is. I just finished arguing on Facebook with some out of touch zealots who can't come up with anything legitimate to support their anti-abortion BS. As always, they side-step, embellish and are totally in another universe as they continue to worship their fake Christian imbecile.
The regressive cultists claim to want the government to respect the rights of the individual. Unless those individuals have a uterus, I guess. The blatant hypocrisy really pisses me off.
I think it is important to keep in mind that not only do we have to keep him out of the White House, we need to put some energy into making sure the people who are pulling his strings are kept from moving forward with the Heritage Foundation agenda. It seems to me that he riffs off of what he is told, and does it passably if he sticks to a teleprompter. Left to his own devices and sundowning, he goes off on word salad tangents that no one can make sense of. But if he is re-elected, his incapacities won't matter as he will not be the one doing the actual work to finish off what is left of the American experiment with Democracy. The loss of Roe was just the tip of the iceberg.
You're right, of course, including male allies (of which I'm one). Yet I'm gobsmacked when I see and hear so many (too many) women supporting that misogynistic trashbag. Naturally, I'm just as mystified when I see so many men, too, supporting him (but, yes, I get the common thread of misogyny). As for women uniting--and as I said, I agree in their strength and need for unity--I remember, so many decades ago, ERA going down, in part due to lack of unity. Let's hope that your message is heard loud and clear, for I fear too many are under whatever hypnotic and dangerous spell of the Donald and his minions.
Thank you, Michealene. We do; but we also cannot have women battling each other. It neutralizes the power and potential women have to turn things around. It sickened me when that pus bucket got into the WH over Ms. Clinton, who is a far better person, and would have been a very good president. How different things would look today!
I completely agree. I worked on Sec. Clintons campaign-She did have baggage from our political/corrupt system, and she is the single best public servant I have ever met. She CARED. The media is broken and bought and paid for. As for women going up against each other; conditioned, brain washing and misogynistic. The worst misogynist I have ever worked for was a woman. mind-boggling.
Thank you. Men need to get in the fight not just as allies but raging advocates for their daughters, their wives,their neighbors and our children. My wife was raped by 3 armed scumbags. A week later, in Florida( back when), she got an abortion at the hospital. It's worse than murder to be raped and then violated by pregnacy. She was never the same,nor was I. I'll always stand up for women's rights, human rights.
These Christofascists want a other Inquisition! Like you said they are coming and they won't stop until they rid or convert America of "savages" or what I was deemed as a child, a "bastard " by the Catholic Church. They are responsible for 100s of years of misogyny.
In closing I say let's take off the gloves. Stop calling them conservatives. They are fascists plain and simple. Cruelty is the point.
Thank you for sharing. I am so sorry for you and your wife's traumatic experience but I am so grateful she was able to get the care she needed. We have to keep fighting.
Yes, not the Fake ones contrived by poor little victimized Donny, perpetrated by the big mean Americans who actually believe, respect, and uphold the laws and rules of our Constitution .
I Still have so much rage and feel so betrayed as both a woman who fought for our rights in the 70's, and now at 70, watching our whole country being destroyed because this psychotic criminal got a foothold in politics and aided and supported those powers that have contrived for over 40 years to eliminate all our progress and take as many rights as they possibly can away from us. Especially agendas based on Religious beliefs that dispute separation of powers.
I wonder currently ,if we can ever find enough of us to gain sufficient momentum to forge the shift back into a balance of equality,and legitimate representation of rights for all people at this point in time. I remain hopeful, but have also seen the decline into corruption unlike ever before. We Must overcome Trump's power grab,once and for all. Anything else will lead to utter chaos.
Trump is a sexual assaulter so he's capable of any kind of assault on women. Clearly, he has ZERO respect for women. So, taking away reproductive rights, contraception and IVF are exactly what he wants. Women must vote for Biden. Their Iives depend on it.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. “Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn't been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It's the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.”
—-E.B. White, On Democracy
…And Democracy is the ability for everyone to have full authority and autonomy over their own bodies. Thank you Mary for reminding us daily how we have lost so much ground in our fight for freedom and equality which we had gained over the past 60 years, so let’s get it back and more this November!!!! Every life is on the line.
"The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future."
I remember the phrase that I said and wrote over and over again in 2016. “It’s the Supreme Court”.
And it was. I didn’t bother to say it in 2020, but I’m going to start again. Because it is the truth, but this time from a Democratic point. WE need to have Dems in charge when vacancies open up again.
I wish there were more ads about the realities women face from overturning RvW. I’m thinking there are a lot of low information people out there who do not yet understand the ramifications of how this affects women. Only when they are exposed to the unvarnished truth will these voters see through the MAGA hype. I sure hope it’s very soon!
I wear a bracelet that is inscribed " Remember Who The Fuck You Are"; purchased @ the FEM website.
All women need to realize that there is only 1 occupant per coffin unless a fetus/ stillborn is involved.
The Democrats in Congress should call for a 2 day showing of PBS's Series on Gestation/ Birth, refukkkans are ignorant of the process after the sperm is introduced to the Ova. They never were taught anything other than how to put the penis in a vagina and pump until they come.
Only ignorance/ just don't t give a shit attitudes could lead to this need to control Uteri possessors.
Women have fought to long, just as the Black race has fought to long, against re-regulation to invisibility.
These men/ women in the refukkksns House/ Senate have proven how they regard the female members of their families.
Hey ,Ladies( All Ethnices / Races " Remember Who The Fuck You Are"
You are most eloquent. Thank you for getting to the root cause.
You sir, are even more eloquent, for you were able to say so much, using so many fewer words. A tip of the hat to you.
Much appreciated, Bruce Kopetz. 👋🌹
I'm sure there is a lot of ignorance involved, but there is also a basic male insecurity at work here.
For All Of Time...
Timothy, I love that you said that! Plus you made me laugh.
Good Day. Happy to make you laugh.
Old Saying: "If the truth hurts, let there be pain".
People don't change. Only the date & clothing...
Peace, thank you & Best Regards.
Right back at you!!
Hi, can you share the link to the FEM website? I found one and it was really all about research. There were no products to purchase. I want one. Thanks!
Olivia Jewelry: has more verses also.
www.StoryJewelle.com: another source.
Leave Amazon & Etsy alone, +$$$$$$.
Wishing you success💯
I will try to find it and share it with you. 👋
Phoney... Stop it now🤬
Watching Lawrence. Sen. Warren explained what it will take to codify Roe V. Wade.
It’s been two years since Donald Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Now, more than 1 in 3 women of reproductive age live under an abortion ban.
GOP is completely terrified that voters will vote out of anger due to their restrictions - and yet they've made NO attempt at ALL to slow down those attempts or say they'll stop. They just keep going. Give them what they deserve in November!
My wife likes wearing this pro-Roe t-shirt here, in Arkansas 👇
libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/1973lb
Not just abortion bans. Women have become second class citizens in EVERY vile red state, and the fascists mean to make certain the rest of the country licks their boots.
Good Day. In November, Make Sure that the
tRump-Publican Party of Traitors & Criminals are KEPT OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!!!
America has been declining for decades.
"These People" will ensure that it continues, and continues Quickly.
*** SAVE OUR COUNTRY!
VOTE DEMOCRATIC IN NOVEMBER! ***
P.S. Fire most of the "Supreme Court Criminals"!
JP, I honestly do not think the rabid Republican men who started this anti-abortion BS back in the 1970s care what actually happens. They wanted a cause the Republican party could rally around because at the time they had nothing. They had Nixon who sometimes cared about this nation and then Ford who had nothing important to offer anyone and proved it by pardoning Nixon. Then came Reagan, who as governor called in the National Guard on students, killing more than one. (I couldn't find the actual number), and the Republican leaders and their female surrogates pushed anti-abortion as something easy to say and put on posters as "pro-life." They were of course not "pro-life" or pro-women in any way, they just used and still use women. Somehow thousands of women would gather to hear a woman lawyer, Phyllis Schlafley, tell them they should be stay-at-home moms popping babies for the good of the country (race). I thought of her at the time as the "hypocrite-in-chief" for her espousal of exactly opposite of who and what she was. That has become the Republican practice, so I have been referring to them as the "Hypocrican Party." Claiming life begins at conception, a Medieval idea put out before conception was even understood is ridiculous, then pretending an embryo or zygote is a child is just plain wrong. So, what are we women going to do? There are some male allies, but if things are going to be made right for women and our bodily autonomy, women are going to have to do it.
Ruth, if you were talking about Kent State, it was 4 killed, 9 wounded. I think I may have heard Phyllis Schlafley extolled at my church in the 90s and beyond, but never knew much about her.
I hope you'll forgive my saying this, but the biologist in me would point out that human life really does begin at conception; the sperm and the ovum are alive, and the embryo wouldn't develop into a child if it weren't alive. That said, the concept of a single-celled just created embryo being a child is absolutely wrong. It's really too bad the republicans couldn't come up with a real issue to put out there, and then work on resolving it in a way that was positive for the country.
Susan, I was not talking about Kent State, although that was pretty bad and Under Nixon. I was referring to the students at Berkeley in 1967 or 8. Gov. Reagan unleashed the CA National Guard on unarmed students. Some students were beaten, at least one killed, and a whole lot of students were gassed. I guess it made Reagan look tough or something. At the time, I just thought it was scary and something Hitler and his guys would have done, and probably did. Reagan conveniently forgot about that when running for president and I think Carter did too. That's too bad because people do need to know how their "heroes" really treat other people. I don't get that somehow people who do and say terrible things are seen as strong and worthy of being followed. They rarely are good for anything positive.
Weird, I was in California when that happened, and didn't remember it. I do remember disliking Reagan intensely both as California governor and as president. I personally believe that Reagan was as immoral as any of the other GOP presidents we've had, starting with Nixon.
Good for her!
Dianne, you are correct about the "low information people out there" when considering this issue. After the Roe v Wade decision I was disappointed to hear my educated friends and colleagues complain to me how women and doctors were now permitted to kill fetuses as their heads were exiting the mother's body. My religious friends seemed to gain some gruesome, entertaining-shock value out of describing in detail how doctors were crushing the baby's skull as it emerged.
As a consequence I decided to include Roe in my Criminology syllabus for many years until I retired.
It is not accurate to say Roe permitted abortion. The court's decision was a compromise. If you read it you will see that the court said abortion was lawful on demand during the first trimester. It was a decision strictly between the woman and her doctor. The states could control abortion during the second trimester as their legislatures saw fit. During the third trimester, abortion was a crime except under only the most extreme circumstances related to the health of the woman. So one could almost say that far from legalizing abortion; Roe outlawed it on a national scale for the first time.
I was quite surprised at all the misinformation back then. It has gotten considerably worse since. The quackery and lunacy currently turning abortion into a political football is something I could not have imagined.
Gerald, the problem, scared white Republican men needed a cause! There was so much talk about it in 1973 or so that it jumped out at them as "THE ONE!" And, it would "kill two birds with one stone (or cause)": give Republicans something to run on and keep women away from the public sphere except in places white men thought they should be, and out of colleges and universities. It went right along with telling everyone that boys/men were naturally better at math and science than women so women shouldn't bother their pretty little heads about either of them. Those same rich white men who are addicted to money and power keep refining their message and their weapons against women and somehow, we women keep taking it. It's time we truly stand up, stop voting for men and their female surrogates who hate and want to control women. Then we need more female doctors, judges, prosecutors, police officers who care about women's rights and won't go along with the legislative BS against women. I wish I were younger and could be more in the struggle.
Ruth, your comment really got my brain spinning, based on my life experience. My mother was a human computer (working for my father) and she was very good at it; she also learned scientific programming on the job, working for The Rand Corporation. After she married my father she had three children, all female, and was consistentlyabusive in many ways to all of them on a daily basis. Given that, the concept of all women should stay home and have/raise babies, doesn't sit well with me. I think that women should have the same options in life that men do.
Susan, oh, are you right about women needing the same options as men! My mother too was amazing in what she could do. She could organize anything. Before she was married, she assisted the manager of a Grants department store, made sure all the displays were in order as well as all the merchandise. She designed and decorated the windows in her spare time because she was also the secretary/receptionist. She got pregnant quickly after her marriage, moved in with her in-laws and all day or most of it, she was housekeeping and very soon, a mother with a child who was visually-impaired as was her second child, me. We lived in a nice apartment, but not much room with 3 kids. Our house was better at accommodating 5 kids Mom's total number. Mom was angry nearly all the time at us 5 girls: we weren't doing a good enough job cleaning up, doing dishes, dusting, or whatever task we were given. She volunteered at our elementary school as head librarian until she was replaced by a "trained" librarian whom my mother had to teach how to run a library.
Finally, she got a paid job and things got better, not only financially but also because she got respect for what she was doing for the school district. She ultimately worked 26 years for the district in many different jobs and in all of them, she was excellent. Poverty is the reason she didn't go to college. My dad is the one who pushed her to go out to get a job because she was so unhappy at home. She, at first, resented him for that. Three of the 5 of us graduated from college and two of us hold advanced degrees. One sister trained on computers and is good at everything she does, working 25+ years as an executive assistant for an engineering firm. My other sister was a wiz at whatever she started, except feeling lost that she couldn't get pregnant. She had bought the idea that to be a good woman one has to have a child. Mom did push us toward independence and wanted us to do the work that made us happy. That wasn't too hard because we saw how unhappy she was stuck at home with too many kids.
Oh, Ruth, I am so sorry that you, too, had to live with an angry mother. Mine believed that everything us kids did was deliberate; no such thing as an accident, and never mind that she rarely liked anything we did. Mine went back to work at the end of my freshman year in college (I'm the oldest), but that didn't really help her temperament any, from what I remember. I had to do many years of work to get beyond all the abuse (from both parents), and one of the things I realized after doing that work, is that we kids apparently triggered her childhood memories that she was trying to keep buried. That is why she had so much explosive anger. The only way my mother pushed us was away from her, and then when we were grown, she really wanted our company. I was able to do that for a few years, but it didn't last. Her desire to live in the past led her to a state of dementia. By that time I was living on the other side of the country, so I didn't have to see that, but I do wonder how I'd end up if I lost my husband.
Susan, my mom and I were not really close, although we had times of a lovely accord. I always thought she didn't care about what we accomplished and found out later that she was bragging to her colleagues about us. When my mom was older, she was fun to be with. She didn't totally lose her anger, but mostly it had drifted away. She, too entered dementia, but she was pleasant and would drift in and out of memories. My mom's sister told me Mom used to be really fun, before she married. I wonder if she was just not meant to be married and did it because that was what women around 1950 did. I feel lucky that I realized very young that marriage would never be for me. I have not regretted that decision. What has been done to women over the millennia is appalling and it is time it stops. We have to raise more caring assertive women. Setting goals for girls that involve having kids, marriage, certain careers, is a really bad idea. If women choose those ways of life is fine as long as they don't force that on other women, or men for that matter.
Abortion was illegal before Roe! Women couldn’t get an abortion, doctors couldn’t legally perform them.
And before abortion was made illegal in the 19th century and the early 20th century, it was legal in the U.S.:
“From the American Revolution to the mid-19th century abortion was not an issue of significant controversy; most held to the traditional Protestant Christian belief that personhood began at quickening, sometime between 18 and 21 weeks. It was legal prior to quickening in every state under the common law.[8][9][10][11] Connecticut was the first state to regulate abortion in 1821; it outlawed abortion after quickening, the moment in pregnancy when the pregnant woman starts to feel the fetus's movement in the uterus, and forbade the use of poisons to induce one post-quickening.” — Wikipedia
“1847: Formation of the American Medical Association (AMA)
“In 1847, doctors banded together to form the AMA. It became the male-dominated authority on medical practices. The AMA scrutinized reproductive health care workers, like midwives and nurses, and the obstetric services they provided were phased out.
“AMA members believed they should have the power to decide when an abortion could be legally performed. At the same time, the AMA was composed of physicians who lacked expertise in pregnancy and reproductive health.
“AMA members launched a full-fledged criminalization campaign against abortion and female abortion providers. State legislatures moved to ban abortion.
“1880s: Criminalization and Vilification
“This backlash kicked off a “century of criminalization,” which was ended by Roe v. Wade in 1973 (see below).
“Laws restricting abortion access became the norm.
“By 1880, all states had laws to restrict abortion — with exceptions in some states if a doctor said the abortion was needed to save the life or health of the patient, or for therapeutic reasons.
“As abortion became criminalized, the stigma surrounding it grew.
“1910: Abortion Bans Nationwide
“By 1910, abortion was not only restricted but outright illegal at every stage in pregnancy in every state in the country. These abortion bans had some exceptions in instances to save the patient’s life — a decision that only doctors, 95% of whom were men, had the power to make.
“By this time, America had experienced several decades of increased immigration. Worried about losing their hold on the country, white men in power supported abortion bans as a way to get upper-class white women to have more children.” — PlannedParenthood.org
The last paragraph above is an important point of abortion law in the U.S.
Thanks Stephanie for the history note. It is important for all of us to know that abortion was a practice during the time of the Constitution despite Alito's lie that it was illegal. Even the Catholic Church that has been such a strong opponent of abortion didn't outlaw abortion until around 1868. That means during most of Christianity's existence, it was at least accepted. I am guessing the next Republican power addiction cause will be the LGBTQ+ community. They are already moving in that direction with "bathroom" laws and laws about restricting care for trans youth. Let's see, what will follow that and there will definitely be something to follow that because Republicans thrive on hate, fear, misinformation, and using people to feed their addiction to money and power. We the People need to use some "tough love" on these guys, like maybe, wealth taxes, limiting political contributions, an independent legal body selecting candidates to be nominated for our courts, and a whole range of other actions to curb Republican addiction.
women died in back alleys.
I had an abortion in the 60's. Back then there was an underground network that could provide information on who to go to for an abortion. Doctors and nurses did it "under the radar" of the athorities. I paid $200 for the procedure which was basically a D and C in a doctor's office. I went out of state to have it done. People became rather wealthy doing the procedure, but had to hide their wealth to not be arrested on suspicion. That will happen again if the extremists have their way with banning abortion.
Quackery and lunacy seems to inform a lot of medical opinion in the US.
I couldn’t agree more. Together we rise!
Just wait until til some MAGAT daughter starts hemorrhaging from a spontaneous abortion, aka miscarriage, and the Docs have to wait it out until there is no heartbeat of a non viable fetus. Politicians do not belong in the conversation between a woman and her physician.
I agree, my Mother, for instance was horrified when I read to her a newspaper article about a young woman in a southern state who went thrice to her local emergency room complaining ofabdominall pain, and begging for help for the child she was afraid she was miscarrying. Thrice she was sent home with a diagnosis of a bladder infection or some such nonsense. When she returned via ambulance a fourth time, the paramedics informed the ER that she has called 911 after having miscarried her 6 month old fetus in her toilet and she couldn't stop the bleeding. Paramedics said they found her child wrapped in a towel in a bucket in the bathroom. When asked why she had removed her baby from the toilet (what?!!) She said that she HAD to keep on flushing as she bled out or her landlord would be angry about the mess! The lifeless corpse of her almost full term pregnancy she had three times tried to SAVE by going to her local ER when the pain in her abdomen started, the same ER that went on to call the police after the paramedics left and have them come charged this poor woman with some sort of a crime against the corpse I don't remember exactly which one but it was a felony. How outrageous! People dont think of the numerous, numerous cases similar to this one that have been made possible thanka
It wasn't almost full-term, but yeah. It was absurd.
Oops, I guess I was wrong 20-21 weeks is really early though, but this case made me sooo angry. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/us/brittany-watts-miscarriage-criminal-charge/index.html
The Handmaid's Tale. I don't these guys have a right to an opinion on this subject. They have no skin in the game. It is truly about control and subjugation. I know a lot about that topic having been married to a Moroccan guy for quite some time. Has taken me several decades to recover and I have, mostly. I read in something today that Putin is comparing tRump to Gorbachev and believes your uncle, Mary, will win the election. Then he and Xi Jin Peng will usher in a new world order. That is scary. However, ever since Putin cozied up to the idiot in N. Korea, I'm not sure if this could happen. Putin has sort of alienated China. I wish we could teleport them to another universe where they could all live in splendid isolation forever and ever.
Thank you, Mary, for your column tonight. 💙
I hope women re-elect President Biden in November.
Women and right (as in correct)-thinking men! And those who don't conform to patriarchal gender roles. We are all queer as far as the fascist christian nationalists are concerned.
I love this. And we will show them in November what happens when you fuck with women’s reproductive freedom.
Two year’s ago, I was broken and scared the Handmaid’s Tale was starting, but my rage has taken over. I haven’t talked to one woman who was not angry about it. Let’s spread the word! I hope my paid subscription helps.
What will happen if I call that number (using a normal phone, not WhatsApp)?
I think it’s a hack.
I fear you may be right, even though it appears to come from Mary herself. “Appears” is the operative word here!
I actually interacted with a person Tracey, and the conversation felt off, then came the offer of a business proposal. I’m smarter than that, usually. If you click on that link you can see that it isn’t Mary. I put it to her in a comment.
Yeah, it looked legit, then for a fleeting moment I thought “Oooo, she wants to talk to me!” Then it started showing up after every comment and twice on some, and I quickly realized I was not in fact special! Hopefully Mary can get rid of whoever is messing around.
And what is WhatsApp anyway?
A messaging app. Allows encrypted telephone calls and messages
I also want to thank you, Mary, for your column. I would like to add that it's much more than voting for Joe Biden. We must vote Blue down ballot as well. If not, we won't have the Senate and House, both federal and state, to enable Biden to reinstate women's rights nor to change the corrupt Supreme Court.
And it goes beyond just the Senate and the House. School boards, city councils, local judges... anything that comes up on a ballot is important at this point! We must stop the right-wing candidates at EVERY level on the ballot.
THIS ☝️☝️☝️
Your point that we must vote BLUE completely all the way down ballot so our elected officials don’t undermine every person’s rights from the local level all the way to the U.S. Congress & Senate. VOTE BLUE!
I was 16 when Roe became part of American life. At the time, being kind of a teenager with very little social life, I was glad Roe had passed but I didn’t fully appreciate it. Now, it’s still hard to comprehend that those fuckers actually have done this. Poof, it’s gone. Fighting back really can turn the tide.
I was 11, the same age my twins are now. I knew what was at stake. I am terrified. So are they. I wish women and men actually understood what this will do to their lives. I'm not sure many fully comprehend where this is headed, but when they take your birthcontrol it will be too late.
It’s REALLY hard to imagine there being no birth control. But that seems to be the plan.
I am reminded or the movie "Love With The Proper Stranger" (1963), which was about a woman getting an abortion, pre-Roe. Fortunately it had a good ending, but it gives an idea of what couples can go through when getting an illegal abortion.
I fear this is just the tip of the spear.
ONLY IF WE LET IT!
That’s right! And I for one, have taken more than enough of the bullshit I have from these misogynistic pilgrims. Time to rise together and fight!
Dropping a Constitutional Right should be unconstitutional.
We know the women haters in the Regressive Party will not stop their assault on the rights of women. We know this for a fact. And, while the rights of women to control their own bodies is under attack, any man who has a wife, a daughter, a girlfriend, or any women in their lives they care about, has to realize this is his fight, too.
Damn straight. Thank you for being an ally.
Damn right it is. I just finished arguing on Facebook with some out of touch zealots who can't come up with anything legitimate to support their anti-abortion BS. As always, they side-step, embellish and are totally in another universe as they continue to worship their fake Christian imbecile.
The regressive cultists claim to want the government to respect the rights of the individual. Unless those individuals have a uterus, I guess. The blatant hypocrisy really pisses me off.
Fake Xian imbecile...thank you for that phrase. And thank you for supporting women.
What floors me is how many men just don't get that.
I think it is important to keep in mind that not only do we have to keep him out of the White House, we need to put some energy into making sure the people who are pulling his strings are kept from moving forward with the Heritage Foundation agenda. It seems to me that he riffs off of what he is told, and does it passably if he sticks to a teleprompter. Left to his own devices and sundowning, he goes off on word salad tangents that no one can make sense of. But if he is re-elected, his incapacities won't matter as he will not be the one doing the actual work to finish off what is left of the American experiment with Democracy. The loss of Roe was just the tip of the iceberg.
Most everyone is scared he will get back in the W/H, just listen to what he says!
Vote, vote, vote because our lives/ freedoms, really do depend on a gigantic Voting Turnout on 11/5/2024, For Real. 🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋
You're right, of course, including male allies (of which I'm one). Yet I'm gobsmacked when I see and hear so many (too many) women supporting that misogynistic trashbag. Naturally, I'm just as mystified when I see so many men, too, supporting him (but, yes, I get the common thread of misogyny). As for women uniting--and as I said, I agree in their strength and need for unity--I remember, so many decades ago, ERA going down, in part due to lack of unity. Let's hope that your message is heard loud and clear, for I fear too many are under whatever hypnotic and dangerous spell of the Donald and his minions.
thank you! we need men to step up.
Thank you, Michealene. We do; but we also cannot have women battling each other. It neutralizes the power and potential women have to turn things around. It sickened me when that pus bucket got into the WH over Ms. Clinton, who is a far better person, and would have been a very good president. How different things would look today!
I completely agree. I worked on Sec. Clintons campaign-She did have baggage from our political/corrupt system, and she is the single best public servant I have ever met. She CARED. The media is broken and bought and paid for. As for women going up against each other; conditioned, brain washing and misogynistic. The worst misogynist I have ever worked for was a woman. mind-boggling.
Thank you. Men need to get in the fight not just as allies but raging advocates for their daughters, their wives,their neighbors and our children. My wife was raped by 3 armed scumbags. A week later, in Florida( back when), she got an abortion at the hospital. It's worse than murder to be raped and then violated by pregnacy. She was never the same,nor was I. I'll always stand up for women's rights, human rights.
These Christofascists want a other Inquisition! Like you said they are coming and they won't stop until they rid or convert America of "savages" or what I was deemed as a child, a "bastard " by the Catholic Church. They are responsible for 100s of years of misogyny.
In closing I say let's take off the gloves. Stop calling them conservatives. They are fascists plain and simple. Cruelty is the point.
Thank you for sharing. I am so sorry for you and your wife's traumatic experience but I am so grateful she was able to get the care she needed. We have to keep fighting.
Mahalo
Very well said, Bruce! I very much appreciate men like you.
Thanks
You are welcome!
I believe the comments have been hacked
Someone posed as this page and tried to sell crypto... Not my first rodeo. Deleted
That’s what it was? Felt off, I bailed after the offer.
Amen, Mary. If this continues, and it will if Trump is elected, set your watch back 100 years.
Women will have to set their watches back to the Salem Witch Trials.....
Yes, not the Fake ones contrived by poor little victimized Donny, perpetrated by the big mean Americans who actually believe, respect, and uphold the laws and rules of our Constitution .
I Still have so much rage and feel so betrayed as both a woman who fought for our rights in the 70's, and now at 70, watching our whole country being destroyed because this psychotic criminal got a foothold in politics and aided and supported those powers that have contrived for over 40 years to eliminate all our progress and take as many rights as they possibly can away from us. Especially agendas based on Religious beliefs that dispute separation of powers.
I wonder currently ,if we can ever find enough of us to gain sufficient momentum to forge the shift back into a balance of equality,and legitimate representation of rights for all people at this point in time. I remain hopeful, but have also seen the decline into corruption unlike ever before. We Must overcome Trump's power grab,once and for all. Anything else will lead to utter chaos.
Right on!
What watches?👋 😲
Their mindset....
Got it... 👋
we are already there....
Trump is a sexual assaulter so he's capable of any kind of assault on women. Clearly, he has ZERO respect for women. So, taking away reproductive rights, contraception and IVF are exactly what he wants. Women must vote for Biden. Their Iives depend on it.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. “Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn't been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It's the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.”
—-E.B. White, On Democracy
…And Democracy is the ability for everyone to have full authority and autonomy over their own bodies. Thank you Mary for reminding us daily how we have lost so much ground in our fight for freedom and equality which we had gained over the past 60 years, so let’s get it back and more this November!!!! Every life is on the line.
Great Message Lisa
Thank you.
“We are Battleborn”
https://open.substack.com/pub/gloriahortonyoung/p/we-are-battleborn?r=a4vn&utm_medium=ios
led me to:
The Debt We Owe
_______
Imagine, if you will,
the pulse of 131 million women
their hearts
a drumbeat
relentless
.
marching toward the polls
their eyes
a storm of purpose
.
beside them
the men they love—
fathers, brothers, husbands, sons—
124 million strong
standing
like sentinels in the dawn
their hands
clasped
in solidarity
.
together
these 255 million souls
a tidal wave
a reckoning
.
crashing
against the cliffs of inequality
dismantling
the fragile towers of the old guard
.
in this moment
of upheaval
the world holds its breath
the air thick
with the scent of change
as this legion of voices
becomes
a symphony of renewal
.
unity
their banner
flutters in the winds of revolution
proclaiming that change is not
a whisper
in the dark
but a shout
into the void
an unyielding force
reshaping the horizon
…..
"The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future."
- Abigail Scott Duniway, suffragist 1834-1915
Right On Gloria
I remember the phrase that I said and wrote over and over again in 2016. “It’s the Supreme Court”.
And it was. I didn’t bother to say it in 2020, but I’m going to start again. Because it is the truth, but this time from a Democratic point. WE need to have Dems in charge when vacancies open up again.
Right on Mary.
This is where Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone with shit” is so powerful. So many people don’t know what’s going on, nor whom to trust.
Speaking of Bannon why can’t he be gagged? He’s free to spew hate until he has to report to jail.