Abortion – Abortion Clinics, Abortion Pill, Abortion Information

Abortion care workers don’t just hold the title of “doctor,” “nurse,” “administrator” or “doula.” Many are also called “mom.”

As the Supreme Court considers a Mississippi abortion ban that, if ruled constitutional, will erode Roe v Wade, and accessing abortion care after 6 weeks gestation is now illegal in the second largest state in the country, anti-abortion rights advocates continue to follow a decades-old narrative: Arguing that access to reproductive health care is an abortion vs. motherhood debate.

But most people who have or seek abortion services have at least one child at home. They are parents who know what it is like to birth and raise a child. And many abortion care workers don’t just hold the title of “doctor,” “nurse,” “administrator” or “doula” — they’re also called “mom.”

In many instances, moms are helping other moms walk through the sea of anti-abortion protestors outside of clinics. Moms are holding moms’ hands through what can be a brief in-office procedure. Moms are walking parents through the process of an at-home medication abortion.

TODAY Parents spoke to four moms who work in abortion care, and who say they are proof abortion is not at odds with motherhood. Instead, they argue that being a mother not only makes them better health care providers, but is a reminder of how parenting and the personal decision to end a pregnancy often go hand-in-hand.

Their comments have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Dr. Aisha Wagner, family medicine physician in California

Dr. Wagner is a mom of two, ages 3 and 9 months. She always knew she’d be a mom, but she didn’t always know she’d be an abortion provider. It wasn’t until after medical school and spending time in San Francisco that she says she fell in love with the practice.

“I was pregnant not too long ago, and I will say that I felt very proud to be a pregnant person in a space with people who are seeking abortion.

“I make it a point with most people to ask them about their children — it’s nice to talk about that with other parents. And I think especially in that space, when there is so much stigma going into it. When you understand that for those people who do have children already, they’re making this decision for their children, I think it’s really important to bring up and acknowledge those children in that space.

“As a mother, I definitely have a much deeper understanding of what it means to parent, of course. So there’s that core level of understanding of why someone might not want to parent, or parent another child, that’s ever present.”

Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, OB-GYN and abortion provider in Texas and Oklahoma

Dr. Moayedi is an abortion provider, founder of Pegasus Health Justice Center, and mom of one, age 7. She didn’t know she wanted to become a mom until she met her partner in medical school. But for 18 years, she has fully known she wanted to provide abortion care.

“Showing up as both a mom and an abortion provider is critically important to me. As a provider, I know that people who choose abortion are also making parenting decisions. I see that every single day — whether or not they’re currently parenting a child, choosing an abortion is, at its heart, a parenting decision. And so I have really seen and experienced the love that pregnant people have for the pregnancies that they are choosing to end. And those two things are not opposites — people can have love and deep compassion and care for their pregnancy, and know it’s not the right time.

“At the core of being an abortion provider is a respect of autonomy, the individual self and consent, and that really shows up in my parenting as well. How I teach my child about their own autonomy; their own right to their body; my partner and I taught them about consent very early on and continue to.

“And unlike many other areas of health care, I take care of everyone. You could be a general OB-GYN and really only take care of a small slice of your community. But as an abortion provider, especially in a place like Texas, I take care of everyone. I really see everything — all of the highs and all of the lows of my community. So your heart has to be really open to constantly show up and take care of people skillfully, and that compassion and patience really translates into my parenting as well.”

Hannah Matthews, abortion doula and clinic worker based in Maine

Matthews has been working in abortion care since 2017, as a doula, clinic staff member, organizer, and abortion fund volunteer. She is the mother of a 1-year-old son, with plans to have more children in the future. She always wanted to be a mom, but didn’t know if it would be possible after a Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis.

“Because I’ve been pregnant, given birth, and have had both a medication abortion and an in-clinic abortion, I feel a deep connection to my patients and clients and community members  regardless of their circumstances, choices, and pregnancy outcomes. I have traveled the full spectrum of a reproductive lifespan (aside from menopause, of course, and that one’s coming for all of us eventually), and I feel in my body how connected all of these things are to one another. 

“I often connect with abortion patients around our children, or if we’ve had similar pregnancy and birth experiences. And in my own abortion, motherhood was always with me: from my ultrasound, where the nurse smiled and said, ‘Oh, there’s your c-section scar!’ to my aspiration procedure, where the health care worker assisting the midwife asked me questions about my baby; what games I was going to play with him later; if he’s crawling yet… things like that. 

“I feel as much joy and sorrow working in abortion care as I would working on a labor and delivery unit or in a birthing center. It is all about working intimately with messy, complicated, beautiful human beings, and how they are choosing to create futures and families and lives for themselves.”

Dr. Anna Whelan, OB-GYN and maternal-fetal medicine physician in Rhode Island

Dr. Whelan is currently in her sixth year of residency and has spent two years providing abortion services. She is the mother to an 18 month old, and as the oldest of three always knew she wanted to be a mother. She had dreams of being a doctor since she was 14, with the goal of helping young women feel confident in their body.

“Being a mom, I’m now able to connect more with my patients. I have that personal experience of what it really means to be a parent and take care of a child, as well as all the difficulties that come with that.

“I had my son while I was finishing up residency at the beginning of the pandemic, when there was no personal protective equipment. I had to decide what would happen if I died, and if my husband had to take care of our son. I think that experience alone made it easier for me to connect with my patients and understand what they’re going through.

“I remember when I was pregnant I was really nervous while I was providing abortions — that my patients would judge me or be uncomfortable. But it’s only ever been something we can connect on. And particularly now, as my son becomes older, I talk to my patients about their kids. Or they ask me about my kids, and I will always talk about my family. I think that’s something that connects us all.”

Source: https://www.today.com/parents/moms/moms-provide-abortion-care-think-jobs-rcna14728

Teens might not even know what reproductive health care they’ll need. Our guide will help parents help their teens overcome the barriers in accessing care.

Like many teens, my high school years had their fair share of bumps. It was the 1990s, and I was part of a fast crowd; I started dating early and didn’t always make great decisions. But growing up would have been a lot bumpier had I not had supportive parents, decent sex ed at school, and access to reproductive health care via a free clinic just a few bus stops away.

Though I knew I was lucky to have the family I did, I largely took my sex ed and health-care access for granted. But I also knew that things had been pretty different in the not-too-distant past. That was primarily thanks to my mother’s reminiscences about coming of age in New York at a time when the birth control pill was brand new and available solely to married women, and long before Roe v. Wade functionally legalized abortion.

In my mother’s day, the options for pregnant girls were generally bleak: a shameful pregnancy and closed adoption, a teen marriage, or an abortion. These were illegal, of course, but criminalizing abortion has never eradicated it. What criminalization did ensure was that most abortions happened underground and at great risk to everyone involved.

Some could be obtained by other means: Money and connections could make a trip abroad to a place like Sweden an option; or, if you happened to be able to convince three psychiatrists that you would kill yourself before having a baby—as my mother-in-law did when she was 19—you might be one of the few girls or women from the United States allowed to terminate in a hospital.

“My boyfriend had already given me half the money for an illegal abortion in Pennsylvania,” she told me recently. “It was 1969, and we were shocked when my case got approved.”

For a long time, such experiences seemed to me like relics from the distant past. However, the creeping erosion of reproductive rights means that needed health care is increasingly out of reach, and around the country, history looks to be repeating itself in unsettling ways.

For example, after Planned Parenthood and other clinics were forced to withdraw from Title X funding in 2019 because of a “gag rule” on abortion referrals, the family planning program’s capacity to provide contraceptive services fell by at least 46 percent. In many states, “conscience clauses” mean that pharmacists are allowed to refuse to dispense emergency contraception pills, which are a form of birth control that can be taken up to five days after sex and are effective at preventing pregnancy.

And in 2021 alone, well over 100 abortion restrictions were passed in what the Guttmacher Institute called “a year that has been marked by unprecedented threats to U.S. abortion rights and access.”

For teens, the situation is particularly fraught: They not only face the same barriers as adults, but as minors, they also are uniquely limited in what services they can access and how.

Before teens discover that their access to reproductive health services may be limited, they lack the basic knowledge about what care they might actually need.

This is starkly apparent when it comes to abortion, as the majority of states require parental involvement in a minor’s abortion. For many people, such rules seem like common sense. In reality, parental involvement laws don’t improve adult-teen communication and instead have been found to prevent minors from accessing abortion.

“Every parent wants their children to be safe and healthy,” said Dr. Sara C. Flowers, vice president of education and training at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Ideally, every teen who needs an abortion would feel safe talking with their caring adult about their decision, and that caring adult would support them and help them access the care they need.”

“Unfortunately, instead of protecting young people, parental consent laws often prevent young people from being able to make the best and most timely decisions for their health, well-being, and future.” Flowers added that parental involvement laws also perpetuate abortion stigma and risk jeopardizing the health and well-being teens whose support systems might be absent, vulnerable, inconsistent, or unsupportive.

But it isn’t only with abortion that teens face barriers. Suburban and rural teens are often unable to travel to the doctor without their parents. That might not seem like such a hurdle for a routine physical, but it can be insurmountable when the matter at hand is sensitive. Even if a teenager can get to a doctor alone, they may avoid doing so out of fear that their confidentiality will be breached. This is a valid concern, since in many cases, doctors are required to share information with a parent. Not to mention, if the teen uses their health insurance, the visit will typically show up on the parent or guardian’s statement.

Additionally, libraries around the country are being called on to ban books on sexuality, LGBTQ issues, and more. Comprehensive sex education is under attack. One of the many troubling outcomes of such attacks is that even before teens discover that their access to reproductive health services may be limited, they lack the basic knowledge about what care they might actually need.

Fortunately, there are things we can do to support youth. As a health educator who works with young people, and as a parent to three kids, I know that some of those things include helping teens overcome the many barriers they face in accessing reproductive health care. Here are four ways to do that.

Open the door to conversations about sex

Those conversations are often easier than parents think and they can be started by simply referencing everyday moments, like TV shows, news stories and family events. It is also fine to acknowledge one’s own discomfort with the topic and to admit when you don’t have all the answers. But when we make the topic of sex taboo, we make it far more likely that teens will learn about it in far riskier places.

It’s also OK to acknowledge one’s own discomfort in the topic and to admit when you don’t have all the answers.

“The more children know about sexuality, the longer they wait to engage in sexual [behaviors],” certified sex educator and therapist, Dr. Lexx said, adding that this is something she explains can also help young people make safer decisions.

Allow teens privacy during doctor’s visits

Some providers are great about that; my kids’ pediatrician, for example, asks parents to step out halfway through a visit once the child turns 13. Others will need to have a parent make this request. Doing so helps youth get the care they need and also makes it more likely that you will actually be woven into conversations and decision-making in a way a young person is comfortable with.

Help youth access reproductive health care

Consider helping teens obtain birth control, including emergency contraception or, if needed, an abortion. That is especially important if you live in a state with parental involvement laws for abortion. And, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, you might also want to determine if medication abortion will be an option where you live, or whether it will be possible to take a child out of state for the procedure.

If you live in a state with parental involvement laws, this can be particularly complicated.

“In some states, parents should be prepared to take their child to multiple appointments to access care and help them process the experience of receiving biased counseling focused on fake harms associated with abortion care,” Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said.

Smith also advises parents in Texas to understand the implications of Texas SB 8, which prevents everyone, including young people, from accessing abortion care after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected, typically around six weeks’ gestation.

“Parents should be prepared to help their young person travel to another state to seek care if the pregnancy has progressed to that point,” she said.

Make yourself heard

Your vote matters in local politics, and your voice matters in conversations about sex education. For example, parental support for comprehensive sexuality education programs can mean the difference between a school adopting a curriculum that covers pregnancy prevention and reproductive health, or a curriculum that follows the disproven and ineffective abstinence-only model (often referred to as “sexual risk avoidance”) and teaches that the only acceptable place to have sex is in a cross-gender marriage, typically for the purposes of reproduction, while omitting any practical information about sexuality or health care in the process.

In an ideal world, teens would have the ability to manage their reproductive health care with a certain amount of independence and privacy while still involving their parents in important decisions.

But in today’s climate, that is becoming increasingly difficult. The fact that a generation of young people may have to relive the experiences of their grandmothers is chilling. So one of the best things we can do to help keep our kids safe is to step in and step up in the places where they cannot do so themselves.

Source: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/02/11/4-ways-parents-can-support-teens-reproductive-health/

With Roe v. Wade in peril, the administration has made some moves to combat the attacks on abortion rights. But the president himself has yet to say the word “abortion.”

In just a few months, the country could very well see the fall of Roe v. Wade ― the landmark Supreme Court decision that protects the right to abortion.

That means that during his presidency, President Joe Biden may see the rollback of federal protections to abortion care with far-reaching implications for millions of women — which could likely send many back to the days of illegal abortions.

The immediate outcome is out of Biden’s control. He has no ability to sway the court’s six-member majority, and lobbying the justices publicly would be ineffective at best, and a breach of constitutional protocol at worst.

But millions of people — his voters and otherwise — may lose their reproductive freedoms on his watch. And some pro-choice activists want more from Biden — a sense that he cares, is angry, and will at the very least help manage the fallout from a catastrophic court decision.

“As the leader of the Democratic Party and the leader of the country, we would like to have more vocal and full-throated support of abortion from him,” said Destiny Lopez, co-president of the abortion rights organization All* Above All. “I would, in some ways, divide up Biden and his administration because I do think that the administration as a whole — through surrogates and different leaders within the administration — has been moving the ball forward on addressing attacks on abortion.”

The case currently threatening Roe centers on a 2018 Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks. The law, which was debated in front of the Supreme Court in December, is a direct contradiction of Roe, which made it a constitutional right to access abortion until a fetus becomes viable at around 24 weeks. The decision, expected sometime this spring, could strike down the law, meaning Roe would remain intact. But advocates and experts agree that the court’s conservative majority signaled it would likely uphold the law by either banning abortion outright or moving the viability line.

HuffPost spoke with over a dozen pro-choice activists and Democratic lawmakers to see if they believe Biden and his administration are doing enough to combat the onslaught of attacks on abortion care. Many abortion rights advocates are frustrated with Biden, telling HuffPost they believe he has been uncharacteristically quiet on the crisis of abortion access facing the country. Elected Democrats, meanwhile, were largely supportive of Biden’s efforts — though with some scattered hints that more is needed.

The Biden administration declined to comment to HuffPost.

Abortion Rights Advocates Are Frustrated

Biden has never said the word “abortion” in any of his oral remarks throughout his entire presidency, according to Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of We Testify.

“Biden has been in office for one year and he has yet to use the word ‘abortion’ with his own mouth. I don’t know how to view that as anything other than insulting and turning your back on people who have and need abortions in this country,” said Bracey Sherman, who has been keeping track of Biden’s remarks. “Honestly, how else am I supposed to take that? How am I supposed to believe you when you say you are going to help uphold Roe?”

The president has commented on the importance of abortion access, carefully using terms like “Roe v. Wade” or “reproductive rights.” It wasn’t until the Texas abortion restriction passed in September — 224 days into his presidency — that Biden used the word “abortion” in two written statements published by the White House. That same day, Biden also used the word “abortion” in a tweet responding to the Texas law. To date, Biden has never said the word “abortion” in oral remarks.

Although Biden made ending violence against women a centerpiece of his 2020 campaign, his record on abortion rights is somewhat mixed. When he first joined the Senate in 1973, the year Roe was decided, he voted in favor of allowing states to overturn the Supreme Court decision.

“I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body,” Biden said in a Washingtonian magazine interview at the time.

For the majority of his political tenure, Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which denies insurance coverage for abortions to people who receive their health care through government-sponsored plans like Medicaid. He changed his tune in 2019 after facing criticism from fellow presidential candidates, and reversed his stance on Hyde.

“Biden has been in office for one year and he has yet to use the word ‘abortion’ with his own mouth. I don’t know how to view that as anything other than insulting and turning your back on people who have and need abortions in this country … How am I supposed to believe you when you say you are going to help uphold Roe?”

– Renee Bracey Sherman, We Testify

Even mainstream pro-choice organizations with close ties to the Democratic Party diplomatically aired some frustrations.

“We are at crisis moment for abortion access in this country, and we need a proportionate response from all levels of government, including the executive branch,” said Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice president of policy, organizing, advocacy and campaigns at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “President Biden has ordered a ‘whole-of-government’ response to address the ongoing challenges to abortion access, and the steps that the administration has taken thus far have been critical and needed. But much more can — and must — be done to blunt the barrage of attacks on our reproductive freedom. We encourage the administration to leave no stone unturned as they seek to protect abortion access.”

Like Ayers, most of the advocates HuffPost spoke with made an important distinction between Biden himself and his administration, noting that the latter has made significant moves to protect Roe and abortion access on the state level.

And it’s true, the Biden administration has done a lot of work to repeal much of the anti-abortion policies put in place by former President Donald Trump. During Biden’s first few weeks in office, he rescinded the global gag rule and later dropped the Hyde Amendment from his presidential budget proposal. Biden’s administration also reversed a Trump-era guideline that barred U.S. health care providers from receiving federal funds if they discussed abortion care with patients.

More recently, the White House signaled strong support for reproductive rights, including a statement backing the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that could provide integral protections to federal abortion access. In September, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the draconian Texas abortion restriction, and the Biden administration gave out grants to help Texas clinics meet the needs for contraceptive and family planning services.

Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it will lift certain requirements around medication abortion ― making it easier to access abortion pills across the country.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced last month the creation of an Intra-agency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access meant to explore any “means to protect and bolster sexual and reproductive health and rights in the U.S. and around the world.” Days later, Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in a video statement, promising Americans that the administration “will fight to protect a woman’s right to choose.”

But activists still want to see more heat from the president himself.

“We know one of the only ways we will win and reclaim access to abortion in this country is if we destigmatize it — and destigmatizing means we need to say it,” said Lopez. “It would be incredibly meaningful for people seeking abortion care in this country to hear Biden say the word, to hear him talk about the issue, to acknowledge that he probably knows and loves someone who has had an abortion.”

Democrats Believe Biden Has Done Enough

On Capitol Hill, Democrats were largely more supportive of Biden’s efforts.

“I don’t think there’s a question whatsoever about whether the Democratic Party or President Biden is pro-choice,” said Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). “We 100% support women’s reproductive freedoms and their basic civil rights and civil liberties where the Republican Party does not.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) agreed. “I think he’s made his position very clear that he supports choice. I think that’s fine. I don’t think he needs to do anything else,” she said.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), lead sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act in the House, told HuffPost last month that the Biden administration “has been a world of difference” from the former Trump administration when it comes to advocating for abortion and reproductive health. “I think he’s done everything possible to show his support in terms of his actions,” she said.

Some Democrats, however, did appear to be nudging Biden into a more forceful position when questioned by HuffPost last week.

“The United States Supreme Court is now an extremist board that is threatening to take away a long-standing legal precedent that has protected millions of women. We need everyone to raise their voices, and that’s true all across the country, across parties and all walks of life,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said when asked about her thoughts on Biden’s stance on abortion rights.

Warren was one of Biden’s fellow presidential candidates who ripped into Biden for his support of the Hyde Amendment during the 2020 campaign. Her criticism was the main driver of Biden reversing his stance on the policy.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a lead sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act in the Senate, echoed Warren’s statement. “If the Supreme Court overturns or drastically restricts Roe, we’ll need the president’s leadership front and center, very energetically and vocally because so much will be at stake in women’s health care and reproductive health.”

‘He Really Could Transform The Conversation’

There’s no doubt that Biden is now pro-choice, but his murky track record on abortion rights still follows him. Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice, chalked up some of Biden’s apparent discomfort in talking about abortion to his faith. Biden is one of the few pro-choice politicians who is also an observant Catholic.

“I have no doubt that President Biden is part of the 68% of Catholics who support legal protections for Roe v. Wade,” said Manson. “I think there’s a generational issue going on with older Catholics where there is still some entrenched taboo around abortion. I really do think he supports abortion rights.”

Despite his Catholic faith, Biden has been very outspoken and explicit about his support for the LGBTQIA community and same-sex marriage. Manson hopes he can take the same approach to abortion access. “Democratic people of faith really look up to him, and so his saying ‘abortion,’ and doing that destigmatizing work — even in small symbolic ways — would go a really long way. There’s never been a moment like now to start doing that.”

Although much of the power is in the hands of the Supreme Court justices, there is still time for Biden to become a vocal advocate. And there really is no better time than now. Last year marked the largest wave of abortion restrictions since Roe was decided. Over 20 states passed severe restrictions in 2021, including the most extreme anti-abortion law the country has ever seen — the Texas law that deputizes private citizens to enforce a ban at six weeks. Several states have already introduced Texas copycat bills, and a handful of other states filed 15-week abortion ban proposals in preparation of Roe falling. In the first few weeks of 2022 alone, more than 180 anti-abortion bills were filed in 37 states.

Biden has the charisma and political weight to not only ring the alarm on abortion rights, but also to galvanize Americans to fight alongside him, said Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women’s Law Center.

“What we need to see is the president be fiery and passionate in speaking about abortion. Much like he was recently with voting rights. He can do it. And he will do it when he’s moved by the issue,” she said.

Biden gave an impassioned speech on voting rights earlier this year, likening the senators who opposed the legislation to segregationists of the 1960s. Many activists believed Biden should have been advocating for voting rights like this last year, and his spirited speech came too late. The voting rights bill died in the Senate just over a week after Biden’s speech.

“He still has that discomfort, I think, but he has surrounded himself with people who are comfortable with it like the vice president and people on the gender policy counsel,” said Borchelt. “If he could just open himself up to hearing from them and understanding what it means to lose abortion access and how to talk about it from a place of values. He really could transform the conversation in this country.”

Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-back-seat-fight-abortion-rights_n_61fdb1eae4b0725faaca2313

The ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes six Trump judges, reinstates the “reason” ban in Tennessee.

The full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last week lifted a temporary injunction that had blocked a pre-viability abortion ban in Tennessee.

The decision reinstates part of the law—the “reason” ban”—which asks the government to read a pregnant person’s mind and determine their motivations for getting an abortion. Because that’s going to end well.

The court still needs to hold a hearing on this whole mess, including the remaining portion of the unconstitutional six-week ban that was blocked last year, but delayed it until after the Supreme Court releases a decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks.

Tennessee is known for these types of abortion restrictions. Last year, the Tennessee Attorney General’s office also went to bat for any length of waiting period to deter people from having abortions. And again the Sixth Circuit said sure, go ahead. Who needs rights, anyway?

Furthermore, Tennessee state lawmakers last year tried to give spouses veto power over a pregnant person’s abortion. Because what men really need is more power. As Rewire News Group reported:

And if the pregnant person goes ahead with that abortion anyway? They could be held in criminal or civil contempt of court. There are no exceptions for rape or incest—because what could be more pro-life than that?

This is the same state where a shooter in January 2021 attacked a Planned Parenthood clinic; and the clinic was again targeted on New Year’s Eve by a still-unknown arsonist or arsonists.

In the full Sixth Circuit ruling, Judge Karen Nelson Moore issued a fiery dissent, writing: “such a decision would manifest reckless overconfidence and unprincipled disregard for the normal judicial process.” Under Trump, the Sixth Circuit flipped to Republicans; six of the judges were nominated by Trump.

Source: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/02/07/trump-judges-allow-tennessee-abortion-ban-to-take-effect/

Family of Agnieszka T say they want to ‘save other women in Poland from a similar fate’, as case met with anger over restrictive termination laws

Protests are under way across Poland after the death of a 37-year-old woman this week who was refused an abortion, a year since the country introduced one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe.

On the streets of Warsaw on Tuesday night, protesters laid wreaths and lanterns in memory of Agnieszka T, who died earlier that day. She was pregnant with twins when one of the foetus’ heartbeat stopped and doctors refused to carry out an abortion. In a statement, her family accused the government of having “blood on its hands”. Further protests are planned in Częstochowa, the city in southern Poland where the mother-of-three was from.

“We continue to protest so that no one else will die,” Marta Lempart, organiser of the protests, told Polish media. “The Polish abortion ban kills. Another person has died because the necessary medical procedure was not carried out on time.” All-Poland Women’s Strike has called on people across the country to picket the offices of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and organise road blockades in the coming days.

Agnieszka was first admitted to the Blessed Virgin Mary hospital in Częstochowa with abdominal pain on 21 December. She is said to have been in the first trimester of a twin pregnancy when she arrived and was in “a good physical and mental shape”, according to her family, who said her condition then deteriorated.

On 23 December the heartbeat of one of the twins stopped and, according to Agnieszka’s family, the doctors refused to remove it, quoting the current abortion legislation. They waited several days until the second foetus also died. A further two days passed before the pregnancy was terminated on 31 December, according to the family.

A priest was then summoned by hospital staff to perform a funeral for the twins, the family said.

The family say that the doctors refused to terminate the pregnancy earlier, citing Poland’s abortion legislation. “Her husband begged the doctors to save his wife, even at the cost of the pregnancy,” Agnieszka’s twin sister, Wioletta Paciepnik, said on Tuesday.

After the termination, Agnieszka was moved from the gynaecological ward and her health continued to deteriorate. Her family suspect that she died of sepsis but the cause of death was not identified in a statement released by the hospital.

Shortly after her death, a statement by her family accusing the hospital of neglect was published on Facebook, alongside a distressing video of Agnieszka’s last days.

Agnieszka’s death marks the first anniversary of the 2021 ruling that declared abortion due to foetal abnormalities illegal. Abortion can now only be carried out in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life and health are in danger.

Her death comes after that of a woman known as Izabela last September, who died after being denied medical intervention when her waters broke in the 22nd week of her pregnancy. Her family claim the 30-year-old was refused an abortion or caesarean section and that the hospital cited the country’s abortion laws. An investigation found that “medical malpractice” led to Izabela’s death and the hospital was fined. Soon after, an anonymous man from Świdnica in south-west Poland came forward to share that his wife, Ania, died in similar circumstances in June last year.

While “selective abortion” is possible in the case of a twin pregnancy, it is unclear whether aborting an unviable foetus to save its healthy twin is permitted by the new abortion legislation. The Polish court has not referenced the questions raised by this situation, presented by opposition senators last year, in the new legislation.

“We want to honour the memory of my beloved sister and save other women in Poland from a similar fate,” Paciepnik said in a video appeal. The case is now being investigated by the regional prosecutors in Katowice, who also investigated the case of Izabela.

The family are represented by Kamila Ferenc, from the Federation for Women and Family Planning, who confirmed that an autopsy of Agnieszka’s body has been ordered by the court.

According to a statement from the hospital, Agnieszka tested positive for Covid before her death, although she tested negative twice when first admitted. “We stress that the hospital staff did all the necessary actions to save the patient,” the statement read. The hospital has also denied that a termination was requested.

 This article was amended on 28 January 2022. The first foetal heartbeat stopped on 23 December, not 21 December as stated in an earlier version.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/27/protests-flare-across-poland-after-death-of-young-mother-denied-an-abortion

Conversations about the aftermath of an abortion can center on harmful and false narratives. We’re here to change that.

Abortion is life-affirming health care that should be accessible for all, on demand and without restrictions. Part of supporting access to abortion care is making sure patients who seek them are fully informed about what having an abortion entails, including the aftercare.

I recently put out a call on Twitter to learn more about the experiences people had after their abortion. I heard from dozens of folks who said there were parts of the experience they felt unprepared for or surprised by—the pain, the bleeding, and all the other aspects associated with many medical procedures.

Unfortunately, conversations about the aftermath of an abortion all too often center on harmful and false narratives about abortion regret and other so-called risks of the procedure. Beyond that, it seems abortion care has also fallen victim to the same culture of medical misogyny and politicization as birth control and intrauterine devices, wherein the discomfort experienced is downplayed not only because it is part of women’s health care, but also out of fear that acknowledging the reality of it will embolden those who seek to restrict, stigmatize, and scaremonger about the procedure.

So here’s our ultimate guide to abortion aftercare, an honest, abortion-loving rundown of what to expect after terminating a pregnancy.

For any abortion experience

It’s important to have a safe and comfortable place to either recover from a procedural abortion or to undergo a medical one. The process can cause intense cramping and bleeding, and some common items you might want to have on hand include:

• A heating pad
• Heavy-flow pads (lots of them)
• Premade meals (or a plan to have meals delivered to your door)
• Pain medication
• Comfy, loose-fitting clothes
• A list of TV shows to binge
• A support system that can help with your caretaking and/or domestic needs.

You might also experience nausea after a medication abortion, so having stomach-friendly remedies such as ginger ale and plain crackers can also be super helpful.

No matter how you feel about your decision to terminate a pregnancy, hormone fluctuations after the procedure are normal and could cause you to experience mood swings. This makes sense, if you think about how your hormones affect your mood at different points in your menstrual cycle. If you feel a little low after having an abortion, know that your body will readjust.

Some folks who shared their abortion experience with me mentioned having side effects like hives or smell sensitivity. While nothing too serious for most people, they may cause you to worry if you’re unprepared. All of which underscores the reality that, like all medical decisions and procedures, abortion affects everyone a little differently. It’s worth discussing your concerns with your provider ahead of time, as well as any reactions you’ve had to medications or procedures in the past.

Also, there may be an abortion doula collective in your area—your local abortion fund or clinic should be able to point you in their direction. Abortion doulas, like pregnancy and birth doulas are trained to provide compassionate care and support for all kinds of abortion needs.

Medication abortion aftercare

A medication abortion typically involves taking two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol. Usually, patients take mifepristone in their provider’s office, after which they are sent home with misoprostol to be taken between 24 and 48 hours later.

“One thing to note is that typically you don’t get the cramping until you take the misoprostol,” said Dr. Diane Horvath, a Baltimore-based OB-GYN. “People sometimes freak out at the visit and say, ’Oh my God, is the pain going to start now?’ The pain typically starts after you take the misoprostol. And usually people are doing that in their home, or in a safe space that they’re able to be in for the rest of the process.” Horvath tells patients to plan on staying put for the duration once the misoprostol kicks in.

“So don’t take the misoprostol and go somewhere; don’t take it and go to Target,” she said. “Be home or in the home of somebody, or in a space that you trust.”

The worst of the bleeding and cramping is usually over within 24 hours; Horvath said she asks patients about what they do for work and the demands of their day-to-day so she can help them figure out when it might be best to take time off. (Horvath added that occasionally, patients might need a second dose of misoprostol to complete their abortion; that’s something you can discuss with your provider, as well.)

Once the fetal tissue has passed, the bleeding and cramping should lessen, but you should expect to experience bleeding similar to that of a period for a week or two, said Dr. Ashley Brant, an OB-GYN.

“Bleeding the second week is usually lighter than a period,” Brant said. “If you’re still spotting at the two-week mark, that’s probably OK too, as long as the bleeding is getting lighter over time. Dark red and brown bleeding is normal, as are small, stringy clots.”

When it comes to returning to normal activities, Horvath said that’s another conversation to have with your provider. She added that not having sex or using tampons for six weeks is an outdated standard; now she tells patients to “try not putting anything in your vagina for a week.” There’s no evidence to support the claim that waiting longer is necessary, Horvath said, as it’s not a birth or major surgery. Once the tissue has passed, do what feels most comfortable for your body.

As for pain management after a medication abortion, studies show that nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen often provide the best relief because they’re effective at blocking prostaglandins, the fatty, hormone-like compounds that cause the uterus to contract during your period. Horvath noted that it’s normal and OK for a patient to feel like they might need something stronger, like a prescription painkiller.

“I always ask people, ’How are your periods?’ And if someone says, ’Oh, I never have cramps on my period,’ I’m like, ’OK, you’re going to have to buckle up for this, because this is going to be really crummy for a few hours. You’re going to feel really shitty,’” Horvath said.

The most important thing is for patients to feel prepared for the process so they aren’t alarmed when the cramping or bleeding sets in. Horvath also recommends that patients take any pain medication before their pain becomes unbearable—don’t wait for it to get to a ten. When the pain is at a three or a four is when the medicine can really do its job, Horvath said.

One final tip for pain relief: “I always tell people, if you use cannabis for pain control or for anxiety, please feel free to use your cannabis to manage your symptoms from your medication abortion,” Horvath said.

Horvath also said patients should remember that undergoing a medication abortion will cause their hormone levels to fluctuate, which can lead to nausea, breast tenderness, hot flashes, mood swings, and sleep disruption. As such, she advises patients to be gentle with themselves, and to remember that medical intervention of any kind can be a stressful experience.

“You’ve had something done to your body, and your body is home,” Horvath said. “I mean, I think even going to the dentist for a lot of us is like a jarring feeling.” (I couldn’t agree more.)

Procedural abortion aftercare (early)

Much of the same aftercare advice applies to a procedural abortion: Give yourself time to rest, listen to your body, and talk to your provider in advance about what to expect and how best to prepare.

Horvath pointed out that the side effects of an early-term procedural abortion can vary—some patients report no cramping at all, while others experience significant cramping. She said the level of cramping typically mirrors that of your period, so if you get awful cramps when you menstruate, expect that you’ll also have cramps after your abortion. As your uterus shrinks back down to size, the contractions can cause bleeding and some intense pain in the first few days following the procedure.

Don’t be afraid to discuss the nitty-gritty details with your provider, Horvath added: Ask how much post-abortion bleeding is normal, how many times you should expect to change your pad, and what kind of clotting might be common versus what could be a sign you need to get checked out.

“It’s really normal to pass some clots, particularly after a second trimester or a later abortion,” Horvath said. “But those clots shouldn’t be the size of your fist. It could be the size of a lemon; that’s OK to have a couple lemon-sized clots. It’s not OK to have three fist-sized clots, [and] it’s not OK to have a clot the size of your shoe—that’s too much. If you saturate two maxi pads per hour for more than an hour, then call us. But [providers should be] really specific: I don’t mean panty liners; I mean full-size maxi pads.”

Later-abortion aftercare

For a later abortion, the cramping and bleeding may be more intense. “As the pregnancy length increases, the recovery becomes more like the recovery from a vaginal delivery in terms of bleeding and cramping,” Brant said.

Horvath recommends taking a few days off from work if your schedule or employer allows—especially if your job is physical—but this isn’t absolutely necessary if you need to work to provide for yourself or your family.

The later in pregnancy your abortion occurs, the more your body is ready to give birth. As a result, some patients who have a later abortion may start lactating. While your natural instinct might be to express the breast milk, Horvath said this will have the opposite of the intended effect—it will encourage your body to produce more milk.

Horvath suggested a midwifery trick: Freeze some cabbage for a few days before placing the frozen leaves in a well-fitted, supportive bra overnight. Avoid stimulating your breasts or letting hot water run over them in the shower. After a few days, the cabbage should have stopped the milk production. Brant advised taking over-the-counter Sudafed to help slow lactation.

With later abortions, know that there are ways to memorialize the pregnancy if desired, and your provider should be ready to discuss those with you. Later-term abortions can involve wanted pregnancies, meaning the emotional implications of this procedure are heavy. Some folks who reached out on Twitter said they wished they knew about the options available to them in advance, like taking a memento home from the hospital, such as footprints, handprints, or a certificate. Some of these options might also be available for patients having earlier abortions if they feel that it’s right for them.

Horvath said many of her later-term abortion patients feel anxious about how to discuss their experience with the people in their lives. One day they could be pregnant to the point of showing, and later they’re not—but there’s no baby at home.

“I’ve told people that if they’re comfortable, [they can say] something along the lines of, ’We lost the pregnancy, I don’t really want to talk about it,’” she said. “And that speech seems to work well because it kind of covers everything. I also tell people [that] if somebody gives you any shit, you just tell them you’re done talking.”

A safe procedure

Abortion is health care. And surely, anti-abortion activists will exploit the reality that abortion can cause severe cramping and mood changes by using it to bolster their rhetoric. But study after study has disproven theories about “post-abortion syndrome,” as well as other tropes about abortion regret. One of the most accurate indications of how you will feel after an abortion is your own mental health prior to having one.

Abortion as a medical procedure is also incredibly safe. Ask pretty much anyone who’s had a routine medical procedure and they say these experiences are generally not super pleasant! Getting a cavity filled sucks, undergoing a colonoscopy sucks, having your appendix removed sucks. Lots of common and safe procedures that people have every single day involve pain and bleeding and unpleasantness, but that doesn’t mean they should be politicized or have restrictions imposed on them.

Abortion is no different.

Source: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/02/02/a-guide-to-caring-for-yourself-or-others-after-an-abortion/

Pennsylvania lawmakers advanced an anti-abortion constitutional amendment that would go before the electorate if it clears the GOP-controlled assembly.

As we anticipate the end of Roe v. Wade, some states (see: California, Illinois, and New Jersey) are rallying to protect the right to abortion access, while others are rushing to do the opposite.

Last week, Pennsylvania lawmakers advanced a permanent anti-abortion constitutional amendment and also moved to defund reproductive health care for low-income Pennsylvanians.

The proposed amendment, SB 956, establishes fetal “personhood” and denies a constitutional right to abortion in the state. According to the amendment: “The policy of Pennsylvania is to protect the life of every unborn child from conception to birth, to the extent permitted by the Federal Constitution.”

If passed, abortion restrictions in the state could no longer be challenged under the state constitution, limiting avenues for pregnant Pennsylvanians seeking relief from the courts. Instead, they’ll be criminalized at even higher rates. That could mean being incarcerated for having a miscarriage or even trying to have a child via in vitro fertilization. All bets are off when it comes to fetal personhood, and Pennsylvania lawmakers want to enshrine it in their state’s constitution.

As if that weren’t enough, SB 152 strips funding from abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, a major provider of all reproductive health care in the state. And poor, rural Pennsylvanians, especially pregnant people of color, will suffer most.

If the amendment passes the Republican-controlled assembly, it will bypass Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who’s said he’d veto any anti-abortion bill, and go before the electorate as a referendum.

What’s that? Do we hear voting rights calling?

Source: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/01/31/pennsylvania-republicans-are-close-to-banning-abortion-in-the-state/

“When you have to flee a country . . . it’s women who are being raped, sexually harassed, sexually assaulted,” Elizabeth Estrada, of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said. 

With the Supreme Court seemingly inching closer to overturning Roe v. Wade, many Americans are trying to imagine a future in which abortion is a crime in roughly half the country. How will women cope with unwanted pregnancies? What will the public-health consequences be? All signs point to a fractured nation, in which barriers to abortion exacerbate existing inequities. But, if you talk to reproductive-rights advocates, they’ll tell you that, to some extent, that America already exists. While abortion is technically constitutionally protected, in practical terms, many women have a hard time accessing the procedure, owing to restrictive local laws, prohibitive costs, and social stigma. That’s especially true for immigrants, the poor, and those living in marginalized communities.

Last week, I spoke with Elizabeth Estrada, the New York field and advocacy manager at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, an organization that fights for equal access to reproductive health for Latino communities. According to a recent Pew survey, fifty-eight per cent of Hispanic adults think that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, which is just slightly less than the general population. Still, Estrada often works with women who are seeking abortions against the will of their families, their peers, and their church.

Estrada, a Mexican immigrant, migrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was four. Her family settled in a suburb of Atlanta, where Estrada lived until she was twenty-seven. At the age of twenty-one, she got an abortion in Georgia, an experience that propelled her into activism. When she moved to New York, in 2014, she found that Latinas face many practical and social obstacles that prevent them from getting abortions, even in a state with progressive laws. She’s worried about the dystopian future ahead of us, which certain states, such as Texas and Georgia, are already speeding toward, but she’s also concerned about the status quo, in which many Americans have a “right” to something that they are unable to access.

“In 2004, I was twenty-one years old, living with my parents in suburban Georgia. I had my first professional gig: an entry-level job as a loan processor at my aunt’s mortgage company. This was around the time of the housing bubble—Georgia being one of the leading states in fraudulent lending—so I was really busy! I was single, but I had been dating this guy casually. And one night, we had sex and didn’t use a condom. For education reasons, I think it’s important for me to get into the specifics of what happened. The guy didn’t finish—as in, he didn’t ejaculate. I had taken sex ed at school, but it taught me nothing, because, in Georgia, it’s all abstinence-based. So I didn’t know there could still be sperm in preëjaculate, and I was really shocked when I ended up getting pregnant. And the guy was a total asshole about it, saying, ‘That’s not possible. Are you sure it’s even mine?’

“I had thought about this before—what would happen if I got pregnant. And I had said to a friend, ‘I’d definitely get an abortion.’ But when the time came, I struggled with the decision. It was not easy. There was a lot of shame, a lot of judging myself. Thinking, How could I be so stupid? Why didn’t I use protection? All the other times, we used it. Why not this time?

“I needed to find information about how to get an abortion. I didn’t feel that I could tell my mom. I went to the Internet. Back then, it was Ask Jeeves. That turned up nothing. I had to pick up the literal Yellow Pages and find the closest clinic. It turned out to be in midtown Atlanta, forty-five minutes away from where I lived, in Alpharetta. So I call and make the appointment, and they tell me that I have to bring someone with me, because I’ll be under anesthesia. The whole process would take so long—like six hours, with the wait and the drive—that I actually had to ask two friends to accompany me in shifts. So I have one of my friends take me there and stay for the first three hours, and then another friend to do the next three hours and take me home.

“Abortion clinics in Georgia were very low-profile for security reasons. There was no name or sign outside the clinic. The windows were blacked out, and there was a cop at the front door. You had to ring the bell and look into a camera and say your name and date of birth. Then the cop lets you in, and you go to the window and you pay. To this day, I still remember I had to pay five hundred and thirty-five dollars out of pocket. I had health insurance, but abortion was not covered, as is often the case. And, as I said, the guy was a total asshole and didn’t offer to help pay.

“I went back into the waiting area. And it was amazing, the volume of people that were in there, waiting for procedures. Then I was asked to go to the surgical area. There were people on gurneys, coming out of surgery. And what I remember is, there was such silence. Nobody wanted to talk.

“When it was my turn, I went back into the surgical area. They talked to me about the procedure and they offered counselling afterward. I told them, ‘Yes, I’d love to talk to somebody afterwards.’ They did an ultrasound. Thankfully, they did not ask me if I wanted to look at the ultrasound—some states require medical staff to ask people to look at the ultrasounds. That’s an ‘anti-’ strategy to try and make them change their minds. So then I get the procedure. I was under anesthesia for like fifteen minutes, twenty minutes at most. And when I came to, I immediately started crying. I just think that probably the drugs made me feel overwhelmed.

“When I woke up, the nurse told me something like, ‘O.K., I’ll just let you sit here, and then when you’re ready, you can get up and get dressed.’ I had said before that I wanted counselling, but no one else came to talk to me. And then I dressed, left the surgical area. I go outside. My friend’s waiting for me, and I’m crying, and my friend hugs me, and we start to leave. Something that I really remember is that the cop, this older gentleman, just put his hand on my shoulder, just as a sign of compassion, to say, ‘Hey, it’s going to be O.K.’ The people in the clinic were all women, but they didn’t have the best bedside manner. But that cop, who was a man, treated me with compassion, and it really meant something.

“I remember that moment to this day, because my first abortion activated me. It took a year for me to reflect on what had happened, and be O.K. with the decision that I had made. And, after a while, I realized that there was something about the experience that made me angry. It was the silence that pissed me off. It was the blacking out of the windows that pissed me off. It shouldn’t be this way. This was a regular procedure. It took twenty minutes. Why is this such a stigmatized issue? Why are people judging me for making private health decisions?

“I started seeking spaces where I could talk about it, and that’s when I found the Feminist Women’s Health Center, in Atlanta, which is also an abortion clinic that does community education. I went to meetings at the Feminist Women’s Health Center and then I started volunteering with them. I eventually became one of their promotoras, a sexual- and reproductive-health worker for the Latino community. The model is that community members get certified to educate their community, because statistics show that people learn more when they’re in a safe space, as opposed to from someone outside coming in and saying, ‘Hey, you should use a condom. Here’s how to use it.’ Rather, it’s a person from your community saying, ‘Here’s my experience. This is what I know. Let me share my knowledge with you.’

“Before my abortion, I was political, but I was into immigration politics. I was marching and doing direct actions. But I noticed that, in the immigrant-justice world, we weren’t talking feminism, even though the majority of the volunteers and the majority of people who were impacted negatively by anti-immigrant laws and the migrant crisis were women. When you have to flee a country and you have to cross the border, it’s women who are being raped, sexually harassed, sexually assaulted.

“In my family, I joke about how I’m the feminist jodona—a way to translate it would kind of be like ‘feminist killjoy.’ Women in my generation of immigrant Latinas, or first-generation Latinas here in New York and across the United States, are often tasked with educating our families. We do that at the dinner table, at Christmas or Thanksgiving. We’re the ones saying to our family members, ‘No, Dad, that’s sexist.’ We do that when we’re watching TV and see something racist or sexist or homophobic. We’re the ones having to break those cycles by informing the people we love that something is wrong, and that the way they look at something like racism or sexism or access to abortion should be challenged.

“Now I’m the New York field and advocacy manager for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice. I’ve lived for the past seven years in the northwest Bronx. We work with activists throughout the state to help inform, train, organize, and mobilize our communities, on issues that impact our families and our lives.

“Even though I’m in a blue state now, working in the Bronx, you see how there are barriers to abortion access. For one thing, there are so many crisis-pregnancy centers—centers run by anti-abortion groups that are designed to resemble abortion clinics. A lot of people are not medically literate, especially people who don’t speak English as a first language, and that can make them more likely to be deceived by these fake clinics.

“Abortion stigma also continues to be a barrier—especially in the Bronx, which has a high Latino population, as well as Black, Indigenous, and people of color. You have faith leaders that preach against abortion and birth control. A lot of people don’t know that they have access to abortion, because they are dissuaded or misinformed by the people closest to them—their friends, their families, their loved ones. So, bad information, misinformation, is a barrier. And then there are structural barriers. When you think about folks in the Latinx community who may work multiple jobs, they don’t have paid leave. They lack transportation. Making a trip to an abortion provider is already tough. Making another trip, after they’ve been deceived by—or lured to—a fake clinic, may be impossible. And then there’s child care—because also keep in mind that the majority of people who have abortions are already parents.

“Given the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow the Texas abortion ban to stand, I think white feminists are now seeing what Black and brown and Indigenous feminists have been saying from the very beginning: the Court is not going to protect our rights. They’re not going to make abortion access available to us. So we have to go back to the practices that we women have been doing all along, like self-managed abortion. Often, when we get together at story-sharing circles, some of our activists talk about how their great-grandmother used to help women in their community get abortions with things like teas and herbs. Now we have self-managed abortion with pills like misoprostol and mifepristone. We’re seeking to destigmatize self-managing your abortion at your home, with your loved ones, especially in light of covid.

“And then, of course, there’s the National Network of Abortion Funds. These funds have existed for a long time, and in our communities, we’re familiar with something like that, because we have the ancestral knowledge of mutual aid. So self-managed abortion, donating to abortion funds in each state, including New York, these are frameworks that we need to seek. Frameworks that help liberate us by putting our decisions in our own hands.”

Source: https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/a-reproductive-rights-activist-explains-the-realities-of-abortion-for-latina-women

And the judge’s wife is a Florida state senator trying to pass a 15-week abortion ban.

A Florida appeals court last week overturned a trial judge’s rejection of a 17-year-old’s request to get an abortion without written parental consent.

The decision meant the teen was allowed to get the abortion she was seeking. But why did it even have to get to this point? Because of people like Judge John Stargel, who wrote an eight-page dissent to the appellate court ruling.

And yes, Stargel’s wife, Kelli, is a Florida state lawmaker trying to ban abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation. The bill cleared its first committee in the Florida state House committee last week, the Miami Herald reported. If it becomes law, it’ll have a devastating effect for access not just in the state but throughout the region. As Rewire News Group reported last year, Florida offers much more protection for abortion access than any of the states it borders, and its clinics treat patients from throughout the South.

Florida, like most states in the country, has never been particularly supportive of young people getting abortions. It already required parental notification, but in 2020 the state started forcing minors seeking abortion to get parental consent—or else go to court to beg a judge for permission. The latter process, called a judicial bypass, is confusing and invasive; last week’s Jane Doe was ultimately allowed to get an abortion, but first she had to appeal the initial judge’s baseless decision.

Like most abortion restrictions, Florida’s forced parental consent law does the most harm to those who are already disadvantaged, like, immigrants. The risk of deportation makes it even more intimidating for undocumented minors or those with undocumented family members to petition for judicial bypass. And even for teens with a parent who can offer consent, the law’s requirement to accompany the written consent with a state-issued ID poses a significant obstacle.  As Rewire News Group reported:

For teens, who must also navigate the same profusion of abortion laws as adults, parental involvement mandates are a distinct burden. This is particularly true for youth who, in addition to being disenfranchised by their age, are also marginalized by their identities, family structure, socio-economic position, or by their immigration status.

While some teens have managed to get justice through appeals, not everyone will—and the clock keeps ticking.

Source: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/01/24/a-florida-judge-tried-to-stop-a-teen-from-getting-an-abortion-because-of-her-gpa/

My evangelical upbringing taught me to despise abortion and attend March for Life as a way of “supporting” the civil rights movement. I know better now.

Participation in March for Life starts early as a rite of passage for those in the anti-choice community. As a child of Quiverfull parents, I remember attending local marches and vigils in middle school, with all my younger siblings in attendance with me. Other families brought toddlers in strollers, babies worn in slings. We carried the gruesome signs made with photos of aborted fetal tissue and stood outside the local Planned Parenthood.

It was a family affair because the issue at stake was, we were told, a human rights issue and all of us could have been in danger of abortion ourselves. I had to care, because it could have been me on that sign.

On the March for Life website, the first tagline that pops up reads: “Abortion is the most significant human rights abuse of our time. Will you take a stand?” This framing is vital to ensuring the longevity of the movement—it must be seen as a human rights or civil rights cause in order to secure buy-in from Christians who want to be active citizens and patriots and don’t know much about the actual history of human rights violations in the United States.

When I was a kid, my parents chose homeschooling curriculum that framed U.S. history as if Christians were the heroes: Slaughter of Indigenous people was spun as failed missionary efforts toward stubborn and ungrateful people; slavery was portrayed as benevolent but morally bankrupt; the founding fathers were upheld as paragons of moral excellence. This vision of history centers white people and Christians as the protagonists. Everyone else is essentially a side character.

American history, when taught this way, plays into the anti-choice agenda. My sense of myself as a participant in “pro-life” vigils and the March for Life was that I was engaged in a civil rights movement, following in the footsteps of Christian activists like Martin Luther King Jr., William Wilberforce, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This perspective was necessary to keep me and the other protesters believing that we were on the side of good, on the side of the vulnerable, on the side of God.

There’s a level of cultivated ignorance required for this belief. I had to be kept from understanding the history of racism, the history of capitalism disenfranchising the medically vulnerable, the history of sexual violence and patriarchal coercion of economically vulnerable people with uteruses. In order to believe that I was participating in a crusade for good, I had to not understand the actual history of Christian empire imposing itself on those it conquered.Every month or so I’m learning just another way that our history is riddled with abuses of power and legalized brutality.

The March for Life deliberately mimics the optics of the 1963 March on Washington, following a similar route, centering prayer and religious leaders as speakers. This is not unusual for protests held in Washington, D.C., but as a child, I didn’t know that. All I knew is that the images of the 1963 march felt similar to the images of the Marches for Life because that’s what I was shown in my textbooks as a parallel cause.

As the 2022 March for Life draws near, I think about how this approach to teaching history also parallels the current debates around history education in public schools—critical race theory, or CRT, is actually a term for a certain method of legal historical interpretation, but as a buzzword today it’s shorthand for something like “being taught that white people have oppressed people of the global majority over centuries.” Realizing the discrepancies between my childhood’s whitewashed history education and the real history of the United States is a process of deconstruction and active corrective education that has taken years and is far from over. Every month or so I’m learning just another way that our history is riddled with abuses of power and legalized brutality.

If the CRT panic is successful in censoring history pedagogy, there’s going to be a whole generation of kids who have to re-educate themselves like I’ve had to do. And since the same conservatives who organize the March for Life are also pushing the CRT panic, it seems like that’s part of a strategy to resurrect the Moral Majority, which originally coalesced around the conservative reaction to Roe v. Wade.

If the kids think that they’re part of a crusade for good because they don’t know what they don’t know, it’ll be easy to manipulate them into anti-choice activism—just like I was.

Source: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/01/20/the-pro-life-movement-weaponizes-kids-i-should-know-they-did-it-to-me/