Speaking as a Catholic: banning abortion is not pro-life, by pure measure of statistics.
Banning or restricting abortion does not stop abortions, nor does it significantly reduce the rates at which people seek it. What it does do is ensure more people die, whether from pregnancy related complications or from seeking out unregulated, unsafe methods of abortion or from any number of related factors. Not to mention the many grieving parents who will be wrongfully imprisoned for miscarriages and birth complications.
The solution to abortion, if that is what we supposedly seek, is not spending millions on self-congratulatory “marches for life” or lobbying for bans or political campaigning, but to invest in a society that actively addresses poverty, roots out racism and ableism, supports young parents, provides appropriate and comprehensive sex ed, makes medical care accessible, and ultimately addresses the root causes that motivate many parents to terminate a pregnancy. Suggesting anything less is often smug, self-serving bullshit.
This isn’t true. Obviously there are other likely factors at play, such as contraception, but abortions very visibly increase dramatically when legalised and decrease when banned or otherwise restricted (the last being perhaps easiest to observe). This shouldn’t be surprising, as there are many anecdotes of women who wanted to have abortions but felt they had no choice but to carry the child to term.
The known legal abortion rate in the US in 1980 was 1.3 million, higher than even the highest estimates of illegal abortions pre-Roe. Even accounting for the increase in population, the overwhelming majority of estimates agree that abortions increased.
(The increase in abortion is high enough that some experts have suggested it decreased crime rates, which would be
Pregnancy is complicated, even the most healthy of pregnancies can have irreversible effects on the mother’s body.
Hormonal changes aren’t the half of it; hemorrhoids, incontinence, chronic pain, heart disease, diabetes, and strokes are all potential lifelong risks from being pregnant.
It’s really not as cut and dry as “there is a living being inside of you and killing it is murder”. A fetus is not able to survive without the mother’s body. Viability is not really the same as having its own bodily autonomy; this pre-infant being had to encroach on the autonomy of another human being and potentially impose lifelong health hazards before it’s able to survive on its own.
Like I think abortion is a serious topic. I don’t think anyone should go into unprotected sex with the idea that it’s ok, just get an abortion if need be. But I don’t think it’s my fucking job to police why people do or do not get abortions. I may think their attitude or reasoning is fucked up but I will fight for their ability to have that choice.
If someone would die without having your kidney transplanted into their body, you’re still given the opportunity to say no. Should it be enforced by the government to extract living people’s organs for the sake of potentially saving someone else’s life, whether or not they consent?
A lot of people in the US are super worried about the Supreme Court axing Roe v. Wade, but what they might not know is that some states have laws in place that will protect the right to reproductive choice and abortion if that happens. One of these states is the state of Illinois. In 2019, a law was passed that protects abortion rights within the state even if the federal right to an abortion falls. This means that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will still be a protected right in Illinois. Even before Roe, Chicago was a haven for safe abortions- you just called and asked for Jane.
Now, safe abortion access is the law of the land in IL, and there are several groups who can help you. This post is long, but I think it’s worthwhile. Even if you don’t read all the way through it, maybe save it for later. You or someone you know might need it. If you want to stop now, the TL;DR is this:
f you’re a minor and you can’t tell your parents, get a waiver of notification from the IL Judicial Bypass program.
Schedule your appointment.
Contact abortion funds to get financial aid. Your home state might have s fund, and the Chicago Abortion Fund can help.
Secure housing for the procedure through the Midwest Access Coalition or by talking to the intake staff at the clinic of your choice.
I’d like to start by saying that the closer to home you get your abortion, should you need one, the easier it will be for you… probably. It depends on your individual situation AND your safety. If I still lived in Indiana and I needed an abortion, I’d probably leave to get it done, even though there are abortion providers in Indiana, because Indiana is super hostile and there’s lots of clinic protestors- for example, when I was taking my GRE my senior year at Notre Dame, the testing center was in this little strip mall in Mishawaka next to Planned Parenthood. Despite the fact that the PP in Mishawaka does not provide abortions, there were protestors who yelled at me for going in there. I wasn’t even going to PP. I’d like to say that I said something devastatingly cool but I just ran in flustered. Point being: It really, really would have sucked if I was there for healthcare instead of a standardized test for graduate school. And that’s a very tame, mild situation! Real abortion clinic protests are often much more devastating!
ANYWAYS. The less you have to travel, the easier things tend to be, if it’s safe to get an abortion where you are and if your state will have protected abortions if Roe is overturned. If you’re not sure what might happen in your state in that case, this map has a clear, succinct overview of the legal status of abortion in each state and all US territories. You will want to click through to that link, because this image isn’t interactive.
[ID: a map of the US with states and territories sorted by their legal protections for abortion into four categories: expanded access in the case of Roe v. Wade being overturned, protected, not protected, and hostile. IL is highlighted.]
So let’s say you live in any of those red states. (Yellow and blue are safe- abortion access is protected there.) Let’s say, worst case scenario, Roe gets overturned and you get pregnant and you want to terminate. You will be able to do that in IL, and it’s relatively easy to do that in Chicago for a relatively low cost and with the benefit of a robust support network of people who want to reaffirm your reproductive choices.
First, if you’re a minor and you don’t want to tell your parents because it’s not safe for you to do so, get a judicial waiver of parental notification. The IL ACLU has a judicial bypass hotline. This will come at no cost to you. Do this ASAP, because it takes time to get it set up! You can do this by calling the hotline at 877-442-9727, texting 312-560-6607, or emailing [email protected].
Next, you need to get an appointment set up. You could get a referral from someone local to you, but this can be tricky- 87% of counties in the US don’t have an abortion provider, and google can lead you to a crisis pregnancy center. They will not help you. If you have a local Planned Parenthood, call them. Even if they don’t provide abortions, they can refer you to someone who can. If you’re coming to Chicago, which this post… kind of assumes you are… you can call any of these groups to talk about your options and what clinics can help you. I recommend starting with FPA or PP; those are two actual clinics. MAC and CAF are funds- they can direct you but they can’t schedule an appointment for you.
You might want to shop around and see which clinic costs the least, and is the most practical for you to get to. FPA has a lot of patient resources, as does PP. Don’t be afraid to ask for financial assistance. The people staffing those organizations have extensive networks and deep compassion for their patients- if the clinic can’t help, they might know who can.
Once you’ve made an appointment, now’s the time to start gathering financial aid. Some insurance, including IL Medicaid, covers it. If yours does not, or if the copay is still too much, this is where abortion funds come into play. Many states have their own abortion funds for state residents, so you might have to look around to see who can help you. I’d start with the National Network of Abortion Funds.
You also need to figure out transportation and housing while you’re in the city to get your abortion. This isn’t super necessary if you’re just coming for the pill abortion, but if you’re coming for a d and c or other surgical procedure, you will be staying for a couple of days. THIS is why I’m writing this up, because abortion funds typically only are able to help cover the financial cost of the procedure. It’s expensive to stay somewhere and it can be absolutely terrifying if you’re on your own! Navigating while you’re in pain from the procedure can be an absolute devil of a time, too! However, Chicago has MAC (contact info above), which is a practicalaccess fund, which means that they help pay for transportation to the city (bus tickets and train tickets) and around the city (volunteer drivers or volunteers who take rideshares with clients), food, aftercare medicine (painkillers, etc.), and housing, and there’s also free access to emotional support staff throughout your stay. This is not just open to IL residents; it’s open to anyone coming to the city for an abortion. ALSO if you go through FPA, they have a partnership with the Hampton Inn a block away from their location where their patients get a discount. If you go that route, just talk to FPA about housing and they’ll hook you up. This can be super helpful if you need some evidence that you’re on a “business trip” or something like that- if you are in a position where you need an excuse for your safety, that might work well.
Hopefully you won’t need this post- but if you do, I hope it helps. Feel free to share it around. If you have anti-choice opinions and you feel the need to share, don’t. This isn’t the space for it; you will be blocked and your comments removed. And then remember that criminalizing abortion won’t stop abortion. It’ll just stop safe abortions. Also, increased access to abortion, funnily enough, tends to be the thing that lowers abortion rates, because increased access to abortion comes part and parcel with increased access to birth control and general health and sex education.
Reblogging this because it’s always relevant… and because an administrative decision by MAC’s incredible leadership means they don’t just do bus and train tickets anymore. They will also help pay for airline tickets if you need to fly. If you are in the US and need to come to Chicago for an abortion, MAC’s got your back.
Also, if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t travel, and you catch it early, you can do a medication abortion at home. This can either be clinician supported through telehealth or it can be a self-managed abortion (SMA). Either way, you can do this entirely online without ever having to go into a doctor’s office or clinic.
Now, this only works early in a pregnancy (up to 11-12 weeks), so if you’re in a situation where you suspect you may become pregnant and you don’t want to be, test early and often if you can. The various help lines can also help you figure out how far along you are.
More resources: https://www.reprolegalhelpline.org/- this link is a good resource for talking about your legal options. If you’re a pregnant person of color, immigrant, or low-income (and using Medicaid) in an abortion-hostile state, I HIGHLY recommend talking through your legal options because you are absolutely targeted by politicians and the US legal system.
You can print these on sticker paper at home if you have it. It’s a good way to get the word out.
As of… thirty minutes ago on Monday, 2 May 2022, Politico got hold of Justice Alito’s draft statement on Roe. It’s not good. We’re probably gonna lose Roe vs. Wade in two months, and that means if you live in a red state, you’re VERY probably going to lose the right to a safe abortion.
I know this is a long post, but if Roe is overturned, it’s not going to stop abortions. It’s just going to stop safe abortions. Abortion access is reproductive healthcare, and a lot of states are going to get really restrictive. Indiana, my home state, has already put a woman in jail for having a miscarriage. Oklahoma lawmakers would rather let women with ectopic pregnancies die than allow lifesaving medical procedures. This is bad, but! Underground abortion networks did exist before Roe vs. Wade, and now we have the internet. We have robust networks in place to help people that the government would rather see dead or imprisoned. Even if Roe is overturned, some states will be safe havens for abortion. Travel to these states can be difficult, but not impossible– that’s what abortion networks and abortion funds are for.
Please save as much of this information as may be relevant to you. And if you’re “pro-life” and feel the need to comment on this post? Don’t. Your opinions and input are neither valued nor wanted. Abortion access is a vital, necessary part of reproductive healthcare.
Description: Alloaro Lily is single and never planned on having a kid, so when she unexpectedly gets pregnant, her friend Rain agrees to help her through the pregnancy and co-parent when the child is born. The troubles of pregnancy, however, put a strain on their relationship and suddenly Lily has a bad feeling about the baby. (This story is romance and sex free, apart from a brief mention of Lily being slut shamed for “sleeping around.”)
Content Warnings: pregnancy, (late term) abortion, arophobia/amatonormativity and slut shaming, depression, anger, and abortion trauma
note: if there are any warnings i’ve missed, please let me know so i can add them!
Disclaimer: I am submitting this for ASAW and Aro Writing Month, although while the main character, Lily, is alloaro (along with the supporting character, Rain, being genderqueer), the story does not revolve around their identities nor are they explicitly said within the text, but they are implied.
I’m not reblogging much on this URL anymore - especially regarding social issues - but I just want to get this out there in case any one of my 1k followers is wondering…
I’m pro-choice.
I believe abortion is a necessary procedure sometimes; and often that necessity isn’t just about physical health, but also mental wellbeing & financial security.
Because of that, it’s up to the person immediately affected to be well informed of the risks (physical, mental & social) to decide if it’s the right course of action for them.
I’m not exactly pro-abortion, though. What I want is for the world to progress to a need for no abortions (just like I want it to progress to a need for no chemotherapy). But the world isn’t there yet, so we have to make do with the limited options that are available.
First and foremost, I am PRO the LIFE of the person with the uterus (& related organs). Their needs come first.
I feel sad that anyone needs to make that decision for whatever reason. I feel sad that whatever birth control methods they or their partner were using didn’t prevent the pregnancy.
I feel angry when that situation is forced upon them - through violence, coercion, and medical/government interference.
My faith is Christianity, but I was not brought up with the “abortion is murder” mindset (either at home or in my church).
However, it was present at my Christian high school. There was a talk from a woman who had supposedly been an “aborted baby”. She said she had a disability because of that. She was there to tell the girls not to have an abortion should they get pregnant too young.
I had no interest in sex so it wasn’t a factor to me & I wasn’t socially active so I couldn’t be a “rape target”…
[Sorry, I was brought up with thismindset. I was told it wasn’t the girl’s fault if she was raped, whatever she’s wearing, but was also told not to go to certain places just in case it happened (like, it would be my fault for being there). Because there are sinful non-Christian people who do these horrible things. Also sinful Christian people, but I wasn’t to learn that for a few years.]
Anyway, point is I didn’t pay much attention to her warnings… But I did feel sick that the school thought it was important to have this woman around to talk to the girls at my school, and to basically imply that all abortions are bad.
The truth is, all abortions are sad.
And most are necessary (especially the ectopic ones, like WTF are people suggesting those can be saved?).
Some might not be necessary for any of the reasons I’ve given, but I don’t hate anyone for choosing it. I hate that their circumstance put them in that situation.
There is not enough justice in this world. I feel like there used to be a lot more, but I also recognise that was my middle-class white Australian privilege making it seem that way.
Not that my life was all that great, but I was definitely sheltered from most of the crap I’ve learned in the last 20 years. It’s been a learning curve to say the least, but one I’m grateful to be on. I just wish I could do more to improve society.
This has been stuck in my head because it’s kind of the same logic that leads right-wingers to suppose that America and Europe are on the verge of being taken over by radical right-wing muslims.
It’s the conversion of a contextual power into a sort of broad declaration that these people must have power over everything.
That’s why you can believe that the “far left is ascendent” even as Roe V. Wade is overturned and that same ascendent insanely powerful far left has no clear path do doing anything about it whatsoever.
Somebody, I think @poipoipoi-2016 summed up the US as a country with a left-wing bureaucracy and a right-wing senate and judiciary, and that strikes me as a much much more accurate assessment than talking about an “ascendent left” or “ascendent right”.
Like, ask people for examples of woke-racist behavior and they will bring out a laundry list of HR training slides, directives from campus administrators, suggested school curricula, and all kinds of other things that can be unilaterally decided on by a mid-level bureacrat.
Ask people for examples of woke-racist legislationand…
Okay, editors, you need to tell me how to say this because I don’t quite know a way to say this that isn’t somewhat misleading, so please read the second sentence as well.
There seemingly hasn’t been any woke-racist legislation in the last 50 years. Or rather, there has been no left-ward movement in that half-century, seemingly the entire debate is about how much of the infrastructure built in the 60s (Things like affirmative action or the voting rights act) we should get rid of. Should we get rid of a bit of it, or lots of it, or all of it?
Like, an example I was given of crazy, insane left-wing woke-racist nonsense was California’s Prop 16, a 2020 ballot measure meant to overturn a previous ballot measure (Prop 209, from 1996) that in turn eliminated affirmative action in California.
So the legislative question, when it comes to left-wing race stuff, is, should we go back to the status quo ante of 1995 or should we have even less left-wing race stuff than we had back there.
And, in fact, the voters went with “even less”.
I don’t think I was able to get a single example of successful woke-racist legislation that went further then the left was willing to go in the 60s.
The judicial picture seems more complicated, but, again, Roe V. Wade is about to be overturned. The American right has done a solid job getting the supreme court, and the judiciary in general.
To me, all this seems actually important in analyzing who has power over what.
Would legislation make a difference, or are the bureaucrats (and cultural forces that are hard for any non-authoritarian government to alter) in the hands of the Left?
Who can get in trouble at their job is based on a whole mix of self-interest, lawsuit risk avoidance, personal ideology, institutional ideology, the question of what is legible, etc. It seems like what lawsuits can succeed under the Civil Rights Acthaschanged.
At some point between 2008 and now, this sort of stuff got so widespread in the bureaucratic world that it was able to police itself and exclude challengers pretty effectively.
With the same legislation as now, we could have a world where Wokes in education and HR and media repeatedly get told, “no, your antidiscrimination efforts are discriminatory themselves, no, you don’t get to single out ‘whiteness’ to be defined entirely in terms of bad things, 'uterus-owners’ includes a small minority at the cost of alienating a majority and is also dehumanizing”. And wokeness would be of no concern.
We do not have that world.
My point is that, say you want an abortion. The Supreme Court says states have the right to restrict access, and your state legislature says abortion is illegal. Your company releases a statement saying that abortion is a basic human right and HR tells you to be really careful about how you talk about this stuff in the workplace.
Do you think that it’s easy or hard to get an abortion?
Because I think it’s going to be pretty fucking hard.
The courts have a great deal of power. The Legislature has a great deal of power. Power that can be wielded to change the world in all kinds of major, material ways, and extrapolating from “Left-wingers have a lot of direct power over me in certain contexts” to “The far left is ascendent in the US” is not valid, even if those left-wingers do, in fact, have a lot of power over you.
Like I said above, it’s the same kind of mentality that leads people in like, Texas to think that radical Islam is on the verge of taking over.
I’m… Still not convinced. Maybe in ten years this reaction will actually come to fruit. Currently it seems like whenever they are not boogie manning, the Left has total confidence in being able to circumvent this.
Come on, man, who are you talking about and how are they going to “circumvent” anything I’ve been talking about above?
And for that matter, how is moving from “We don’t have to circumvent anything because there’s nothing to circumvent” to “Well, we have a backup plan” not, like, a real assertion of right wing power?
More limited abortion restrictions have been successfully enforced in the US, haven’t they?
I’m sure that having protestors outside their house must be uncomfortable for Supreme Court Justices, perhaps even something they wish they could get rid of. But they’ve already made their decision, and now must bring it to term. Maybe this wouldn’t be happening to them if they had been a little more responsible with their earlier behavior.
i find it simply baffling that you can make a controversial political decision that affects millions of lives, in a procedurally valid way or no, and then have the audacity to get annoyed at people who affect yourlife in the mildest of ways. like, are you under the illusion this is all some kind of ceremonial ritual with no material consequences outside of your day job? that’s a terrible approach to the responsibility of governance!
I don’t actually object to protesting judges, but I think the people who do object see it as being on a continuum with threats, bribes, intimidation etc.
And the reason we aren’t OK with those are obvious: they are tools of minority rule, rule by the most violent. We do not want people deciding things on the basis of which side is more likely to send an armed mob to your house. We deliberately insulate political and legal decision-making from such tactics because we have other standards (democracy and law) that we want issues to be decided by instead.
still marvelling over “if people had the right to bodily autonomy then we couldn’t punish them for taking drugs or having sex”
If people had bodily autonomy, we couldn’t require them to take vaccines or wear masks, either. Nor could we regulate which substances people can imbibe while driving.
Or could we? Of course we could! Your right to swing your fist ends when it hits my face, after all. Drunk driving can be banned because your bodily autonomy in getting drunk does not legalise putting others at risk. We can’t require anti-COVID measures per se, but we can criminalise interacting with other people without them and potentially giving them COVID.
Similarly, we can criminalise abortion because it harms the fetus (a seperate person), criminalise doing drugs because you might do something dangerous to other people while intoxicated, criminalise selling drugs because they’re an unsafe product, criminalise casual (and gay) sex because it risks spreading STDs and hurting your partner’s feelings to the point of needing therapy, etc.
It’s almost like debates over human rights inevitably reduce to object-level opinions.
Speaking as a Catholic: banning abortion is not pro-life, by pure measure of statistics.
Banning or restricting abortion does not stop abortions, nor does it significantly reduce the rates at which people seek it. What it does do is ensure more people die, whether from pregnancy related complications or from seeking out unregulated, unsafe methods of abortion or from any number of related factors. Not to mention the many grieving parents who will be wrongfully imprisoned for miscarriages and birth complications.
The solution to abortion, if that is what we supposedly seek, is not spending millions on self-congratulatory “marches for life” or lobbying for bans or political campaigning, but to invest in a society that actively addresses poverty, roots out racism and ableism, supports young parents, provides appropriate and comprehensive sex ed, makes medical care accessible, and ultimately addresses the root causes that motivate many parents to terminate a pregnancy. Suggesting anything less is often smug, self-serving bullshit.
This isn’t true. Obviously there are other likely factors at play, such as contraception, but abortions very visibly increase dramatically when legalised and decrease when banned or otherwise restricted (the last being perhaps easiest to observe). This shouldn’t be surprising, as there are many anecdotes of women who wanted to have abortions but felt they had no choice but to carry the child to term.
The known legal abortion rate in the US in 1980 was 1.3 million, higher than even the highest estimates of illegal abortions pre-Roe. Even accounting for the increase in population, the overwhelming majority of estimates agree that abortions increased.
(The increase in abortion is high enough that some experts have suggested it decreased crime rates, which would be
We should treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion - mandatory 48 hour waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he’s about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence, and a mandatory invasive ultrasound procedure. Let’s close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles, take time off work, and stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun. Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, with people shouting at him that he’s a murderer, begging him not to buy a gun.
It make more sense to do this with young men and guns than with women and healthcare, right? I mean, no woman getting an abortion has killed a room full of people in seconds.
This is so important and necessary. Help me get the word out! And follow @palmettostateabortionfund on Instagram for updates.
With the current Supreme Court signaling they may overturn Roe v. Wade and escalating attacks on reproductive rights in Southern states, the time to organize to protect abortion is now. It is a matter of when, not if, South Carolina Republicans use their supermajorities in both houses of the General Assembly, as well as their control of the governor’s office, to pass laws restricting or outright banning abortion.
Currently, South Carolina has no abortion fund resident to the state. Why does SC need a local abortion fund? Even while legally available, the costs and time restrictions of obtaining an abortion can be extremely prohibitive. A recent study showed that 61% of Americans could not handle an unexpected $1000 emergency. With the existence of only three clinics in the state that specialize in abortion, a required 24-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion, and bans on public funding, as well as many types of insurance plans from covering abortion, the deck is already stacked against South Carolinians.
Although some regional and national funds cover fund requests in SC, the closest fund is nearly 200 miles away, which undoubtedly limits their ability to connect with local communities. If abortion is restricted or outright banned in SC, people will have to travel to another state in order to obtain one, further increasing travel costs, and potentially putting a strain on currently existing funds.
We’re currently asking for a modest sum of $2000. This will be used to cover administrative expenses related to incorporating, obtaining tax exemption, opening a bank account with a satisfactory minimum balance, joining the National Network of Abortion Funds, and any other unforeseen administrative expenses. Any money we’ve already raised through our other funding channels has been reserved to directly benefit our clients. No one on our board is taking a salary, and any funds raised beyond our initial expenses will be put into the fund itself.
SC’s government has spent far more effort making abortion costly and hard to access than it has to improve the safety and conditions of childbirth, childcare, or childhood. To highlight just one alarming statistic, the average maternal death rate associated with having a child in SC is at least 40 times that of having an abortion.
Please help us do what our government refuses and fund vital and necessary healthcare for South Carolinians. After all, abortion is healthcare, and healthcare is a human right.
I meant to add this to the reblog. Link to a shop with shirts, buttons, stickers, and other items. A different way to donate if you don’t care for GoFundMe.
Not so friendly reminder that abortion bans violate Jewish women and Jewish families’ religious freedom.
Jewish law does not reconize a fetus as a fully autonomous person nor does it legally consider the fetus to be a full person deserving of protections equal those accorded to human beings by G-d.
The Talmud states that the fetus as part of its mother throughout the pregnancy, dependent fully on her for its life — merely an extension of the mother.
And one of our most important values is the principle of Pikuach Nefesh - the preservation of human life. If the life of a pregnant person is in danger, abortion is not only allowed but is treated as a right, and abortion is considered an act of self defense.
An op-ed from the National Council of Jewish Women, for more detail on the beliefs and relevant laws:
Addendum: this information is from a leaked draft of the decision. The case is still pending but it’s going to be overturned unless someone changes their mind before the decision is final.
the best thing that we can do right now to fight for abortion rights is donating to your local abortion fund, especially in states with “trigger laws” or laws that will immediately take harsh measures to shut down abortion rights as soon as roe is overturned. If you don’t know your local abortion fund or states with trigger laws, here’s one in Texas,one in Louisiana,one in Georgia,one in West Virginiaandone in Mississippi (all states with such “trigger laws”). There’s so many more beyond the handful i just listed here but times like these are the time to donate and support the incredible work that these organizations do for their communities.
everyone is reblogging this and adding stuff along the lines of “this is me when i read fanfic at 3 am” when the context of this was a reddit post about a woman who kept getting abortions to fuel her breeding fetish while not having to actually raise a kid so i do not think that is you actually
many liberals don’t understand the primary issue being argued in abortion rights is specifically the right to have an abortion with zero medical explanations. the majority of pro lifers concede that health complications happen in pregnancy which end in abortion. what they really actually cannot stand is the idea that you and your fetus can be perfectly healthy and you can still choose to end your pregnancy— prioritizing things like education or money or your social life instead of a kid are ‘decadent sins’ that you shouldn’t have the right to value over having a baby. so when you defend the right to abortion, make sure to especially defend the ‘frivolous’ reasons behind abortion, they are the most vulnerable components of the right to choose abortion
gilded age met gala happening while the supreme court overturns roe v wade. fuck
like we are being distracted by sparkles and glamour while our government actively enacts irreparable violence
Please know if you’re someone who needs an abortion in the near future, your rights have not changed.
The Supreme Court did not overturn Roe v Wade tonight
Politico leaked a draft opinion that indicates they likely will, though the specifics of the decision aren’t final. Again it’s a draft and was not officially released
The decision is expected in June or July.Donate if you can and please try not to spread things that could make people think they’ve lost a right they may still have
A lot of people in the US are super worried about the Supreme Court axing Roe v. Wade, but what they might not know is that some states have laws in place that will protect the right to reproductive choice and abortion if that happens. One of these states is the state of Illinois. In 2019, a law was passed that protects abortion rights within the state even if the federal right to an abortion falls. This means that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will still be a protected right in Illinois. Even before Roe, Chicago was a haven for safe abortions- you just called and asked for Jane.
Now, safe abortion access is the law of the land in IL, and there are several groups who can help you. This post is long, but I think it’s worthwhile. Even if you don’t read all the way through it, maybe save it for later. You or someone you know might need it. If you want to stop now, the TL;DR is this:
f you’re a minor and you can’t tell your parents, get a waiver of notification from the IL Judicial Bypass program.
Schedule your appointment.
Contact abortion funds to get financial aid. Your home state might have s fund, and the Chicago Abortion Fund can help.
Secure housing for the procedure through the Midwest Access Coalition or by talking to the intake staff at the clinic of your choice.
I’d like to start by saying that the closer to home you get your abortion, should you need one, the easier it will be for you… probably. It depends on your individual situation AND your safety. If I still lived in Indiana and I needed an abortion, I’d probably leave to get it done, even though there are abortion providers in Indiana, because Indiana is super hostile and there’s lots of clinic protestors- for example, when I was taking my GRE my senior year at Notre Dame, the testing center was in this little strip mall in Mishawaka next to Planned Parenthood. Despite the fact that the PP in Mishawaka does not provide abortions, there were protestors who yelled at me for going in there. I wasn’t even going to PP. I’d like to say that I said something devastatingly cool but I just ran in flustered. Point being: It really, really would have sucked if I was there for healthcare instead of a standardized test for graduate school. And that’s a very tame, mild situation! Real abortion clinic protests are often much more devastating!
ANYWAYS. The less you have to travel, the easier things tend to be, if it’s safe to get an abortion where you are and if your state will have protected abortions if Roe is overturned. If you’re not sure what might happen in your state in that case, this map has a clear, succinct overview of the legal status of abortion in each state and all US territories. You will want to click through to that link, because this image isn’t interactive.
[ID: a map of the US with states and territories sorted by their legal protections for abortion into four categories: expanded access in the case of Roe v. Wade being overturned, protected, not protected, and hostile. IL is highlighted.]
So let’s say you live in any of those red states. (Yellow and blue are safe- abortion access is protected there.) Let’s say, worst case scenario, Roe gets overturned and you get pregnant and you want to terminate. You will be able to do that in IL, and it’s relatively easy to do that in Chicago for a relatively low cost and with the benefit of a robust support network of people who want to reaffirm your reproductive choices.
First, if you’re a minor and you don’t want to tell your parents because it’s not safe for you to do so, get a judicial waiver of parental notification. The IL ACLU has a judicial bypass hotline. This will come at no cost to you. Do this ASAP, because it takes time to get it set up! You can do this by calling the hotline at 877-442-9727, texting 312-560-6607, or emailing [email protected].
Next, you need to get an appointment set up. You could get a referral from someone local to you, but this can be tricky- 87% of counties in the US don’t have an abortion provider, and google can lead you to a crisis pregnancy center. They will not help you. If you have a local Planned Parenthood, call them. Even if they don’t provide abortions, they can refer you to someone who can. If you’re coming to Chicago, which this post… kind of assumes you are… you can call any of these groups to talk about your options and what clinics can help you. I recommend starting with FPA or PP; those are two actual clinics. MAC and CAF are funds- they can direct you but they can’t schedule an appointment for you.
You might want to shop around and see which clinic costs the least, and is the most practical for you to get to. FPA has a lot of patient resources, as does PP. Don’t be afraid to ask for financial assistance. The people staffing those organizations have extensive networks and deep compassion for their patients- if the clinic can’t help, they might know who can.
Once you’ve made an appointment, now’s the time to start gathering financial aid. Some insurance, including IL Medicaid, covers it. If yours does not, or if the copay is still too much, this is where abortion funds come into play. Many states have their own abortion funds for state residents, so you might have to look around to see who can help you. I’d start with the National Network of Abortion Funds.
You also need to figure out transportation and housing while you’re in the city to get your abortion. This isn’t super necessary if you’re just coming for the pill abortion, but if you’re coming for a d and c or other surgical procedure, you will be staying for a couple of days. THIS is why I’m writing this up, because abortion funds typically only are able to help cover the financial cost of the procedure. It’s expensive to stay somewhere and it can be absolutely terrifying if you’re on your own! Navigating while you’re in pain from the procedure can be an absolute devil of a time, too! However, Chicago has MAC (contact info above), which is a practicalaccess fund, which means that they help pay for transportation to the city (bus tickets and train tickets) and around the city (volunteer drivers or volunteers who take rideshares with clients), food, aftercare medicine (painkillers, etc.), and housing, and there’s also free access to emotional support staff throughout your stay. This is not just open to IL residents; it’s open to anyone coming to the city for an abortion. ALSO if you go through FPA, they have a partnership with the Hampton Inn a block away from their location where their patients get a discount. If you go that route, just talk to FPA about housing and they’ll hook you up. This can be super helpful if you need some evidence that you’re on a “business trip” or something like that- if you are in a position where you need an excuse for your safety, that might work well.
Hopefully you won’t need this post- but if you do, I hope it helps. Feel free to share it around. If you have anti-choice opinions and you feel the need to share, don’t. This isn’t the space for it; you will be blocked and your comments removed. And then remember that criminalizing abortion won’t stop abortion. It’ll just stop safe abortions. Also, increased access to abortion, funnily enough, tends to be the thing that lowers abortion rates, because increased access to abortion comes part and parcel with increased access to birth control and general health and sex education.
Reblogging this because it’s always relevant… and because an administrative decision by MAC’s incredible leadership means they don’t just do bus and train tickets anymore. They will also help pay for airline tickets if you need to fly. If you are in the US and need to come to Chicago for an abortion, MAC’s got your back.
Also, if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t travel, and you catch it early, you can do a medication abortion at home. This can either be clinician supported through telehealth or it can be a self-managed abortion (SMA). Either way, you can do this entirely online without ever having to go into a doctor’s office or clinic.
Now, this only works early in a pregnancy (up to 11-12 weeks), so if you’re in a situation where you suspect you may become pregnant and you don’t want to be, test early and often if you can. The various help lines can also help you figure out how far along you are.
More resources: https://www.reprolegalhelpline.org/- this link is a good resource for talking about your legal options. If you’re a pregnant person of color, immigrant, or low-income (and using Medicaid) in an abortion-hostile state, I HIGHLY recommend talking through your legal options because you are absolutely targeted by politicians and the US legal system.
You can print these on sticker paper at home if you have it. It’s a good way to get the word out.
As of… thirty minutes ago on Monday, 2 May 2022, Politico got hold of Justice Alito’s draft statement on Roe. It’s not good. We’re probably gonna lose Roe vs. Wade in two months, and that means if you live in a red state, you’re VERY probably going to lose the right to a safe abortion.
I know this is a long post, but if Roe is overturned, it’s not going to stop abortions. It’s just going to stop safe abortions. Abortion access is reproductive healthcare, and a lot of states are going to get really restrictive. Indiana, my home state, has already put a woman in jail for having a miscarriage. Oklahoma lawmakers would rather let women with ectopic pregnancies die than allow lifesaving medical procedures. This is bad, but! Underground abortion networks did exist before Roe vs. Wade, and now we have the internet. We have robust networks in place to help people that the government would rather see dead or imprisoned. Even if Roe is overturned, some states will be safe havens for abortion. Travel to these states can be difficult, but not impossible– that’s what abortion networks and abortion funds are for.
Please save as much of this information as may be relevant to you. And if you’re “pro-life” and feel the need to comment on this post? Don’t. Your opinions and input are neither valued nor wanted. Abortion access is a vital, necessary part of reproductive healthcare.
The Lieutenants react to you telling them you’re pregnant
Edward Little
“I love you, Y/N, I can’t wait to be a father!”
John Irving
“To give birth outside of wedlock is a sin. You gotta get an abortion.”
Graham Gore
“Wow! That’s great news! I can’t wait to live to watch our child grow up, I always promise I’ll be there for you both!”
Henry Thomas “Dundy” Dundas Le Vesconte
“Oh ho ho! A little benjo baby of our own, ey? Can’t say I’m suprised, wink!”
James Walter Fairholme
“Cool.”
George Henry Hodge
“When I was a boy… I was told by my parents… that babies were brought down by the storks… A fantastical tale, I suppose I was naiive to trust it… but under that haze of childhood you believe all matter of lies…”
