Reminder: it is called pro- CHOICE, not pro-DEFINITELY-GETTING-AN-ABORTION. it is about allowing women or couples to CHOOSE what happens with their own bodies. It is about the fact that maybe *you* would never get an abortion, but still not shaming the fact that other people might choose to have one. It is about the fact that *you* might get an abortion but not shaming other women about deciding to go through with the pregnancy even if they are young, unmarried, or not in a condition *you* would want to have a child in. It is about choice, and respect that we all have different opinions and morals.

I just want to let everyone know that this blog is not finished, dead, or abandoned by any means. I apologize for disappearing without a trace, but I just recently got a new job after a couple years of unemployment and it has been terrifying and exhausting. Between that and my health problems I just haven’t wanted to deal with the daily struggles of reading and posting bad news and fighting with antis. I’m not really sure what my timeline is for coming back but when I do I think my focus will shift more towards original content, education, and resources and less about daily political events. It’s just too much of a strain to do everyday. 

I’ll see everyone soon :)

prolifehypocrisy:

clinicdefense:

I originally started working on a blog post about the presence of anti-choice sentiments in support of clinic terrorism and had the misfortune of opening up a LifeSiteNews.com article about the bombing. What I discovered in the comments section of the article is deeply troubling. 

Of course, I was expecting to see plenty of comments along the lines of “What he did was wrong but, THEY KILL BABIES.” I did NOT expect to see individuals encouraging others to engage in violent acts. 

Original Link: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/man-accused-of-trying-to-set-planned-parenthood-clinic-on-fire-appears-in-c/

Tip has been submitted to the FBI. This appears to be early attempts at recruitment and organizing. If you ever see this sort of talk going on in public, take a screen shot and submit report to FBI. Save screen shots if needed later.(Or submit to our blog)

How to take a Screen Shot

FBI Tip Line

Thank you so much for reporting this!

This is terrifying but not surprising in the least. People like this really believe they’re engaged in some sort of holy war. I see people like this on twitter all the time. They’re not “brave” or “noble Christians doing god’s work”, they’re terrorists plain and simple. But when it comes time to be punished for their actions they’re more than happy to go the ableist route and claim it’s an “isolated incident” committed by a “nutjob.”

Two posts by Dr. Jen Gunter (pregnant people, not just cis women):

Georgia passes an abortion bill filled with bad medicine and a 1st year med student mistake

The Georgia legislature passed a new abortion bill (HB 954). Yet another law (it’s only a matter of time before it’s signed) governing the practice of medicine based on nothing resembling science.

The issues:

1. Fetal pain. The law will make Georgia the seventh state to enact a gestational age limit based on the false belief that a “20 week” fetus can feel pain. The lack of cortical connections as well as the absence of connections between the thalamus and the subplate before 23 weeks means that a 20 week fetus does not have the neural ability to feel pain.
2. No rape or mental health exception. Abortions are only allowed after 20 weeks for a congenital or chromosomal anomaly incompatible with life and to preserve the life/prevent irreversible physical impairment of the mother).
3. Any abortions after 20 weeks must be done so the fetus has “the best opportunity…to survive” There are 2 ways to perform a 20+ week abortion: a dilation and evacuation (D&E), which is a surgical procedure where the cervix is dilated and the fetus is removed in parts, and an induction of labor, whichcan take several days in the hospital. What this law means is if a woman has an abortion for genetic reasons she must have her labor induced. The life of the mother clause does allow doctors to offer a D and E in specific situations. A fetus can’t survive before viability, so this “best opportunity” seems moot and just another way to make the experience more challenging and expensive, although if you read further it is clearly a set up for…
4. “Any baby born alive that is capable of sustained life must get medical aid.” Meaning if you have an induction at 22 weeks for a severe congenital anomaly, a pro-life doctor or nurse can swoop in and resuscitate your baby against your wishes. Of course, nowhere does it say the government will pay for this medical care. This medical aid against the parents’ wishes could also be applied to situations where parents have made the difficult decision not to resuscitate their premature baby. 

And finally the mistake? Well, I’m not going to disclose it until after it’s signed into law. I had to read the bill multiple times to make sure I was reading, well, what I was reading. This error makes it crystal clear that no one with any basic medical knowledge read the bill.

But hey, it’s only women’s health care we’re talking about.

Pro-choice is pro-facts: the error in the Georgia anti-abortion bill

The Georgia abortion bill HB 954 has been widely promoted in the press as another “20 week” bill, but it isn’t (and this is the mistake in the bill’s wording that I was referring to in yesterday’s post). I think it wants to be a 20 week bill given it’s aimed at “fetal pain”, but if you read the exact wording it appears as if the lawmakers passed a bill that legalizes abortion (outside of life/health of mother issues) up to 22 weeks gestational age.

The Georgia lawmakers go to great lengths to describe how at 20 weeks post fertilization they think a fetus can feel pain (it can’t, BTW). In fact, the definition of a 20 week fetus in Georgia HB 954 is 20 weeks post fertilization, which is inaccurate medical terminology (and why I wrote yesterday that it was clear no doctor read the bill). At 20 weeks after fertilization a fetus is actually 22 weeks gestational age in medical terms.

This is the exact wording from the bill:

“At least by 20 weeks after fertilization” (in reference to fetal pain). This phrase appears 4 times in the 1st section.

“Probable gestational age is an estimate made to assume the closest time to which the fertilization of a human ovum occurred…” also in the 1st section.

And then specifically in Code Section 31-9B-1 gestational age is defined as follows: “the postfertilization age of the unborn child at the time the abortion is planned to be performed or induced, as dated from the time of fertilization of the human ovum.”

Let’s be very clear. Pregnancy is dated from the 1st day of the last menstrual period (LMP) not from fertilization. Even when an ultrasound is performed, the additional 2 weeks pre-conception (if you will) are built into the dating. It’s even on a pregnancy calendar I downloaded and on every single prenatal wheel that OBs use to date pregnancies.

Think of gestational age dated from the LMP/by ultrasound as metric and correct, and think of the post fertilization age in the Georgia bill as an out of date Imperial system that has no scientific meaning (you sure won’t find it in any medical textbook).

Other states, such as Arizona, actually use the correct medical terminology of LMP/ultrasound in their laws. So, in Arizona when HB 2036 reads “Gestational age means the age of the unborn child as calculated first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman,” it means what doctors everywhere call 20 weeks. As much as I disagree with the bill, at least they have their terminology correct.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, which I assume uses the correct medical terminology (i.e. 20 weeks = 20 weeks by LMP/ultrasound), as of April 1, 2012 there are 7 states with a 20 week gestational age limit: Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. Arizona will be the 8th. Despite reports to the contrary, it is clear that Arizona is not imposing the most restrictive gestational age and given the wording in Georgia the Peach State will not be joining Arizona among the 20-week fetal elite.

Imposing gestational age limits is wrong. There are unfortunate circumstances where lethal or very severe anomalies are not detected until the 3rd trimester. I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to tell a woman who is pregnant with a baby who has no brain and a single eye like a cyclops that she has to go to term. I heard one woman in such a devastating situation say, “It was as if a little bit of me died inside every time some stranger asked when I was due to deliver.” Women don’t ever have late-term abortions out of convenience or on some kind of whim, they have them because of horrible, terrible, genetic calamities. Fortunately, with modern prenatal testing these later diagnosis are becoming rare, but they still happen.

I personally think the lawmakers in Georgia were aiming for a “real” 20 week bill, but were so deer-in-the-headlights about fetal pain!and 20 weeks! and life at fertilization!  that they forgot to do any basic research. And that’s exactly who you want writing bills, not scholarly lawmakers who have thoughtfully researched a subject and consulted the experts, but douchebags competing to pass the most misogynistic, evidence-baseless legislation in a bizarre game of one-upmanship. It’s even more concerning because lawmakers are encroaching in the practice of medicine with this misinformation.

With states like Georgia using inaccurate terminology discussions can get confusing. But it is essential to make sure we are using the accurate medical terminology so we can all compare apples with apples, because for me pro-choice is pro facts.

KANSAS SPENDS HALF A MILLION DOLLARS DEFENDING ANTI-ABORTION LAWS | The Kansas attorney general has dolled out more than half a million dollars to private law firms for defending anti-abortion laws the state enacted last year, the Associated Press reports. The attorney general’s office paid $317,000 to a private firm for “helping defend a budget provision denying federal family planning dollars for non-abortion services to Planned Parenthood,” spent almost $177,000 on a law imposing new restrictions on abortion providers and expensed $104,000 in tax payer dollars to defend “against a law restricting private insurance coverage for elective abortions.” Kansas faced a $493 million budget shortfall last year and to close the deficit, Gov. Sam Brownback ® proposed $50 million in cuts to education programs.

CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS FILES A LAWSUIT AGAINST OKLAHOMA PERSONHOOD INITIATIVE | The Center for Reproductive Rights is suing over Oklahoma’s ballot initiative for an amendment that would grant “personhood” and legal rights to fertilized eggs at the moment of conception. “This proposed amendment violates the federal constitution and seriously threatens the rights, life, and health of all Oklahoma women,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. A similar version of the personhood bill recently passed 10-1 in a state House committee, and now heads to the House floor where it will likely gain approval. Though, advocates for women’s reproductive rights were able to score a victory of their own when an Oklahoma district judge struck down a mandatory ultrasound law Wednesday. — Fatima Najiy

*Pregnant people, not just cis women.

You know, like they kneel on the sidewalks outside Planned Parenthood?  

Where are all the Priests refusing communion to politicians who vote against stronger gun laws?

Where are all the Priests blaming Republicans for working with the devil to kill children?

Where are all the Priests arguing a six year old has a right to life?

Roe v. Wade

Do not focus on the leak. Focus on the contents of the leak. These justices are trying to take away reproductive rights, human rights.

This does not only effect women but anyone with a uterus! This is the first step they will take before they start taking more and more rights away.

The Justices have shown that they don’t care about what the US citizens think, we need to show them that they NEED to care what we think.

So here I am again, as a US citizen, begging that when you vote, you vote for people who will fight along side us. If Roe v Wade gets overturned then it will become a state by state decision, so you want the people who care about your reproductive rights to be in law-making positions.

Here’s what you can do:

• Votefor people who are going to protect your reproductive rights.
• Be apart of protests, if not physically then digitally.
• Donateto places fighting for reproductive rights.
• Educateyourself and those around you about the importance of reproductive rights.

Here are some resources that you can look into for more information:

Planned Parenthood’s page on abortion

4 easy ways to fight for abortion rights

ACLU’s page on what you can do

Here’s a website of National Abortion Funds that you can share and donate to

Prochoice America’s website

A map of states with trigger laws that will likely ban abortion if Roe v Wade is overturned

What Else:

Know that things are not hopeless. The majority of US citizens are pro-choice, especially us younger generations. We have the ability to handle this and we will, one way or another. Stay strong, do not lose hope.

Know that as of right now Abortion is still legal in many states!!!

“Our bodies are sacred and so are the decisions we make that honor each of our circumstances AND our beliefs. To ensure that people have healthcare they need is just and moral work and so is making sure people can get a safe abortion!”

Your reason for having an abortion is the right one.

Mmmmmm babies..

tattooedsocialist:

The same people who scream at women outside of Planned Parenthood are laughing at babies being teargassed at the border.

Spoiler: It was never about being “pro-life” and always about control.

midnightelite:

So, with the new info coming out from SCOTUS…..I’m just gonna drop this great resource for other women in the US…

Did you know you can get the abortion pills without the need of being pregnant? Did you also know you can get them for about $150 dollars…..and the site I’m about to share has a sliding scale, and helps you afford it if it comes to that.

I understand 150 is still a lot of money, but prenatal care is way more. And every uterus owner deserves the right and access to a SAFE abortion. Since, ya know, the whole reason Roe v Wade passed was because legality didn’t affect abortion numbers, it just affected the number of safe abortions.

Shout Your Abortion — ShareAbortionPill.info

This site is a great resource!!! And keep in mind, a lot of states that have already passed anti-abortion legislature are charging it as a felony….ya know what that means ….felons lose the right to vote.

So people who are pro-life, you’re allowed to have your own views and beliefs, but now that they are being forced on everyone, you need to think about what you care about more. A woman’s right to vote? A woman’s right to life? A woman’s right to mourn the loss of her child without a criminal case to “make sure” it was a miscarriage and not caused on purpose? Pro-choice is exactly what it says, giving women the power to make choices based off their own beliefs and values.

Another resource, if you’re on Reddit, r/auntienetwork is also a really great place to get assistance in women’s health, including obtaining abortions. It’s regular people who want to help out.

I’m sorry for people in states that have trigger legislation or are in the midst of it being drafted. You’re entitled to your own bodily autonomy. And I’m also sorry that a lot of the stuff people are telling you is to move to a blue state or out of the country….as if the price of living and wages in America afford the ability to pick up and move at a moments notice. If Roe v. Wade gets overturned, you will have support, and you will have a choice. You’re not alone. This is an attack on all uterus owners, and so we need to support one another since the US has proved over and over that they are not committed to supporting women’s needs.

And if you need to vent to someone, my PMs are always open. ❤️

So, with the new info coming out from SCOTUS…..I’m just gonna drop this great resource for other women in the US…

Did you know you can get the abortion pills without the need of being pregnant? Did you also know you can get them for about $150 dollars…..and the site I’m about to share has a sliding scale, and helps you afford it if it comes to that.

I understand 150 is still a lot of money, but prenatal care is way more. And every uterus owner deserves the right and access to a SAFE abortion. Since, ya know, the whole reason Roe v Wade passed was because legality didn’t affect abortion numbers, it just affected the number of safe abortions.

Shout Your Abortion — ShareAbortionPill.info

This site is a great resource!!! And keep in mind, a lot of states that have already passed anti-abortion legislature are charging it as a felony….ya know what that means ….felons lose the right to vote.

So people who are pro-life, you’re allowed to have your own views and beliefs, but now that they are being forced on everyone, you need to think about what you care about more. A woman’s right to vote? A woman’s right to life? A woman’s right to mourn the loss of her child without a criminal case to “make sure” it was a miscarriage and not caused on purpose? Pro-choice is exactly what it says, giving women the power to make choices based off their own beliefs and values.

TW: discussion of abortion, mistreatment of women, rape, abuse

Following the closure of a UK abortion clinic in July of 2015, women’s charities and sex positive charities have been calling for buffer zones to be established outside abortion clinics.

But it’s a free country! I hear you cry. Indeed, we are incredibly lucky to live in a country where each woman is free to choose, whether that be to choose abortion or to choose to disagree with abortion.

However, the flaw in this “free country” argument is that yes, this is a free country, until you use said freedom to encroach on another’s.

For hundreds of years, and still today, women’s bodies have not been their own. They have been treated as incubators, sold like cattle, gawked at, and been abused. In the UK, we now (for the most part) have the right to make our own decisions concerning our own bodies, “own” being the operative word. A woman down the street may not make the same decision as me, nor may I make the same decision as my best friend, and that’s just fine.

It saddens me to see women restricting the rights of other women, when we have fought long and hard to be able to take back ownership of our bodies.

I am not suggesting that everyone be pro-life, it is entirely your own decision, but please, don’t force your opinions on anyone else. Should you wish to protest, do it elsewhere!

You have no idea the amount of time, thought and emotion that may have gone into the decision to go to the clinic that day. There are a multitude of reasons why a woman may have to or want to get an abortion, and, quite frankly, they are none of your damn business. The woman in the video below articulates this point exactly:

So take a breath, take a step back and reflect on what you’re actually doing. You’re using your freedom to protest someone else’s freedom to choose. How can that mean that we are all free?

The idea of the buffer zones is that we can all keep our freedom.

You can sign the petition for buffer zones here.

PT

Originally posted here.

I don’t know about you but I am totally obsessed with Call the Midwife, each Sunday we have to sit down with a cup of tea and watch an hour of pencil skirts and placentas. I think it comes with the territory of having a midwife for a mother, anything remotely baby orientated we have to watch. But its not just her, I love this little snapshot into an obstetric past.

But the really interesting thing to me is that how lucky we are to live such in a fortunate time period and place, in terms of the health care available and the free contraceptives. Not only that, but we now live in a time when we have the freedom to make our own choices of how we wish to live our lives.

In the show we have seen the lengths that women have gone to when they have found themselves pregnant in a time when they really couldn’t afford to be. In Episode 3 [Spoiler Alert] of the latest series, an unmarried teacher finds herself pregnant by her married lover. In these times where it was taboo to a single mother, she felt the need to perform an abortion upon herself to disastrous affect. Instead of carrying it out successfully she pierced her uterus and had to have a hysterectomy.

In 1960, when this episode was set, abortion was still illegal, to the degree that the women who did this to themselves were questioned by the police. Originally outlawed in Lord Ellenborough’s Act (1803) and later the Offences against the Person Act of 1828,punishment was so severe that there was the rusk of death penalty. It feels shocking in modern society that a women could receive such punishment after coming to such an agonising decision.

It wasn’t until 1967 that the Abortion Act was passed in the UK, in which the government decreed that to reduce the rate of disease and death associated with illegal abortion that the procedure should be legalised on the grounds that if a continuation of pregnancy would cause either: physical or mental injury to the woman, to her existing children, or if the child was likely to be severely handicapped. This was all to be provided free of charge as part of the service of the NHS which was established in 1948. At this point the abortions could still be performed until 28 weeks, in 1990 it was amended to 24 weeks.

In England, Scotland and Wales we are lucky that these laws were passed, as only across the Irish sea other women do not have this choice. Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 ensures that they can’t, apart from where continuing the pregnancy would pose a severe risk to the pregnant persons life. These irish women  have to plan trips to travel to the UK, in order to have an abortion carried out, if they should decide to.

The actions of the Abortion Act became part of the sexual revolution and gave people a freedom of choice. Any woman who felt that she could not cope with a child at that point or that the baby would end up living a andicapped life could safely have an abortion. The backstreet, unsanitary conditions of abortions of the past are no longer, no one will die in preventable circumstances because they had to resort to unsafe methods.

TW: abortion, rape, sexual violence 

I suppose I should probably start by explaining what I mean by “Pro-choice = pro-life”, before you condemn me as an uneducated idiot. Pro-choice is the school of thought that says that the decision to have, or not have, an abortion is the decision of the individual pregnant woman in question, and pro-life is the idea that any fertilised egg counts as a human life and to have an abortion is equivalent to murder.

“So how can you say they are the same thing?” I hear you say. By removing a woman’s right to choose, you are often condemning her to a life she does not want. I am by no means suggesting that a woman who continues with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy will despise her child, because often she won’t. But she will live a life that she did not want, which isn’t exactly pro-life, is it? So maybe we can start to use pro-life to mean pro-female life, a stance which seeks to value women’s lives and choices.

We are lucky in the UK to live in a country where attitudes to abortion are comparatively modern. It is legal and free for a woman to have an abortion (yay). This doesn’t mean that everyone is pro-choice, and there are still plenty of barriers to this choice (you can read more about this here), but compared to the 74 countries (yes, 74!) where abortion is illegal, except in extreme circumstances, we are pretty lucky.

These countries are:

RED COUNTRIES ON THE MAP: ABORTION ILLEGAL IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES OR PERMITTED ONLY TO SAVE A WOMAN’S LIFE.

South America:Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gustamala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nigaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Venezuela,

Sub-Saharan Africa:Angola, Benin, Central African Rep.Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Gabon, Guinea- Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauretania, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda.

Middle East and North Africa:Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Sudan ®, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

Asia and Pacific:Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka.

Europe:Ireland, Malta.

ORANGE COUNTRIES ON THE MAP: ABORTION LEGALLY PERMITTED ONLY TO SAVE A WOMAN’S LIFE OR PROTECT HER PHYSICAL HEALTH.

The Americas and the Caribbean:Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru,

Sub-Saharan Africa:Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe

Middle East and North Africa:Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabi

Asia and Pacific:Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand

Europe:Poland

El Salvador has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the world, partially due to the fact that 67% of sexual violence victims are under the age of 17. The men who commit these crimes can be sentenced to 6-10 years in prison. The victims who choose to seek out illegal abortions to liberate themselves from some of the consequences of these crimes could be sentenced to up to 50 years in prison, five times the punishment of the man who forced her into the situation, if new legislation is passed.

Before you stop me and say “but she chose to get rid of her baby, she could have just kept it, so she’s just as bad”, many of these women are too young to care for a baby and/or not in a position where they could financially care for a baby. Few women, few people, would choose to bring a child into a world where they know that that child will go to bed hungry every night, won’t have clean water to drink, and will never have the chance to go to school, if they knew there was another way.

By introducing these increased penalties, not only women who choose to have abortions, but also the innocent victims of obstetric emergencies, will be punished. Women have already been imprisoned for allegedly attempting to have abortions, when actually their babies were still-born. Perhaps one of the most painful experiences a woman could have, topped off with a jail sentence. As if she hadn’t suffered enough?

If you’d like to try to block this new legislation in El Salvador, and support a woman’s right to choose, please sign this petition, and show you’re pro-(female) life.

PT