Digital illustration of a Black mother breastfeeding an infant. She appears as a goddess, and is shirtless aside from a sheer cape with constellations. The text reads, ‘normalize public breastfeeding.’
The FDA’s May 9, 1960 approval of oral contraception, aka “the pill”, transformed reproductive health. Women’s health advocate Margaret Sanger spearheaded and activist/philanthropist Katherine McCormick funded the R&D needed for this medical research breakthrough to improve women’s lives through “birth control.”
Margaret Sanger, a nurse, coined the term “birth control” and dedicated herself to educating women. Her own mother had 18 pregnancies in 22 years and died from ovarian cancer. In 1914, she started a newsletter, The Woman Rebel, to “advocate the prevention of conception.”
Sanger was indicted repeatedly and even arrested on obscenity charges under the Comstock Laws (1873) which defined birth control as obscene and made it illegal to send contraceptive devices or even info about it through the mail.
Flyer from benefit held on eve of Sanger’s trial for opening Brownsville Clinic. (Courtesy of Sanger Project).
Katherine McCormick heard Sanger speak in 1917 and grew convinced that women could only fully control their lives if they could control ifandwhenthey chose to bear children. She redirected her advocacy to the cause of birth control, even smuggling in diaphragms from Europe to New York at Sanger’s request.
When her husband Stanley died in 1947, Katherine inherited an estate estimated worth almost $40 million (more than $500 million today). Margaret Sanger introduced her to Gregory Pincus who was doing pioneering research on fertilization and hormones.
Katharine funneled to Dr. Pincus more than $2 million ($25 million today), nearly all of the money used to support his lab’s research and development of the contraceptive pill.
Read the National Archives Prologue Magazine storyRich, Famous, and Questionably Sane to learn how McCormick, who was blamed her husband’s inability to consummate his own marriage, became the catalyst for the sexual revolution.
Women Hold Banner at National Women’s Conference, November 1977. NARA ID 7452290.
Look at where you get your information. Make sure it’s reliable. Stop causing more pain to people already in a rough place.
[image description: screenshot of a Facebook post by Marisa Dahlman, timestamped Friday at 3:16pm. Date not specified.
Post reads as follows
I performed an emergency surgery several months ago to treat a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. The patient could have died, but we were able to stabilize her and send her home the same day.
She called my office this week in tears asking why we did not reimplant her pregnancy in her uterus, why did we not offer her this option. Because maybe her baby didn’t have to die.
Pseudoscience is invading my operating room and my relationship with my patients. This poor woman had to have emergency surgery, and then grieved the loss of a pregnancy that was never viable, that could have killed her.
And now she is grieving it again because politicians who lack even the most basic understanding of the physiology of pregnancy are dangling untruths in front of her and calling it fact.
In case anyone reading this is wondering, THIS IS NOT A THING. It is NOT POSSIBLE to reimplant ectopic pregnancies into the uterus. These are NOT viable pregnancies, and all the wishing in the world, the magical thinking, the political grandstanding, will not make it so.
End image description]
Hi friends. Quick anatomy lesson, complete with fun pictures.
This is the reproductive system in question.
Interesting, right? I’ve been told it looks like a shark.
In viable pregnancies, a fertilized egg (known as a zygote in biology) implants in the wall of the uterus.
As the pregnancy progresses, the zygote grows. Cells undergo mitosis (where the cells replicate) and differentiation (where the cells take on special jobs and become organ systems). At full term, the zygote resembles a baby we know.
The placenta delivers nutrients to the fetus and helps detoxify wastes. From the placenta comes the umbilical cord, which serves a similar purpose. The fetus’ head presses against the cervix, through which it will pass during birth. The part in the circle are the pregnant person’s internal organs! The uterus smooshes them to make room. It’s no wonder they use the restroom so often!
In an ectopic pregnancy, however, the zygote doesn’t implant correctly.
It can implant in a variety of places (including the fallopian tube, pictured) to which it is not suited.
After it implants, it continues to undergo mitosis (which we talked about earlier). Whereas the uterus is equipped to deal with this exponential growth, other parts of the body are not.
As the zygote grows, it puts immense strain on the organ it implanted in. If it continues to grow too long, it can rupture! The zygote will lose blood supply and will quickly die. The pregnant person will begin to bleed internally without proper medical care. Left alone, it can lead to death of the pregnant person.
This diagram is a little complex, but put very simply, because the zygote hasn’t implanted in the right place originally, it cannot be removed and implanted in the correct one. It won’t be able to fuse correctly with the uterus, or to send signals to develop the umbilical cord and placenta we talked about earlier, not to mention that the rupture causes blood to be diverted from the zygote, effectively killing it before it can be implanted.
Not only is it futile, but it’s unsafe for the pregnant person. Ectopic pregnancies cause blood loss, which is exacerbated by further surgical intervention. Exposure to external environments exposes the zygote to infection, and surgical implantation exposes the pregnant person to infection, which could also lead to pregnancy complication or loss.
To make a long story short: you cannot reimplant an ectopic pregnancy. Please stop trying.
Please reblog this from the person above and not from the TERFs that jumped in after. Thanks :)
TLDR: an “ectopic pregnancy” isn’t a viable pregnancy because as soon as it implantedsomewhereother than the uterus, it became incapable of implanting in a uterus.
An “ectopic pregnancy” is already a miscarriage,just with the side “bonus” of being fairly likely to kill the person having it.
Thank you very much to the person above us who carefully, clearly, and accurately summed this up - I think this is information that should absolutely be better known about.
A landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protects married couples’ ability to obtain and use birth control is “constitutionally unsound,” according to Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn.
Blackburn made the remarks in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday, as the Tennessee Republican prepared for Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.CommitteememberBlackburn is among other Republicans who have said it is time to reconsider landmark court rulings with an ascendant conservative majority on the Court.
In her video, Blackburn called out the Supreme Court’s1965Griswold v. Connecticut decision that struck down a state law banning the use of “any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception.” The Court ruled the law violated the constitutional right to privacy, which later served as the basis for the right to receive access to abortion care in the U.S.
“Constitutionally unsound rulings like Griswold v. Connecticut…confused Tennesseans and left Congress wondering who gave the court permission to bypass our system of checks and balances,” said Blackburn.
[…]
WithRoe potentially on the chopping block, some Republicans are hoping the Court will go even further.
Three Republican candidates for Michigan Attorney General said in February that Griswold was wrongly decided, according to a report in left-leaning Mother Jones. Two candidates later told The Detroit News they didn’t want a ban on birth control.
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s current Democratic attorney general, reacted with a tweet calling the opposition to the ruling “terrifying.”
In a 2012 Republican presidential debate, candidates Rick SantorumandMitt Romney (now a senator from Utah) also said they opposed Griswold.
Blake Masters, a GOP Senate candidate running on an anti-abortion platform in Arizona, is also taking aim at the case that established the right to access birth control on his campaign website.
“I am 100% pro-life. Roe v. Wade was a horrible decision. It was wrong the day it was decided in 1973, it’s wrong today, and it must be reversed. But the fight doesn’t stop there,”Master’s campaign website reads. It goes on to pledge the candidate will “vote only for federal judges who understand that RoeandGriswoldandCasey were wrongly decided, and that there is no constitutional right to abortion.”
Roe v. WadeandPlanned Parenthood v. Casey established and protected the right to an abortion in 1973 and 1992, respectively. But the Griswold case, decided in 1965, overturned a statewide ban on birth control and protected citizen’s rights to privacy against state restrictions on contraceptives.
Masters identifies himself as a Catholic father of three on his campaign site. The Catholic Church has had an official ban on any “artificial” birth control methods, including condoms and diaphragms, since 1930. Since birth control pills were invented in 1960, the church has maintained its stance that the medication should only be used for non-contraceptive reasons.
“I don’t support a state law or federal law that would ban or restrict contraception — period,”Masters said in a statement emailed to Insider. “AndGriswold was wrongly decided. Both are true.”
In a Twitter thread criticizing reporting that argued he has conflicting campaign positions, Masters stated that his problem with the Griswold case was that the Supreme Court justices “wholesale made up a constitutional right to achieve a political outcome.”
As Idahoans plan for a future without abortion rights, a leading Republican in the Idaho House would support holding hearings on legislation banning abortion pills and morning-after pills.
House State Affairs Committee Chairman Brent Crane, R-Nampa, said he would hold hearings on legislation banning emergency contraception and abortion pills during a Friday interview with Idaho Public Television.
“IUDs, I’m not for certain yet on where I would be on that particular issue,” he said, referring to intrauterine devices, which are a long-lasting form of contraception.
In a Saturday interview, Crane clarified that he supports contraception, including IUDs, and would not support hearings banning contraception generally. Instead, he said that he has heard of safety concerns with emergency contraceptives, like Plan B, and abortion pills, and would therefore be willing to hold hearings about them.
Crane said that there have been reports of “complications” caused by morning-after pills and of abortion pills causing “health concerns for the mom,” despite years of research showing the safety of both medications.
“Argentina on Wednesday became the largest nation in Latin America to legalize abortion, a landmark vote in a conservative region and a victory for a grass-roots movement that turned years of rallies into political power….
Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, has promised to sign the bill into law, making it legal for women to end pregnancies for any reason up to 14 weeks. After that, there will be exceptions allowed for rape and the woman’s health. In public hospitals, the procedure would be free of charge.”
“Scotland has passed a bill that has made period products such as tampons and pads free to all who need them.
“The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, which passed unanimously, requires local authorities to ensure that period products are generally obtainable free of charge. Schools and colleges must ensure period products are freely available to students, and designated public places must also make the products available.”
[Image description: a series of tweets. The first is from Victoria Holmes, @spyturtle96, timestamped 3:06 PM, 04 May 22, with text as follows:
“Adoptees have been saying non-stop for months if not years they’re getting ready for another baby scoop era and no one listened to us. And now "domestic supply of infants” is in a draft and people still won’t listen to us.“
It is tagged ”#adopteevoices".
The next two are from Kim Penn, @kim_penn The first is timestamped 10:08 PM, 02 May 22 and contains the following text:
“I’m a very small Twitter voice, but I am begging my non-adoptee followers to educate yourself about what adoption is, what it does, and how evil and corrupt the adoption industry was and is. Listen to #adopteevoices. And then get your asses in the fight with us to end the system.”
The second is timestamped 9:58 AM, 03 May 22, and contains the following text:
“I promise you, adoption is absolutely NOT the win/win, fucking fairy tale, happy ending you’ve been led to believe. For every #adoptee, our story begins with loss. That’s our baseline. Any "happy ending” without acknowledging that is empty and an illusion.“
It is tagged ”#adopteevoices".
The final three are a Twitter thread from Laney (followed by three Chinese characters), @Lane_Xue, timestamped 8:55 PM, 03 May 22. The first contains text as follows:
“My parents faced reproductive, economic, social, & political injustice. I was relinquished because they could not keep me & I’m an adoptee. I am not a fucking (chess pawn emoji). Do not use my family separation to justify your desire to control others reproductive health care.”
The second contains text as follows:
“Abortion is a reproductive decision.
Adoption is a parenting decision often made by poor, young, economically disenfranchised people not given the resources or support to raise their children.
Do not conflate the 2 to justify feeding the adoption industries demand for (baby’s face emoji).”
The third contains text as follows:
“Do not fucking ask adoptees if they’d rather have been aborted. Adoptees are already 4x more likely to attempt suicide than non-adopted people.
The reason someone needs an abortion is none of your business.”
All three are tagged “#adopteevoices”.
After the final tweet there is a link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov with the beginning of a title, “Risk of Suicide Attemptin Adopted and Nonadpoted Off…”
I did my thesis on eugenics and forced sterilization in Canadian history (indigenous specific) and the next cis woman to say that men should collectively be forced to get vasectomies for points on some kind imaginary scoreboard of rights is getting sent a copy of the records I had to sift thru of men, mostly indigenous, racialized, developmentally disabled, or poor men, being sterilized against their wills and often without their knowledge.
I once again must remind people that “don’t like abortion, get a vasectomy” isn’t the gotcha you think it is, and that reproductive justice means supporting people who are targeted by the state both for forced birth AND for sterilization and child apprehension, as they’re linked closely.
Abortion Ruling: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver(HBO)[source]
“John Oliver discusses the leaked draft opinion that looks set to overturn Roe v. Wade, how we got to this point, and where we may be headed.” [18 min 25 sec]
I’ve been struggling for years with a disease that causes me to not have a period and last month I got it again finally and i was so proud of myself for getting it but I was afraid that it was a one time thing and now here I am with another period one month later. It’s so weird to my friends and family that I’m excited and I am celebrating but I am so proud of my body and of myself for working on my health. This is truly a miracle for me.
Boost this. Malicious fucking compliance y'all. Tie up their legal system with tens of thousands of cases. Burn their state government’s cash on this issue. Force them to play by the Nth degree of this idiotic rule.
i love uncivil obedience. follow the letter of the law so close that it shows just how ridiculous and unfair the law is
This is so great because if anyone is caught impeding or messing with these deliveries, it’s MAIL, that makes it a FEDERAL crime, whoever fucks with these packages gets charged FEDERALLY, they face up to five years in prison.
[ID: A tweet by @ nytimes that reads, “Breaking News: Women can get abortion pills by mail for pregnancies up to 10 weeks without seeing a doctor in person, the FDA ruled. The decision comes as the Supreme Court considers whether to roll back abortion rights or even overturn Roe v. Wade.” Attached is a link to the article and a screenshot of the title and subtitle of the article. The article was published Dec 16, 2021. The title reads, “F.D.A. Will Permanently Allow Abortion Pills by Mail” and the subtitle reads, “The decision will broaden access to medication abortion, an increasingly common method, but many conservative states are already mobilizing against it.” /end ID]
This is great but do remember to check if there’s a weight limit on the brand you take. Idk about abortion pills but I do believe you have to take two plan B if your above a certain weight.
Remember that people who aren’t women also need and want abortions. Include and protect trans and intersex people in this conversation. Keep watch for terf rhetoric and dogwhistles. Terfs will use this as ammunition.
And when we push for gender-inclusive language in legal and healthcare contexts, it’s not just because being called the wrong word makes us feel bad. If the language of a healthcare law or regulation uses specifically gendered language, that creates a loophole that can be used to deny trans people coverage. Ask any trans man who’s had to try and find gynecological care, or any trans woman who has ever needed a prostate exam. Yes, it is difficult and often humiliating to be called the wrong words, but what we’re mostly worried about is losing our access to the healthcare we need alltogether.
Free Period: Our OB/GYN Expert Weighs in On New Law for California Schools
Period products will be provided free of charge in public schools across California starting next school year as part of new legislation recently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.
The Menstrual Equity for All Act will require public schools with students in grades six to 12, community colleges and the California State University System to provide the free products in the 2022-2023 academic year.
We asked Alice Sutton, MD, obstetrician/gynecologist at UC San Diego Health, to explain the importance of providing free period products to this population of young women and how a comprehensive approach to women’s health is critical, especially for underserved students.
Question: What are some benefits to having tampons freely available in schools?
Answer: Students experiencing a lack of access to menstrual products, education, hygiene facilities, waste management or a combination of these, may skip school if they don’t have adequate sanitary products, or they may improvise with items, such as paper towels that are not meant for menstrual hygiene.
Period poverty causes physical, mental and emotional challenges. Having menstrual products available in school will help students concentrate on their studies and keep them in class while meeting their health care needs.
Q: Are there concerns about whether there’s enough support in schools to help young women who are menstruating?
A: Young women who are experiencing painful or heavy periods often don’t know that there are safe and effective treatments for these issues. Sometimes the discomfort is bad enough that they miss class or extracurricular activities.
Having a nurse, teacher, coach or other trusted adult in a young women’s life in the school setting provides support and could steer her towards making an appointment with an OB/GYN to discuss options for management, such as lifestyle interventions and medications.
Q: Besides providing tampons, what else should schools be doing to support reproductive health in young people?
A: Appropriate education about the menstrual cycle, tailored to their age-level should be provided. At an even more basic level, some students may not come from homes where they have a parent who they can ask for advice, and so school may be the place where they can find a trusted adult who provides them with accurate information and can point them to appropriate resources.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends a first reproductive health visit between the ages of 13 and 15. It is a good time to establish care and have a first visit where the adolescent has the opportunity to discuss concerns privately with a doctor. Gynecology visits at this age are tailored to the patient. Topics that might be covered include normal anatomy and normal menstruation, healthy relationships and consent, immunizations, physical activity, substance use including alcohol and tobacco, eating disorders, mental health, sexuality, contraception and pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted infections.
(“g spot” is kanye speak for the prostate/p-spot) (the fact that #KanyeAnalPlaylist trended for 239823 hours on twitter today suggests we need to talk more about butt stuff and how it’s ok for men to enjoy as well as not enjoy it) (and that snap aversion to prostate stimulation is sometimes driven by homophobia & amber rose using it against him is an attempt at emasculation) (i really like butts ok) (i cannot lie)
ALT
