Just me crying in the bathroom so I don’t wake my partners with this, fuck.
So to sum up: CT and DC have passed laws making it illegal to extradite someone to another state if they are being charged in that other state for crimes pertaining to abortion or trans health care, and makes it legal to sue and get your money back if you are targeted by a TX-style “bounty” law. DC also includes “crimes” of consensual adult sex, gay and interracial marriage and cohabitation and providing or using contraception.
This is, as the thread explains, basically legal interstate warfare. CT and DC’s laws bar compliance with such laws.
This is, on one hand, kind of terrifying, because this is where we are now. It’s going to get worse long before it gets better.
On the other hand… holy shit, someone fucking did something.
Someone fucking did something real.
Okay folx so… this kind of tags has been fairly common on this post.
I’m glad people are checking, but! If you didn’t know, this is what it looks like now if you post a link to Twitter on Tumblr. And!
Here are the screenshots of CT’s amendment. The important stuff in the 2nd screenshot is what’s underlined. There is too much text for alt text, it’s on the link above, but the tl;dr is “it covers abortion and gender-affirming health care.” It has been passed and signed by the Governor as detailed on the ct.gov link:
So yes, this is very very real, and Tumblr changed how they display Twitter links - the thread had all of this info in it except for the link to The Hill. :)
Please reblog this version before I lose my fucking mind over people reblogging the original post saying “I haven’t checked this and I don’t know if it’s real.”
Translating the numbers. COVID. What do extra beds mean.
It’s another pet peeve I have with media and government bodies, whenever they go, we have X number of extra beds or we can flex up to this many beds.
It does not mean the beds come out of thin air. Or that COVID staff have magically appeared as “extra staffing” in addition to regular hospital beds.
It’s just not how it works. even if you have extra physical rooms and beds, training staff takes years.
It means regular hospital beds are being converted and staff are being transferred from whatever departments they were previously in to staff the COVID wards.
They could be surgeons, anaesthetists, physicians etc. trained to do other jobs, now being re-purposed or re-trained to temporarily staff ICU or COVID wards.
It means, less timely care and beds for other diseases that while not life threatening, are no less significant. No one casually goes to hospital for a cold for instance. Even those really sick with COVID needing hospital admission, are in terrible shape, it’s not like a bad case of the “man flu.”
I’ve seen entire public hospitals re-purposed to cater solely to COVID and it means other patients get re-diverted elsewhere where staff may not know long term patients with complex conditions or staff are not used to caring for some of them. This can lead to higher medical errors or worse long term outcomes than normal. For example, we have expert units in Cystic Fibrosis, organ transplants etc., not all hospitals or generalists are going to be as highly skilled in looking after them. Entire stroke wards have been dissolved or amalgamated with internal medicine units, so some staff can be re-purposed for COVID. There is no one size fits all in medicine, not all the time.
Healthcare agencies have already come out halted elective surgeries. This is needed during a crisis, but what are elective surgeries? Why is this term being thrown around? These aren’t superfluous necessarily, like a tummy tuck or hernia repair. Elective can refer to surgery to determine if someone has the early stages of cancer. We are going to see an influx of advanced cancers which means, higher mortality, more destructive therapies to control it versus the very early stage. And this isn’t solely limited to cancer, it’s also relevant to a host of other chronic diseases. We really take for granted the care we were providing previously. And we’re going backwards in the care we provide by years, possibly decades. I can’t imagine what this means for developing countries already under resourced and behind.
My other pet peeve is when politicians in particular and journalists, come out and go, we’ve known for 18 months or 2 years blah blah why were we not better prepared for the 3rd, 4th, 5th peak? It can take 10 years + to train a doctor. Med school can be 4-6 years depending on where you are in the world. Then you add residency etc. Nurses also need years to adequately train. We can’t just pull doctors out of a hat or from other countries - it’s a global pandemic.
Our healthcare systems were already operating at capacity before the pandemic. Why on earth would anyone think it would magically meet the challenge of the pandemic without repercussions? Where do you think the extra beds come from?
I wish the media would stop reporting extra beds as something we just pulled out of thin air when we didn’t. It’s providing a false sense of security and relief. Right now, we need to continue to encourage vaccinations and appropriate pandemic restriction measures, whatever they may be.
Anyone else in health care being gaslit by the government, society, and their institution into feeling survivor’s guilt because even if things are crappy for you, they’re crappier for somebody else?
Really feeling for my primary care/family medicine, critical care, emergency/urgent/acute care, and mental health colleagues at the moment. This pandemic has been going on way too long, and no one seems to care about the fact that even when things were reopening, you were all still being worked into the ground (and through the crust of the earth into its molten core) by all the ripple effects of this pandemic uncovering the systemic inequities and BS that was just lurking in the shadows before 2019… All the stuff that health care workers, in general, managed to barely keep at bay from their sense of altruism and dedication (now obligation?) to their patients. If I’ve learned anything from COVID-19, it is that everyone will do their best to take advantage of you, and short of doing your job well, you actually don’t owe them anything.
You really do gotta take care of you first, otherwise this system will beat you down to nothing before you even realize it. “Resilience” is great and all, but it’s really just the system shifting all responsibility for surviving its BS onto its victims.
This system has been sick for a very, very long time. It’s gonna need a lot more than a bandaid and some yoga to rehabilitate it.
This comment on the post sums up my feelings well:
Perhaps someday, there will be a retroactive sorrow for how doctors and healthcare workers were intentionally driven to quit their jobs during the pandemic by ignorant fools and intentional maniacs.
I’m not particularly active on this blog right now due to reasons, but I think it’s important to highlight this.
I need everyone to understand that this is and was always the goal. Banning access to trans healthcare for minors was always the first step towards banning access to trans healthcare entirely. The focus on trans minors has been purely to drum up outrage (“won’t someone think of the children”) and to popularize the bans.
The Overton window has been shifted, so to speak. Less conservative individuals might be uncomfortable with the idea of outright banning adults from choosing what happens to their own bodies and making their own medical decisions…but if it’s banned for 17 year olds, is it safe for 18 year olds? 19? 20? 25? 30? Anyone?
I need everyone to understand that trans healthcare rights are inherently an issue of bodily autonomy, and that Christian conservatism is deeply opposed to the notion bodily autonomy. Banning trans youth from accessing gender affirming health care is to trans rights as the 20 or 15 or 6 week abortion ban is to abortion rights–the goal is to ultimately erase the legal right to bodily autonomy.
I need everyone to see the connection between transphobia and ableism. I definitely need everyone to stop perpetuating the concept of mental age. This includes repeating the incorrect and neuronormative line that “brains aren’t fully developed until age 25” or suggesting that autistic or otherwise neurodivergent people aren’t capable of understanding and making our own decisions. An adult is an adult regardless of neurotype, regardless of neurological development.
I especially need everyone to be worried about the implications of banning 18-25 year olds from having full control over their own medical decisions. How else might that eventually be weaponized? Especially in regards to reproductive rights?
I’ve believed for years that banning the ability to medically, legally, and socially transition entirely would become a popular Christian conservative goal, and possibly a reality. Not only to enforce their religious beliefs around assigned sex upon us legally–but because trans people who need and are able to transition have better mental health and are more likely to live happier longer lives. And they don’t want us to live.
A lot of people are REALLY WORRIED about the leaked Alito draft, and for good reason. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, many states will enact trigger laws that revoke the right to safe abortion access. But that doesn’t mean that safe abortions won’t be possible. They’ll just be harder to access.
Fortunately, we aren’t powerless. There are things we can do to help preserve the right to abortion and, if Roe falls, help people get the abortions they need.
Here are some actionable things you can do to help!
Donate to your local abortion fund.
This is a financial commitment, obviously, but these funds are vital to helping people access abortions. There are different types of funds. Practical funds help with transportation, housing, and other practical needs. Clinical funds help with paying for the procedure. Both types of funds are necessary and helpful!
If you’re in a state with protected abortion access, see if there’s a practical fund in your state that you can donate to. These funds make it possible for people for other states to afford travel and lodging in your state. You might also want to consider donating to funds in states or regions that have trigger laws, like the Yellowhammer Abortion Fund, which helps people in Mississippi, Alabama, and the Deep South.
There’s also https://abortionfunds.org/, but as of right now (2 May 2022, right after the SCOTUS leak happened), their website is down. Too much traffic!
Volunteer with a hotline.
As of writing this, a lot of abortion fund websites are completely overwhelmed. Lots of people are rightfully upset and looking for some way to help. Many of these funds have hotlines that you can help out directly from your own phone! Google “abortion fund + your state (or your region) + hotline” and see what comes up. These hotlines are going to be SWAMPED soon and many orgs are going to be onboarding volunteers very quickly to help deal with the onslaught.
Donate to grassroots causes.
I love Planned Parenthood as much as the next gal, but donating to them isn’t actually going to help as much right now as donating to an abortion fund. Smaller, grassroots networks are going to be more effective at allocating resources to the people who need it most. Independent clinics are also going to need substantial help. Independent clinics provide the majority of abortion care in the US, and many are the only clinics operating in hostile states. Check out https://keepourclinics.org/ if you’re interested in donating.
Make a list of resources.
There are a lot of people out there who aren’t going to have the time or energy or emotional bandwidth to deal with this dumpster fire. If you have the capacity to do so, then maintain a file somewhere with the following information:
- any abortion funds that serve your area with their contact info- email and phone and links
- any abortion hotlines in your area
- national care hotlines, ESPECIALLY RAINN because this is going to be really, really hard on survivors
-a list of crisis pregnancy centers in your area, clearly marked with their names, contact info, and primary links. Make sure that these are highlighted in a way that separates them from the actual abortion providers because these centers are highly predatory and manipulate people who are distressed and confused. If somebody has access to that list and know who’s operating in an area, it might help them avoid these places!
Have this file ready to go so that you can share it with people who are overwhelmed!
Help the safe havens.
Losing Roe feels inevitable at this point. It might not be, but the world is terrifying. However, some states are safe havens and will maintain abortion access, regardless of what SCOTUS eventually decides. Practical access funds in these states will need help because they will help people traveling from unsafe states to safe states. Refer to this map: https://reproductiverights.org/maps/what-if-roe-fell/
Look for funds in states that are blue or yellow. This means they have expanded access or protection if Roe falls. But be sure to hover over and look at the summary of the protection– for example, Florida has abortion protection, but they just passed a 15-week ban. That’s basically protection in name only!
If you’re not sure which practical fund you’d like to support, I highly suggest the Midwest Access Coalition. MAC is based in Chicago and helps people from all over the Midwest come to the city for reproductive healthcare. A lot of the Midwest is really hostile to abortion, so MAC can help a lot of people. But there are many, many others!
In the coming days and weeks, there will be more to do. There will be marches, protests, and other organized action. But right now, tonight, these are things you can look into doing.
