1). “Donald Trump Wants to 'Protect' Women...Whether We Like it Or Not”, Oct 31, 2024, Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day, at < https://jessica.substack.com/
2). “The Catholic Church Is Spending Big to Defeat Abortion Rights Ballot Measures: From Florida to Colorado, diocese and organizations are backing pro-life campaigns”, Oct 31, 2024, Heidi Schlumpf & Russ Choma, Mother Jones, at < https://www.motherjones.com/
3). “Tax Credits for Harassing Women: Farm radio and an anti-choice tax scheme”, Oct 31, 2024, Jess Piper, The View From Rural Missouri by Jess Piper, at < https://jesspiper.substack.
4). A comment posted to “Tax Credits for Harassing Women: Farm radio and an anti-choice tax scheme”, Oct 31, 2024, Pediatrics On The Front Line, The View From Rural Missouri by Jess Piper, at < https://jesspiper.substack.
5). “On the Front Lines of Florida’s Abortion Wars: With reproductive rights on the ballot, tensions are higher than ever in abortion-clinic parking lots”, Oct 30, 2024, Simon Petite, The Nation, at < https://www.thenation.com/
6). “When pregnancy turned to miscarriage, woman says Georgia's abortion laws delayed the care she needed: 'Your baby is dead or dying inside you, you're just waiting to crash,' Avery Davis Bell told USA TODAY”, Oct 30, 2024, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, at < https://www.usatoday.com/
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: As the actual Voting Day, Nov 5, 2024 looms, the deadly struggles over Abortion Access and Reproductive Health Care Rights continue unabated. In Item 1)., “Donald Trump Wants to 'Protect' Women …”, Jessica Valenti points out the ludicrous nature of that ridiculous statement. She provides a wrap-up of many issues in the Abortion Access struggles around the entire Country. And from Item 2)., “The Catholic Church Is Spending Big …. “, there is some excellent analysis of the role of the Catholic Church in trying to block the various state ballot proposals to protect Abortion Access.
Item 3)., “Tax Credits for Harassing Women: ….”, discusses the Abortion Issue as seen by rural right-wingers. The related Item 4)., “A comment posted to ….”, includes an eye-opening discussion of the options physicians have and the agonizing choices parents must make when very early term babies are born.
Item 5)., “On the Front Lines ….” provides a detailed view of the sorts of struggles going on in Florida.
Item 6)., “When pregnancy turned ….” reports on the horrific experience of a well educated middle class woman (who holds a Ph.D. in Genetics) in Georgia with a doomed pregnancy. More reports of terrible suffering caused by the dictates of abysmally ignorant legislators carrying water for right-wing extremist operatives and billionaires.
Remember that Harris and Walz, though nowhere near good enough, are actually somewhat better. The Republican Party will bring us even more machine guns in the hands of the right, and women tortured by the horrors of the Post Dobbs milieu.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Donald Trump Wants to 'Protect' Women...Whether We Like it Or Not
Click to skip ahead: In Anti-Abortion Strategy, conservatives’ response to the death of Josseli Barnica. A Georgia woman’s miscarriage treatment is seriously delayed in Care Denied. In the States, news from Wisconsin, Texas and Louisiana. Ballot Measure Updates on fundraising, Missouri, Nebraska and more. In 2024 news, Trump wants to be our protector whether we like it or not. Finally, In the Nation has some quick hits and the recording of my first Substack livestream!
Anti-Abortion Strategy
I’m still reeling from ProPublica’s investigation into Josseli Barnica’s death, the young Texas mother who died of a preventable infection because the law prevented doctors from treating her miscarriage.
As expected, anti-abortion groups have responded to Barnica’s death by blaming “media and abortion advocates” for creating “confusion” about the laws. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA-PLA) and the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) said in a statement yesterday, “Lies to women about their pregnancy care are at the root of this tragic case.” Their claim is that pro-choicers are scaring doctors out of providing care, and women out of seeking it.
I started warning about this strategy two full years ago, and it’s rapidly gained steam as more stories of post-Roe deaths have become public. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that SBA-PLA launched a half-million dollar ad campaign blaming pro-choicers for the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller in Georgia. (The TV spot declared, “The Left’s scare tactics are deadly.”)
While it’s easy to dismiss these attacks as a transparent move to shirk responsibility—which it is!—it’s important that we don’t just shrug it all off. Conservatives are putting a lot of energy into this strategy, and it’s not just limited to noxious press releases from extremist organizations.
If you’ve been reading the newsletter closely over the last few weeks, you know that the Republican governors of Florida and Nebraska have both held press conferences recently with anti-abortion doctors, claiming that pro-choice “misinformation” is putting women’s health and lives at risk.
In fact, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office used this exact argument to justify threatening TV stations with criminal charges for airing Amendment 4 ads! Republicans claimed that these pro-choice ads—highlighting how Florida’s ban denies women needed care—were as reckless as falsely reporting a shutdown of the state’s 911 system.
In other words: this isn’t just going to be central to their messaging strategy—but to their political attacks, too. Imagine pro-choice ads, campaigns and websites being suppressed for revealing what bans do to women, all under the auspices of protecting women’s health. It’s not so far fetched; after all, this is the excuse Republicans used to force doctors to lie to women about the so-called dangers of abortion.
Related anti-abortion strategy news: I predicted yesterday that anti-abortion groups would respond to Barnica’s story by insisting that Texas law allows for life-saving “care,” or for doctors to “intervene.” But, I pointed out, they would never say that doctors were legally allowed to provide ‘abortions.’
And that’s precisely what happened a few hours later: SBA-PLA and CLI released a statement saying that Texas law allows “emergency care,” “treatment” and for doctors to “intervene.” They did not use the word ‘abortion.’ That’s because these groups insist that abortion is never necessary, even to save someone’s life.
Given that these are the activists drafting and lobbying for these laws, it seems to me it’s something we should be making voters more aware of.
Care Denied
USA Today published a nightmare story out of Georgia yesterday, where a miscarrying woman was denied timely care because of the state’s abortion ban.
Avery Davis Bell was early in her pregnancy when she was diagnosed with a subchorionic hemorrhage that caused bleeding and required frequent check ups and testing. By her second trimester, the bleeding became bad enough that Bell’s blood levels were going down and she needed to be put on bed rest. Eventually, Bell’s water broke prematurely—far too early for the fetus to survive.
Still, Georgia’s abortion ban prevented doctors from taking immediate action. "Your baby is dead or dying inside you, you're just waiting to crash,” Bell said. USA Today describes the 34 year-old mother lying in a hospital bed with blood hemorrhaging “in dinner plate-sized clots.”
The longer Bell went untreated, the greater her risk for infection—which can be deadly. (Remember, that’s how Josseli Barnica in Texas died.) And while doctors finally agreed that she legally qualified for an abortion, Bell wasn’t considered deathly-ill enough to forgo the state’s 24-hour waiting period:
“Bell said doctors grappled with when they could start the process of the procedure. It would take time for her cervix to dilate, but it was unclear to the medical team if beginning the dilation itself would be considered advancing an abortion before the necessary time was up.
‘All of this is stuff that I shouldn't have to think about and they shouldn't have had to think about. They should have said whatever is the safest thing, let's start it now. And they couldn't do that.’”
I don’t know how anyone can read something like this and not understand that pregnancy is too complicated to legislate. It also gets at something I wrote yesterday: conservatives want women’s suffering to become business as usual. They want us to accept the idea that it’s perfectly fine for women to lay in a hospital, in pain and bleeding, so long as she comes out alive on the other end.
I’m glad Bell is here, and that she got the care she needed eventually. But this was torture, plain and simple.
In the States
I know we’re all preoccupied with the election, but we should be keeping an eye on Wisconsin. On November 11th, the state Supreme Court will start to hear oral arguments in a case that will determine abortion access in the state.
In case you need a refresher: The suit going in front of the Court challenges the 1849 law that Wisconsin Republicans say bans abortion. Essentially, after Roe was overturned, this 1849 law—created before women had the right to vote—was treated as a total abortion ban, preventing doctors from providing care. But last summer, a judge ruled that the law isn’t actually an abortion ban at all—but “a feticide statute only.” (Meaning it only applies to an attack on a pregnant person that ends the pregnancy, not abortion.) That ruling opened the door for clinics to provide care again, even though anti-abortion groups claimed the law remained in effect as a total ban.
In the meantime, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a suit arguing that the 1849 law is too old to enforce, and that it’s trumped by an 1985 law permitting abortions. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin also filed a suit, but it’s just Kaul’s that’s being heard in November as far as I can tell.
Here’s the good news: Thanks to voter ire over abortion bans, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is now under liberal control. The issue drove voters out to support newly-appointed Justice Janet Protasiewicz, who changed the makeup of the Court. That means abortion rights activists have a very good chance of winning.
In Louisiana, abortion rights activists and patients have filed a challenge against the new law that classifies abortion medication as a controlled substance. Thank goodness, because this law is incredibly dangerous. The medication is used in obstetric emergencies—like hemorrhaging. But because the drugs now have to be locked away, doctors have been running timed drills in hospitals to see how long it would take them to get from the locked-up pills to a bleeding patient.
The law has only been enacted a few weeks, and patients have already had a hard time accessing the pills, even when they need it for procedures like uterine polyp removal. From Michelle Erenberg, executive director Lift Louisiana, one of the plaintiffs:
“We will not sit back while anti-abortion lawmakers force people in our state to carry pregnancies against their will and then make those pregnancies more dangerous.”
Other plaintiffs include three Louisiana women—Nancy Davis, Kaitlyn Joshua, and Kaylee Self. Davis and Joshua were both denied vital abortion care and have been sharing their stories around the country. Self is a pregnant pharmacist, bringing the case forward on behalf of herself and potential patients.
The other thing to remember about the Louisiana law is that it allows the government to track who is dispensing and obtaining the pills in a state database. This is a big reason why they pass the law to begin with: As you know, data, abortion ‘reports’ and tracking have become a huge part of the anti-abortion movement’s post-Roe strategy.
You can read more about the lawsuit here.
The New Yorker covered the anti-abortion ordinance fight in Amarillo, Texas, where a group of local activists are working to stop extremists from passing a travel ban in their town. Several Texas counties have passed similar bans, which make it illegal to help a person leave the state for an abortion using county roads and highways. (The penalties are civil, not criminal.)
This is part of a broader trend of anti-abortion activists going to small towns across the country to lobby for what they’re calling ‘anti-trafficking’ ordinances. When one of the architects of this strategy was asked how he could call something ‘trafficking’ when you’re talking about adult women leaving the state of their own accord, he said: “The unborn child is always taken against their will.”
And there it is: They want to call women who leave the states for abortion care ‘traffickers’ of their own pregnancy.
In addition to furthering restrictions on travel, these ordinances are there to create a chilling effect that prevents people from helping each other and—they hope—to get a lawsuit going on the Comstock Act that could make its way all the way to the Supreme Court. So, bad times all around.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Catholic Church is spending big to defeat abortion rights ballot measures
Mother Jones; Getty; Megan Varner/Getty
This story was produced in partnership with the National Catholic Reporter.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, every state-level campaign to limit abortion has failed. But that hasn’t stopped Catholic organizations from stepping into the fight again this election year.
Catholic organizations are bankrolling campaigns against abortion-rights measures, spending more than $1.9 million so far in five of the 10 states where such measures are on the ballot, according to a joint investigation by National Catholic Reporter and Mother Jones.
In Florida alone, dioceses and bishops have spent more than $1.1 million, and church entities in South Dakota have recently ramped up spending as the election nears. In other states, the church’s hierarchy may be sitting out financially, but wealthy individuals with well-established associations with the Catholic Church, or church-affiliated groups—like local parishes and Knights of Columbus chapters—have stepped into the fray.
The fight in Florida over Amendment 4—a ballot initiative to add the right to an abortion in the state constitution—has become a political lightning rod, so it may not be surprising that the high-profile battle has attracted heavyweight donors from across the country. Florida requires 60 percent voter approval to amend the state constitution.
Abortion-rights groups have raised at least $60.7 million, swamping the $9 million raised by anti-abortion groups—both sides flooding the airwaves with ads. The majority of the money pouring in on the abortion-rights side is from major national groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. Catholics for Choice has contributed just $10,378 to the fight in Florida. (Searches in other states turned up no other donations from Catholics for Choice.)
With the appearance of a showdown between the powers on each side of the national debate, it may be fitting that the Miami Archdiocese has given the most money of any church organization in the country this year—three donations totaling $384,000 to a political action committee called Florida Voters Against Extremism.
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops has donated another $271,000, and the Catholic dioceses of Venice, Palm Beach, and St. Petersburg gave $100,000 each. Dioceses in Orlando, St. Augustine, and Pensacola also donated.
Various Florida Catholic dioceses and the state’s bishops’ conference have stepped in, financially, during previous ballot initiative fights, but never on this scale— prior to 2024, they had given just $198,000.
The church in Florida has made these donations, a representative from the bishops’ conference said, because “it would be unconscionable not to defend against this threat to the sanctity of unborn life and the dignity of pregnant women.”
The money comes from diocesan and individual contributions to the conference’s general operating funds, said Michele Taylor, associate director for communications. “Dioceses and the conference observe Florida election and campaign finance laws and so there have been no special collections for the defeat of Amendment 4,” she said.
Diocesan donations in other states were substantially smaller, but so is the overall size of the ballot initiative fights. In South Dakota, for instance, the Sioux Falls Diocese has donated $340,000 to two separate anti-abortion PACs fighting to block a ballot initiative to create a similar protection for abortion rights in the state constitution.
The one abortion-rights group raising money to support the ballot initiative’s passage had only raised $298,000 in September and October. The Sioux Falls Diocese’s donation included an in-kind donation of $40,000 for polling work. All of the diocese’s donations have been made since September 25.
Similarly, in Colorado, despite a heavily funded abortion-rights PAC filling the airwaves with ads in support of Amendment 79, another effort to install a right to abortion in the state constitution, the Catholic Church had seemed to be uninterested—at least in terms of financial donations—in the fight until very recently.
But on September 11, the Denver Archdiocese sent a $50,000 check to the Pro-Life Colorado Fund, and it sent a second much larger check for $175,000 to the same group on October 22.
In Missouri, by contrast, the St. Louis Archdiocese, four other dioceses around the state, and the state bishops’ conference all donated $5,000, but earlier in the year and only to the effort to block an abortion ballot initiative from ever getting on the ballot. Since the initiative was approved for the ballot, the dioceses haven’t donated again.
Some Missouri pro-life groups had hoped the fight against the constitutional amendment for abortion rights would attract more national money, said Jamie Morris, executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, the church’s public policy agency in the state. He believes the focus on the presidential race, and ones in the Senate or House, put the financial focus elsewhere.
Losses in previous amendment battles, as in Ohio and Kansas, also may have dissuaded funders, Morris said. “I do think ours is tighter than Ohio’s ended up,” he said. “It would seem ripe for someone to come in and at least get some messaging and funding out there to push it over the top.”
Polling shows more than half of Missourians favoring the amendment, with 34 percent opposed. The Ohio abortion-rights measure was approved 57 percent to 43 percent in 2023.
In some states, spending from groups or individuals closely associated with the church has dramatically augmented or, arguably, eliminated the need for church spending.
In South Dakota, for example, where diocesan spending has been heavy, the national Knights of Columbus organization, based in New Haven, Connecticut, contributed $200,000 to a group opposing that state’s constitutional amendment on abortion. In Missouri, where the dioceses have spent only $25,000, the state Knights of Columbus chapter has chipped in $75,000.
In Nebraska, two ballot initiatives—one seeking to block abortion rights, the other to add it as a constitutional right—have attracted millions in spending, but none from that state’s dioceses. But two families of prominent Nebraska Catholics have contributed more than $6.6 million of the total $7 million donated to anti-abortion committees in the ballot initiative fight.
Marlene Ricketts, the wife of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, and her son, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R), Nebraska’s junior senator, have contributed $5.1 million. The Ricketts family are prominent Catholics, and Joe Ricketts has given millions to the Catholic Church in Nebraska, including spending an estimated $34 million on the creation of a Catholic religious retreat.
Two members of another family, the Peeds, who have recently become prominent donors in conservative political and Catholic circles, chipped in another $2 million. Family matriarch Rhonda Peed has said faith drives the family’s charitable giving, including some $1.8 million to the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, in the past two decades.
In Missouri, prominent conservative and anti-abortion attorney John Sauer has contributed roughly $757,000 to the fight over abortion. Sauer, a former solicitor general of Missouri, has represented anti-abortion groups in the past and successfully defended a Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse.
In January, Sauer represented former President Donald Trump in his successful claim before the US Supreme Court claiming broad presidential immunity. Missouri state campaign finance records show that this year Sauer gave $500,000 to Missouri Right to Life, which was spent to oppose an abortion-rights ballot initiative, and $257,000 to a political committee set up specifically to oppose the initiative as well.
Representatives from the Sioux Falls Diocese and the Denver Archdiocese did not respond to interview requests.
In all 10 states with abortion ballot measures, Catholic groups and dioceses are working to oppose abortion-rights amendments with mailings, bishops’ statements, videos, prayers and other resources in English and Spanish. Says Morris of Missouri: “It’s kind of an all-of-the-above approach.”
Yet, the effectiveness of church attempts at persuasion are questionable. A recent poll of Catholic voters in seven battleground states found that the hierarchy’s influence on voters in their flock is extremely limited. Only 32 percent said bishops were very or somewhat influential in voting decisions, and 37 percent said priests were, according to the poll, which was conducted by the National Catholic Reporter.
Political strategies, like funding statewide anti-abortion initiatives, is only a part of conservative Catholics’ “long game,” according to Mary Jo McConahay, author of Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right.
Legal activist Leonard Leo, for example, has turned his attention from the US Supreme Court to a web of Catholic organizations aimed at instilling traditionalist values in the broader culture.
“I think ultraconservative Catholic intellectuals are leaning now in the direction of changing culture itself to achieve their various goals, including demonizing—or criminalizing—abortion, homosexuality, transgender people, etc., which also would move the country closer toward Christian nationalism,” McConahay said. “As long as the majority of the voting population is pro-abortion, Catholic money may start to go to this kind of longer-term effort, rather than fighting ballot measures.”
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tax Credits for Harassing Women
I always talk about meeting folks where they are and that can be harder than you imagine, but Wednesday I was given a chance to reach people who would normally never hear my message or even a Democratic one at that.
I just finished an interview with Farm Radio KFEQ…an AM station in St Joseph, Missouri. It’s called farm radio for a reason. A lot of farmers listen in their trucks and tractors and combines throughout the day. It’s talk radio. It’s pretty conservative.
I brought Halloween cookies to the studio to make sure we started off on the right foot — cookies are always a good idea. We went live after the station went over commodities and Ag news and closing markets. AgriTalk.
The topic I was there to speak on wasn’t corn or bean prices, though. It was abortion.
I went in thinking it was going to be a tough crowd, because I know exactly who listens to that station throughout the day…mostly conservative folks, mostly men, in the Northern part of the state.
The reason I went on this particular station in the first place is that the station decided to run the views and thoughts of two separate guests on the abortion amendment that is on the ballot in Missouri.
The radio station interviewed a man from the St Louis area by phone on Tuesday — a day before my interview. He represented the anti-choice point of view. I was on another call at the time and couldn’t listen in, but I had several friends send over his comments…I was as horrified as they were.
I called the station to ask for a recording of his interview so I could hear it for myself. Good god. It was bad. His segment on the abortion amendment was full of lies and half-truths that would make the devil blush.
I had to keep stopping the recording because I was so disgusted with his lies. I don’t know about you, but this is the same reason I can’t listen when Fox News is on. The lies make my brain hot. I get angry. I have to turn the channel.
The man interviewed was Brian Westbrook, the Executive Director and Founder of Coalition Life.
Westbrook told Barry Birr, the KFEQ radio host, that the language in the Missouri abortion amendment would make it possible for dental hygienists to perform abortions. That the amendment would provide an avenue for “child transgender surgeries.” That allowing women reproductive freedom would increase child sex trafficking.
Westbrook claimed the amendment would give women the right to murder full-term babies and that women couldn’t be trusted not to murder their full-term babies. That giving women the right to make decisions about their own bodies would lead to their own demise.
The worst part of this entire 30-minute segment? The host didn’t push back on the lies. The host even praised Westbrook for his “prayerful” approach.
But more than sharing lies, I wondered why this man from St Louis would be calling into a small farm radio show in St Joe. Why does he care about such a small population of folks in my neck of the woods?
I cracked open a Diet Coke and put on my glasses and started down a rabbit hole about Brian Westbrook and his organization.
I was suspicious of the Westbrook organization as soon as I read the site. One of the first things I noticed was this claim: “Are you aware you could benefit from the 70% MO PRC Tax Credit? Save up to$50,000 in Missouri taxes while supporting pro-life efforts!”
What? I have never heard of this claim and I wonder what sort of “pro-life” activism this really is? Surely no one would harass women and girls seeking medical care just for a grift? Surely no one would spend his time shutting down clinics and lobbying lawmakers and doing interviews on local radio stations to siphon money off the Missouri taxpayer, right?
From the Coalition Life site:
If you are a Missouri taxpayer and donate more than $100 to Coalition Life, you get to claim 70% of that on your Missouri State Income Tax Return.
With this tax credit, a donation of $1,000 to Coalition Life could be as little as $180 out of your pocket when factoring in the tax savings!
Both individuals and businesses are eligible for the credit.
The maximum tax credit is $50k (from a $71,500 donation).
This is a great way to reduce your Missouri tax liability while helping protect women and preborn children from abortion!
My god. This man is running an anti-abortion organization while doling out tax credits. Folks can receive tax incentives to push an abortion ban. Even businesses can receive a tax credit for harassing women and girls in need of reproductive care.
In case you are wondering, there are no tax credits for telling the truth or donating to Planned Parenthood…
A screenshot of the tax credit scheme on the Coalition Life website.
I never would have heard of Brian Westbrook if he hadn’t lied his way through an interview aimed at the farmers in my community. Someone needed to tell those farmers the truth. They are my neighbors and deserve the truth.
I went on that same radio show at the same time the next day to put things back to right — I was also interviewed by a different man who was the ultimate professional. He showed no bias in the interview.
In this interview, I was able to tell the truth about the abortion amendment. I was able to speak to the men listening in their trucks and tractors. The men drinking coffee at the local gas station. The men who would likely never seek out the wording of the amendment if it weren’t presented to them. The men who would likely vote against the amendment because their pastors and friendly Republican lawmakers told them “abortion is murder.”
Abortion is a nuanced issue. There is no black or white. Yesterday, I was able to speak to an audience that might have been unwilling to hear my message on any other outlet. I tried to speak with grace and subtlety. I tried not to beat them over the head with the evidence, but instead to tell stories to show the evidence. I reminded them that they know their wives and daughters and sisters and nieces. They know these women don’t get pregnant just to have an abortion.
They know better than that.
I reminded them that these same women are in danger in Missouri with an abortion ban. Pregnancy is too dangerous a proposition without the option of abortion…women are dying in ERs and in their homes each day waiting for the care that should have never have been withheld.
Sidenote: I have a group text full of teachers from across the country that I visit with every day. I told them I might be going into the lion’s den for the interview and asked them to think of me. One of my friends said this about the topic of abortion, “It’s hard to be nuanced when folks demand outrage.”
I could not have said it better myself.
Luckily, I was able to meet this audience where they are. In their trucks. On their tractors. On their combines.
I hope it made a difference.
~Jess
P.S. I want to invite you to an election night Zoom. Join me and hosts David Pepper and Michele Hornish – along with some really special guests – to watch the returns along with members of the Blue Ohio, Blue Missouri, Blue Tennessee, and Forgotten Democrats communities.
Here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ufuyvqTkoG9QG9aBHIsUwF3QQ781jWmvd#/registration
My name is Jess and I was a high school Literature teacher for 16 years until I decided to run as a Democrat in a rural, red district in Missouri. I bring you news and politics from Missouri and beyond from a rural progressive point of view.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jess, I have previously posted this, but wanted to make sure you see it. It was in response to the Archbishop’s letter. If you’ve already seen it, sorry for reposting. I hope it provides you with more information… ————————————————- This is absolutely enraging. Once again, a false dichotomy is presented. One which reveals how very little this prelate knows about either babies or ethics. He knows only a party line. —- Prochoice does not at all mean pro abortion. The only ISSUE here is this: Where is the locus of control and who should make the decision? I am Catholic. I am also a Pediatrician who dealt with fetuses with anencephaly and many other horrible birth defects for forty years. I had to deal with extremely premature deliveries. I had to counsel couples shortly before the mom was going to deliver a baby that might be 20 weeks or 24-26 weeks. Often we wouldn't know until the baby was born. Yes, accuracy has improved. There is still much uncertainty at times. I would help the parent(s) to understand that a 20 or 21 week baby was simply not viable. It was NOT an option to resuscitate that child - that there were very well designed guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology which laid out options. Most guidelines suggest comfort care and no true intervention under the fetal age of 25 weeks. Or 23 weeks? Or 24 weeks? Even the guidelines by people who do this for a living are difficult! I also gave the parents a very clear understanding as to WHY these guidelines existed. That a 22 week baby only weighs one pound. That the TOTAL blood volume of a 1 pound baby is 4-5 ounces. ——— Let’s make things real, shall we? — If you need to draw 3 ml (1/10 ounce) from a baby to help diagnose and treat them, and if you need to do this four times in a week to manage the baby’s medical problems, you are removing EIGHT PERCENT of the baby's total blood. For this and other reasons it’s very common for babies this tiny to require multiple transfusions simply to replace blood taken for testing. — At that age the baby’s skin is as thin and fragile as rice paper. Simply holding the baby’s arm and pulling the wrong way can make the skin tear. — All babies that age must be ventilated. That means that you are pushing air into a baby’s chest to breathe for it. Yes, techniques have improved markedly. BUT it is still common for them to have part of the lung surface blow out, requiring that a plastic tube be inserted between the ribs to keep the baby from dying. Sometimes they have one tube on each side. — They can and do have bleeding into the brain. — They can and do have life threatening infections. — They can and do have permanent eye damage with visual impairment. — They can and do have life-long lung damage. 30-60% of them die IN SPITE OF heroic measures by extraordinary professionals. The estimate is that of those who survive (after about half die), half or more have severe ongoing medical problems. ——— I would explain these realities to parents asking for guidance…because usually they had no information and were in crisis. This was not to be cruel. It was to help them to have a medical imagination and to be realistic so that after having factual medical information they would know exactly what they were choosing. I would go away to give the parents time to process. Then we would make a joint decision. It was always heartbreaking. It was almost always an urgent decision. —— I have worked in many settings. I have never once in forty years seen any medical personnel treat this process superficially, casually, or with anything but compassion. I have seen many caregivers including myself cry over the cruel choices that had to be made. —— For all these reasons, the only place that decisions about babies belong is with their parents with the guidance of their caregivers and spiritual counselors. Full stop. The decisions absolutely do NOT belong with ignorant, ideological judges, lawyers, legislators, and/or far-away imperious bishops/priests/ministers who have zero understanding of on-the-ground medical decision making. Accept the reality that families should make decisions about the medical care for themselves and their loved ones. Leave them alone. They are suffering as they choose, regardless of how they choose. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Photos: On the Front Lines of Florida’s Abortion WarsWith reproductive rights on the ballot, tensions are higher than ever in abortion-clinic parking lots. Photos by Christina De Middel and Reporting by Simon Petite (Le Temps). Translation by Philippine Masson 
This story was co-published with Le Temps. For years, the same scene had played out outside the small Woman’s World Medical Center every Saturday and Monday, the clinic’s appointment days. The facility, which opened in 1991 more than an hour north of major urban centers on the Florida coast, is the last abortion provider in the area. And it cannot afford a permanent physician. In the Florida heat, pro-lifers waited for the small black car that had left a few hours earlier from a medical center in Fort Pierce, a city of 47,000 on the Atlantic coast. There it was, at last. The driver had gone to pick up a doctor at an undisclosed location. The mysterious passenger wore a false beard and hat to avoid being recognized, a strategy justified by the murder of several abortionists in the United States since the 1990s. “Murderer! Butcher!” a pro-life activist shouted before the car disappeared into the narrow garage of the green mansion that houses the clinic.   On May 1, Florida made abortion illegal after only six weeks of pregnancy, half the time allowed in Switzerland. At that early stage, many women do not even realize they are pregnant. But a coalition has gathered enough signatures to change the law, which was passed at the urging of Florida’s ultraconservative governor, Ron DeSantis. Amendment 4 aims to restore abortion rights up to 24 weeks and will be on the ballot on November 5, the same day Floridians will choose between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Nine other states will vote on the issue that same month. Since the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion in June 2022, votes have systematically gone in favor of the defenders of free choice. Since the new law went into effect, the clinic has seen half as many patients. Abortions in Florida dropped by more than 30 percent in May and June, according to early figures from the Guttmacher Institute, a research center specializing in reproductive health.  In 2023, more than 84,000 abortions were performed in Florida, and nearly 10 percent of those women came from other states. Today, Floridian women are forced to travel if they want to terminate their pregnancy after six weeks, with the nearest destination being North Carolina, about 621 miles away. But the state, where abortion is legal for up to 12 weeks, requires two consultations and a 72-hour waiting period, which increases the cost of a stay there. When we rang the doorbell of the clinic, the driver who picked up the doctor carefully opened the door. His wife, who runs the center, could not see us until the next day, which was less busy than Monday. Three young African American women had been waiting for the doctor since the morning in the waiting room, which was too small to accommodate the patients’ families. Behind a window in the medical center, a poster of Kamala Harris greeted visitors. The vice president has made defending women’s rights one of her campaign priorities, as Democrats hope that local votes on abortion will mobilize voters behind the vice president and swing Florida, which has been solidly Republican since the advent of Donald Trump.   In the clinic’s four-car parking lot, two retirees stood guard on folding chairs in the shade of a tree, wearing pink vests that read “Pro-Choice Escort Clinic.” “We have been coming every Monday for five years to escort women to the door and protect them from demonstrators,” said Pat Gaede, a local resident. A few feet away, pro-life activists faced them with placards showing fetuses or dramatizing the consequences of abortion.  Rosary in hand, Marc Richard, a devout Catholic and US Army veteran, walked around the clinic praying. He knew he was not allowed to cross the sidewalk to enter the clinic. “We’re not going to convince a woman by yelling at her,” he said to show his good faith. Next to him, Jim, who refused to give his full identity, waved flowers at a young woman who had just parked her car. Sometimes they accept these symbols of life. Then I take the opportunity to give them information about alternatives to abortion,” he said, his hands full of pamphlets. While one outlined the stages of fetal development and claimed that the heart begins to beat at 21 days, the other accused the pro-life organization Planned Parenthood of “racism” against African Americans. On that Monday in September, the protesters did not reach their end. The first young woman to arrive in the afternoon rushed into the clinic, her ear glued to her cell phone so as not to hear their screams. She was followed by the two volunteers in pink vests. In the early afternoon, Karen Chappell, another volunteer escort, replaced the retired couple. She immediately planted pro–Amendment 4 signs to mark the clinic’s territory.  Over the years, the part-time nurse had come to know all the protesters. “I call the little Hispanic girl Mother Teresa, because she sprinkles holy water all over the place. The taller one calls me ‘devil bitch’ in Spanish,” she said, pointing to the two women pulling signs out of their car. The new arrivals were louder than in the morning. “The worst is on Saturdays, Chappell added. Young men usually come from an evangelical church not far away. The clinic opens at 5 am, and the protesters arrive just as early. Sometimes the neighbors call the police because there are people shouting under the clinic windows,” added the slender woman in her 60s. “When I was young, my sister got pregnant, but she would not have been able to support the child. My parents supported her having an abortion, which was very progressive in the 1980s.”  A few other women entered the clinic, one with a young man who quickly left. As if it were a flea market, the Hispanic protester yelled at them, “Shelter, adoption! Everything is free!” With long strides, the activist chased after the car of a patient who had quickly closed the door, her eyes buried under a cap. When approached, the activist angrily told us to talk to her husband. The man, his head bowed toward the clinic’s windows, held up a loudspeaker and recited passages from the Bible. Freddy Castillo, a Venezuelan immigrant who arrived in the 1980s, loathed women who “spread their legs without taking responsibility for the consequences,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve managed to stop two women from having abortions. I’ve saved two lives, which is priceless, but since they’ve started being escorted, we can no longer talk to them,” Castillo added. As he grumbled, a young blond girl stepped out into the parking lot. She looked anxiously around for the car that would pick her up and take her home. The shouts of the demonstrators doubled. “This is insane,” she said. “As if having an abortion is easy.” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx When pregnancy turned to miscarriage, woman says Georgia's abortion laws delayed the care she neededAvery Davis Bell was 18 weeks pregnant with a little boy. The 34-year-old woman, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, is already the mother of a 3-year-old who could not stop watching the "Daniel Tiger" special on becoming a big brother. Bell and her husband, Julian, had dreamed about the family they would build since they got together at 19 and 20 years old. On Oct. 17, Bell found herself lying in a hospital bed as blood hemorrhaged from her body in dinner plate-sized clots. Amniotic fluid began to leak as she approached her 20th hour of waiting for life-saving medical care. Bell was suffering a second-trimester miscarriage as she said her medical team at Emory Decatur delayed treatment, navigating her care around Georgia's strict abortion laws. "Your baby is dead or dying inside you, you're just waiting to crash," Bell told USA TODAY, days after she received a life-saving D&E, or dilation and evacuation. "And I wanted to live, of course, for myself and for my existing child, and the baby wasn't going to live no matter what." 'We always wanted two children'Bell, who holds a doctorate in Genetics and Genomics from Harvard Medical School, and her husband, an MIT graduate, lived in Boston for seven years. But moving back to her hometown of Atlanta in 2020 was part of their family planning process. They wanted to be close to relatives, which trumped fears she already had about the state's possible "heartbeat bill," which was already on the table as early as 2019 before the 2022 Dobbs decision overturned the federal right to an abortion. In November 2022, however, Georgia did pass a strict six-week ban, called the "LIFE Act," which criminalized most abortions after six weeks of gestation minus some exceptions, including medically futile pregnancies, in emergencies to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape and incest, though only if officially reported to and documented by police. After the Dobbs, states have enacted a range of laws from near-total abortion bans to shield laws protecting patients from other states who travel to get the procedure. Doctors and families have left states like Georgia and Idaho in the wake of the decision, but Bell and her husband chose to stay. After settling into a home in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, the couple welcomed their first child, a son, in the summer of 2021. "My older child ... my only child," she corrected after a heavy pause, "is a complete joy. And my husband and I always wanted kids. We both are people who wanted to be parents since childhood," she said. "And we always wanted two children." Bell and her husband carefully planned the timing of their second pregnancy, waiting until the summer before their son turned 3 years old to begin trying for the next. In July, she found out she was expecting again, but the pregnancy wouldn't be routine. At around seven weeks gestation, ultrasounds revealed that Bell had a subchorionic hemorrhage or subchorionic hematoma. This occurs when blood forms between the wall of the uterus and the chorionic membrane, or the outermost layer separating the amniotic sac from the wall of the uterus during pregnancy, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The bleeding is a result of the chorion membrane detaching from the wall of the uterus. Subchorionic hematomas are the most common cause of vaginal bleeding in patients between 10 to 20 weeks gestation, making up about 11% of cases, according to the National Library of Medicine. However, the majority of these occurrences resolve on their own without causing any further complications or requiring intervention. When reviewed on imaging, Bell's bleed presented as significantly larger than is usually expected with subchorionic hematomas, which tend to be small and produce light vaginal bleeding, if any at all. She continued to return to the doctor for testing every two weeks, and the hemorrhage was looking stable. By the time she reached her second trimester, Bell said things were looking good. She was beginning to show and tell friends and family more broadly about the pregnancy. They also told their 3-year-old he was going to have a sibling. "He was so excited about the baby," she said. "Every time he would see me, he'd give me a big hug. He'd say, 'Hug mama, hug baby.' He totally got it. And he would pat my stomach and he'd say, 'Touch baby.'" The ticking of a mandated 24-hour clockBy 16 weeks, she was again experiencing bleeding so heavy that doctors became concerned about her low hemoglobin levels, which were continuing to trend downward. She was in and out of the hospital and ultimately put on bed rest. She only broke that bed rest, she said, the same day she later ended up in the hospital for the final time. She did so to cast her early vote in the presidential election in person. In November, abortion measures will be on the ballots in 10 states. The final time she was admitted, doctors became increasingly concerned about the heavy bleeding. "One of the main concerns for my health and safety was that I would go into a blood crisis or a hemolytic crisis, and at that point, they would basically need to terminate the pregnancy to save my life," she said. "This was also when they brought up that in Georgia, they could not consider that until it was a case of life and death for me. And basically they said, 'We have to talk about this because we're in Georgia.'" "So already we're having conversations about the health care I can and can't get because of the state I live in," she said. "I lost so much blood." Tests that Thursday night in October indicated she had become anemic. It was while she was in the hospital for this bleeding that her water prematurely broke, putting her at a very high risk for infection. Bell and her doctors determined that a D&E, or dilation and evacuation procedure, was the best course of action. A D&E is a procedure used for abortion past the first trimester or after a miscarriage to remove remaining tissue. It involves the dilation of the cervix and surgical evacuation of tissue from the uterus and is typically performed using aspiration and surgical tools. Bell said her doctors felt the procedure was the best medical decision "because they could control the bleeding and keep me alive." "At this point, we were not going to get to meet my baby," she said, fighting back tears. According to Bell, her baby still had "cardiac activity," but described it as a "slow end to the pregnancy" that had "definitely ended." Despite the heavy bleeding, Bell said she still had to be consented for an abortion and that medical staff said her condition was not considered emergent enough to forgo a 24-hour waiting period mandated in Georgia. When asked about abortion care at its hospitals, Emory Healthcare gave USA TODAY the following statement: "Emory Healthcare uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws. Our top priorities continue to be the safety and well-being of the patients we serve." Bell described a situation in which her medical team was confused about how to care for her without getting into legal trouble. "They were trying to get that paperwork signed so they could start the clock," she said. "If my life is definitely at risk, they could do it. But where that line is is a little hard and my doctors, rightly, they don't really want to wait until you're definitely dying to save you. And this isn't a choice they should have to have." Bell said doctors grappled with when they could start the process of the procedure. It would take time for her cervix to dilate, but it was unclear to the medical team if beginning the dilation itself would be considered advancing an abortion before the necessary time was up. "All of this is stuff that I shouldn't have to think about and they shouldn't have had to think about. They should have said whatever is the safest thing, let's start it now. And they couldn't do that." She said she was transferred to another hospital better equipped to handle her case, Emory Midtown, via an ambulance. She and her husband spent that Friday "waiting on doctors" who were "trying to figure out when I could have my surgery." After another set of tests was run, it was discovered that Bell's hemoglobin had dropped so low that it was hovering just about the level where an automatic transfusion would be necessary. Because of that, they were able to move up the surgery and not wait until the following day, though this still had to be approved by a committee the hospital designed specifically to review procedures to ensure they do not step afoul of the state's new abortion laws. A spokesperson for Emory declined to provide further clarity or answer additional questions about the committee or its process. Bell required a blood transfusion during surgery and has had two iron infusions since. She is still seeing a hematologist and will likely need more infusions to help her fully recover from the lasting anemia. Doctors told her it could take six months for her body to get back to baseline. 'We are putting doctors in impossible positions'While Bell voiced appreciation to the doctors and modern medicine for eventually saving her life, she said she was "furious that it was harder than it needed to be for me." "There's a very good chance I would've died without modern medical care if I lived 200 years ago," she said. But she also noted how in 2024, the varying abortion laws across the country are impacting care. "If I were in Massachusetts in the hospital, very little chance I would die. If I were in Idaho, where they don't have any OBs right now because the laws are so restrictive, (or) were I in Texas where they're getting sued all the time, I might've died," she said. "We are putting doctors in impossible positions." "This is who your mom is"Today, Bell is not only recovering physically, but emotionally, from the loss of her second child. The hardest part, she said, was telling her son he would no longer be a big brother. "It's pure sadness," she said, "to hear your child go, 'I guess maybe I'm not a big brother anymore because the baby's gone?'" Bell said she and her husband would still like to try to grow their family again when they feel ready. For now, they have decided to stay in Georgia, but the thought of leaving because of the strict abortion laws has crossed their minds. She said she was compelled to share her story so that others could "go make their voices heard," but also to honor her unborn baby. "This is who your mom is," she said. What are the abortion laws in Georgia?In Georgia, abortion is banned after six weeks with some exceptions. Georgia passed the six-week ban in November 2022, and it was upheld by the state supreme court in 2023. The state's "heartbeat law," known as the LIFE Act, has been the subject of back-and-forth in state courts, having initially been blocked by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney who previously ruled the ban "unequivocally unconstitutional" on the grounds it was introduced in 2019 before the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The higher court, however, determined in October of last year that the new precedent set by the reversal is now the standard by which to judge abortion-related matters in a 6-1 decision. Late last month, the ban was again repealed and deemed unconstitutional by McBurney but was reinstated a week later after Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr filed an emergency motion requesting that the state supreme court reinstate the LIFE Act while the justices considered the case. An injunction was granted, temporarily preventing the lower court’s ruling from taking effect. The ban has exceptions for medical emergencies, a pregnancy determined to be medically futile, or a pregnancy that results from rape or incest, but only if reported to police and performed at 20 weeks or less. Exceptions also exist for "removing a dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) or removing an ectopic pregnancy." Unlike bans in other states, the LIFE bill does not explicitly state that a pregnant woman will not be prosecuted for an unlawful abortion. For medical professionals, a criminal abortion is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment, fines and medical license sanctions. To obtain an abortion in Georgia, patients are also subjected to a mandatory 24-hour waiting period and must receive a consultation at least 24 hours before the procedure, during which time they receive information about the risks of abortions, carrying to term, information on the fetus' gestation and assistance available related to childbirth. Patients must then provide written consent to confirm the receipt of this consult, except in cases of emergency. According to the Georgia Department of Health, an "emergency" is defined as, "any condition which, in reasonable medical judgment, so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant female as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial or irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman or death of the unborn child." |
