oh so they’re just saying the quiet part out loud? Good to know they’re just out and open now

That’s not the quiet part.

There’s something else, something they might not even be fully aware of themselves. The real quiet part is that if it was *their* child or *their* ectopic pregnancy they’d pull out all the stops to save their life or get their grandchild aborted. Planned Parenthood sees reactionaries and regressives all the time, and they are every bit the nightmare patients you’d imagine them to be. But the one thing all those patients have in common is that *their* abortion is *justified*, and the next week they’ll be outside the clinic again, rejoining the protestors for “killing their baby”.

It’d be one thing to have ghoulish principles, but the far-right have none at all.

When I was younger and had more time to waste on the internet, and spent a lot of time in various online forums getting into arguments -- on purpose -- I made up a game I called Six Degrees of Slut.

The game (which is a variation on the well known Six Degrees of Bacon) was very simple. In any discussion of abortion, see whether you could get the other side to articulate, within six back-and-forth exchanges, some variation of The Filthy Sluts Must Be Punished. Regardless of where their argument started, the goal of the game was to get them to admit that.

I never once lost a game of Six Degrees of Slut. On a few occasions the match was inconclusive - the other person left off arguing before we reached round six - but I never lost; I never once reached six rounds of debate with a prolifer without them expressing some variation on this sentiment. But what was really remarkable to me was, a lot of times, that there was no effort involved at all -- they would blurt it out themselves, with effectively no provocation.

Scratch a prolifer, and you'll find right under the surface the conviction that The Filthy Sluts Must Be Punished. I have never once yet found an exception. Sometimes you don't even have to scratch.

That's what we really need to understand about reactionaries. The degrees to which they dehumanize others cannot be overstated. It's never hypocrisy for them if they get an abortion because, see, they had valid reasons. Nobody else ever would. They are just special, they are just better than you.

PROJECT 2025 MUST BE STOPPED 🛑

Vote Accordingly.

almost none of the reasons why i support abortion rights have anything to do with babies. really it’s more about the fact that I think the government shouldn’t be able to force you to lend all your organs to someone else and change irreparably in the process. is a fetus a person? I don’t care! If it is a person, I don’t want anyone to be forced to host one against their will! If it isn’t a person, guess what? Nobody should be forced to host one against their will! What’s a soul? What’s a person? When does life begin? IRRELEVANT! A world in which the government can force anyone to manufacture an entirely new human body at the cost of their own is not a world I want to live in!

This is it! If it’s not okay for the government to roll up to your workplace and grab you and take you to a hospital and take out one of your kidneys to give to someone who needs it, or pull you into a van and hold you down to take a pint of your blood for someone who needs it, it’s not okay for the government to force you to carry a pregnancy! Life should ALWAYS be a freely given gift that we give to one another!

I think the most horrifyingly statistical evidence in favor of ease of access to abortion facilities was the paper I read that detailed murder rates of pregnant women. These were women in two states in the US. One state had access to abortion facilities, the other had revoked access to abortion facilities after Roe V. Wade was struck down. The study looked at the murder rates of pregnant women pre-birth. These women were going to give birth. They were not looking to have an abortion. They did not die in childbirth. They were murdered. Specifically, they were murdered because they were pregnant. In comparing the two states, the state without access to abortion facilities had about a 75% higher murder rate than the state with access to abortion facilities. Moreover, in the state that had banned abortion, the murder rate of pregnant women who were planning on giving birth rose by about 125%.

I think the numbers speak for themselves. If there are abortion facilities, fewer pregnant women are getting murdered. Most of those women were murdered by their partners, or by a relative who was male. Just by having access to an abortion facility, whether or not it is used, cuts down on the murder rate. In the long run, this results in more babies being born. Dead people don't have babies. Murdered people don't have babies. I'd rather there not be murdered pregnant people. But maybe that's just me.

"Interstate 55 carries 10s of thousands of abortion seekers out of southern states to Illinois, where abortion is legal. I-55 is covered with horrific, shaming billboards. Shout Your Abortion put up 6 good ones, to show love & affirmation to those making the journey." x

everyone living in EU - please support the citizens initiative for safe and accessible abortion!!

If I may, I'll use this as an opportunity to also share this EU citizens' initiative to ban the conversion therapy

I do not request reblogs often, but reblog this no matter where you are from so people from the EU can see and sign this. Please. Let's make a difference. Thank you! ⚔️🌈

- Moira Donegan in The Guardian

Shoutout to all the people of Ohio who just passed abortion, contraception, and reproductive rights of all people into constitutional law by a fucking 12+ point margin despite the state legislature desperately trying to do everything they can to fuck up the vote. I'm so proud of y'all!!

This was an interesting read. Surprisingly nonpreachy given the subject; and well worth the time.

This is oaywalled but it made me weep with relief to see an honest recounting for once, so I’ve saved some good bits:

my official stance is a pregnancy is whatever the pregnant woman wants it to be. if it’s a 4 week old clump of cells and she wants to call it a baby it’s a baby. if she’s 20 weeks and she wants to call it a parasite it’s a parasite. if she’s 39 weeks and calls it a fetus it’s a fetus. “why are you so sad about miscarrying at 6 weeks it was literally just an embryo” because that was her baby. “how can you get an abortion at three months” because that wasn’t a baby. hope that helps.

source 1

source 2

requested by anonymous:

RATING: RELIABLE

The above is from this article from The Guardian.  The images are from MYA Network. The caption on their website reads:

Source: ‘When a sperm and egg get together, the body creates tissue in order to support the developing pregnancy.  Here are photos of that tissue from 5-9 week pregnancies.  This is called the gestational sac, and it’s like the “house” for the pregnancy. Inside this sac there are cells that have the potential to become a fetus but there is no visible embryo at this stage. We rinsed off the blood and menstrual lining (decidua) for these photographs.’

The published images sparked a lot of debate, leading to the story being picked up by other news outlets. For example:

Source: ‘Last week, the Guardian published images of pregnancy tissue after abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The small size and appearance of the tissue were shocking to many. We have all absorbed, knowingly and unknowingly, the pervasive anti-abortion narrative that a pregnancy resembles a tiny baby starting in the earliest weeks. Though an early embryo can be seen under the magnification of ultrasound, it can take months for it to be perceptible to the naked eye.’

Source: ‘People have responded in disbelief, citing the (magnified) images they’ve seen on ultrasounds. […] ”Think of the illustrations on pregnancy and medical websites. The Mayo Clinic, one of the preeminent medical organizations in the country, shows week-by-week illustrations of embryonic and fetal development without any context of scale, like the rulers in the MYA photos.’

As stated in the article, whilst people talk about a ‘heartbeat’ at 6 weeks, there is no heart developed at this stage - only a group of cells that will become part of the heart.

Source: ‘But what exactly do we mean when we talk about a “fetal heartbeat” at six weeks of pregnancy? Although some people might picture a heart-shaped organ beating inside a fetus, this is not the case. Rather, at six weeks of pregnancy, an ultrasound can detect “a little flutter in the area that will become the future heart of the baby,” said Dr. Saima Aftab, medical director of the Fetal Care Center at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. This flutter happens because the group of cells that will become the future “pacemaker” of the heart gain the capacity to fire electrical signals, she said.’

It should also be noted that the images show an embryo, not a fetus, until the 9th week.

Source: ‘In human pregnancies, a baby-to-be isn’t considered a fetus until the 9th week after conception, or week 11 after your last menstrual period (LMP).’

The co-founders of the MYA Network responded in a New York Times article.

Source: ‘Many people, even those who support abortion rights, did not believe the photos were accurate. Some insisted we had deliberately removed the embryos before taking the photos. The images weren’t consistent with those often seen in embryological textbooks, magnified on ultrasounds or used in anti-abortion propaganda; these enlarged images are not what you see with the naked eye after an abortion. A Stanford gynecologic pathologist has validated our photos, but many people could not believe the pictures were presented unaltered.

I’ve never seen pictures like this.

AMAZING news: the Reproductive Freedom Act in Ohio has now officially been CERTIFIED to be on the ballot in this November's election. It gathered 495,938 signatures from 55 counties across Ohio. Republicans messed around & women & young people will make them find out.

Okay, but Ohioans need to get the fuck to the polls for our special election on August 8th!!! The Republican fucks are trying to change our simple majority necessary for amendments to 60%. The Columbus Dispatch says "Issue 1 is one of the most significant questions Ohio voters will be asked in generations," and that's no exaggeration. Get out there, and vote no. Early voting and absentee ballot requests are still going on, if you are registered to vote!

We gotta vote no on issue 1 in Ohio on August 8th, 2023.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose admitted last month “[Issue 1] is 100% about keeping a radical, pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.”

psa for cis people: it's not "women and people who menstruate," it's just people who menstruate. adding "women and" implies that

just say people who menstruate. women who menstruate are people. saying "women and people who menstruate" is a nonsense phrase that only serves to soothe the egos of cis women. they can cope with not having their ciswomanhood centered, I promise.

Also if you think that’s “too long”, sometimes you can just say people and the context implies that you’re talking about people who menstruate. A sentence like “people who menstruate should have better access to menstrual hygiene products” and “people should have better access to menstrual hygiene products” mean the same thing. “women with period cramps are so brave” and “people with period cramps are so brave” is another example. just using people in thag context makes it clear you mean people who menstruate.

Also fuck the weird trend of saying women, trans men and femmes to talk about people who menstruate. Or AFAB people. Not all AFABs menstruate not all women or trans men menstruate. And femmes has absolutely nothing to do with menstruation. It’s so baffling thag people genuinely think this is inclusive language.

people who don't menstruate should also have access to period supplies so they can fetch them for friends and family. people who don't get cramps should still know what's a normal level of pain for their coworkers and employees to deal with, how to tell the difference between appendicitis and cramping in their best friend, when years of excruciating periods might indicate endometriosis in their sibling, what the safe amount of acetaminophen or ibuprofen is for their roommate. people who can't get pregnant should still have access to affordable birth control and contraceptives--as well as knowing how common first trimester miscarriages are, to support their partners' right to reproductive control.

everyone benefits from the assumption that men--even perisex cis men--should be involved in supporting and accommodating uterine care issues.

AMAZING news: the Reproductive Freedom Act in Ohio has now officially been CERTIFIED to be on the ballot in this November's election. It gathered 495,938 signatures from 55 counties across Ohio. Republicans messed around & women & young people will make them find out.

Okay, but Ohioans need to get the fuck to the polls for our special election on August 8th!!! The Republican fucks are trying to change our simple majority necessary for amendments to 60%. The Columbus Dispatch says "Issue 1 is one of the most significant questions Ohio voters will be asked in generations," and that's no exaggeration. Get out there, and vote no. Early voting and absentee ballot requests are still going on, if you are registered to vote!

We gotta vote no on issue 1 in Ohio on August 8th, 2023.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose admitted last month “[Issue 1] is 100% about keeping a radical, pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.”

requested by anonymous:

RATING: RELIABLE

The above is from this article from The Guardian.  The images are from MYA Network. The caption on their website reads:

Source: ‘When a sperm and egg get together, the body creates tissue in order to support the developing pregnancy.  Here are photos of that tissue from 5-9 week pregnancies.  This is called the gestational sac, and it’s like the “house” for the pregnancy. Inside this sac there are cells that have the potential to become a fetus but there is no visible embryo at this stage. We rinsed off the blood and menstrual lining (decidua) for these photographs.’

The published images sparked a lot of debate, leading to the story being picked up by other news outlets. For example:

Source: ‘Last week, the Guardian published images of pregnancy tissue after abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The small size and appearance of the tissue were shocking to many. We have all absorbed, knowingly and unknowingly, the pervasive anti-abortion narrative that a pregnancy resembles a tiny baby starting in the earliest weeks. Though an early embryo can be seen under the magnification of ultrasound, it can take months for it to be perceptible to the naked eye.’

Source: ‘People have responded in disbelief, citing the (magnified) images they’ve seen on ultrasounds. […] ”Think of the illustrations on pregnancy and medical websites. The Mayo Clinic, one of the preeminent medical organizations in the country, shows week-by-week illustrations of embryonic and fetal development without any context of scale, like the rulers in the MYA photos.’

As stated in the article, whilst people talk about a ‘heartbeat’ at 6 weeks, there is no heart developed at this stage - only a group of cells that will become part of the heart.

Source: ‘But what exactly do we mean when we talk about a “fetal heartbeat” at six weeks of pregnancy? Although some people might picture a heart-shaped organ beating inside a fetus, this is not the case. Rather, at six weeks of pregnancy, an ultrasound can detect “a little flutter in the area that will become the future heart of the baby,” said Dr. Saima Aftab, medical director of the Fetal Care Center at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. This flutter happens because the group of cells that will become the future “pacemaker” of the heart gain the capacity to fire electrical signals, she said.’

It should also be noted that the images show an embryo, not a fetus, until the 9th week.

Source: ‘In human pregnancies, a baby-to-be isn’t considered a fetus until the 9th week after conception, or week 11 after your last menstrual period (LMP).’

The co-founders of the MYA Network responded in a New York Times article.

Source: ‘Many people, even those who support abortion rights, did not believe the photos were accurate. Some insisted we had deliberately removed the embryos before taking the photos. The images weren’t consistent with those often seen in embryological textbooks, magnified on ultrasounds or used in anti-abortion propaganda; these enlarged images are not what you see with the naked eye after an abortion. A Stanford gynecologic pathologist has validated our photos, but many people could not believe the pictures were presented unaltered.

I’ve never seen pictures like this.