mdlbear | Entries tagged with abortion

Signal boost for siderea | Move [US, pols, Patreon]. (Also noted by @catsittingstill.)

I don't know who in the US needs to hear this: it's time.
If you have a uterus, or love someone who does. If you're trans, or love someone who is – especially if they're a child. If you were married to someone of the same sex. If you are otherwise LGBQ, or your child is. If you are someone who provides medical care that is or is about to become criminalized.
Definitely, if you live in Florida. Probably, if you live in Texas. There's a whole bunch of other states that aren't looking too good either.
If you're one of those people living in one of those places in the US...
It's time to think about moving.

There's more -- go read the whole post. I'll wait.

My extended family includes people in all of the categories at risk. I have already advised my kids, including my trans son, to get their damned passports renewed. Washington (state) is still safe for the moment; all bets are off after 2024, and the US Supreme (kangaroo) Court is already makings things difficult. That will only get worse.

In addition to Florida and Texas, dangerous states include Idaho, Indiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee (all mentioned in comments on Siderea's post); there are others.

Note that the Nazis went after queers first. They didn't stop there. Good luck.

Mood: worried
Location: A free (so far) state
Music: Cat Faber: Underground Rail

CONTENT WARNING: pro-choice activism, protest music, politics. If you think this might be triggery, please click here, skip to the end and move on. If you're offended by anything in here, you're ~~probably~~ not in my target audience.

a little space

It's time to reprise catsittingstill's song "Underground Rail". Back in 2012 when I wrote the previous S4S post about it, and founded the underground_rail community here, it really looked as though it wouldn't actually be needed, at least not for its original purpose (there's still this thing called "abuse"). Right. That was back before the country I live in was taken over by the Trump and his gang of billionaires, jackbooted thugs, Russian agents, religious nut-jobs, and sociopaths. Before things like Alabama and Oklahoma. Ireland is worse, but maybe not for long.

This song is more relevant now than it was when Lookingglass Folk performed it in our 2012 concert. I wish to hell it wasn't.

[ogg] [mp3]

I thought about putting a bit of a history lesson under a cut. I'm old enough to remember the time before Roe v Wade. Apparently there are "coat-hanger deniers" (my phrase; feel free) out there who claim it wasn't as bad as people say. It was worse. But I'm too tired and too angry, and I don't have enough spoons for the amount of vitriol it would take to do it right. Later.

I'm not going to cut-tag the notes, either. They're a mixed bag.

Notes & links:

  @ What to Know About Self-Managed Abortion Care | Literary Hub (ysabetwordsmith)
  @ “Please, I Am Out of Options” - PopConnect
  @ The Return of the Coat Hanger Abortion
  @ Along the Old Underground Railroad, One Photo at a Time | Literary Hub (ysabetwordsmith)
    THROUGH
    DARKNESS TO LIGHT: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad [2002 - 2016] — Jeanine
    Michna-Bales | JMBales Photography    Project Photographs
  @ mdlbear | Songs for Saturday: Underground Rail
  @ mdlbear | Songs for Sunday, too: Lookingglass Folk at Conflikt 5
  @ Songs of the Underground Railroad - Wikipedia
  @ underground_rail
     note that //undergroundrail.livejournal.com has been purged - that's okay
    -> set up undergroundrail.org;
       starting an s4s post, will signal boost on the community

a little space

end of post.

Mood: outraged
Music: see post
Crossposts: https://mdlbear.livejournal.com/1679623.html

Originally posted by

gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting ~~very little~~ no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

NOTE from the

mdlbear: basically all I did was push the button. Not fact-checked, though I may do that later. It's still very alarming and worthy of attention.

Mood: infuriated
Location: not a theocracy -- yet.

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