Some days I can't bear to look

I know I haven't been around much. Frankly, keeping up with the insane and nonstop political assaults on abortion and related care has been nearly too much to bear. You'd think I'd be writing nonstop, because SO MANY FEELINGS, but at times the feelings kinda drain my emotional energy. I know some of my co-bloggers have been feeling that same drain, lately, in various ways -- and I bet fellow abortioneers in the field have, too.

So it seems almost futile to single out one law and one group of politicians. But if any law has earned that, I guess it'd be the latest restriction out of the magnolia state. Mississippi, come on down!

Maybe you've heard? The lawmakers who passed Mississippi's House Bill 1390, while claiming to be motivated by a desire to protect women from dangerous abortion providers, are also cheering the fact that the bill will have the effect of shutting down the only existing legal abortion provider in the state.

Sen. Kenny Wayne Jones (D-Canton) asked Sen. Dean Kirby (R-Pearl), who chairs the Senate Public Health Committee*, whether ending abortions in the state would force women to resort to dangerous, back-alley abortions.

"That's what we're trying to stop here, the coat-hanger abortions," Kirby replied, in reference to the abortions provided at the clinic in Jackson. "The purpose of this bill is to stop back-room abortions."

*I would also like to call your attention to the fact that Sen. Dean Kirby chairs the Senate Public Health Committee. Presumably, that is a Senate committee on public health. But maybe it's...a Senate committee against public health? I guess the title isn't super specific.

Oh, speaking of the Legislative Brotherhood Against Public Health, see also the breathtakingly cavalier Rep. Bubba Carpenter announcing afterward:

"We have literally stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi. Three blocks from the Capitol sits the only abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi. A bill was drafted. It said, if you would perform an abortion in the state of Mississippi, you must be a certified OB/GYN and you must have admitting privileges to a hospital. Anybody here in the medical field knows how hard it is to get admitting privileges to a hospital.

"It's going to be challenged, of course, in the Supreme Court and all -- but literally, we stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi, legally, without having to-- Roe vs. Wade. So we've done that. I was proud of it. The governor signed it into law. And of course, there you have the other side. They're like, 'Well, the poor pitiful women that can't afford to go out of state are just going to start doing them at home with a coat hanger.' That's what we've heard over and over and over.

But hey, you have to have moral values."

Wow. Was that a sneer I just heard? And then...a shrug?

He has a point, right? Sure there might be some poor pitiful women who can't afford to go out of state for their medical care and end up injured or dead using coat hangers and home remedies -- but aren't we pro-choice people (the other side) just talking about those women to score political points? I mean, why else would you bother talking about them? We say it over and over and over because we don't have better talking points, I guess. But hey! Those deaths are so trivial we can mock them and the people who talk about them.

(Later, Rep. Carpenter also shrugged off his coat hanger 'quote' as "just some language that some of the African-Americans used.")

(You thought I made up that last bit, didn't you? But no. He really did. I mean, it sounds like he's saying that therefore those accounts amount to nothing worth examining? But hey! That's okay, because African-American women (and other black women, and other women of color) definitely don't have even more experience with unsafe abortion than white women.)

Gosh, wonder why I feel so tired?

Happy Roe Day!

Yesterday was the 38th anniversary of the Roe versus Wade decision. Though I was aware of this, I happened to forget yesterday, until I unwittingly stumbled into an anti-abortion rally.

I was surprised at the sheer volume of people present. They carried signs that read:
ABORTION HURTS WOMEN
WOMEN DESERVE BETTER THAN ABORTION
WOMEN REGRET ABORTION

I was struck by how much the rhetoric has changed over the years. Immediately post-Roe, women who had abortions were demonized as "sluts." They were attacking the women themselves. When they realized this type of demonization would never work and ended making themselves look unstable, they began to reframe the debate. They have done a pretty amazing job. Women are now the victims of abortion. Abortion is a big mean monster out to hurt them. They are no longer blaming women, and instead making a very emotionally evocative statements, however untrue they may be.

Abortion does NOT hurt women. What hurts women is decreased access to family planning, birth control, and other important types of medical care. It hurts women when legislation is passed that forces women to look at a sonogram even if she is a rape survivor. It hurts women when you allow pharmacists to deny said woman her emergency contraception. It hurts women when she cannot afford to feed her children and she cannot find a job and there are not enough social programs available to assist her.

Instead of "women deserving better than abortion," perhaps they deserve pregnancies that don't develop fatal abonormalities. Women deserve partners who do not rape and abuse them. Women deserve access to legal medical procedures without being harrassed on her way into the clinic.

Women don't regret abortion. The greatest indicator of a woman's mental health post-abortion is her health pre-abortion. Either way, relief is the most commonly reported emotion post-abortion.

Despite antis BS rhetoric, abortion is still safe and legal in the United States. I have an amazing network of colleagues and friends who help fight the battle to keep abortion legal with me. So, on that note, I'd like to say Happy Roe Day!

Holy Smokes!

We were so busy enjoying the 37^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade we (1) forgot to write about it and (2) forgot to celebrate our own birthday!

It’s true! The blog of the Abortioneers is one year old! 234 posts later, we are doing better than ever.

We cannot thank you all enough for your support and kind comments -- on the blog, via Twitter and Facebook, and in-person from our loved ones and even people who don't know that we are the writers.

We use this space to share our experiences and tell our stories. We are so proud to hear that our readers find this blog useful, comforting, and supportive.

Thanks for reading and sharing. Abortioneers do such incredible work every day all over the world. The work is not always appreciated, but it is always important.

Thank you again, and here's to another year!

The documentarian is an abortioneer

Every rare once-in-a-while an abortioneer comes along with the sheer and immaculate ability to fashion a show that is both heart-wrenching and humorous, haunting and inspiring, meaningful and immediate. Angie Young is a hot hero and we are not one bit surprised her film is a 2009 Rosebud Film Festival Nominee, showcased Saturday, June 27, 2009 at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theater in Arlington, VA.

She says what we are trying to say--with background music and mad citations. Take a look. Be intrigued. Find inspiration and commonality and at least one more enlightening perspective in this documentary worth owning, sharing and giving to everyone you ever found sitting on a fence or dreamin' bout the olden days or interested in social trends, humanity, accessible health care, evolution, hope, etc, etc, etc...