Highlights from Georgia Judge overturning their abortion ban
Originally posted to X by @MuellerSheWrote, I've pulled their post copy here:
NEW: THREAD: A new ruling from Judge McBurney in Georgia overturning the abortion ban and allowing the procedure to continue has some REMARKABLE quotes. Let's take a look at just a few. 1/
"While the State's interest in protecting "unborn" life is compelling, until that life can be sustained by the State -- and not solely by the woman compelled by the Act to do the State's work -- the balance of rights favors the woman." 2/
"Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote. Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have." 3/
"For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability. It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid's Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could -- or should -- force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another." 4/
"When someone other than the pregnant woman is able to sustain the fetus, then -- and only then -- should those other voices have a say in the discussion about the decisions the pregnant woman makes concerning her body and what is growing within it." 5/
"There is nothing so urgent or important to the State about the medical records of women who end pregnancies that the privacy rights of those women -- and the Fourth Amendment protections that attach to those rights -- can be bulldozed away by statutory enactment." 6/
"...liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices." 7/
"Accordingly, Section 4 of the LIFE Act is hereby DECLARED unconstitutional. The State and all its agents, to include any County, Municipal, or other local authority, are once again ENJOINED from seeking to enforce in any manner the LIFE Act's PECAP termination ban in Georgia." END/
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Idaho women traveling to Washington for abortions, not not having them
Now that a year has passed since women lost the right to abortion, we can assess how our neighbor Idaho's near-total ban on it is faring.
In short: It has accomplished next to nothing.
You can't say categorically that the Idaho ban hasn't stopped a single abortion. But the data suggests that is essentially the case – that the whole thing is a burden, cost and danger to Idaho's own women, but hasn't met the anti-abortion goals that supposedly informed it.
We know this now because clinics in the Pacific Northwest have started releasing data on where women come from to use their services, both back when abortion was legal nationwide, and now that it's not.
Idaho women are simply fleeing.
Take the Kennewick Planned Parenthood clinic in the Tri-Cities, about 130 miles into Washington state from the Idaho border. According to data compiled by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell's office, this clinic saw just two patients from Idaho in the five months before the U.S. Supreme Court canceled Roe v. Wade.
In that same five-month period this year? There were 91.
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Supreme Court allows abortion medication to remain on market
Additional reading:
- The Supreme Court Protects Access to the Abortion Pill Mifepristone—At Least for Now (motherjones.com)
- The Supreme Court Preserves Abortion Pill Access—Temporarily (wired.com)
- Supreme Court pauses abortion pill restrictions from taking effect during appeal (thehill.com)
- The Supreme Court rules mifepristone can remain available – here's how 2 conflicting federal court decisions led to this point (theconversation.com)
- The Justices Pass on an Abortion-Pill Ban (theatlantic.com)
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Sen. Lindsey Graham introduces bill to ban abortion nationally
This is a fascinating bit of political and theater between the Republicans and Democrats. My guess is that this is a desperation play where they are hoping to scare Republicans who might vote Democratic back to the right. But I can't imagine that this is actually a winning strategy for them.
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"Results: Kansas voters decide 'no' on the abortion amendment"
I included the tweet when it was called yesterday, but here is a write up which delves into it deeper. And given that Kansas, a conservative state, voted this way is telling.
Edit: Originally I linked to an NPR story about this news. Switching to promote 19thnews.org, "an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy."
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An MP in the Ivory Coast has introduced a bill to legalize polygamy
Yacouba Sangaré, the MP who proposed the change, described the current matrimonial legislation in Ivory Coast as “a generalised hypocrisy”.
The elected member of the ruling The Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party filed a bill to amend a June 2019 law that stipulates that “no one may contract a new marriage before the first one is dissolved” and that sole state officials have the authority to legalise a union.
But the proposal has since sparked outrage among women’s rights organisations and feminist groups who have dubbed it a step back in the fight against gender inequality.
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Digital Defense Fund
We are Digital Defense Fund, and we do digital security for the abortion access movement.
We envision a future where technology and innovation support secure, autonomous reproductive decisions, free from stigma.
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"Fear, Uncertainty, and Period Trackers"
I was pointed to this essay by Bruce Schneier's blog. Bruce is one of the foremost digital security experts and he was right, this is an excellent essay which basically highlights at period tracker app data is a red herring. If you are concerned about someone finding out about your pregnancy, etc., there are a myriad of ways and things to be worried about which are more important than the apps and their data. OpSec is a thing in so much of our lives, and the internet makes it very hard.
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Re: President Biden's statement about life saving abortion treatment
After seeing a Twitter war over it, I went digging. And indeed, I checked nearly every state's filed law that bans abortion, and none of the ones I checked prevented abortions in the case of saving the mother's life.
I do not bring this fact check as a way to get people to settle down. Pro Choice is firmly the stance which is right.
The laws that I reviewed were all written with exceptions for life saving abortions. By my reading though, most of the ones I skimmed were written in such a way that the doctor could then find themselves under the microscope to determine if they're judgment that it was a life threatening situation was correct. This looming threat might could make doctors less likely to make that call, and speaks to why the President's statement today is still impactful even though the laws all already permit it, and makes clear that the federal law still supercedes their state laws in those cases.
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My grandmother’s botched abortion transformed three generations
Actor John Turturro tells how a botched abortion for his grandmother transformed his family.
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal floats National Women's Strike in response to Supreme Court Abortion Decision
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Democrats, Roe, and Voting
Last week was rough. When the Roe v. Wade decision came out, being embedded in social media, was rough. And then comes the messaging from Democrats of "Well, just vote" - and, yes they aren't wrong. But it's an incredibly frustrating message for voters.
I feel it's sort of like the people who get angry when people in entertainment, sports, or gaming (and other fields) bring up politics and they go "Leave politics out of this." But. We can't. This is life. Politics is part of life.
This isn't an achievement to be had once and then forgotten. It's an ongoing effort and it requires folks to continue to give a shit. Roe v. Wade being overturned is a big moment and going to make people care and pay attention again.
Will it be enough to bring in two more Democratic senators? Who knows. But that's the point of this messaging. There isn't much which can be done until something changes. And to change it, people have to be invested in the country's politics and vote.
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Justice Clarence Thomas Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
On Friday morning, Alito’s conservative colleague on the court, Justice Clarence Thomas, disagreed with that. In his own individual opinion, Thomas wrote that, in fact, overturning Roe should only be the first step. “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” he writes. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous.’”
“Demonstrably erroneous.” There is very little that is vague about those words. With the death of abortion rights in America, Thomas has now come out and said, in no-uncertain terms, that cases that enshrined Americans’ rights to marry whomever they want and to make personal decisions about their intimacy and child-bearing are flat-out wrong. For now, that is just Thomas’ opinion—none of what he’s written is legally enforceable. But the fact that he’s stating this explicitly affirms the fears of advocates that for many conservatives the demise of Roe was never meant to be the end—but rather a bleak beginning.
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Donations to fund Abortion Access in Every State
Another option is to donate to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which as of this posting, is having donations matched 10-1.
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Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
A dark dark day. Just awful and upsetting. I am so angry.
Edit: I will add, it is important that laws can and should be changed. Those who cling to the Constitution as if it is a religious document, not to be challenged are, to be blunt, ignorant misguided assholes who see perfection in an era where slavery was legal, women couldn't vote, etc.
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