December 2011
150 posts
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“Among activists within the reproductive rights community there is no consensus...”
– An excerpt from the article “It’s Not Just Abortion, Stupid.” Pardon the gratuitous ableism, and, as always, pregnant people not just women.
The whole quote is good, but I want to emphasize one part in particular:
Many abortion rights activists are increasingly dissatisfied with the euphemism of...
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Whenever Anti-Choicers say that having sex means...
saynathespiffy:
daskannnichtsein:
They become the literal epitome of anti-choice.
And I just sorta side-eye and go “how many of you fuckers wouldn’t be alive today if your parents only fucked when they were ready?”
Yep. And that last question is pretty important. A lot of us were accidents, or, as my mother puts it, “surprises”. Most of the sex people have is protected sex for pleasure and...
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Things That Make You Go Aaargh: Reproductive... →
loveyourclit:
“Anti-choice activists are not going to stop trying to take away our right to choose. So I want to know, what can we do to get off the defense and onto offense? How can we not only end this chipping away of the rights guaranteed in Roe but also persuade the electorate as a whole that those rights are in fact inalienable?”
It’s difficult to find ways to go on the offense in...
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Fear
nextthursday:
The closer it gets to my abortion, the more I find I have only 1 fear. It’s not the pain, or the bleeding, or the drugs.
I’m terrified of not having the abortion.
My “what if”s are full of horror stories about my childcare pulling out at the last minute. Of an unexpected emergency needing my scraped together funds. The car breaking down and not being able to drive the two hours...
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Pro-Choice Sites To Read
bebinn:
Guttmacher Institute - conducts research and provides education on sexual and reproductive health in the US and worldwide.
NARAL Pro-Choice America
RH Reality Check
Abortion Care Network
Planned Parenthood Advocate
Our Bodies Our Blog
Abortion Gang
Abortioneers
Every Saturday Morning - a group of clinic escorts write about their experiences at the only abortion clinic in...
And now my coming-of-age story is out on the...
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Unpopular opinion that's going to cost me...
teachthecontroversy:
I don’t think that if you’re under 18, you should have sex.
I think there is a lot of responsibility in having sex, between the emotional aspects, the pregnancy issues, and sexually transmitted diseases.
I think that some teenagers have the ability to handle it, and most don’t. Most of the teenagers I have ever met have been so horribly uneducated about sex and so full...
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Abortion Clinic Workers, please read this letter... →
mylifeasafeminista:
This is probably the last thing I wanted to start my morning off with, but I unfortunately did and now I have a few things to say because this letter is some serious bullshit.
“You entered the abortion industry because you wanted to help women.”
What on earth is the abortion industry!? Are you trying to imply that abortion clinic workers are simply performing abortions in...
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Rather than waste money trying to ban abortion,...
femmewave:
Adopt a child.
Fund contraception.
Support free healthcare.
Donate to charities that work to eradicate childhood diseases.
Donate to Amnesty International, so they can get innocent people off Death Row.
Donate your time to working with the hungry / homeless.
Knit blankets for *wanted* preemie babies.
Support people who miscarry. They might actually need it.
Fight domestic...
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“A three-day-old human embryo is a collection of 150 cells called a blastocyst....”
– Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
Get it through your heads, people. Potentiality=/=actuality, and we don’t hand out rights based on mere potential.
(via prolongedeyecontact)
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ipomoeaandthestarstealers replied to your post: prolongedeyecontact replied to your post: You knew…
My hospital birth before insurance coverage was almost $22k. Add in prenatal care and my pregnancy and birth cost almost $40,000.
Just kidding, that sounds much more like what I’ve heard before. I thought the APA’s estimate seemed strangely low. Anyone else have this...
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prolongedeyecontact replied to your post: You knew I was being facetious about the cost of giving birth, right? I was just trying to say being an abortion provider is hardly lucrative compared to birthing fees other doctors get…I couldn’t really tell from your reblog. [It is a huge problem and there needs to be cost reform, though].
Oh, ok! I’m tired and I wasn’t sure :) That is a great...
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The GOP’s 10 Most Extreme Attacks On A Woman’s...
2011 marked a banner year in the Republican war on woman’s health. Close to 1,000 anti-abortion bills sped through state legislatures as the GOP-led House led a “comprehensive and radical assault” on a federal level. But in surveying their arsenal this year, 10 bills stood out as particularly perturbing and far-reaching efforts to stymie women’s access to abortion services, birth control, and...
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cand86 asked: Hey Bebinn! I have a question for you- do you know why mifepristone/RU-486 is not approved in Canada? From what I understand, a trial for it was stopped due to a woman's death in 2001, but it seems strange to me that it's still not approved there yet, despite being approved and routinely used in so many other countries, with a good track record in terms of safety. Just curious if you...
prolongedeyecontact asked: You knew I was being facetious about the cost of giving birth, right? I was just trying to say being an abortion provider is hardly lucrative compared to birthing fees other doctors get...I couldn't really tell from your reblog. [It is a huge problem and there needs to be cost reform, though].
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There's a pro-choice saying that mentions keeping...
prolongedeyecontact:
bebinn:
They’d be rarer if certain people didn’t discourage comprehensive sex education in schools and shame people for having sex. Fear goes a long way in promoting ignorance of our bodily functions, negotiating sexual relationships, and taking care of ourselves.
I found one clinic’s breakdown of their fees, which I thought was interesting:
The fee includes blood and...
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Florida Legislator Brings Back 20 Week Abortion... →
prolongedeyecontact:
The state of Florida passed an amazing number of abortion restriction laws last year, but one bill they were not able to pass was a ban on all abortions after 20 weeks.
So now they are trying again.
Via Jacksonville.com:
Because, supporters say, a fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks, [Rep. Daniel] Davis has taken a political defibrillator to an effort to ban abortions...
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Respecting Kids' Bodily Boundaries and Teaching... →
Most of us can remember being pressured to just “suffer through it” from our own childhoods. Who doesn’t recall being forced to kiss “Great Aunt Edna” as a kid, or getting scratched by Uncle Bob’s beard as he leaned in for a squeeze? Or, being told to just ignore the teasing and roughhousing of our cousins?
As a mother, I can relate to the embarrassment that a parent might feel when a child...
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I just witnessed a natural birth. I just witnessed...
loveisfluid:
Oh. My world just exploded into a thousand brilliant stars. That is how spectacular I feel right now. My heart. My aching back. But my HEART!
My first experience as a Doula and what an absolutely incredible event it was! She was so amazing. She changed from a soft spoken young woman to a howling coyote, a warrior, a champion, and then finally, a mother. And she let me witness it....
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Death and Life
prolongedeyecontact:
prochoicegeneration:
(In response to craftychristianmamma. These perspectives come from the book I’m nearly finished with, Linda Weber’s Life Choices: The Teachings of Abortion.)
Death is a part of life. It is necessary, inevitable, and natural. Animals practice abortion by reabsorbing the fetuses into their bodies if the timing is not right. The death of trees in a...
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My Ten Least Favorite Pro-Choice Arguments (And...
cand86:
Just a little collection of pro-choice arguments I get exposed to and have issues with.
1) BAD: “It’s part of the woman’s* body.”
Well … yes and no. It’s inside her body and it’s attached to her body … but to say that a fertilized egg/zygote/blastocyst/embryo/fetus is a part of a woman’s body is to somewhat imply (or to be interpreted as implying) that it’s not different than any...
rawrlawra replied to your photo: Wore this shirt to dinner with my family tonight….
That shirt is awesome! Where’d you get it?!
Probably Goodwill. I know the website, waronchoice.com, is long gone. It’s too bad; I really like the design. It’s subtle enough that you wouldn’t think anything of it at a glance, but further staring at my boobular area makes it rather clear...
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Escaped Abusive Relationship: Thanks, Abortion! →
When I was 19 I got pregnant by my abusive boyfriend, whom I was in the process of trying to leave. We had been together for about 2 years and in that time frame he had destroyed my life, my relationship with my family, my credit, and my self-esteem. He knew how to control me and he used whatever leverage he had to keep me under his thumb. Once I was finally able to escape him (literally –...
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Anti-choicers love science...when it benefits them
Some of our favorite anti-choice bloggers have taken to posting studies on the abortion tag in hopes of raising their credibility. A bit of a far cry from their usual routine of Lie, Guilt, Shame, and Repeat. It is interesting that they suddenly have such a fondness for science when they refuse to use the real names of things, such as embryo or fetus, in favor of terms that evoke this:
-instead...
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Fetal Awareness (.pdf) →
kevinwayne:
So what? Bravo for you that you show there’s another opinion! Anand is not the only Scientist on that study, he’s just the main one.
Also a Dr. Stuart Campbell is in agreement with Anand, as well as Nicolas Fisk, who has done tests that yielded similar results to Anand. You can just do an online search for either or both names, i.e. “Campbell Fetal Pain,” etc.
EDITED TO ADD: I’ve...
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Fetal Awareness (.pdf) →
kevinwayne:
A 15 year-old report? Guess again!
Pediatrics. 2007 Mar;119(3):605-7.
Pain assessment in preterm neonates.
Anand KJ.
Source
Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. anandsunny@uams.edu
I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to “guess again” about, since this is an entirely different...
8 tags
There's a pro-choice saying that mentions keeping...
They’d be rarer if certain people didn’t discourage comprehensive sex education in schools and shame people for having sex. Fear goes a long way in promoting ignorance of our bodily functions, negotiating sexual relationships, and taking care of ourselves.
I found one clinic’s breakdown of their fees, which I thought was interesting:
The fee includes blood and urine lab work...
Fetal Awareness (.pdf) →
kevinwayne:
Again, just trying to show the complexity of the debate, and how there is no real consensus. Being open-minded and open to all sides is the greatest threat to certain people.
A 15-year-old report on brain development? Try again.
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Kevin Wayne: PAIN AND ITS EFFECTS IN THE HUMAN... →
stfuprolife:
kevinwayne:
Guess again. There are studies I have referenced as recent as the 90’s, if you are looking at everything I’m posting. Plus the in the .pdf file you link to re the RCOG testimony to a UK Parliamentary subcommittee, but you forgot to read in the back where the committee responded and came to the same conclusion: no conensus.
FAIL again!
Newer studies contradict your...
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Life Choices: The Teachings of Abortion
prolongedeyecontact:
bebinn:
Physical creation - sex and pregnancy - has been considered throughout history to be “natural.” Being natural - close to Nature - has been associated with women. It has also been associated with being unconscious. The process of resolving a crisis pregnancy challenges the idea that being natural means being unconscious. Making mindless decisions about pregnancy is...
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“Sexual energy is not male or female. It is androgynous, human. It can be...”
– Linda Weber’s Life Choices: The Teachings of Abortion
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(Natural) Birthers--Reflections from Abroad
moomu:
It’s Christmas Eve, and I’ve finally settled down and found some time to somewhat compose my thoughts and reflect on what I’ve learned, academically, from studying abroad. This is important to me because I’m sure I’ll be asked about my academic experience abroad, and I don’t want to throw out a generic “good!” (which I undoubtedly will if I don’t take the time to think first.)
In...
I always want to delete stuff like the below posts the next day, because they take up unnecessary space in the blog when it’s not valuable information like where to get birth control or new legislation and really just me being kind of an asshole, but accusations of trying to run away from an argument or whatever are really boring, so.
transdyke:
bebinn:
teachthecontroversy:
bebinn:
teachthecontroversy:
“The patriarchal idea that pregnancy is the only reason for a woman to have sex is one of the fundamental social idiocies of patriarchy - the idea that women’s sexuality exists only for procreation, except when it is for male pleasure. Thus, sex is “good” for those purposes and “bad” for any other, such as female...