We'll be short on food money for a while - Leila's Story →

My son is 11 months old with a serious birth defect.  He’s been in and out of intensive care for his whole life and has three or four doctor’s appointments every month.  After he was born, I had to drop out of college and I lost my job because of all the appointments.  My son’s medical care is covered by Medicaid, but it won’t cover my abortion. 

How can I find the money for an abortion when there’s not enough for diapers?  And how could I raise two babies when the one I have now needs all that I have to give?

I just moved to this state to live with my best friend and her baby.  We thought that we could do better if we worked together, took care of each other. 

But now I’ve already had to take money out of our grocery fund to put toward the cost of my abortion.  My friend understands, but we’re going to be short on food money for a while. I borrowed money from some old classmates.  I sold my television.  I managed to scrape together what I needed.  But when I got to the clinic, they told me that my abortion would cost $100 more.

$100 more than I had.  $100 more than I could imagine finding.

There was no way I could go home without getting my abortion.  So I sat down my diaper bag and started pulling things out – formula, bottles, diapers – to sell to the other women in the waiting room.  Maybe I could raise that $100 right there.

I was breathing so hard and fast that I thought I might pass out.  My heart was beating so loud that I almost didn’t hear the nurse calling my name.  But she was calling my name to tell me that she knew someone who could help.

She took the formula out of my hands and put it back in the diaper bag.  She handed me the telephone and a phone number.

The woman who answered asked me how much I needed.  And then she asked to talk to the nurse.

And just like that, I had the last $100 I needed.

Just like that, I could get my abortion.

Just like that, I could concentrate on my son, and his health, and our life.

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

myfatcat16

Hey! I’m doing a research proposal for uni and I’ve to make up my own question about anything of my choice. I think I’m going to do it on Abortion in relation to poverty in America tied to race, I was just wondering if you had any posts on it on your blog that could help? Or recommend any academic texts? I’m not sure how to search a blog’s archive if it’s even possible! Thanks if you can help :)

Wow. I wish it was easier to search Tumblr. I don’t remember anything specifically but that doesn’t mean much.

Good luck on your project. As I am totally swamped today with my own research, I’m going to open this up to my followers to see if we, as a community, can help you put together a list of posts and articles. 

Got anything for myfatcat16?

There are #race/#racism and #poverty tags on this blog, which mostly have posts linking to other blogs and articles.

You can check out the Guttmacher Institute’s Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States, which has a lot of great sources to look at as well.

I just searched for “race” on both the Abortion Gang and Abortioneers and came up with a few posts.

Nicole Clark blogs about sexual health and wellness for women and girls of color, and you can find a lot of organizations dedicated to the cause through her Tumblr.

I’d recommend looking up the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from going to abortions. This directly affects people who cannot afford abortions on their own. It was a woman of color who was the first victim of the Hyde Amendment: Rosie Jimenez, a single mother six months away from earning her teaching credential. (The link to Heather Boonstra’s article is broken; it’s here.)

That’s all I can think of right now.

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)

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Among activists within the reproductive rights community there is no consensus about how abortion should be understood. For some-perhaps the majority-abortions are typically spoken of as “sad but necessary.” But for others, connected to a more radical tradition within the movement, support for abortion is best captured by the slogan, “On demand, without apology.” Many abortion rights activists are increasingly dissatisfied with the euphemism of “choice”-posing, as it does, the notion of abortion as something that consumers can “choose,” rather than, as many feminists have argued, as a “right” of all women, whether they can afford this “choice” or not. Indeed, the failure of the reproductive rights community to defeat the Hyde amendment, the 1976 legislation that forbids the use of federal funds to pay for poor women’s abortions, has long been a major disappointment to many in the movement, especially minority women.

“Abortion should be safe, legal and rare”-the defense of abortion first articulated by Bill Clinton and since echoed by most Democratic politicians-receives a mixed reception among reproductive rights activists. On the one hand, this slogan accurately reflects the practice of nearly all abortion providing facilities, where patients are routinely counseled about birth control methods and often are given contraception devices to take with them when they leave the clinic. The discomfort with the slogan, on the other hand, is that it will inevitably add to the already considerable demonization of abortion, and of those who need it, and of the beleaguered health care workers who provide it.

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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 “choice”-posing, as it does, the notion of abortion as something that consumers can “choose,” rather than, as many feminists have argued, as a “right” of all women, whether they can afford this “choice” or not.

This is so important. I really think we need to get away from the “choice” rhetoric that can so easily be trivialized by antis and return to the (sadly) radical notion that pregnant people have the right to an abortion.

(via prolongedeyecontact)

(via reproductivejusticenow)

Former Planned Parenthood worker: Planned Parenthood lies about itself →

gracecarr:

People should stop being deceived by Planned Parenthood. This article isn’t even from an outside source who doesn’t know anything. It’s from a former worker who knows the ins and outs of the place. How can anyone read about their manipulative ways and still support them? I’m sure some of you will think, “Well, this author believes that the fetus is a ‘baby,’ and I don’t believe that, so it doesn’t matter if it’s aborted.” Alright then, I’ll humor you for a second. If you think abortion should be legal, then your whole point of view is probably centered on “freedom of choice.” Planned Parenthood is not supporting “freedom of choice” by forcing or manipulating a woman into having an abortion, despite the fact that she may be considering changing her mind. Informing a woman of her “choices,” in my humble opinion, includes telling her that there are options besides abortion and telling her the truth about what’s developing inside of her instead of brushing it off as a “clump of cells.” Planned Parenthood doesn’t care about women or “freedom of choice.” They care about their bottom line: taking your money at the expense of a human life, and pressuring you into letting them with whatever it takes. 

I also want to post this, lest anyone should attack the part in the article that talks about taxpayer dollars funding abortion and attempt to use the Hyde Amendment as a refutation:

“In U.S. politics, the Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortions. It is not a permanent law, rather it is a “rider” that, in various forms, has been routinely attached to annual appropriations bills since 1976. The Hyde Amendment applies only to funds allocated by the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. It primarily affects Medicaid.” 

Source

And for more information, go here. And for those of you who really need convincing that abortion is publicly funded in some states, this is for you.

To start with the easy bit, you’ve not really distinguished between federal funds and state funds. The argument was never about state funds. Medicaid is funded both by federal and state dollars - each state sets its own guidelines on eligibility and services. This means states can choose or be court ordered to provide funds for abortions for people who don’t have enough money to pay for it themselves (funny, we still expect them to pay for prenatal care and the abominable hospital costs, not to mention parenthood, when they can’t even scrape together a few hundred dollars for a perfectly legal medical procedure? So we’ll probably end up paying even more to support them throughout their unwanted pregnancy? Alright.).

As of now, the Hyde Amendment prevents any federal funds from going to abortions that aren’t performed in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the pregnant person. State Medicaid funds are a different matter.

Fund Abortion Now has a handy info sheet on state Medicaid funding for abortion.

It’s always a bit mind-boggling that people don’t take the time to look up what Planned Parenthood is: a nonprofit organization! As in, not-for-profit! As in, they are not looking to make money! Any money they make goes directly back into Planned Parenthood to fund their services! According to their annual report (2007-08), two thirds of the revenue generated is put towards health services, while the remaining funds go to education, public policy work, management expenses, fundraising, and family planning programs. You can see more in these pie charts from the report:

You know, I always find the projection of anti-choice groups so fascinating. These people who run crisis pregnancy centers, which are basically the best example you could give of a center that pretends to staff medical professionals, lies about fetal development, lies about the risks of abortion, lies about their services, lies about the help they’ll give, invades your privacy by harassing, stalking, and exposing you, disrespects you and tries to convert you, uses delaying tactics to make you miss your appointment, tries to convince you to stay with an abusive husband in the name of “family values,” and practices coercive adoption…yeah, these people are suddenly concerned that pregnant people are being coerced? Fucking right.

HR 358 is being debated on the House floor now.

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

Watch it live on CSPAN (if you can stomach it).

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)

iamdrtiller:

“Letting women determine for themselves whether or not they need an abortion is a far more efficient and fair system; after all, they know better than perfect strangers the incredible complexity of their personal situations that determine whether or not it’s a good time to have a baby. This right exists for women who can afford to pay for their own abortions; it should be extended to women who depend on assistance to pay for their medical care.”

Via Slate. 

So what does it take to get rid of the cissexism around here?

Why Rape Exceptions for Abortion Don't Work [TW] →

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

NPR reports on a study by Ibis Reproductive Health on the exceptions to the Hyde Amendment, which turns 35 years old this month. To no one’s great surprise, I’m sure, women who qualify for Medicaid-funded abortions because of rape, incest, or medical necessity usually don’t get Medicaid to pay for it. In fact, I was surprised at how many women were able to finally get their funding: 37 percent of abortions that qualified for Medicaid reimbursement because the women were rape victims or because of the health exception did result in Medicaid ponying up. Still, this means that in 63 percent of rape or health exemption cases, women pay out of pocket, a non-profit covers it, or doctors provide the abortion for free.

The difficulty in getting Medicaid coverage for cases that qualify under the law as written demonstrates why building exceptions into abortion bans just doesn’t work. The whole idea behind the “rape, incest, or medical emergency” exception is that the law can meaningfully divide women into virgin and whore categories, and allow the former to have the abortions they’ve earned by being good girls in pitiable situations (including women who fully intended to have their babies like good, Christian women, but who face health problems that prevent them from doing so) while making sure the filthy sluts who have sex for pleasure get their due punishment. But the categories of “virgin” and “whore” aren’t as clear-cut as people who come up with these exceptions imagine. Anyone who observes the justice system’s approach to rape can attest to this; behavior in the victim that may have seemed relatively innocuous before the rape suddenly looks like the height of dirty sluttitude when portrayed by the defense team, allowing juries to let accused rapists off because the victims were supposedly asking for it. (I got a powerful photo at SlutWalk NYC demonstrating how silly all this really gets.) Exceptions for how you got pregnant in abortion bans allow the person making the exception to preen about how they aren’t trying to punish the good girls, but in reality almost no one gets to be a good enough girl to be considered a good girl. After all, we still have vaginas and sexual urges, exactly like those filthy sluts. The lines blur quickly.

[Like always, a NB: While these discussions are mainly had about women, it’s important to remember (and not leave out the important reality) that it isn’t just women who have, want, need access to abortion care.]

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus, via fuckyeahsexeducation)

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By attacking abortion access, rather than legality, the Hyde Amendment divided the abortion rights movement along lines of race and class. It provided the possibility of being “pro-choice” without supporting real access, thereby trading away the needs of low-income women and women of color. When asked why women of color were not more visible in the pro-choice movement, longtime activist and former clinic director Brenda Joyner reframed the question to ask:

‘[W]here is the primarily white middle-class movement in our struggles for freedom? Where was a white middle-class movement when the Hyde Amendment took away Medicaid funding of abortions for poor women?’

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Via RH Reality Check.  (via iamdrtiller)