Volunteer Women's Medical Clinic in Tennessee closes today →

A heartbreaking letter from the executive director, Deb Walsh, explains how the new anti-choice law requiring physicians performing abortions to have local hospital admitting privileges forced their clinic to close. The only doctor who was able to reinstate his privileges, Dr. Morris Campbell, died shortly before the “Life Defense Act” went into effect on July 1. Walsh is unable to afford keeping the clinic open until another physician can obtain hospital privileges.

The clinic has been open for 38 years and I have worked there for over 30 years. I still remember the name of the first patient I took care of on the day I started, and I remember the answer an eleven year old girl gave when, after days of counseling, I asked her what she wanted to do. She said “I just want to go ride my new bicycle”. No kidding baby girl. So many images remain of the strength of women…….the day we looked out the front window and saw an Appalachian woman we’d just discharged pushing an electric blue Corvette Sting Ray fast enough that her husband could pop the clutch and start the engine…….the coal miner’s daughter that was full term and about to go into labor but swore it couldn’t be true because no one had ever been “up on” her…….the sorority girl that said she got pregnant by trying on her friend’s diaphragm that “must have had sperm on it”……the woman I brought back to life when she stopped breathing who later told us she had withheld critical medical history from us because she was afraid we wouldn’t let her have an abortion if she told us the truth……all the Catholic women who had abortions over and over again because taking a birth control pill every day added up to more sins than a few abortions a year.

I’m so angry about this, also sad, and I’m grateful for whatever wisdom I possess that keeps me from feeling like a victim.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out with kind words during this nightmare. Now, I’ve got to get back to packing. Imagine it all working perfectly.

Deb Walsh

My condolences to Dr. Campbell’s loved ones, and to the people of Tennessee, who lost an important resource this weekend.

Help Someone Access a Safe Abortion

The lone abortion provider in Mississippi is in danger of being shut down in a little over a week. They are being flooded with calls from people desperate to get the health care they need before it’s too late. Already, many people in Mississippi must travel out of state to get a safe, legal abortion. This requires driving for hours, possibly staying overnight, and finding someone to take care of their children (61% of people who get abortions already have at least one child).

Now’s the time for that famous southern hospitality. Mississippians need help accessing abortion. They may not have transportation, a place to stay, or child care. If you can provide any of these things, even just a ride to the clinic or a couch to sleep on for a night, please contact the Abortion Assistance Blog. Here are some of the clinics people will be visiting:

Mississippi:

Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Alabama:

New Woman All Women Health Care, Birmingham

Planned Parenthood, Birmingham

Planned Parenthood, Mobile

Reproductive Health Services of Montgomery

West Alabama Women’s Center, Tuscaloosa

Arkansas:

Planned Parenthood, Fayetteville

Planned Parenthood, Little Rock

Little Rock Family Planning Services (only clinic that provides abortions after 8 weeks)

Florida:

All Women’s Health Center, Inc., Gainesville

Bread & Roses Women’s Health Center, Gainesville

North Florida Women’s Health & Counseling Service, Tallahassee

Louisiana:

Bossier City Medical Suite

Causeway Medical Clinic, Metairie, New Orleans

Hope Medical Group for Women, Shreveport

Tennessee:

Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health

Memphis Area Medical Center for Women

Memphis Center for Reproductive Health

Planned Parenthood of the Greater Memphis Region

Planned Parenthood, Knoxville

Planned Parenthood, Nashville

The Women’s Center, Nashville

Volunteer Women’s Medical Clinic, Knoxville

If you live near any of these clinics, or have a place to stay along the journey from Mississippi, you could be the one to help someone in need access a safe, legal abortion. Please contact the Abortion Assistance Blog, and make a difference in someone’s life.

Tennessee House Will Make Harming an Embryo A Crime and Your Miscarriage May Land You In Jail →

stfuprolife:

Think this “fertilized egg-as-person” thing hasn’t gone far enough? Welcome to Tennessee, where a bill in the House of Representatives is being expanded to allow prosecutors to charge someone for “death of an embryo” if a woman miscarries, or even has a period.

Via The Tennessean:

State law limited prosecutions to harming a “viable fetus,” defined as somewhere around the 32nd week after conception until last year, when the law was amended to apply to any fetus. But one of that law’s sponsors, Republican Rep. Joshua Evans of Greenbrier, said backers did not realize then that humans are not typically referred to as fetuses until the eighth week of development. Before that stage, they are usually known as embryos.

House Bill 3517 would extend the law specifically to embryos “at any state of gestation in utero.”

“We’re talking about clarifying. We’re not talking about changing the law,” Evans said.

Embryo does refer to any stage of gestation before the 8th week. And that’s the problem.  How exactly do you prove that a miscarriage happened as a result of a crime? Or that she wasn’t just late? Or miscarrying on her own?

With so many potential issues to enforcing the legislation if it becomes law, it’s hard to see this as anything but a bill meant to validate the idea of a fertilized egg as a person.

Bottom line: Your miscarriage could land you in jail. Think this is far-fetched? Read this.

According to the American Pregnancy Association, anywhere from 10-25% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. 50-75% of these are chemical pregnancies, or a pregnancy that is lost shortly after the blastocyst implants in the uterus. Unless you frequently take pregnancy tests, you’d likely never know you had a miscarriage at this point. Half to three quarters of people who have miscarriages probably never even knew they were pregnant, yet Tennessee legislators think they’d be able to ascertain the cause if charges were brought.

Just more politicians who think they have medical degrees.

(Source: stfuprolifers)

Tennessee bill would expose identities of abortion providers and possibly patients →

propaganda-for-life:

Fantastic, we have laws supporting anti-choice terrorism now. I love my country.

(Source: becauseiamawoman)

Milk Sharing in TN →

apwbirth:

A short article about online breastmilk-sharing communities.  Milk banks are lovely inventions, but as the article points out, they are expensive.  These communities offer an alternative.  

hoechlinsexlin asked: I seriously love you. The way you cut down the anti-choicers is amazing. I have a question about abortion laws for minors. The age of majority in my state (MS) is 21, and until then, you must have both parents' permission to get an abortion. If I were 18 and needed an abortion, could I cross into Tennessee to get one or would they be obligated to follow Mississippi's laws and deny me service?

Aw shucks.

In answer to your question: Yep!

I found a nifty map indicating which states get the most out-of-staters coming in for abortions:

A bit from the table, just ‘cause I think it’s interesting. These are the percentages of abortions obtained by people coming from out of state:

(DC’s reporting isn’t mandatory, so take that one with a grain of salt.)

I’ma go ahead and plug the post on abortion funds by state, since some of them also offer lodging for people traveling long distances.

(Okay also I have to tell you that I just started watching Torchwood and oh my god I love it. LOVE. IT.)

fuckyeahchoice:

““What would be an appropriate jail sentence for a 20-year-old University of Tennessee student who has an abortion?””

—

Question posed to three Republican candidates for TN state senate.   (via iamdrtiller)

“Yes, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade, then I would vote to make abortion illegal in Tennessee. It’s important that the stated position of government be on the side of the unborn and life and advocating for that, rather than discuss the hypothetical prosecution of a hypothetical student. As with illegal drugs, law enforcement efforts should focus on the abortion provider. The person who had the procedure done or done to them would be the victim not the criminal.”

That is some bullshit. 

It’s insulting, is what it is. The victim of a crime has no culpability and was not responsible for the crime committed. By framing people who have had abortions as victims is to say that they had no agency, no say in the matter. It implies that they were victims of their own ignorance. It is sexism, pure and simple; not because everyone who gets an abortion is a woman, but because that is how anti-choicers see us, and that is how they discriminate. Silly, desperate women who can’t see past the tips of their selfish noses. They just need guidance, poor things.

We are not ignorant. We know what abortions do: that’s why we fucking get them. Enough with the patronization.

(Source: stephherold)

Abortion Laws That Didn't Make the News →

As state legislatures start closing up for the year, there are a number of abortion-related bills that didn’t make big headlines. In the first six months of 2011 alone, there were 162 abortion or reproductive-related bills enacted by state legislatures, so it was inevitable some wouldn’t make it past the local paper. Here are a few I thought were noteworthy.

Arizona: HB 2384 revoked public funding to any organization that “pays for, promotes, provides coverage of or provides referrals for abortions.” This would stop the use of student fees and tuition to train OB/GYN students to perform abortions. In addition, it would revoke atax credit for donations to organizations that provide abortions, like Planned Parenthood, as well as to any institutions that might refer clients to Planned Parenthood, like domestic violence shelters.

Nebraska: LB 22 dictates that private insurance plans in Nebraska not cover abortion except for in cases where the woman’s life is in danger. Any woman with private insurance desiring an abortion coverage must buy a separate “rider” for it out of her own funds, assuming her carrier has one. The bill carried no exceptions for rape or incest. This is especially burdensome for young women, as the state also passed a bill changing its parental notice law into a parental consent law.

Oklahoma: The state passed a bill that banned abortions after 20 weeks on the belief that fetuses can feel pain at that age. But the state also passed smaller, less flashy bills. HB 1970added the phrase “or any abortion-inducing drug” to a bill that already required doctors use RU-486 only for FDA-approved (not off-label) purposes. This was to ensure doctors and clinics like Planned Parenthood were not able to prescribe Cytotec (misoprostol) for first-trimester medical abortions, even in conjunction with RU-486, and even though doctors often prescribe medications for off-label use when proven safe by scientific trials. The bill would effectively end most medical abortions, leaving clients to pursue riskier surgical abortions instead.

North Carolina: HB 854 was vetoed by the governor, but the veto was overridden. As a result this bill required women to wait 24 hours for an abortion, and required doctors to perform an ultrasound before the procedure. If the women refused to view the ultrasound, her refusal was kept on file for 7 years. But here’s the under-covered part of the bill: it would also allow the father of the fetus and the spouse, parent, sibling, current health care provider, or former health care provider of the woman getting the abortion to sue the doctor if they believe any part of the bill has been violated. A woman’s ex-boyfriend or childhood pediatrician, for example, could sue a clinic if they believed the performing physician had not done an ultrasound as required.

Tennessee: This bill wasn’t specifically about abortion, but expanded fetal personhood, which can be a slippery slope. SB 633 expanded the definition of “fetal homicide” to include the fetus at any stage of development, not just when the fetus is viable as previously. Fetuses are now considered victims of assault whenever the mother is assaulted.

(via riotgrrrljacksonville-deactivat)