#roe v wade required it

[fictionadventurer]

.

#if i weren't so afraid of sharing info online #and of sounding like i think i'm special or something #i'd share my birth story with you #a big reason i'm so staunchly pro life is that i got to survive when so many children who were so much more developed than me #got torn limb from limb with the full consent of the law #i was a medical emergency #i endangered my mother's life #yet no one wanted to kill me #no one said it was necessary to crush my skull to save my mother #i was delivered #far too early #far too small #you know what i'll just say it: 24.5 weeks #at a regular catholic hospital that doesn't do abortions #had i been a few days younger it would have been legal for any state in the union to abort me at that age #roe v wade required it #yet i had doctors and nurses fighting tooth and nail for months to make sure i survived and survived healthy #i was supposed to be blind and brain-damaged #i have low-prescription lenses and graduated as valedictorian of my high school class #i got the chance that so many other babies didn't #there's almost a form of survivor's guilt #there's anger on behalf of my fellow preemies #the ones who are lucky enough to stay in the womb yet have doctors and mothers fighting to kill them #you say they're not a person? #was *i* not a person? #was *i* worthless? #there were people who thought i wasn't and i'm grateful for it every day #but the thing is none of those other babies are worthless #none of them are monsters destroying their mothers' lives #they are helpless infants who want to live who deserve to live who have no less right to live than i did

[moki-dokie]

I legitimately hate this country. Like with my whole fucking soul I hate it here. We're moving backwards at break neck speeds.

Time to get my passport renewed and start looking at options seriously.

#fuck america #im done #never thought in my lifetime #i would see roe v wade thrown out #or miranda rights no longer required #or politicians so evil they dont care about kids dying to guns #or that guns would have more protection and rights than women #fuck it all

[referencees]

I bet they would implement gun reform if a bunch of women and minorities started buying AKs 🤔🤔

#modern problems require modern solutions #literally why the nra regulated guns in the 70s #gun control #human rights #scotus #abortion #roe v wade #feminism

[evviejo]

when you live in a post-communist country which has for centuries glorified america and finally america goes so far backwards that your country is like america, just in the worst way possible

#fuck anti-abortion people #literally yesterday the polish parliament shut down debate over a proposed legal abortion bill #a bill that was proposed by the people #having gained twice the required number of signatures #and now roe v. wade gets overturned #we are literally going backwards on human rights #i don't want to think what's gonna come next #politics #feminism

[lolanbq]

Hey all

Just found out I was following someone whose views do not align with mine, so I'm gonna be reblogging a lot of stuff about today to give everyone the opportunity to unfollow me if you decided that Your views don't align with Mine.

Abortion is health care

Health care is a human right

#this is usually my down time social media platform #but i see some curation of content is required #ollie speaks #roe v wade

[truth-has-a-liberal-bias]

But once the babies are here, the state provides little help.

When she got pregnant, Mayron Michelle Hollis was clinging to stability.

At 31, she was three years sober, after first getting introduced to drugs at 12. She had just had a baby three months earlier and was working to repair the damage that her addiction had caused her family.

The state of Tennessee had taken away three of her children, and she was fighting to keep her infant daughter, Zooey. Department of Children’s Services investigators had accused Mayron of endangering Zooey when she visited a vape store and left the baby in a car.

Her husband, Chris Hollis, was also in recovery.

The two worked in physically demanding jobs that paid just enough to cover rent, food and lawyers’ fees to fight the state for custody of Mayron’s children.

In the midst of the turmoil in July 2022, they learned Mayron was pregnant again. But this time, doctors warned she and her fetus might not survive.

The embryo had been implanted in scar tissue from her recent cesarean section. There was a high chance that the embryo could rupture, blowing open her uterus and killing her, or that she could bleed to death during delivery. The baby could come months early and face serious medical risks, or even die.

But the Supreme Court had just overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion across the United States. By the time Mayron decided to end her pregnancy, Tennessee’s abortion ban — one of the nation’s strictest — had gone into effect.

The total ban made no explicit exceptions — not even to save the life of a pregnant patient. Any doctor who violated the ban could be charged with a felony.

Women with means could leave the state. But those like Mayron, with limited resources or lives entangled with the child welfare and criminal justice systems, would be the most likely to face caring for a child they weren’t prepared for.

And so, the same state that questioned Mayron’s fitness to care for her four children forced her to continue a pregnancy that risked her life to have a fifth, one that would require more intensive care than any of the others.

Tennessee already had some of the worst outcomes in the nation when measuring maternal health, infant mortality and child poverty. Lawmakers who paved the way for a new generation of post-Roe births did little to bolster the state’s meager safety net to support these babies and their families.

In December 2022, when Mayron was 26 weeks and two days pregnant, she was rushed to the hospital after she began bleeding so heavily that her husband slipped in her blood. An emergency surgery saved her life. Her daughter, Elayna, was born three months early.

Afterward, photographer Stacy Kranitz and reporter Kavitha Surana followed Mayron and her family for a year to chronicle what life truly looked like in a state whose political leaders say they are pro-life. [...]

#abortion #Tennessee #pregnancy #forced-birth #Roe v Wade

[ilianaoftroy]

Every once and a while I think about the forced birther here on Tumblr who basically said I was a sociopath because I work as an embryologist and expressed concern for women suffering pregnancy complications due to the overturning of Roe v Wade. They demanded examples and then rationalized the ones provided away. Admittedly, the legit articles I provided were behind a paywall, bc, you know, real research costs money. It was a non productive conversation because this person felt such circumstances were 'rare' and I guess didn't care if those women died.

The next day I performed an embryo transfer for a woman who had suffered five miscarriages requiring medical intervention in the past. Because of where she lives, she got care, still has a functioning uterus, and can try again to start a desperately wanted family with her beloved spouse. Then I signed congrats cards for 6 patients who had sent our office birth announcements.

It's been a year and I still think about the difficulties the patients I work with would face in other states. How I will never relocate places because I could be left untreated until septic, not to mention not have a job. How I have fewer rights than my mother did at my age. Today I came across this pay wall free paper, fairly limited in scope, confirming the complications in healthcare for pregnant people post Roe v Wade. But what I do know. I just work with people with complex pregnancies every day.

#roe v wade #forced birth #reproductive rights #reproductive health #women's rights #afab rights #abortion #miscarriage

[trianglart]

[”Abortion will soon be banned in 13 states. Here’s which could be next.”

Trigger ban to take effect within a month: Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky

Likely to ban: Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina

Uncertain: Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida

Likely to remain legal: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine]

[”Thirteen states have trigger laws that will ban abortion now that Roe is overturned. BUT only three of them go into effect immediately: Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Dakota. If you have an appointment in those states, CALL YOUR CLINIC NOW. They can help you go somewhere else.

Idaho, Tennessee, and Texas have trigger laws that go into effect after 30 days. If you have an abortion appointment in those states, DO NOT ASSUMED IT'S CANCELED. Call your clinic now. You may have 30 days left in your state. Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming also have trigger laws but they require a government process step to go into effect. If you have an appointment in those states, DO NOT ASSUME IT'S CANCELED. There may be time. Call your clinic NOW."]

--------

It is still legal to travel to states where abortion is legal. The FDA allows abortion pills to be available by mail, and they are approved for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Telemedicine abortions will banned in states where abortion is illegal, but international groups like Aid Access will offer online consultations and mail pills to all states.

Your internet activity can be used against you in court. Delete any period tracking apps and do not disclose your pregnancy online. Learn about internet privacy to keep your abortion private and secure.

National resources for info and access to abortion:

Aid Access: https://aidaccess.org/en/ 

Find an abortion provider: https://www.abortionfinder.org/

National Abortion Federation: https://prochoice.org/#

NAF Hotline (Monday - Friday 8 am - 7 pm EST, Saturday & Sunday 8 am - 4 pm EST): 1-800-772-9100

Now is the time to donate to your local abortion fund. If you live in a state where abortion is likely to stay legal, clinics expect an influx of people from other states looking for healthcare. 

National Network of Abortion Funds: http://abortionfunds.org

List of abortion funds in states likely or certain to prohibit abortion: 

https://www.thecut.com/article/donate-abortion-fund-roe-v-wade-how-to-help.html

#Im really not the best informed about this just wanted to share some resources because I have a following on here #abortion #roe v wade #roe vs. wade #abortion rights #reproductive choice #reproductive rights #bodily autonomy #pro choice #reproductive health #abortion ban #abortion funds #abortion access #boost #signal boost #abortion resources

[transmutationisms]

when you say “positive / negative right”, what do those mean?

thanks for the good posts :)

a negative right is a claim to protection from some sort of interference; a positive right is a claim that the other party has an obligation to act in some way beyond just refraining from causing harm. for example, the right to free speech is generally spoken about as a negative right: it guarantees me the freedom from state intervention into what i can say. a right to health, on the other hand, would be a positive claim that i should be guaranteed access to things like clean air and water, health care, sick leave, &c.

in practice this distinction is actually much messier than i'm making it sound, and most 'negative rights' are basically meaningless without positive interventions, except in the fantasyland of libertarian political discourse. for example, the united states prohibits one human being from enslaving another (a negative right to legal and bodily freedom) but simultaneously engages in, and permits, incarceration with & without forced and un(der)-compensated labour requirements. the state is not actually granting freedom, and slavery has only been outlawed on a very limited and technical basis. another example is the right to abortion, which, prior to the dobbs decision, was legal in the us on the basis of a 'right to privacy' as established in roe v wade—a freedom from specific interventions in one's medical decisions. however, for decades the actual right to abortion was eroded by the us's lack of universal health care and paid time off, and by laws that became progressively more restrictive in terms of when in a pregnancy abortions were allowed, what clinics had to do in order to be allowed to operate, and what requirements patients had to satisfy first (waiting periods, ultrasounds, &c). in practice this meant that fewer and fewer people could actually access abortion, despite having, technically, legal protection from government interference in its provision. even freedom of speech falls apart as a purely negative right, because, as i've said before, most enforcement of speech limitations actually happens via economic mechanisms like the threat of losing your job—meaning, the operative issue here is not usually whether the state can directly censor me but whether i risk starving to death if a corporation disliked what i said. in other words, what makes my speech vulnerable is the fact that i live in a society that does not guarantee me food, shelter, and basic necessities as positive rights.

negative rights appeal to liberals and other reactionaries because they're framed as maximising everybody's freedom: your actions are only constrained if they risk impinging on me. however, in actuality what this means is that a right defended on 'negative' grounds is basically incapable of redressing existing social and political inequities, and instead upholds or even exacerbates the power dynamics already in effect. i am actually not a huge fan of 'rights' as a legal framework period, and i think a well-defended 'positive right' is really moving beyond the construal of 'rights' and into a more materialist and socially contextualist framework, but that's a different post.

[nymphie66]

"God Bless America"

Part Two

Part Three

Author's notes: This is my first fic on this blog, so wish me luck.

Soldier boy x f!reader; Warnings: Dark fic, we're ignoring the roe v wade turnover, mentions of abortion, mentions of sex, mentions of cheating.

Description: You fall pregnant with your team member (boyfriend) Soldier Boy's baby. He's obsessed with you and would love nothing more than to lock you down in a suburban home. Unfortunately, you're a modern woman and fed up of his whoring ways - and a supe at that. So instead of panicking when that test comes back positive you decide to remind Ben of what freedom America has granted you

---

Five times he had called you, and five times you had hung up on him. The wind was blowing in your hair as you drove down the highway, pop tunes blasting as you sang your wretched little heart out to them. You drove a classic open-top chevy, something that only Vought money could buy, the only upside to them exploiting your powers. The positive pregnancy test was stuffed in your bag, and you smiled as you remembered taking a picture of it and sending it off. It had been 36 hours since you went MIA, though Vought didn't really care, they knew a certain someone would sort you out.

That certain someone was desperately trying to get ahold of you, after receiving the picture of your positive pregnancy test and the words "guess you'll have to break it to your whores that you are more fertile than you think"

The other women meant nothing, Ben had assured you, simple blips in his dedication to you. You understood, to begin with, that he was a man with a large appetite, and you didn't mind. Your relationship had blossomed on this mutual understanding, that each had insatiable desires that sometimes required external satisfiers. That was until a few months in when Ben had restricted that understanding. Asked you to be his and only his. Which you complied with, as long as he did the same. And he did- or at least he swore he did. And you believed him, because who wouldn't believe America's golden boy?

You were happy, genuinely happy. Lost in the belief of love and adoration until you called Ben's hotel room and another woman picked up. Though after her voice all you could hear was your beloved's harsh scolding of her for picking up and the sound of a body flying across the room. That's when you knew, when the belief broke, and to think you had the test right there in your hands, that you were daresay excited over your next chapter with him.

He had always told you, how good you would look with his baby, how nobody else was worthy of carrying his child. You used protection, even if he didn't and were never worried that his lustful promises would come true. But then they did, nothing is perfect after all.

You threw the phone across the room, your abilities causing it to smash through the bedroom wall and then the next one. A heart once filled with joy and love suddenly soured into hate and revenge.

That's when you sent the picture and the message, and quickly hopped into your car, speeding down the highway, screaming to whatever heartbreak anthem was playing, your phone incessantly ringing.

Eventually, after perhaps the tenth ring, you decided to pick up, and in a sickly sweet - yet slightly psychotic, voice you answered him.

"Hello, Ben, Honey, whatever is the matter?'

"Are you fucking out of your mind woman!? Why the hell weren't you picking up!?" He was pissed off and that only widened your smile.

"So sorry honey, I was just preoccupied, you know its not safe to use a phone whilst driving."

"Well you better be driving your ass over here, we have much to fucking talk about."

"I would hate to third wheel though, I mean it wouldn't be fair to- ha! do you even know her name?" There was a silence which confirmed your suspicions, at least he had maintained that they meant nothing to him. "Anyway, I have to go I'm almost at the clinic."

"Clinic? You're going to get a scan? I want to be there I want to-"

"A scan?" You laughed cruelly, eyes on the road as you overtook various civilians. "No, no Ben, I'm getting an abortion, honey."

"The fuck you are that is my child-"

"And my body! Isn't it amazing what women can do in the modern age? As much as you can whore out your body to any woman with a pulse, I can get mine sorted out by a lovely doctor with a warm smile." You wish you could be there to see his face, as his world crashed down around him just as yours had moments ago. You knew how badly he wanted a child, how badly he wanted a child with you, and you could take that all away from him. "Just a simple procedure and our chemical mishap can be erased. God bless America."

"If you even fucking step foot in that goddamn clinic I will make you regret the moment you ever even fucking spoke those fucking words to me." Ben threatened down the phone and you felt a chill go down your spine, he was more serious than you were. But the enjoyment you got from tormenting him, from hurting him like he had hurt you outweighed any form of sense and you decided to take it a step further.

"Ben you're so right. I won't step foot into a clinic I swear." You put an extra essence of dumb innocence into your words that continued into your next sentence, ignorant of Ben's sigh of relief over the phone. "I'll just go to another man's bed - a real man's, and have him fuck that baby out of me.``

You heard a crushing noise before the line went dead, and you laughed happily. In reality, you had no idea what you were going to do with the foetus, but you knew that first, you had to get a check on your health. Who knew what you and Ben had created, hopefully, nothing like homelander but you wanted to check. Which was what brought you to a nondescript hospital, in an average town, and checked in under the boring cover name Vought had given you for such a scenario - that of needing medical attention whilst laying low.

The lovely doctor with the predicted warm smile told you everything was fine and that you were 12 weeks along, close out of the danger zone but not too far gone that certain options were ruled out. You could do whatever you wanted.

You thanked her and as you gathered your belongings, you couldn't help but put a hand to your abdomen. The thought of life inside you wasn't as repulsive as previously thought, in fact, the more you thought about it the more you assured yourself that you could handle a baby, Ben's involvement or not. You were going to keep the child - but he didn't know that.

Which is why when you left the hospital, you felt a sudden arm around your waist and cuffs placed on your wrists - power subduing ones, and you were quickly shoved into the back of the van. The encounter lasting no more than 20 seconds.

When you managed to look up at your assailant you weren't surprised to see him, Ben. His hair was ragged, his suit had evidently been hastily put on and his eyes were wild. It was one of the few times you actually found yourself scared of him.

You scampered to the back of the van, until your back hit its cool metal walls and there was nowhere else to go. Ben chuckled, darkly as he approached you, a lopsided grin on his face.

"I knew you wouldn't baby, I knew it." He said though it was more reassurance to himself than anything. You looked up at him with a fury, unwilling to submit to his arrogance.

"I still can Ben-" Your words were quickly cut off by his gloved grip around your neck as he hoisted you upwards towards him. You choked and pried at his hand, but it was no use. He was much, much stronger than you.

"It's cute that you think you have the privilege of free will in this situation." He laughed and he relaxed his grip on your neck, not enough for you to be comfortable but enough that his grip would still leave a mark. He jerked you closer towards him, your foreheads resting against each other. "I know I've been bad, baby, I do. And I'm sorry - you hear that? I'm fucking sorry. But I'm here now. Here for you, and for them."

With that, he placed his free hand on your stomach and looked down as he did it. A genuine smile on his face. You continued to struggle but you really were no match for him, not when you were like this. He looked at you and you tried not to recoil at his evident pride and satisfaction that he had you, right where he wanted you.

"We're going to have a happy family, baby. Just you wait."

#soldier boy x female reader #soldier boy #the boys tv #the boys #soldier boy x reader #dark soldier boy x reader #dark fic #tw: dark content

[spacelazarwolf]

“Sex based oppression” is terf rhetoric. There is nothing about having a vagina that makes you magically more oppressed. What you’re talking about is misogyny, which transfems experience too, probably worse than you

i had to get parts of my body surgically removed so i could stop worrying about having an accidental pregnancy either through failed birth control or rape that my government has legally required that i would have to carry to term and give birth to whether i wanted to or not regardless of the medical consequences. so yeah actually there is something about having a vagina that makes me a target for a specific kind of oppression. and i genuinely do not know how we got to the point in the Discourse where we’re legitimately trying to argue it doesn’t. just because it’s something trans people who don’t have uteruses don’t have to deal with doesn’t mean they don’t also face a fuck ton of other misogyny and oppression. some of my fiercest supporters when roe v wade was struck down were trans women, and when our state government started going after all trans healthcare we were all there to support each other. bc, and i know this may be a foreign concept to u, we give a shit abt each other as human beings with diverse experiences. we talk about our similarities and differences and ways we can support each other even if we don’t personally know what it’s like to face a particular kind of bigotry. we’re all in the same sinking ship. stop making it sink quicker and help us with the fucking life rafts.

#ask avishai

[reasonsforhope]

"Bria Peacock chose a career in medicine because the Black Georgia native saw the dire health needs in her community — including access to abortion care.

Her commitment to becoming a maternal health care provider was sparked early on when she witnessed the discrimination and judgment leveled against her older sister, who became a mother as a teen. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Peacock was already in her residency program in California, and her thoughts turned back to women like her sister.

“I knew that the people — my people, my community back home — was going to be affected in a dramatic way, because they’re in the South and because they’re Black,” she said.

But even though Peacock attended the Medical College of Georgia, she’s doing her obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of California-San Francisco, where she has gotten comprehensive training in abortion care.

“I knew as a trainee that’s what I needed,” said Peacock, who plans to return to her home state after her residency.

Ever since the Supreme Court decision, California has worked to become a sanctuary for people from states where abortion is restricted. In doing so, it joins 14 other states, including Colorado, New Mexico, and Massachusetts. Now, it’s addressing the fraught issue of abortion training for medical residents, which most doctors believe is crucial to comprehensive OB-GYN training.

A law enacted in September [2023] makes it easier for out-of-state trainees to get up to 90 days of in-person training under the supervision of a California-licensed doctor. The law eliminated the requirement for a training license and also permitted training at programs such as Planned Parenthood that are affiliated with accredited medical schools.

“By allowing physician residents to come to California, where there are more opportunities for abortion training, and by allowing them to be reimbursed for this work, we’re sending a message that abortion care is health care and an essential part of physician training,” said Lisa Folberg, CEO of the California Academy of Family Physicians, which supported the bill.

The question of how to provide complete OB-GYN training promises to become more urgent as the effects of abortion bans on medical education becomes clear: 18 states restrict or ban abortion to the point of effectively stripping 20% of OB-GYN medical residents of the opportunity to get abortion training, according to the Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning. That’s 1,354 residents this year out of 5,962 OB-GYN residents nationwide.

The restrictions in some cases aim to reach beyond state borders, spooking medical students and residents who fear hostility from anti-abortion groups and right-wing legislators...

Pamela Merritt, executive director of Medical Students for Choice, pointed to a Kansas law that requires repayment of state medical school scholarships — with 15% interest — if residents perform abortions or work in clinics that perform them, except in cases of rape, incest, or a medical emergency.

Doctors point out that abortion training is not just about ending pregnancies. Peacock recalled a patient who started hemorrhaging badly shortly after a healthy delivery. Peacock and her team at UCSF performed a dilation and curettage — a procedure commonly used to terminate pregnancy.

“If we did not have that skill set, and the patient continued to bleed, it could have been life-taking,” said Peacock, chief OB-GYN resident at UCSF...

Peacock, for her part, is adamant about returning to Georgia, where abortions are banned after six weeks. “I’m still going to provide abortions, whether that’s in Georgia or I need to fly to a different state and work in abortion clinics for a week out of the month,” she said. “It would definitely be a big part of my work.”"

-via The 19th, January 2, 2024

#abortion #bodily autonomy #abortion rights #reproductive rights #reproductive justice #united states #us politics #california #georgia #medical student #residency #medical school #healthcare #healthcare access #pro choice #abortion is healthcare #womens rights #trans rights too let's just make that clear #medical training #abortion care #abortion bans #abortion access #doctors #medicine #gynecology #obstetrician #obstetrics and gynecology #gynecologist #good news #hope

[odinsblog]

🗣️This is an illegitimate and deeply corrupt Supreme Court. Vote every Republican & conservative politician out of office in 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to check her in. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn't offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.

Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal.

The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care in the U.S., especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can provide.

“It is shocking, it’s absolutely shocking,” said Amelia Huntsberger, an OB/GYN in Oregon. “It is appalling that someone would show up to an emergency room and not receive care — this is inconceivable.”

It's happened despite federal mandates that the women be treated.

Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat or stabilize patients who are in active labor and provide a medical transfer to another hospital if they don’t have the staff or resources to treat them. Medical facilities must comply with the law if they accept Medicare funding.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday that could weaken those protections. The Biden administration has sued Idaho over its abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, arguing it conflicts with the federal law.

“No woman should be denied the care she needs,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said in a statement. “All patients, including women who are experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies, should have access to emergency medical care required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).”

PREGNANCY CARE AFTER ROE

Pregnant patients have “become radioactive to emergency departments” in states with extreme abortion restrictions, said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor

“They are so scared of a pregnant patient, that the emergency medicine staff won’t even look. They just want these people gone," Rosenbaum said.

Consider what happened to a woman who was nine months pregnant and having contractions when she arrived at the Falls Community Hospital in Marlin, Texas, in July 2022, a week after the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion. The doctor on duty refused to see her.

(continue reading)

#politics #republicans #abortion #reproductive rights #healthcare #roe v wade #reproductive justice #femicide #misogyny #war on women #republicans are evil #the cruelty is the point #election 2024 #scotus #the supreme court is an illegitimate and deeply corrupt institution #religious reich #christian nationalism

[batboyblog]

One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.

Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal. 

-------

It’s happened despite federal mandates that the women be treated. 

Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat or stabilize patients who are in active labor and provide a medical transfer to another hospital if they don’t have the staff or resources to treat them. Medical facilities must comply with the law if they accept Medicare funding.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday that could weaken those protections. The Biden administration has sued Idaho over its abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, arguing it conflicts with the federal law.

“No woman should be denied the care she needs,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said in a statement. “All patients, including women who are experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies, should have access to emergency medical care required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.”

PREGNANCY CARE AFTER ROE

Pregnant patients have “become radioactive to emergency departments” in states with extreme abortion restrictions, said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor. 

“They are so scared of a pregnant patient, that the emergency medicine staff won’t even look. They just want these people gone,” Rosenbaum said. 

Consider what happened to a woman who was nine months pregnant and having contractions when she arrived at the Falls Community Hospital in Marlin, Texas, in July 2022, a week after the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion. The doctor on duty refused to see her.

“The physician came to the triage desk and told the patient that we did not have obstetric services or capabilities,” hospital staff told federal investigators during interviews, according to documents. “The nursing staff informed the physician that we could test her for the presence of amniotic fluid. However, the physician adamantly recommended the patient drive to a Waco hospital.”

--------

Federal investigators looked into just over a dozen pregnancy-related complaints in those states during the months leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court’s pivotal ruling on abortion in 2022. But more than two dozen complaints about emergency pregnancy care were lodged in the months after the decision was unveiled. It is not known how many complaints were filed last year as the records request only asked for 2022 complaints and the information is not publicly available otherwise. 

------

‘SHE IS BLEEDING A LOT’

Other pregnancies ended in catastrophe, the documents show.

At Sacred Heart Emergency Center in Houston, front desk staff refused to check in one woman after her husband asked for help delivering her baby that September. She miscarried in a restroom toilet in the emergency room lobby while her husband called 911 for help.

“She is bleeding a lot and had a miscarriage,” the husband told first responders in his call, which was transcribed from Spanish in federal documents. “I’m here at the hospital but they told us they can’t help us because we are not their client.”

Emergency crews, who arrived 20 minutes later and transferred the woman to a hospital, appeared confused over the staff’s refusal to help the woman, according to 911 call transcripts.

One first responder told federal investigators that when a Sacred Heart Emergency Center staffer was asked about the gestational age of the fetus, the staffer replied: “No, we can’t tell you, she is not our patient. That’s why you are here.”

-----------

Meanwhile, the staff at Person Memorial Hospital in Roxboro, North Carolina, told a pregnant woman, who was complaining of stomach pain, that they would not be able to provide her with an ultrasound. The staff failed to tell her how risky it could be for her to depart without being stabilized, according to federal investigators. While en route to another hospital 45 minutes away, the woman gave birth in a car to a baby who did not survive. 

In Melbourne, Florida, a security guard at Holmes Regional Medical Center refused to let a pregnant woman into the triage area because she had brought a child with her. When the patient came back the next day, medical staff were unable to locate a fetal heartbeat. The center declined to comment on the case. 

--------

For Huntsberger, the OB-GYN, EMTALA was one of the few ways she felt protected to treat pregnant patients in Idaho, despite the state’s abortion ban. She left Idaho last year to practice in Oregon because of the ban.

The threat of fines or loss of Medicare funding for violating EMTALA is a big deterrent that keeps hospitals from dumping patients, she said. Many couldn’t keep their doors open if they lost Medicare funding. 

She has been waiting to see how HHS penalizes two hospitals in Missouri and Kansas that HHS announced last year it was investigating after a pregnant woman, who was in preterm labor at 17 weeks, was denied an abortion. 

-----------

President Joe Biden and top U.S. health official Xavier Becerra have both publicly vowed vigilance in enforcing the law. 

Even as states have enacted strict abortion laws, the White House has argued that if hospitals receive Medicare funds they must provide stabilizing care, including abortions.

In a statement to THE AP, Becerra called it the “nation’s bedrock law protecting Americans’ right to life- and health-saving emergency medical care.” 

“And doctors, not politicians, should determine what constitutes emergency care,” he added.

Idaho’s law does not allow abortions if a mother’s health is at risk. But the state’s attorney general has argued that its abortion ban is “consistent” with federal law, which calls for emergency rooms to protect an unborn child in medical emergencies.

“The Biden administration has no business rewriting federal law to override Idaho’s law and force doctors to perform abortions,” Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said in a statement earlier this year. 

Now, the Supreme Court will weigh in. The case could have implications in other states like Arizona, which is reinstating an 1864 law that bans all abortions, with an exception only if the mother’s life is at risk. 

EMTALA was initially introduced decades ago because private hospitals would dump patients on county or state hospitals, often because they didn’t have insurance, said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas of the American Civil Liberties Union. 

Some hospitals also refused to see pregnant women when they did not have an established relationship with physicians on staff. If the court nullifies or weakens those protections, it could result in more hospitals turning away patients without fear of penalty from the federal government, she said.

“The government knows there’s a problem and is investigating and is doing something about that,” Kolbi-Molinas said. “Without EMTALA, they wouldn’t be able to do that.”

--------------

The Repeal of Roe V Wade has been a disaster for pregnancy health care, with doctors turning away pregnant women just because they are pregnant out of fear that treatment might violate ever changing extreme and unscientific abortion bans

The Biden Administration's strong stand that EMTALA does cover emergency abortion care has forced hospitals to keep their doors open to people in need. A Republican administration would not enforce the law this way, Donald Trump has already said he'd leave it up to the states and certainly would drop the Biden Administration's law suit against Idaho's restrictive laws.

as horrible as all this is, it can always get worse, this is a preview of what a national Republican Abortion ban would mean for every pregnant person going to the hospital, you or someone you love could be left bleeding in a waiting room.

#abortion #miscarriage #death #health care #health care rights #supreme court

[soberscientistlife]

I'm pro-choice & pro-life.

I'm pro-Barbara who found out at her 20 week anatomy scan that the infant she had been so excited to bring into this world had developed without life sustaining organs. I'm pro-Susan who was sexually assaulted on her way home from work, only to come to the horrific realization that her assailant planted his seed in her when she got a positive pregnancy test result a month later. I'm pro-Theresa who hemorrhaged due to a placental abruption, causing her parents, spouse, and children to have to make the impossible decision on whether to save her or her unborn child. I'm pro-little Cathy who had her innocence ripped away from her by someone she should have been able to trust and her 11 year old body isn't mature enough to bear the consequence of that betrayal. I'm pro-Melissa who's working two jobs just to make ends meet and has to choose between bringing another child into poverty or feeding the children she already has because her spouse walked out on her. (Maybe one of those is a minimum wage job at Hobby Lobby, and she can't afford birth control because her employer went to the Supreme Court to make sure her insurance plan doesn't cover it.) I'm pro-Brittany who realizes that she is in no way financially, emotionally, or physically able to raise a child. I'm pro-Emily who went through IVF, ending up with SIX viable implanted eggs requiring selective reduction in order to ensure the safety of her and a SAFE amount of fetuses. I'm pro-Jessica who is FINALLY getting the strength to get away from her physically abusive spouse only to find out that she is carrying the monster's child. I'm pro-Vanessa who went into her confirmation appointment after YEARS of trying to conceive only to hear silence where there should be a heartbeat. I'm pro-Lindsay who lost her virginity in her sophomore year with a broken condom and now has to choose whether to be a teenage mom or just a teenager. I'm pro-Courtney who just found out she's already 13 weeks along, but the egg never made it out of her fallopian tube so either she terminates the pregnancy or risks dying from internal bleeding and horrific pain. I’m pro-Renee who developed eclampsia and in her third trimester and had to terminate her pregnancy or else she and her much loved baby would die. Also pro-Lorraine who found out two weeks before her due date that her baby’s heart wasn’t beating anymore, and had to be induced so she wouldn’t develop a life threatening infection. You can argue and say that I'm pro-choice all you want, but the truth is: I'm pro-life. Their lives. Women's lives. You don't get to pick and choose which scenarios should be accepted. It's not about which stories you don't agree with. It's about fighting for the women in the stories and the CHOICE that was made for them, by them. Women's rights are meant to protect ALL women, regardless of their situation - or how big their bank account is. Because, let's face it, rich people's daughters and mistresses (yes, even the ones who voted for anti-abortion bills) will always be able to find safe abortions. They did before Roe v Wade. Most poor women will still get abortions too, whether from centuries old, unsafe home methods or from opportunistic untrained, unsafe people. Roe v. Wade didn't create abortion. It ended poor, desperate women and girls dying from them and making decisions about their lives.

Author Unknown

[intersectionalpraxis]

"Under a Missouri statute that has recently gained nationwide attention, every petitioner for divorce is required to disclose their pregnancy status. In practice, experts say, those who are pregnant are barred from legally dissolving their marriage. “The application [of the law] is an outright ban,” said Danielle Drake, attorney at Parks & Drake. When Drake learned her then husband was having an affair, her own divorce stalled because she was pregnant. Two other states have similar laws: Texas and Arkansas."

"Missouri is particularly restrictive when it comes to reproductive health and autonomy. It was one of the first to ban abortion after Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, including in cases of rape and incest. Research shows that abortion restrictions can effectively give cover to reproductive coercion and sexual violence: the National Hotline for Domestic Violence said it saw a 99% increase in calls during the first year after the loss of the constitutional right to abortion."

"Advocates are currently trying to gather enough signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would make abortion legal until fetal viability, or around 24 weeks."

"In Missouri, homicide was the third leading cause of deaths in connection with pregnancy between 2018–2022, the majority (75%) of which occurred among Black women, according to a 2023 report by the Missouri department of health and senior services, which examines maternal mortality data. In every case, the perpetrator was a current or former partner. And in 2022, 23,252 individuals in the state received services after reporting domestic violence, according to the latest reporting from Missouri Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, which compiles data from direct service providers in the state."

The dystopia we speak of -across many of issues that women and marginalized folks face is HERE already. This is terrifying.

#feminist #feminism #social justice #current events #current news #missouri #missouri law #united states #partner abuse #tw abuse #intersectionality #intersectional feminism #violence against women #intimate partner violence #intimate partner abuse #divorce #relationship #us law #important #information #pregnancy #gender violence #bodily autonomy #womens rights #reproductive freedom #abortion is healthcare