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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Don’t Bother Them with Numbers: As Long as More Women are Suffering, It’s Working

Don’t Bother Them with Numbers: As Long as More Women are Suffering, It’s Working

by @heymistermix.com|  June 23, 20242:03 pm| 135 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Don't Bother Them with Numbers: As Long as More Women are Suffering, It's Working 1
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was on Face the Nation this morning, mainly to talk about fires and immigration, but even the host of Face the Republicans let her get in a few home truths:

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have been a very vocal access- advocate, I should say, for Reproductive Health Access. This week marks two years since Roe vs. Wade was struck down. And yet, in 2023, America had the highest abortion number and abortion rate in over a decade. Why do you think there are more abortions happening at a time when there is decreased access?

GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: Well, I think there are more abortions happening because more women are at risk, which means they can’t get into a provider, they can’t get prenatal care. You’ve got providers who are worried about prosecutions and any number of other issues that interfere with their ability to provide care, less access to contraceptives, less information about public health, less ability to get to your primary care physician. Most families and women live eighty-six miles from a provider- you create a draconian situation; you’re going to increase risk at every single place. And this is a state that’s clear about protecting women and creating equality, but that’s what I believe is the genesis of this situation.

In addition to what Gov. Lujan Grisham said, I’m guessing one reason is that outlawing abortion makes women who are pregnant “call the question” earlier — since mifepristone by mail is the only alternative to a long car ride that they can’t afford.  But that’s just a guess.

Anyway, do I think the fact of rising abortion rates post-Dobbs is going to make forced birthers rethink their positions?  Of course not:  first, they never rethink anything.  Second, along with the rate of abortion, the rate of women’s suffering has gone up, and that’s what they really wanted.  Third, this will just push them to ask for more:  outlawing contraception is next, and boy are they foaming at the mouth to get that done.  Look for Thomas and Alito to break new ground in originalism by pointing out that the founding fathers didn’t have the pill or IUDs, therefore Griswold should be reversed.

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Reader Interactions

135Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 2:07 pm

    Let’s call them Alito abortions.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 2:09 pm

    Also, too, until liberalism is dominant again, women will really need to think hard about all their major life relationships with men.

    ETA: Tinder profiles of guys should disclose which government is backing them.

    ETA2: Go Grisham!

  3. 3.

    A Ghost to Most

    June 23, 2024 at 2:19 pm

    Reproductive health is just another canard for the christian supremacists.

  4. 4.

    Dan B

    June 23, 2024 at 2:19 pm

    Griswold gone, shudder.

    Meet-up places out of business.  Internet meet-up sites filled with people hoping to entrap people having sex outside of wedlock (and what part of “lock” makes you feel good?), rich men blackmailing young women, and guys, into sex, etc.  Griswold is a bulwark against manipulation and coercion.  It’s a means towards more honesty in relationships.  But there are ideologues who do not care for honesty.

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2024 at 2:21 pm

    They are definitely coming for birth control and women need to grasp that.

     

    There ARE NO EXCEPTIONS IN RED STATES.

     

    It’s only on paper. Because you can’t show me 100 cases, across all those states, where an abortion has been granted 🤬🤬

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    June 23, 2024 at 2:24 pm

    @rikyrah: They are coming for birth control, women’s education, no-fault divorce, probably age-of-consent and child marriage laws. Everything that we created to make space for women in public life.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    June 23, 2024 at 2:24 pm

    Thanks for this post, mistermix.

  8. 8.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 2:27 pm

    @Baud: ​ 

    Let’s call them Alito abortions.

    That’ll work, very apt.

  9. 9.

    dexwood

    June 23, 2024 at 2:27 pm

    That’s my gov I’m happy to say. 70% of recent abortions in New Mexico are for women from Texas according a Santa Fe New Mexican article from last week.

    Things to be, places to do. Have a good day all.

  10. 10.

    scav

    June 23, 2024 at 2:27 pm

    At some point, I would expect the lack of access to reproductive health care to show up  in the infant — specifically neonate — health stats.  Some states were crap before, but as time progresses (and doctors et al vote with their feet) the specific Post-Roe impact should become clearer.   It’ll be interesting to watch the gymnastics as they shrug off infant health and well-being alongside that of the women.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 2:29 pm

    @scav:

    It’s the mother’s fault. That’s easy.

  12. 12.

    jimmiraybob

    June 23, 2024 at 2:30 pm

    @Dan B: ​
      “… to entrap people having sex outside of wedlock …”
    … to entrap people women having sex outside of wedlock …

  13. 13.

    jimmiraybob

    June 23, 2024 at 2:32 pm

    @Suzanne: ​
     

    … economic autonomy …

  14. 14.

    Splitting Image

    June 23, 2024 at 2:32 pm

    @Suzanne:

    They are coming for birth control, women’s education, no-fault divorce, probably age-of-consent and child marriage laws. Everything that we created to make space for women in public life.

    Don’t forget a wife’s right to keep her own name, possess her own property and to refuse to perform her “conjugal duties”. Not to mention the right to sue the father of a baby for child support. They have a long list of privileges they don’t think women should have, and any wins they get will only make them bolder.

  15. 15.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 2:32 pm

    @Suzanne: ​ 

    probably age-of-consent and child marriage laws.

    Surprisingly, California is one of seven states that have no minimum age of consent for marriage. The age of consent for sexual activity is 18, but not for marriage.

    Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and other “sympathetic” orgs you’d assume were on the wagon for establishing a minimum age, are not and have opposed bills to codify a minimum age of consent for marriage in the past.

  16. 16.

    Tony Jay

    June 23, 2024 at 2:35 pm

    Not to get all apocalyptikinky – because often things don’t blow up so much as they continue smouldering unhappily amidst clouds of blinding smoke – but if the American Ayatollahs keep pushing and do get around to cutting off access to contraception while approving the imposition of brutal punitive punishments on anyone violating their Constitutional Decency Laws, that’s pretty much the ball game for regulating women’s behaviour into ‘conservative’ mode, isn’t it?

    But only if the millions of people having their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness abridged by a half dozen bought and paid for loons just because they say they’ve ‘got the conch’ knuckle under, which isn’t likely. What happens if Blue states just declare that the Court has itself become an unconstitutional threat to the rights of their citizens and can shove their coathanger-friendly lawfare up their bleached-white hoops?

    I guess the answer is that, at that point, expanding the Court and diluting the influence of the Hard Right becomes the middle-ground solution everyone can coalesce around in order to fend off a constitutional crisis that could spiral off into violence very quickly.

  17. 17.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 2:36 pm

    @scav: As you say, red state rates of infant and maternal mortality are already crap. That tells me they have always shrugged off infant wellbeing, Dobbs or no Dobbs.

  18. 18.

    Shalimar

    June 23, 2024 at 2:38 pm

    @Suzanne: also coming for women being allowed to have bank accounts without fathers or husbands on it with them.

  19. 19.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    June 23, 2024 at 2:39 pm

    @Splitting Image: Have a Checking account; have a credit card without a male to co-sign.  I remember my mother dealing with these “women are property” banking laws in the 1970s.

  20. 20.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2024 at 2:40 pm

    @Suzanne:

    No lie told

  21. 21.

    scav

    June 23, 2024 at 2:40 pm

    @Baud: Oh, that, certainly.  But there will be a visible state v. state difference in the existence of shit mothers.  Plus the bump in shit-motherhood at a time not to named.  They’ll no doubt hide it under the same blanket covering state v. state actual crime rates, educational attainment, lifespans, but it’s going to be a hella lumpy blanket.  With widdle round cute baby eyes poking out from under it.  But it’s not just women they’re willing to harm in their quest for personal purity.  They’ll kick their little poster-babies to the curb as well, and the little curb-stomped will soon be showing up in local playgrounds.

  22. 22.

    Mousebumples

    June 23, 2024 at 2:40 pm

    do I think the fact of rising abortion rates post-Dobbs is going to make forced birthers rethink their positions? Of course not: first, they never rethink anything.

    The only rethinking they do is determining how to be better (worse?) at achieving their end goals.

  23. 23.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 2:42 pm

    @Tony Jay: One thing to note along those lines — Jay Inslee, gov of Washington State, is reported to have stockpiled enough mifepristone to provide it for any women in the state who need it for a year or so. Other blue states could do this, and stockpile contraceptives as well in preparation for the final showdown.

  24. 24.

    BellyCat

    June 23, 2024 at 2:43 pm

    As for increased abortion rate: little doubt that newly pregnant women have either had a prior pregnancy/health crisis that required medical treatment or they know someone who did.  And possible treatment options have become fewer, more difficult to access, vanished, or have been outlawed. Early termination when faced with horrific possibilities makes a good deal of sense. Perversely, the result of feckless women’s health restrictions have increased, rather than decreased, abortions.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2024 at 2:43 pm

    @smith:

    Jessica Valenti said this week in a video that the word is that Texas is going to withdraw from the CDC standards for measuring Maternal Mortality. That one of the plans is to throw distrust on those stats, because they are one of the easiest stats to pull up and see what  the consequences of their anti-abortion laws have brought. And facts that make them look like the barbarians they are .. can’t be allowed 🤬🤬

  26. 26.

    Scout211

    June 23, 2024 at 2:45 pm

    Guttmacher Institute released their latest statistics last week and introduced their US Abortion Provision Dashboard that tracks national and state data on clinician-provided abortions.

    Latest Data Confirm People Are Traveling Farther Distances to Access Abortion Care Post-Dobbs

    The Guttmacher Institute today released the latest round of data from its Monthly Abortion Provision Study, along with a new US Abortion Provision Dashboard that allows users to interact with the Institute’s most up-to-date abortion data. The new data include state and national abortion counts from January 2023 through March 2024 and, for the first time, include findings on the state of residence of abortion patients who traveled out of state for care in 2023.

    . . .
    What’s striking about this new data is how often people are traveling across multiple state lines to access abortion care,” says Isaac Maddow-Zimet, Guttmacher data scientist and Monthly Abortion Provision Study project lead. “Traveling for abortion care requires individuals to overcome huge financial and logistical barriers, and our findings show just how far people will travel to obtain the care they want and deserve. Despite the amazing resiliency of abortion patients and providers, we can’t lose sight of the fact that this is neither normal nor acceptable: A person should not have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to receive basic health care.”

    Traveling for abortion care is not new to the post-Dobbs era, and the number of people traveling out of state has always been particularly high in states with abortion restrictions. Historically, however, many of the people traveling from restrictive states went to states that now have total abortion bans. For instance, in 2020, more than 800 Louisiana residents traveled to Texas for abortion care; following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, that was no longer possible. In 2023, more than 3,500 Louisianans traveled across multiple states to get care in places like Florida, Illinois and Georgia.

  27. 27.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 2:46 pm

    @rikyrah: I believe Idaho has already disbanded the state’s monitoring system for maternal and infant mortality.

  28. 28.

    H.E.Wolf

    June 23, 2024 at 2:48 pm

    We can sit here and fulminate, or we can find one small, concrete action to take, in addition to expressing our outrage.

    One option is to help add Democratic voters to the rolls in FL, so that they can vote “YES” on the abortion rights question this November.

    Postcards To Voters is writing to FL Democrats to get them enrolled in Vote By Mail, which increases the chance of someone voting.

    Write 4 cards. That’s a minimal amount of life energy expended, and you’ll be actively supporting reproductive freedom.

    Here’s the address to sign up:
    [email protected]

  29. 29.

    dmsilev

    June 23, 2024 at 2:49 pm

    @smith: Not at all surprising. There have been a whole raft of stories about OB/Gyns fleeing Idaho, and rather than reverse course and undo the laws which lead to that the Republicans are trying to hide the obvious consequences.

  30. 30.

    scav

    June 23, 2024 at 2:50 pm

    And for all the states hiding infant and maternal mortality?  Unless you opt out of all data gathering, including the census, there’s a signal in excess mortality that would like to talk to you.

  31. 31.

    Jeffg166

    June 23, 2024 at 2:51 pm

    This video needs to be run nationwide. It’s from the Ohio elections last year I think.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z10j_H7zOb8

  32. 32.

    H.E.Wolf

    June 23, 2024 at 2:51 pm

    @smith: ​One thing to note along those lines — Jay Inslee, gov of Washington State, is reported to have stockpiled enough mifepristone to provide it for any women in the state who need it for a year or so.

     Four years’ supply. As always, please consider this a recommendation to read Electoral Vote blog.
    https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Items/Jun17-9.html

  33. 33.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 2:52 pm

    @smith:

    yes

    Maternal Mortality Review Committee

    The committee was established in 2019 to identify, review, and analyze maternal deaths (pregnancy-associated and pregnancy-related in the state of Idaho. The committee ended on July 1, 2023 per Idaho statute.

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    June 23, 2024 at 2:53 pm

    @dmsilev: Idaho has a lot of LDS women who tend to have lots of kids, too. So this is an issue.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    June 23, 2024 at 2:54 pm

    As always, the answer to, “NOW, are you happy?” is “No.”

    They will continue to gobble up as many freedoms as they are able. Collateral damages? Feature, no es bug.

  36. 36.

    Redshift

    June 23, 2024 at 2:54 pm

    Controlling women has always been the goal, “protecting babeeez!” is just marketing. “Men are ordained by God rule the family and that’s how it was for all of history until liberals ruined it” is the purest distillation of the promised return to a mythical idealized past that is the core of conservatism everywhere.

  37. 37.

    Nukular Biskits

    June 23, 2024 at 2:59 pm

    @scav:

    At some point, I would expect the lack of access to reproductive health care to show up  in the infant — specifically neonate — health stats.  Some states were crap before, but as time progresses (and doctors et al vote with their feet) the specific Post-Roe impact should become clearer.   It’ll be interesting to watch the gymnastics as they shrug off infant health and well-being alongside that of the women.

    MS sez, “Hold my beer!”

    Seriously, this state has consistently been at the bottom rankings for things like maternal mortality, infant/child mortality, premature births, etc.  Yet our Legislature deliberately chose to pursue what eventually would become Dobbs because they were “pro-life” … and had absolutely NO contingencies or plans to address any of that post-Dobbs.

    Asshats.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 3:00 pm

    Of course the bad news is that most normies aren’t feeling the pinch from abortion restrictions, so who knows if they’ll respond to the threat in November?

  39. 39.

    Scout211

    June 23, 2024 at 3:03 pm

    @smith: Jay Inslee, gov of Washington State, is reported to have stockpiled enough mifepristone to provide it for any women in the state

    Also, the Governors of California, Massachusetts and New York announced last year at the same time.

  40. 40.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 3:05 pm

    @Baud: They need to hear more of the stories about near-fatal miscarriages from denial of care in red states. Most normies may think they are untouched by abortion, but almost everyone knows somebody who’s had a miscarriage.

  41. 41.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    June 23, 2024 at 3:11 pm

    outlawing contraception is next, and boy are they foaming at the mouth to get that done.

    Pharm aint gonna let that happen.

    Contraceptives Market size was valued at around USD 21.5 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach approximately USD 39.8 billion by 2032

    There’s nothing to stop Texas right now from banning contraceptives, getting a favorable outcome in the 5th circuit and forcing the case to the scotus. The reason they don’t do it is because they know not to anger their corporate pay masters.

  42. 42.

    Timill

    June 23, 2024 at 3:13 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: It would also give the game away in a Presidential election year.

  43. 43.

    TBone

    June 23, 2024 at 3:13 pm

    Remember the stuff about pronatalism I posted in the recent past?  That’s part of where all this *waves hand* is headed.

    Mama Gilead is running for office here, on a parental rights platform:

    One of the examples she gives is car seat regulations, which she believes have gone too far as it is now harder to fit more kids in a vehicle.

    https://montco.today/2024/06/simone-collins-montgomery-county/

    A portrait of family life!  She has lots of followers.

    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/the-truth-about-pronatalists-simone-and-malcolm-collins.html

  44. 44.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 3:15 pm

    @Timill: Isn’t banning contraception already a part of Project 2025? And of course, the GQP has already tipped its hand re IVF, the banning of which is not popular.

  45. 45.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 3:17 pm

    @Cheryl from Maryland: ​ 

    I remember my mother dealing with these “women are property” banking laws in the 1970s.

    So do I. My mom was incensed she had to jump through these hoops. The first thing she bought after getting a credit card in her name? A rototiller for her summer vegetable garden.

  46. 46.

    Tony G

    June 23, 2024 at 3:27 pm

    Jesus, these sadistic theocratic assholes.  If we had actual journalists in our news media, then every single time one of these swine calls themselves “pro-life”, they would be immediately corrected with the truthful term “forced birth”.

  47. 47.

    John S.

    June 23, 2024 at 3:28 pm

    @dexwood:

    70% of recent abortions in New Mexico are for women from Texas

    Quite a few recent abortions in Washington are similarly coming from Idaho.

    Yet another example of blue states having to shoulder the burden of shitty governance in red states.

  48. 48.

    dmsilev

    June 23, 2024 at 3:30 pm

    @TBone: From your second link,

    The children have Randian rather than biblical names; the latest, a girl, is Industry Americus.

    I truly pity that kid.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    June 23, 2024 at 3:30 pm

    @Suzanne: Not just women – all of civil rights. Legal immigrants, POC, LBGTQ, non-christians.

    Louisianas 10 commandments and expansion of castration isn’t focused at women – it’s very much a ‘let’s be clear who’s in charge here’ kind of move. That castration won’t be used on white men, for certain.

    The focus on women is because that’s an electoral group that can singlehandedly stop this (unlike any of the others), and that’s why Dems are putting most of their electoral focus on that group.

  50. 50.

    TBone

    June 23, 2024 at 3:31 pm

    @smith:

    https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republicans-sneaky-strategy-undermine-birth-control-rcna155893

  51. 51.

    TBone

    June 23, 2024 at 3:33 pm

    @dmsilev: when they start running out of Randian name ideas:

    “X Æ A-12”

  52. 52.

    Martin

    June 23, 2024 at 3:35 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: That’s not the reason. The GOP is seeing the polling turnout models break toward Dem overrates as reproductive rights becomes more prominent on the ballot. Trump won Texas by 5.5% in 2020. That’s much too close for comfort to light an even hotter fire under non-voters to show up and pull the lever for Biden. Save that shit for after the election.

    That might be why Alabama isn’t doing it, but it’s not why Texas isn’t. They’re already pushing their advantage pretty hard in Texas.

  53. 53.

    CliosFanBoy

    June 23, 2024 at 3:36 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

     I remember a friend telling me that his Mom was having problems getting credit because she needed her husband’s signature, and she had just gone through a messy divorce.

  54. 54.

    Hoodie

    June 23, 2024 at 3:39 pm

    I think one thing we’ve all suffered from is an inability, particularly in an ADD media environment, to really grasp the scope of the realignment of society that the vanguard of this movement is pushing for. A lot of people, particularly in the mass media, don’t take them seriously enough in that respect.  Having Trump as their standard bearer actually helps them in that respect because he’s an entertaining buffoon and hard to take seriously.  But it’s not really about what Trump may want from a policy standpoint, because Trump is just about his own personal aggrandizement and grievances and he really doesn’t give a shit what these people want other than to the extent they help him get elected and at least pretend to kiss his ass.  I don’t think it’s really sunk in how much these radicals are using Trump to get what they want.  They’re fucking bolsheviks.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    June 23, 2024 at 3:48 pm

    Regarding statistics that demonstrate red state policy failures — their utility is a casualty of the post-truth era. There’s no agreed-upon reality nor any immediate prospect of recovering something resembling a consensus outlook.

    @Hoodie: You’re not wrong. See Bannon, Steve. (Soon through bars!)

  56. 56.

    Timill

    June 23, 2024 at 3:56 pm

    @smith: And who, beyond us and similar people, knows that?

    Nobody plans to use abortion (until they have to).

    Nobody want to use IVF (until they have to).

    Everybody uses contraception.

    At that point, it becomes impossible to ignore.

  57. 57.

    Citizen Alan

    June 23, 2024 at 3:57 pm

    @dmsilev:  I am horrified for all those children. Because with freaks like that as parents, I would bet good money that there is child abuse going on in that house, if not outright pedophilia. Raise your hand if you were at all shocked when the truth about the Duggars came out.

  58. 58.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    June 23, 2024 at 3:58 pm

    @Betty Cracker: … See Bannon, Steve. (Soon through bars!)

    A consummation devoutly to be wished.

    @Hoodie: I don’t think it’s really sunk in how much these radicals are using Trump to get what they want.

    Yes indeed. The 2020 post-election saga had its clownish aspects but the intent to overthrow the result was completely genuine and the scheming continues to this day.

    I’d like to see some other, longer sentences for John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark and so on. Alas, disbarment is probably the best I can hope for with Eastman. Then there’s Rudy, will he wind up sleeping under a bridge?

  59. 59.

    Melancholy Jaques

    June 23, 2024 at 4:00 pm

    @Hoodie:

    A lot of people, particularly in the mass media, don’t take them seriously enough in that respect.

    A lot of people, particularly in the mass media, think that they are going to come out on top. This is all material they can use to further their careers. And if they kiss his ass enough, Trump and his minions will give them a few tasty insider scoops.

  60. 60.

    Gretchen

    June 23, 2024 at 4:04 pm

    It’s interesting how all these people like Andrew Sullivan are suddenly worried about the « ethical concerns » of IVF now, even though it’s been in widespread use for at least 35 years. I know IVF babies who have kids of their own now.  But all of a sudden it’s « is it ethical to freeze embryos »?

  61. 61.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 4:07 pm

    @Gretchen:

    Yes.

  62. 62.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 4:09 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    There’s no agreed-upon reality nor any immediate prospect of recovering something resembling a consensus outlook.

    Sad, but excellent point.

  63. 63.

    laura

    June 23, 2024 at 4:13 pm

    Look for Thomas and Alito to break new ground in originalism by pointing out that the founding fathers didn’t have the pill or IUDs, therefore Griswold should be reversed

    NOPE! Alito specifically found no support for abortion in the Constitution because it is silent on the very existence of women. If women aren’t recognized in the Constitution (and you ignore all the reconstruction amendments) there is nothing under the sun limiting the ability for the court and it’s special friends to shit on women.

  64. 64.

    Redshift

    June 23, 2024 at 4:13 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Jessica Valenti said this week in a video that the word is that Texas is going to withdraw from the CDC standards for measuring Maternal Mortality. 

    As Stephen Colbert so famously put it, reality has a well-known liberal bias.” The response of conservative states is to declare any sources of information that don’t support their ideology “biased” and withdraw from them. Many states have withdrawn from the interstate voter information sharing because it fails to support phony voter fraud allegations. Wingnut schools boards here in VA are withdrawing from the nonpolitical state association because it “doesn’t support their values,” etc.

    I suppose it means reality still does have some influence, if they feel the need to discredit the sources instead of just denying the facts.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 4:17 pm

    @Redshift:

    Maybe we’ll need to start thinking about competing on the merits with our own institutions instead of trying to create universal institutions.  With respect to the media, we’re way behind the curve in doing that.

  66. 66.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 4:17 pm

    @Gretchen: Call me again when Andrew Sullivan gets personally involved in reproduction in any capacity.

  67. 67.

    scav

    June 23, 2024 at 4:24 pm

    The old Cnut ostrich head in sand stops saltwater intrusion gambit!  Maybe if they close their eyes reallllllly really hard this time?

  68. 68.

    matt

    June 23, 2024 at 4:26 pm

    @dmsilev: Please meet my little girl, Bootstraps Galt Jones.

  69. 69.

    West of the Rockies

    June 23, 2024 at 4:26 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Wow, way to declare that you regard your kid as a possession and don’t give an actual fuck about them.  Republicans are heinous.

  70. 70.

    West of the Rockies

    June 23, 2024 at 4:28 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    Rudy is a very unhealthy 79.  Hopefully, his time of effectively causing trouble will be brief.

  71. 71.

    wjca

    June 23, 2024 at 4:34 pm

    @rikyrah: the word is that Texas is going to withdraw from the CDC standards for measuring Maternal Mortality. That one of the plans is to throw distrust on those stats, because they are one of the easiest stats to pull up and see what  the consequences of their anti-abortion laws have brought.

    A lot of the information/statistics that we have, and not just on maternal mortality, depend on good faith, accurate reporting.  For decades, that worked.  Even in places (I’m thinking Mississippi) where the numbers made them look bad.

    But the ideologues have figured out that they can tweak definitions and otherwise fiddle the numbers.  Most are smarter than Texas — they don’t announce what they are doing.  But there’s been an increasing amount of it the past couple of decades.

  72. 72.

    Sister Golden Bear

    June 23, 2024 at 4:34 pm

    @Gretchen: Sully keeps hoping that if he’s just “normal” enough, the Right will stop hating him because he’s gay.

    Also he’s a huge misogynist, so sticking to those uppity lesbians who want to have children is a bonus. Or at best it’s his “if it doesn’t affect me personally, it’s not a problem” attitude.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    June 23, 2024 at 4:36 pm

    @smith:

    Yes.

    Jessica Valenti was the first that informed me while it was happening. Idaho is literally turning into a maternity desert 😡

  74. 74.

    Scout211

    June 23, 2024 at 4:37 pm

    @smith: Call me again when Andrew Sullivan gets personally involved in reproduction in any capacity.

    Well said.

    Just for my curiosity I read that Sullivan Substack just now and my first thought after I read it was, “where’s the beef?”  He really didn’t take a stand, he did the click bait method of “just asking questions.”  The main question (because he has friends whose wonderful children were born through IVF) is, What about all those embryos that may be discarded? But that’s it.  He’s just asking questions.

    Ugh. Spare me from click bait.

  75. 75.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 4:41 pm

    @matt: ​ 

    Please meet my little girl, Bootstraps Galt Jones.

    florgcoughhackcoughflorg… made me choke on my pizza.

  76. 76.

    Martin

    June 23, 2024 at 4:48 pm

    @laura: Requiring historical support with 1860 as the chosen cutoff date is cartoonishly telling of their real intentions.

  77. 77.

    Eyeroller

    June 23, 2024 at 4:50 pm

    @Scout211: What about all those zygotes that never implant? The embryos that silently die and are flushed with a “late” period? God is the biggest abortionist of all.

  78. 78.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 4:56 pm

    @Martin: And manifests yet again the awe-inspiring wonder of  Clarence Thomas’ psyche as he yearns to go back to that time.

  79. 79.

    Martin

    June 23, 2024 at 4:58 pm

    @smith: He doesn’t yearn for it. He gets paid to put the agenda forward in a manner that has no constitutional check or balance.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 4:59 pm

    @Eyeroller:

    Sometimes one twin will absorb the other twin in the womb. Yet the law allows the surviving twin to get away scot free.

  81. 81.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 5:00 pm

    Scotland give up a goal in the 99th minute, they have a knack for the heart-breaking losing goal.

  82. 82.

    hueyplong

    June 23, 2024 at 5:01 pm

    We have reached the allotted limit on posts that treat an Andrew Sullivan opinion as worthy of comment.

  83. 83.

    hueyplong

    June 23, 2024 at 5:02 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: Generally speaking, over the last few decades any goal given up by Scotland is the losing one.

  84. 84.

    wjca

    June 23, 2024 at 5:06 pm

    @matt: Please meet my little girl, Bootstraps Galt Jones.

    Puts me in mind of a character I chanced across in a novel years ago: General Scourge-o’-the-Sassenach O’Toole.  Known, out of his earshot, as S.O.T.S O’Toole.

    At least it wasn’t in real life.  But there’s a long history, in this country, of parents inflicting ideologically (mostly religiously) driven names on their kids.  Mostly, the kids get nicknames in grammar school, and embrace those for life.

  85. 85.

    Scout211

    June 23, 2024 at 5:06 pm

    @Eyeroller: What about all those zygotes that never implant? The embryos that silently die and are flushed with a “late” period?

    I’m worried about all those future little beautiful babies that end up in the trash inside a used condom!  

    Are men cruel murderous monsters?   I’m just asking questions.

  86. 86.

    Scout211

    June 23, 2024 at 5:09 pm

    @hueyplong: We have reached the allotted limit on posts that treat an Andrew Sullivan opinion as worthy of comment.

    Really? This the first time I have read one of his posts in many, many years.  I need to use my allotted amount of time for mocking him.  It’s in the rules!

    ETA:  okay, okay.  I’ll stop.

  87. 87.

    Bill Arnold

    June 23, 2024 at 5:14 pm

    @Baud:
    If ensoulment is at fertilization:
    – Identical twins: one soul, or two?
    – Chimeras (2 genomes, one dominant): two souls, or one? If two, does the other genome’s soul get punished with hell if the dominant genome commits mortal sins? Does the non-dominant genome get punished for secular crimes that the dominant genome commits?

  88. 88.

    kalakal

    June 23, 2024 at 5:15 pm

    @wjca:

    But there’s a long history, in this country, of parents inflicting ideologically (mostly religiously) driven names on their kids

    Those old English Puritans were pretty out there on this

    Praise-God Barebone and his big brother Fear-God were well regarded funsters. And Praise-God’s son Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned

    was a riot at partys

  89. 89.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 5:16 pm

    @Bill Arnold:

    So many legal questions for Alito to answer.

  90. 90.

    dmsilev

    June 23, 2024 at 5:20 pm

    @wjca: My favorite is a guy named ‘States Rights Gist’.Yes, really. Surprising precisely nobody, he fought in the Confederate army. Killed in battle in late 1864, so in that sense a pretty good representation of the Confederacy as a whole.

  91. 91.

    JaySinWA

    June 23, 2024 at 5:21 pm

    @Bill Arnold:– Identical twins: one soul, or two?

    – Chimeras (2 genomes, one dominant): two souls, or one?

    Splitters. Fractional souls obviously. Unless people contain multitudes of souls, so we can cut the baby in half two separate but unequal portions.

  92. 92.

    Jinchi

    June 23, 2024 at 5:22 pm

    do I think the fact of rising abortion rates post-Dobbs is going to make forced birthers rethink their positions?

    It’s just going to motivate them to find ways to prosecute women for traveling across state borders or using the post office.

  93. 93.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 5:25 pm

    @hueyplong:

    Ba-dum-tssh! Good point.

  94. 94.

    Melancholy Jaques

    June 23, 2024 at 5:29 pm

    @Scout211:

    Are men cruel murderous monsters?

    Sadly, yes.

  95. 95.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 5:29 pm

    @kalakal: To be fair, hippie parents within the lifetimes of many of us here inflicted some comparably heinous names on their children.

  96. 96.

    O. Felix Culpa

    June 23, 2024 at 5:33 pm

    @smith: Frank Zappa, for one.

  97. 97.

    VFX Lurker

    June 23, 2024 at 5:35 pm

    @kalakal:

    Those old English Puritans were pretty out there on this

    Praise-God Barebone and his big brother Fear-God were well regarded funsters. And Praise-God’s son Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned

    was a riot at partys

    Terry Pratchett took a stab at this with The Quite Reverend Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats (“Mightily Oats” for short) in Carpe Jugulum. Awkward name; great Discworld character.

  98. 98.

    Jinchi

    June 23, 2024 at 5:47 pm

    @kalakal: Praise-God’s son Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned

    I wonder if the boy went by “Unless” or “Damned” to his church friends.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    June 23, 2024 at 6:02 pm

    @TBone:

    I have a sartorial question. In the New York Magazine article photo, the husband is wearing a shirt and tie, vest, suit jacket (complete with pocket square), and … jeans. Is that a common way for guys to dress these days? Serious question.

     

    Now, if you’ll pardon me, I must go tie fresh onions to my belt.

  100. 100.

    hueyplong

    June 23, 2024 at 6:07 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: You can probably tell I’ve been disappointed a few times.

    I’m also almost certainly the only person here who has been sunburned in Edinburgh.

  101. 101.

    dmsilev

    June 23, 2024 at 6:13 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Only if you’re on an extremely formal Zoom call.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    June 23, 2024 at 6:15 pm

    @dmsilev:

    You don’t need jeans for that.

  103. 103.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 6:16 pm

    @hueyplong: ​ 

    The Scots have made 8 world Cups and 4 euros and never advanced out of the group stage.

    They are 6-10-19 in those comps.

  104. 104.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    June 23, 2024 at 6:17 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    Pharm aint gonna let that happen.

    Shoot me for saying this but bless big pharma.

    Many of us have been saying for a loooong time that the forced birthers weren’t about zygote protection but outlawing contraception and getting the wimmin-folk somewhat back into a coerced, oppressed status.

    And here we are with big pharma and its profits being a likely ally in the fight.

  105. 105.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 23, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Its a costume for the interview. No one in their right mind dresses like that.

  106. 106.

    schrodingers_cat

    June 23, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    OT Has anyone here watched the documentary about Ravish Kumar that got a Peabody, While we watched,

  107. 107.

    HumboldtBlue

    June 23, 2024 at 6:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: ​ 

    A sport coat, collared shirt and jeans is very common, but that fucking dweeb is just a fucking dweeb who dresses like a fucking dweeb.

  108. 108.

    raven

    June 23, 2024 at 6:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Have you seen the US Olympic opening ceremony outfits?

  109. 109.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    June 23, 2024 at 6:20 pm

    @HumboldtBlue @hueyplong:

    Irina [to Ricki Tarr]: I’ve read everything about Scotland. It’s the Garden of Eden, isn’t it?

  110. 110.

    dmsilev

    June 23, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    @Baud: It’s a safety measure. Nobody wants another Jeffrey Toobin.

  111. 111.

    O. Felix Culpa

    June 23, 2024 at 6:23 pm

    @raven: Oh dear. Not a fan.

  112. 112.

    zhena gogolia

    June 23, 2024 at 6:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: No, that looks very weird.

  113. 113.

    O. Felix Culpa

    June 23, 2024 at 6:24 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Not yet. Thanks for highlighting it.

  114. 114.

    Ironcity

    June 23, 2024 at 6:46 pm

    @Baud: You don’t even need pants.

  115. 115.

    jimmiraybob

    June 23, 2024 at 6:47 pm

    @TBone: Yikes! Is “too mouthy” the new “uppity.”

  116. 116.

    TBone

    June 23, 2024 at 6:48 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: you should see the description of what his wife wears around the house because home heating in winter is not a priority.  The children wear snowsuits indoors and she wears colonial-type shifts under long woolen overdresses.  Just like a real handmaid.

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/may/25/american-pronatalists-malcolm-and-simone-collins

  117. 117.

    wjca

    June 23, 2024 at 6:51 pm

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: And here we are with big pharma and its profits being a likely ally in the fight.

    “In the matter of allies only two things are important. First, can he shoot? Second, will he aim at your enemy?” — Cantra yos’Phelium

    Can they shoot? Check

    Will they aim at our enemy? Check.

    With the bonus that they’ve got seriously big guns.

  118. 118.

    K-Mo

    June 23, 2024 at 6:51 pm

    @rikyrah: JFC

  119. 119.

    TBone

    June 23, 2024 at 6:57 pm

    @TBone: more names of Collins children:

    Octavian George

    Torsten Savage

    Titan Invictus

  120. 120.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    June 23, 2024 at 6:59 pm

    @wjca:

    With the bonus that they’ve got seriously big guns.

    I for one welcome our new, Soviet, big pharma, allies, said some modern-day equivalent of FDR.

  121. 121.

    Glidwrith

    June 23, 2024 at 7:03 pm

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I so desperately wish we could rely on Big Pharma to keep contraception safe for the profits they make, but the punch bowl turds have repeatedly shown that any value they profess is to be overridden in pursuit of power.

    Not even profit will override their fanaticism. We’ve already seen that in Nazi Germany when the richies thought they could control Hitler. If we don’t stop them at the ballot box, they will break the country.

  122. 122.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    June 23, 2024 at 7:03 pm

    @TBone: “Titan Invictus,” a lovely feminine name. /s

    Reminds me of 5, from Peanuts (his sisters 3 and 4).

  123. 123.

    Harrison Wesley

    June 23, 2024 at 7:04 pm

    @TBone: I know a fair number of people from Montco, but nobody quite like this crew.  They belong in Florida….no, wait – on second thought, you guys can keep them.

  124. 124.

    Nukular Biskits

    June 23, 2024 at 7:13 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    I never knew that.

  125. 125.

    Frankensteinbeck

    June 23, 2024 at 7:13 pm

    @jimmiraybob:

    Is “too mouthy” the new “uppity.”

    It’s the old “uppity.”

  126. 126.

    Eyeroller

    June 23, 2024 at 7:14 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: ​ Well, I never knew Charles Schulz was sort of a nut, but I’m not surprised. Apparently he gave these characters the name because he hated ZIP codes.

    But as I recall from long-ago Latin class, the ancient Roman naming convention for girls was they got a feminine version of the gens name, e.g. Claudia, then after the first they were Claudia Seconda, Claudia Tertia, etc. (and the first may have become Claudia Prima). For boys, Quintus (Fifth) seems to have been fairly common but apparently referred to birth month, not birth order.

  127. 127.

    jimmiraybob

    June 23, 2024 at 7:17 pm

    @Bill Arnold: ​
      “If ensoulment is at fertilization:…”

    How would ensoulment mesh with the zygote inheriting original sin from the parents?

  128. 128.

    TBone

    June 23, 2024 at 7:20 pm

    @Harrison Wesley: fElon is one of their charitable supporters ($500k) and they want humanity to go to Mars to live.  Perfect location!

    🎶

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DtVBCG6ThDk

    Silicon Valley is full of these people.

  129. 129.

    smith

    June 23, 2024 at 7:25 pm

    @Glidwrith: Well, there is this:

    Molly Jong-Fast @MollyJongFast 5h 
    If you want the most telling data point on corporate America’s lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Trump, look where they are investing their money. Not a single Fortune 100 chief executive has donated to the candidate so far this year, which indicates a major break from overwhelming business and executive support for Republican presidential candidates dating back over a century, to the days of Taft, and stretching through Coolidge and the Bushes, all of whom had dozens of major company heads donating to their campaigns.

  130. 130.

    evodevo

    June 23, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    @Bill Arnold: ​
      Yes, this. The general public is SO ignorant of developmental genetics, embryology, etc. And no one asks these questions in the public forum lol

  131. 131.

    Gwangung

    June 23, 2024 at 8:09 pm

    @Glidwrith: Yeah, don’t RELY…but use the tool for as long as it holds out (which may or may not be long).

  132. 132.

    cain

    June 23, 2024 at 8:56 pm

    @smith: They’ll bring it back to monitor women’s periods.

  133. 133.

    CaseyL

    June 23, 2024 at 9:39 pm

    @Glidwrith: ​@smith</

    I’ve seen recent stories that Silicon Valley techbros love them some Trump because Biden isn’t keen on cryptocurrency. One of them gave Trump $50 million.

    So maybe CEOs of non-tech companies aren’t lining up behind Trump, but the multibillionaires of the tech world sure are.
    At some point, the Fortune 100/500 listers may decide to pony up, due to FOMO.​

  134. 134.

    Gvg

    June 23, 2024 at 10:20 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: it used to be a thing I; the 70’s. Haven’t seen it in awhile.

  135. 135.

    Fancycwabs

    June 25, 2024 at 8:46 am

    Given a choice, what reasonable person would want to raise a child in a right wing dictatorship? The alternatives are to ban all forms of birth control or not be a right wing dictatorship, and no way are they gonna go with option 2.

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