Abortion

Pregnancy Crisis Centers per State, 2018

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Pregnancy Crisis Centers per State, 2018

Crisis pregnancy centers offer support and alternatives usually to poor women seeking abortions where such services are not available. They actively discourage women, in general, from getting abortions and are often religiously affiliated. 

Based on loosely counts of the dataset shown here: https://crisispregnancycentermap.com/

While this is a copyrighted dataset, I think the public educational value of showing this data aggregated exceeds any restrictions they may have on the easily downloaded dataset that can also be gleamed largely from Open Street Map and phone books. 

NPR

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Criminal defense lawyers sound the alarm about mass incarceration if Roe falls : NPR

Picture a court of law, jury in place, set to determine the fate of a woman who has had a miscarriage. And she's been charged with murder.

This hypothetical is part of how the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is training its members to prepare for a wave of criminal charges if, as expected, the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

Only it's not a hypothetical — this happened in 2019. After a California woman delivered a stillborn baby at 8 months, she tested positive for meth at the hospital and the staff called the police. The Kings County prosecutor charged her with the "murder of a human fetus" and she spent 16 months in jail before the charges were dismissed.

I was listening to NPR Fresh Air about the state of abortion in America today

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I was listening to NPR Fresh Air about the state of abortion in America today … 💊

I was very surprised to learn about how with the abortion pill that many people can get safely get an abortion just by taking a pill sent through the mail and that many states are allowing such pills to be proscribed via Telehealth, often by a low fee of $150 or even less. I think it’s a wonderful development, as it saves time, hassle and protects privacy, especially compared the old ways of doing things involving abortion clinics — an empowers women to boot.

I’m no fan of promotion of casual sexual activities or recreational sex, but I do think protecting a women’s right to make her own healthcare choices is important. Accidents occur even with protected sex and contraception, and sometimes not realized right away. We’ve had for decades birth control pills, as the country music singer Loretta Lynn made famous in late 1960s. Having medicine that can undo a mistake, with minimal harm to woman is such a liberating thing, that should be widely available even without a prescription at neighborhood pharmacies and grocery stores. We shouldn’t be afraid of progress.