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. 

Should abortion be banned? 🤱

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Should abortion be banned? 🤱

I am a believer in freedom of choice and the right of people to make private choices in their own lives. Especially with the abortion pill, if not for state restrictions, it never has been easier for women to get a safe and legal abortion in the privacy of their own home.

The abortion pill isn’t available for all stages of pregnancy and can have side effects like a miscarriage requiring medical supervision and may not be appropriate in all cases. Sometimes in person care and counseling can be better and should be allowed. But I think more medication abortions are part of the way forward and fewer abortion clinics.

I’m no fan of organizations that promote abortion and sexuality for purposes other than child birth. While I think care should be available for those in need of an abortion, I have problems with active promotion of such organizations. Maybe they feel like they have to zellous advocates for abortion when the opposition is so certain but I find it rather obnoxious. I hate the throwaway society, throwaway human life included.

I’d like abortion to be medicine, something private, non political. Something decided by families in the privacy of their own home or with a trusted doctor and not something brandished around town. Not a political issue but a personal one.

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.