Dare To Be A Feminist

The Supreme Court has given pro-life advocates free rein to spread their message, even if it distresses patients. But getting people to listen is more complicated.

This video shows anti-abortion protesters filming outside an abortion clinic in a London street. And getting shut down by a pregnant passerby.

It was posted on YouTube yesterday by journalist and activist Sunny Hundal.

Hundal then tweeted it with the caption: ‘Today I saw this pregnant woman blasting anti-abortion protesters for intimidating women at a clinic.’

For liberals, one of the few bright spots of this week's election was the resounding defeat of two so-called "personhood" ballot initiatives, which would have extended constitutional rights to embryos.

A new law in Alabama can put minors on trial for seeking an abortion -- and provides fetuses with legal counsel

We get it: “Por-Lifers Love Fetuses
But what about the people, the women, who are already here?
Vote Pro-Choice
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i want this...

You find yourself a fucking taco, or a fucking beer, or a fucking taco and a beer, then you eat the fucking taco or drink the fucking beer or eat and drink both the fucking taco and the beer, and then you donate some money to an abortion fund. You fucking film yourself doing this shit and then you send us the fucking video and we put it on the fucking internet.

Fuck yeah to you for donating to to groups that work to keep abortion legal and accessible! Fuck yeah! You’re great! They’re great! We 100% percent completely and totally encourage you to donate your money and your time to groups that do important political work, and to organizations that provide much-needed services like pap smears, contraception and STI testing and treatment.

However, the Taco Or Beer Challenge founders regret to inform you that you also can’t win the Taco Or Beer Challenge by only doing this, because winning the Taco Or Beer Challenge depends entirely on you donating to an abortion fund, which is a fund that pays for people’s abortions or directly related logistical expenses.

(Caveat: yes indeedy, some Planned Parenthood affiliates and locations do have their own abortion funds! They totally count toward the challenge! Please be sure to specify which fund you donated to when you submit your badass taco or beer photo/video!) 

Why are abortion funds so important, and why are they the sole non-negotiable part of the Taco Or Beer Challenge? Because abortion stigma is real, and the Taco Or Beer Challenge is about encouraging people to give abortion stigma a big fucking taco-covered middle finger by being loud and proud about directly funding abortion.

"The right to abortion cannot be exercised without a medical professional, and the right to keep and bear arms means little if there is no one from whom to acquire the handgun or ammunition," a judge said.

Likening abortion to the right to bear arms, a federal judge strikes down Alabama provision restricting which doctors can perform the procedure.

...

Revisiting the issue in the court's Monday ruling, Thompson said, "The court was struck by a parallel in some respects between the right of women to decide to terminate a pregnancy and the right of the individual to keep and bear firearms, including handguns, in her home for the purposes of self-defense."

Both rights are controversial, and there are opponents of each who, based on moral or ethical convictions, feel they should not be rights and deserve no constitutional protection. Each protected right is also held by the individual, but neither right can be realized "without the assistance of someone else," he wrote.

The road ahead for abortion providers and their allies to not only preserve George Tiller’s specialized service, but simply to stay open, is hardly an easy one. But many of those who knew Dr. Tiller as a colleague and friend are no doubt fortified by remembering one of his favorite sayings: “Attitude is everything.”

And guess what! It's OK to define a pregnancy as "goo," but it's also OK not to! Life is complicated!

Culture change is distinct from policy change and health-care access, but it’s just as important. It’s difficult to imagine long-term policy gains without doing the hard work to change norms, beliefs, and behavior.

Abortion is on trial this week in Alabama. Technically speaking, the witnesses are appearing before federal District Judge Myron Thompson to discuss a new state law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. That sounds reasonable, I know, but it isn’t, and it’s also...

"Clinics like Red River need to remain open, or women's lives will be at risk."