USA – Abortion Bans Are Disregarding the Lives of Sexual Assault Survivors

By removing even exceptions for rape from their anti-abortion legislation, Republican politicians are finally starting to say the quiet part out loud.

By Kylie Cheung
Feb 22, 2022

Anti-abortion politicians have always been clear on one thing: Abortion is murder. But for years, this “logic” hasn’t held up against their occasional concession that abortion bans make exceptions for rape. Of course, if these politicians genuinely believed that abortion is murder, they wouldn’t allow any concession at all. Instead, they have long used the rape exception to have it both ways, claiming to simultaneously care about women and also be “pro-life”—two antithetical positions to take.

This dynamic is beginning to shift. Since the much-publicized feud between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and fellow Republican Rep. Nancy Mace last December over whether abortion bans should include rape exceptions at all, a string of recent proposed and enacted state abortion bans have been made in Taylor Greene’s image more so than Mace’s.

Continued: https://jezebel.com/abortion-bans-rape-exceptions-effect-survivors-1848516164

The slow, punishing arc of “The Handmaid’s Tale” mirrors our struggle for reproductive rights

The show’s repetition and lack of progress through four seasons feel achingly familiar – and maybe that's the point

By KYLIE CHEUNG
PUBLISHED MAY 26, 2021

After almost two years, Hulu's "Handmaid's Tale" returned for its fourth season in April, picking up right where it left off throughout its last three seasons of gratuitous violence with minimal plot payoff. Wednesday's episode follows June's escape from Gilead into refuge in Canada, as she will reunite with loved ones and figures from her past after years of separation and recycled plotlines.

Set in the fictional dystopia of Gilead, "The Handmaid's Tale" depicts America's future after a civil war and takeover by religious political extremists who relegate all women to "handmaids," or baby incubators for powerful men and their wives. Handmaids are denied access to education, or really any basic human rights or bodily autonomy, which has consistently helped the Hulu drama strike a chord amid ongoing, escalating attacks on reproductive rights in the U.S.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2021/05/26/handmaids-tale-abortion-reproductive-rights/

26.05.2021

USA – Fetal Personhood Is Maternal Punishment

Fetal Personhood Is Maternal Punishment
When society values the life of a fetus over that of a living person, women pay the steepest price.

By Katha Pollitt
Dec 2, 2019

We often talk about abortion as if it’s a thing unto itself. If we connect it to anything, it’s usually to sex education, contraception, and other contested ways of preventing unwanted births.

What gets much less attention is the removal of everyday rights from willingly pregnant women. For opponents of abortion, who grant personhood to fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses, it’s not a stretch to go from saying “You have to have that baby” to “You have to produce a healthy baby, therefore your wishes, needs, and constitutional rights are of no account.” Moreover, if anything goes wrong, they’re going to assume it’s your fault alone.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/abortion-csection-birth/

USA – Leana Wen: My miscarriage has made my commitment to women’s health even stronger

Leana Wen: My miscarriage has made my commitment to women’s health even stronger

By Leana S. Wen
July 6, 2019
Leana S. Wen is an emergency physician and the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The turkey sandwich I always had for lunch tasted different. My colleague’s perfume was suddenly overpowering. I could hardly keep awake; when I slept, I had leg cramps and vivid dreams.

I knew before I took the test: I was pregnant.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/leana-wen-my-miscarriage-has-made-my-commitment-to-womens-health-even-stronger/2019/07/05/43962668-9f3f-11e9-b27f-ed2942f73d70_story.html

The Alabama woman indicted after a miscarriage will not be prosecuted

The Alabama woman indicted after a miscarriage will not be prosecuted
A jury initially indicted Marshae Jones on manslaughter charges after a shooting caused her to miscarry, sparking a national outcry.

By P.R. Lockhart
Jul 3, 2019

One week after her story drew national attention, Marshae Jones, the Alabama woman who faced criminal charges after a shooting caused her to miscarry, will not be prosecuted, the Alabama district attorney announced Wednesday.

“After viewing the facts of this case and the applicable state law I have determined that it is not in the best interest of justice to pursue prosecution of Ms. Jones on the manslaughter charge for which she was indicted by the grand jury,” Jefferson County District Attorney Lynneice Washington said at a press conference. “Therefore, I am dismissing this case and no further legal action will be taken against Ms. Jones in this matter.”

Continued: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/7/3/20681511/marshae-jones-alabama-miscarriage-shooting-charges-dismissed

The US right’s concern for the foetus doesn’t survive the trip down the birth canal

The US right’s concern for the foetus doesn’t survive the trip down the birth canal
Women face jail for miscarriage while migrant children are held in unsafe conditions. Hypocrisy is thrown into sharp relief

Emer O'Toole
Mon 1 Jul 2019

In Alabama, a woman who was shot in the stomach five times and lost her pregnancy as a result has been charged with the manslaughter of her foetus. Marshae Jones allegedly instigated a fight that resulted in the shooting, and, thus, according to a local police source, the “only true victim” was the “unborn baby”. Lieutenant Danny Reid further explained that the foetus is “dependent on its mother to keep it from harm, and she shouldn’t seek out unnecessary physical altercations”.

If Jones can be tried for manslaughter, what other types of pregnancy loss can be treated as serious crimes? If a pregnant woman is hit by a car while jaywalking, is this manslaughter? How about if – despite knowing of the tiny risk – she chooses to eat soft blue cheese and miscarries due to listeria? What if she changes the cat litter and contracts toxoplasmosis?

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/01/us-rights-concern-foetus-not-survive-trip-down-birth-canal?CMP=share_btn_link=

USA – A pregnant woman was shot in the stomach. She was charged in the death of the fetus.

A pregnant woman was shot in the stomach. She was charged in the death of the fetus.

By Michael Brice-Saddler and Alex Horton
June 28, 2019

A 27-year-old Alabama woman was indicted on manslaughter charges Wednesday in the loss of her pregnancy, even though, police say, another woman pulled the trigger.

The moment quickly became a flash point in the broader debate over abortion, particularly in Alabama, and raised questions over how fairly manslaughter charges can be applied in the state.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/27/pregnant-woman-was-shot-stomach-she-was-indicted-her-babys-death/

Alabama woman loses unborn child after being shot, gets arrested; shooter goes fre

Alabama woman loses unborn child after being shot, gets arrested; shooter goes free

Posted Jun 26, 2019
By Carol Robinson

A woman whose unborn baby was killed in a 2018 Pleasant Grove shooting has now been indicted in the death.

Marshae Jones, a 27-year-old Birmingham woman, was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on a manslaughter charge. She was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Continued: https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2019/06/woman-indicted-in-shooting-death-of-her-unborn-child-charges-against-shooter-dismissed.html