USA – It Was Never About Saving Babies. It Was Always About Motherhood.

There is perhaps no better (or eerier) reminder of the insidious, underlying idea that women are destined to be mothers than the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill RBG’s spot on the Supreme Court.

10/2/2020
by ANDRÉA BECKER

We love to pretend the controversy around abortion in this country is about the fetus. And for good reason: Anti-abortion protesters, with their vivid picket signs of angelic floating babies or gruesome dismembered fetuses, have successfully distracted us.

In reality, the debate runs deeper into the fibers of American culture, and uses abortion as a way to symbolically argue about what motherhood should or should not mean.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/10/02/amy-coney-barrett-abortion-motherhood/

02.10.2020

anti-choice protesters

anti-choice white supremacy

USA – The terrifying case of a six-week embryo suing an abortion clinic

The terrifying case of a six-week embryo suing an abortion clinic
An Alabama case brings into sharp clarity what is at stake with the legal battle over a woman’s right to choos

Jill Filipovic
Fri 8 Mar 2019

In Alabama, a man is suing for what he believes is his right: to allow any man to force a female partner to give birth against her will. In a bizarre twist, a judge has allowed a no-longer-in-existence embryo to sue as well. It’s a case that highlights the fundamental divide between the pro-choice movement and the anti-abortion (and, often, anti-contraception) one: is the debate just about “life”? Or is it about allowing men and the government to control women – our lives, our futures, and the very skin, organs and bones we live in?

This case brings the stakes into sharp clarity.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/08/the-terrifying-case-of-a-six-week-embryo-suing-an-abortion-clinic

The News in Motherhood: the Good, the Bad, the WTF

The News in Motherhood: the Good, the Bad, the WTF
All around the world, mothers and pregnant women are undervalued, discriminated against, and punished.

By Katha Pollitt
August 20, 2018

If women stopped conceiving, birthing, and raising children, the human race would die out. And just in case you think that’s a good idea, consider that long before the end, countries would age and wither and old people would have no one to talk to but cats and robots, as in Japan. You would think sensible societies would make everything connected with reproduction rewarding and safe for women. But no, when it comes to childbearing around the world, there’s way more stick than carrot. Consider:

In Argentina, as in the United States, most women who have abortions are low-income mothers trying to do right by the kids they already have. Despite a huge grassroots feminist movement, a vigorous campaign, and victory in the Chamber of Deputies, the Argentine Senate (42 men and 30 women) voted 37-31 in July against legalizing abortion, currently a crime except for rape and to save the woman’s life.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/the-news-in-motherhood-the-good-the-bad-the-wtf/