I am a woman who came of age in the 1950s, long before abortion was legal. It happened, but, if women were lucky, it happened behind closed doors in doctor's offices; if they weren't lucky it happened under circumstances that were iffy at best and more likely dangerous.
There were thousands of adoption facilities across the country, mostly run by the Catholic Church, and many of those kids were fostered out to anybody who wanted them, often as workhorses rather than members of a real family. Their lives weren't always made easier by being born to women who couldn't keep them.
Women have been fighting the unfairness behind being the only member of a species who can give birth but still having no rights over their own bodies for centuries. Here in this country we women gave it our all for years, fighting for rights we didn't always feel we were entitled to, until finally Roe v Wade became law. It was never the miracle we were hoping for. It never really gave legitimacy to our decisions about abortion. Our fight has never been over.
And here we are again, still fighting to keep our privacy, our rights, our need to make wrenching decisions without fear of judgement, let alone interference. We've been telling you how it was, how we feel, and why this should never happen again--and we have years of experience fighting this battle.
We're tired, we're demoralized, we're sickened by the lack of progress. Think of it. I'm soon to be 84 years old. That means for upwards of 60 years I've been in the midst of this battle, cheering us on, wiping our tears, watching as it all falls apart. Again and again. And I'm one of millions of women who have been there and done that.
I've written about it more times than I can count, and I'm not the only one. We were there. We know how it was and why we can never go back. I wrote about it again yesterday on my Substack page, Constant Commoner. It was a repeat of a piece I wrote in 2018, when things were heating up again, and when I went to write something about the Texas decision yesterday I realized everything I'd said in 2018 (and in 2011, 2012, 2013, etc.) still fit on September 1, 2021.
It breaks my heart that this is so. After so many years of battling against those outside forces, we're losing. Women are losing. So at least talk to women. I'm sorry, but men can't possibly understand the depths of it, or even begin to explain it. Give the soapboxes over to women who saw it, lived it, and are still out there fighting what looks to be a lost cause. All those major voices calling for us to rise up and fight for our bodies, ourselves--they're still out there. Seek them out and give them a chance to speak. It's the least this country can do.
My mother is in her 70s. She told me that women who had money would pay a doctor cash for a "women's procedure" and that was the end of the pregnancy. Women without suffered just as you described.
That's exactly right. Rich women had no problem getting abortions. Their doctors called it a 'D&C'--Dilatation and Curettage--which was a real thing but not nearly as common as the times would suggest. It happened with other women whose doctors were so enlightened, but the majority of women who needed abortions were forced to find their own sources through backwater chains that often led to disaster.
I know we focus here about the media and certainly it failed miserably regarding the abortion law in Texas. But it also needs to be said that this decision by the Supreme Court to not even comment regarding the Texas law has its roots in the last five years of failed politics, largely aided and abetted by the mainstream media that favors access over content. A special shout out and thank you to Jill Stein, the Bernie Bros, Susan Sarandon and all the voters who couldn't get themselves to vote for Hilary Clinton in 2016 because of her fucking emails or perhaps it was her pantsuits. You voters are ultimately the reason whey this Texas bill passed. What the Republicans do so well is they stick together to a fault. Meanwhile the infighting and petty disagreements within the Democratic Party allowed Donald Trump to take advantage of an archaic electoral collage system designed to protect slave owning states. The result of which gave us three conservative picks to the SCOTUS, two of them clearly unqualified. Well some might say, it only happened in Texas. Sure but now other states see how lame and unwilling SCOTUS is to defend the law of the land. What state will be next to roll back Row vs. Wade or other laws the right wing finds abhorrent? The Texas abortion bill deserved a lot more print than the successful evacuation of 120k for from Afghanistan. So does the continuing coup to erode our democracy forever and how about our damaged climate that scientists now say that we are at the precipice of being too late? These are all big stories but as long as the media plays cheerleaders for the Republicans, most Americans unfortunately will remain in the dark and find out too late to do anything about them.
Jennifer Rubin has an article today defending the State Department with facts, of all things. She pulls no punches in her criticism of her colleagues in the media. She also dared to put the blame on the military and intelligence people for group think and delusional thinking. Most of the media is so in awe of the military that they won’t utter a peep of criticism about them.
Rubin is one of the few who isn’t bashing Biden and his administration. The WaPo Plum line’s writers have also sometimes gone after the media coverage. For example Paul Waldman blamed the distortion of the coverage of Afghanistan on the fact that many in the media turned to the same “experts” who got is into the mess in Afghanistan in the first place for commentary.
Margaret Sullivan also writes some great articles. Today she posted this article about the bipartisan support for Congress’s Local Journalism Sustainability Act.
Fundamentalists of every stripe are oppressive, patriarchal, self righteous, cruel, whether in Afghanistan or Texas. I’m absolutely enraged and disgusted by the constant diminishment of women by ignorant men who have no idea what they are talking about, SCOTUS included. We count on the press to elucidate, analyze, explain. Failure on all counts. How about a 1619 project for us?
They are worse than patriarchal, most are misogynists. This recent Guardian article points out that “… the perpetrators of some of the worst terrorist attacks had something in common. A high proportion shared a history of assaulting wives, girlfriends and other female relatives, sometimes involving a whole series of victims, long before they attacked total strangers.”
The author went on to research and write a book about the strong link between terrorists and abuse of women and recommends it be included as a risk factor for it.
I agree about the need for a 1619 project for women. I recently had a conversation with my son about how heartbreaking it is that black families need to have “the talk” with their sons and how terrible it is to have to live with that kind of fear. Then I pointed out that in a few years he would also need to have a similar talk with his daughter about how to protect herself from sexual harassment and assault. I told him what it is like for a woman to live with the constant awareness that she could be a victim at work, walking to her car at night, at home, on a date, etc.
It is long past time we realize the threat that black men face from law enforcement in our society but I can’t understand why there isn’t as much attention to the constant threat that over half of our population also lives with.
Just like anything else in the world anything about women is spoken on secret by other women. I'm in my 70's and remember a woman in my neighborhood who ran out of her house with know clothes on, she was admitted to psych ward. Her problem change of life that was never talked about either, the reason I know is because my grandmother always spoke the truth to me being the only granddaughter. There are lots of subjects that kept women in the dark and yes it's about control by men. Yes we must keep fighting and talking to our daughters for their safety.
If they spoke about those things at all. Most were too ashamed to bring those topics up even with close friends, let alone male doctors. My grandmother and her sister were born in the early 1880s and I knew both of them well. (They were quite the characters and I was lucky to know them.) They never talked about any of these things and, from what my mother said, didn’t know much anyway and what they did know was usually wrong. My mom was born in 1910 and was older than many of my friends’ mothers but she was much more willing to talk about these things because she had been so ignorant growing up. She would talk to her friends about things like hot flashes and foggy brain. They were usually surprised and relieved to hear that other women went through the same things.
When I was growing up in the 50s many doctors blamed autism on mothers, accusing them of being cold and failing to bond with their child. This happened even when the woman had other kids who were thriving.
My best friend’s mother was born in the early 1920s but she was kept even more in the dark than my mother. I will never forget when she told us that she had had no idea how babies were made. She only found out shortly before her wedding when her father-in-law-to-be took her aside and told her what was going to happen on her wedding night! He was a physician and somehow had realized that she was clueless -luckily. That still boggles my mind.
When my mom was in her 60s one of her friends admitted to her that sex had always been really painful. The woman had had 5 kids but had never told anyone, not even her doctor, until my mom talked her into it. The same person later died from breast cancer. Her tumor had grown too big before she noticed it because she was uncomfortable about doing a self exam. After all touching yourself might be a sin! This woman was well educated and her husband was a hospital administrator. That kind of silence caused a lot of suffering and even death.
I’m 73 and feel as if our generation of women straddle Donna Reed days of twin beds and perfect white everything, and Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, MS Magazine and Gloria Steinem and Roe vs Wade miraculously making abortions legal. Thank you for putting the focus on our daughters, granddaughters. Pre Roe as you so well know was anti women, pro patriarchy; shut up and sit down; know your place, smile more. Today’s women won’t put up with that kind of crap nor keep hidden all that comes so naturally to women, please God🙏.
I apologize to everyone here for yelling "Kill Whitey" over this abomination in Texas.
As a non-American who was frequent consumer of cable news from the U.S., it's interesting to see how the mainstream news media establishment is just as guilty or even worse than Fox "News" for not doing its job properly and resorting to dishonest reporting in order to get clicks and revenue. The recent attacks against President Biden over how he handled the evacuation of American troops and personnel reminded me of how the media here in my country (Philippines) treated the late president Benigno "Nonoy" Aquino the 3rd. He was trying to help rebuild the Philippine economy and public trust in the government. However, like the American media establishment, the media treated him very harshly for things he wasn't directly involved in (e.g. the Luneta hostage incident in 2011), things which he was somewhat involved in (the gunfight between Special Action Forces and Islamic insurgents in Mamasapano), and things which he wasn't in his purview (traffic, Metro Rail Transit). Despite the relentless and often undeserved criticism, he managed to leave the country with a robust economy and a massive government surplus. However, like the American media treated Donald Trump, the media here in the Philippines treated Aquino's successor Rodrigo Duterte like a celebrity despite his vulgar rhetoric & murderous background as Davao City Mayor. Now, the Philippines is once again the "Sick Man of Asia" due to the government's disastrous Covid-19 response and failing economy. Add to that, the recent exposés on massive corruption committed by officials close to Duterte during the pandemic. Recently started reading this blog because I didn't like the over-the-top negative coverage the Biden was getting from cable news outlets like CNN. Reading about how veteran war correspondents like NBC's Richard Engel engaging in dishonest reporting made me feel like giving him a punch in the face for that (not "fake news", just dishonest reporting). It bothers me that people that would be considered "respectable" journalists like Jake Tapper are engaging in shtick that they usually criticize Fox News, NewsMax and O.A.N. for doing. The Afghan evacuation wasn't going to be as clean & orderly as those idiots thought it should be. They shouldn't have editorialized it or invited Republicans to trash it since the G.O.P. started this whole mess to begin with. What is wrong with straight and factual reporting on an unfolding event that's going to be as chaotic and disorganized as expected? Why are they focused on the bottomline that they forgot to do their jobs? Why are they so afraid to the conservative media ecosystem that constantly attacks them? It would be better if they just cancel out the noise and focus on the story that's happening.
Your welcome. As someone who lives in a country where the Catholic Church is a huge influence in Filipino life, the subject of abortion is a huge taboo that it's not discussed in public, and just like the mostly rich and white Republicans who are against it in public, but are okay with it in private, it's also true for the mostly rich Filipinos here. While abortion couldn't become law here in the Philippines, the previous administration of the late former President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino the 3rd had to deal with Church resistance to the passage of the Reproductive Health Law because of the inclusion of artifical methods of birth control which didn't sit well with Church hierarchy. It's a very loose parallel to how Republicans were against Obama's Affordable Health Care Act. As someone who was raised in a mixed religious household (Catholic mom & Evangelical Protestant dad), I share similar sentiments with President Biden that while he's personally against abortion, he does not want to impose his religious beliefs on the women who need it. While I disagree with the Church on their opposition to the Reproductive Health Bill, they're right about criticizing Duterte's bloody war against illegal drugs because of the many extrajudical killings being committed in the maniac's name.
The mainstream media is terrified of criticizing people’s religious beliefs even when those people are trying to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. As a result a lot of people I know aren’t even aware that our Supreme Court is dominated, not just by right wingers, but by right wing Catholics. I was brought up Catholic so I understand why Catholics believe abortion is murder. As you know the Church teaches that God “infuses” a soul into each ovum at the moment of conception making it a full human person from that moment on. Therefore preventing the growth of that ovum is murder. That assertion is a blatantly religious belief, not a fact.
There are many devout Catholics — like my parents — who accept the Church’s teachings on abortion and believe it is a mortal sin but also understand that our laws shouldn’t be based on their belief. Surely our highly educated SC Justices understand that principle too and have no problem violating the separation of Church and State to impose their own religious beliefs.
Unfortunately the press is so afraid of writing objectively about these kinds of religious issues for fear of offending conservative “Christians” that they have avoided covering these facts.
I’m remembering the horror Dianne Feinstein’s comment to Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing for the circuit court (?); ‘The dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s a concern.” Indeed.
I don't understand why right-wing Catholics & Evangelical Protestants/Christians in the United States feel entitled to impose their beliefs on the rest of the country. Obviously, they're afraid of losing the power that they've held to for years. Also, are they so fearful & judgmental of those who live outside their narrow-minded views of race, gender & sexuality that they seek to oppress them because they're going to destroy their "perfect" vision of America? Seriously, why can't they let those people live their honest lives?
Imo they’re driven by emotion, fear for sure, not reason. Expecting reasonableness is a fool’s errand, speaking from my own experience. I also think many of their life experiences are spent in closed, narrow circles with no diversity.
And last night the SCOTUS voted 5-4 to let the law stand. Gee, no one could have known how Amy Coney would vote on abortion. Hope Collins & Murkowski are happy with how they played their voters.
Also, liberals need to stop thanking Roberts for "siding with the liberal justices". When he knows there are 5 against he plays politics to make it look like he's reasonable.
Oh, and when do we investigate why Kennedy retired, and who cleared up all of "I like beer's" debt?
It seems the msm cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. I’d love to see reporters digging into the ‘righteous’ anti abortion folks and their $$ behind this abomination of a law, and, as Eric emphasizes, where are the stories about women who have had abortions? Ask any pro choice woman of my era, pre Rowe, about conditions in those days; eg 2 of my 19 year old college roommates, desperate and alone, shamed, snuck into Philadelphia for a dangerous, illegal procedure performed by some quack referred to them by other 19 year old women in the same awful situation. One tried to end her pregnancy with a knitting needle, not unheard of in those days. Shame on the msm for ignoring this huge story only to spend hours and hours ranting and raving over the ‘debacle’ of the Afghan evacuation. Thanks, Eric, for highlighting this dereliction of duty among the msm. Another enraging failure by the press.
I wish they would dig into how many of those self-proclaimed right wing “Christians” in Congress have paid for their wives or mistresses to have abortions. You can bet Trump has done that. I remember fondly when Larry Flynt offered a reward for people who came forward with proof of the hypocrisy of Republicans who were trying to destroy Clinton over Monica. The ex-wife of Georgia’s “family values” Congressman Bob Barr gave Flynt proof that Barr had paid for her to have an abortion. He was gone in a flash. That still gives me goosebumps.
Hypocrisy is the coin of the realm over in Wingnuttia, but getting teary-eyed over "the babies" is especially brazen coming from the same nitwits who screech about masking school kids and cheer when their elected reps vote to reduce food stamp (SNAP) benefits. And remember - over there - "choice" is reserved for anti-vaxxers.
Theirs is a very long con. Orrin Hatch coaxing nominees to affirm 'settled law' and all. Performative piffle used to be the worst trick in their book. Seems like 'an informed electorate' never really was a thing. The press killed its chances long ago. Great read, Eric.
How long will it take other red states to pass similar laws? Not long (Florida already looks to jump to the front of the line.) We are moving rapidly into the setting of a dystopian novel. Not just regarding abortions. Anything is fair game as Republicans work feverishly to turn the country into a hellscape of holier-than-though fascist vigilantes policing our lives. And now legally packing concealed guns, no permits needed.
The media, pinballing between breaking news stories, by and large doesn't appear equipped to deal with heretofore inconceivable challenges to the nation's future. And lots of them.
Proverbial race to the bottom. So predictable. The big question is what other things will they seek to ban and delegate ennforcement to private citizens, aka vigilantes, thus shielding government officials from lawsuits. It's a clever albeit despicable ploy.
It wasn't until Rachel Maddow broke the story on her show that it became national news. What I do know is that here in Texas, our state legislature is made up of many, many rural and isolated white males who have an evangelical bent toward the biblical submission of women. These men epitomize the Republican party in all of its dystopian ways through legislation. They now have an Open Carry gun law which allows anyone to openly carry a gun without a permit. We are hoping to remove our current governor-- who is a Trumper by the way--in the next election. Our state is moving toward being more purple. We welcome anyone who is blue to move here.
The fundamentalists have blamed women since Eve at the apple, but they never blame the snake.
Our Failed Political Press ™ is in mostly male newsrooms, with (mostly) male editors making decisions. A “woman’s issue” is never going to be above the fold as long as this is the case.
When the newsrooms start looking like America with equal representation of women minorities, maybe this perception of “less important” stories will finally change?
Side note: in high school I drove a classmate I had known since kindergarten to Planned Parenthood; her boyfriend headed for the hills. Under this new Texas law, I would be targeted for driving her there and the boyfriend would remain unfettered. This Texas law is utterly perverse.
Fundamentalists never blame Adam and his “the woman made me do it” excuse, either. Those always religions put the blame for men’s promiscuity on those eve i’ll women who seduced them. The unspoken message is they fear that men don’t have the strength to avoid temptation which is a pathetic view of their own sex.
What TRULY scares me is how the 5 radical Xtians on the court have given the green light to neighbors snooping on each other...JUST LIKE THEY DID IN EAST GERMANY!
Setting up websites for the purpose of getting the vigilante bubbas a way to claim their ten grand for squealing on their neighbors? And giving them a free pass to carry guns? Without any permit, training, background checks...concealed? (felons & wifebeaters exepted, thank God)? Where are the Earp brothers when you need 'em? At least they banned guns in town. (and got shot at for it...)
The media's lightweight coverage of the Texas ban is a mystery (maybe) but with answers.
The given, yet again, is that he mainstream media are primarily establishment propaganda outlets, which is to say conservative and GOP-promoting. That's a start but the big problem is that there's let's say a black hole, a huge gravitational pull. Anything like honest, competent reporting requires acknowledging that what SCOTUS did was to say the control of precedent is no longer all that applicable. Their 5-4 vote (like the breadth of voting restrictions) says precedent is bullshit and that they'll happily base a decision on party-serving whim and nothing more; no law-based decisions needed. (This has of course been an ongoing issue with the Roberts court as well as an ongoing failure of the media.) But acknowledging how the GOP majority on SCOTUS rolls is beyond anything the mainstream would or could do, a bridge too far for them. Indeed, any reporting that doesn't start by noting the lawlessness of the decision -- *that* precedent -- is failing.
Another factor is that honest reporting on this implicitly defends the right to abortion which would upset conservatives, maybe even some Republican pols who don't engage in media bashing as part of their shticks, so another reason not to report accurately and honestly.
Not going to say the mainstream always fails but when they don't, it's the rare exception that proves the rule. And TBH, their failure is so frequent that their essentially toxic and should be ignored other than as a study, as it were, in the nation's collapse (again, the failure of a true national Covid response is just the latest big example).
The media is like a bee hive,made of mostly worker bees blindly producing honey($$$$$) for their Queen bee who only answers to the owners of the hive.The last 5 years have produced a lot of “honey” for these owners without any danger of being “stung”.
Anything Plant and Krauss do is fantastic but the original-
I am a woman who came of age in the 1950s, long before abortion was legal. It happened, but, if women were lucky, it happened behind closed doors in doctor's offices; if they weren't lucky it happened under circumstances that were iffy at best and more likely dangerous.
There were thousands of adoption facilities across the country, mostly run by the Catholic Church, and many of those kids were fostered out to anybody who wanted them, often as workhorses rather than members of a real family. Their lives weren't always made easier by being born to women who couldn't keep them.
Women have been fighting the unfairness behind being the only member of a species who can give birth but still having no rights over their own bodies for centuries. Here in this country we women gave it our all for years, fighting for rights we didn't always feel we were entitled to, until finally Roe v Wade became law. It was never the miracle we were hoping for. It never really gave legitimacy to our decisions about abortion. Our fight has never been over.
And here we are again, still fighting to keep our privacy, our rights, our need to make wrenching decisions without fear of judgement, let alone interference. We've been telling you how it was, how we feel, and why this should never happen again--and we have years of experience fighting this battle.
We're tired, we're demoralized, we're sickened by the lack of progress. Think of it. I'm soon to be 84 years old. That means for upwards of 60 years I've been in the midst of this battle, cheering us on, wiping our tears, watching as it all falls apart. Again and again. And I'm one of millions of women who have been there and done that.
I've written about it more times than I can count, and I'm not the only one. We were there. We know how it was and why we can never go back. I wrote about it again yesterday on my Substack page, Constant Commoner. It was a repeat of a piece I wrote in 2018, when things were heating up again, and when I went to write something about the Texas decision yesterday I realized everything I'd said in 2018 (and in 2011, 2012, 2013, etc.) still fit on September 1, 2021.
It breaks my heart that this is so. After so many years of battling against those outside forces, we're losing. Women are losing. So at least talk to women. I'm sorry, but men can't possibly understand the depths of it, or even begin to explain it. Give the soapboxes over to women who saw it, lived it, and are still out there fighting what looks to be a lost cause. All those major voices calling for us to rise up and fight for our bodies, ourselves--they're still out there. Seek them out and give them a chance to speak. It's the least this country can do.
thanks so much for sharing all that
Thanks for giving me the space to do it.
My mother is in her 70s. She told me that women who had money would pay a doctor cash for a "women's procedure" and that was the end of the pregnancy. Women without suffered just as you described.
That's exactly right. Rich women had no problem getting abortions. Their doctors called it a 'D&C'--Dilatation and Curettage--which was a real thing but not nearly as common as the times would suggest. It happened with other women whose doctors were so enlightened, but the majority of women who needed abortions were forced to find their own sources through backwater chains that often led to disaster.
‘Twas ever thus ....
You are so right. It all comes down to kindness and humanity.
Terrific indeed. Thanks Ramona
Terrific piece. Thanks Ramona.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.
I know we focus here about the media and certainly it failed miserably regarding the abortion law in Texas. But it also needs to be said that this decision by the Supreme Court to not even comment regarding the Texas law has its roots in the last five years of failed politics, largely aided and abetted by the mainstream media that favors access over content. A special shout out and thank you to Jill Stein, the Bernie Bros, Susan Sarandon and all the voters who couldn't get themselves to vote for Hilary Clinton in 2016 because of her fucking emails or perhaps it was her pantsuits. You voters are ultimately the reason whey this Texas bill passed. What the Republicans do so well is they stick together to a fault. Meanwhile the infighting and petty disagreements within the Democratic Party allowed Donald Trump to take advantage of an archaic electoral collage system designed to protect slave owning states. The result of which gave us three conservative picks to the SCOTUS, two of them clearly unqualified. Well some might say, it only happened in Texas. Sure but now other states see how lame and unwilling SCOTUS is to defend the law of the land. What state will be next to roll back Row vs. Wade or other laws the right wing finds abhorrent? The Texas abortion bill deserved a lot more print than the successful evacuation of 120k for from Afghanistan. So does the continuing coup to erode our democracy forever and how about our damaged climate that scientists now say that we are at the precipice of being too late? These are all big stories but as long as the media plays cheerleaders for the Republicans, most Americans unfortunately will remain in the dark and find out too late to do anything about them.
What Lou Said!!!!!
Wow-thanks Lou. Well said.
^^^ What Lou Said! ^^^
Amen!!! Well said. Thank you!
Amen!!
Oops, I really do know how to spell college and that Hillary has two "l"s :)
Media was crowing about the fate of women and girls under the Taliban, yet silent on the the treatment of women and girls in TX and the US in general.
yep bc they wanted to bash Biden
Jennifer Rubin has an article today defending the State Department with facts, of all things. She pulls no punches in her criticism of her colleagues in the media. She also dared to put the blame on the military and intelligence people for group think and delusional thinking. Most of the media is so in awe of the military that they won’t utter a peep of criticism about them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/02/it-wasnt-state-department/?itid=ap_jenniferrubin
Here’s another from David Rothfopf: https://www.thedailybeast.com/everything-biden-said-wouldnt-happen-in-afghanistan-is-happening
This is the worst article I have read in awhile and considering the NYT's hasn't been razed to the ground yet that is saying something.
Rubin is one of the few who isn’t bashing Biden and his administration. The WaPo Plum line’s writers have also sometimes gone after the media coverage. For example Paul Waldman blamed the distortion of the coverage of Afghanistan on the fact that many in the media turned to the same “experts” who got is into the mess in Afghanistan in the first place for commentary.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/20/why-debate-afghanistan-is-so-distorted/
Yes, I’m a fan of both too. Thank goodness for their clear, concise, right on target analysis.
Margaret Sullivan also writes some great articles. Today she posted this article about the bipartisan support for Congress’s Local Journalism Sustainability Act.
https://www.solutionsjournalism.org/
I am almost afraid to hope……
Fundamentalists of every stripe are oppressive, patriarchal, self righteous, cruel, whether in Afghanistan or Texas. I’m absolutely enraged and disgusted by the constant diminishment of women by ignorant men who have no idea what they are talking about, SCOTUS included. We count on the press to elucidate, analyze, explain. Failure on all counts. How about a 1619 project for us?
They are worse than patriarchal, most are misogynists. This recent Guardian article points out that “… the perpetrators of some of the worst terrorist attacks had something in common. A high proportion shared a history of assaulting wives, girlfriends and other female relatives, sometimes involving a whole series of victims, long before they attacked total strangers.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/05/many-terrorists-abuse-women-research-extremist-attackers-violent-misogyny
The author went on to research and write a book about the strong link between terrorists and abuse of women and recommends it be included as a risk factor for it.
I agree about the need for a 1619 project for women. I recently had a conversation with my son about how heartbreaking it is that black families need to have “the talk” with their sons and how terrible it is to have to live with that kind of fear. Then I pointed out that in a few years he would also need to have a similar talk with his daughter about how to protect herself from sexual harassment and assault. I told him what it is like for a woman to live with the constant awareness that she could be a victim at work, walking to her car at night, at home, on a date, etc.
It is long past time we realize the threat that black men face from law enforcement in our society but I can’t understand why there isn’t as much attention to the constant threat that over half of our population also lives with.
The January 6 insurrectionists share histories of domestic violence, misogyny in common too. Of course. Our homegrown version.
Just like anything else in the world anything about women is spoken on secret by other women. I'm in my 70's and remember a woman in my neighborhood who ran out of her house with know clothes on, she was admitted to psych ward. Her problem change of life that was never talked about either, the reason I know is because my grandmother always spoke the truth to me being the only granddaughter. There are lots of subjects that kept women in the dark and yes it's about control by men. Yes we must keep fighting and talking to our daughters for their safety.
If they spoke about those things at all. Most were too ashamed to bring those topics up even with close friends, let alone male doctors. My grandmother and her sister were born in the early 1880s and I knew both of them well. (They were quite the characters and I was lucky to know them.) They never talked about any of these things and, from what my mother said, didn’t know much anyway and what they did know was usually wrong. My mom was born in 1910 and was older than many of my friends’ mothers but she was much more willing to talk about these things because she had been so ignorant growing up. She would talk to her friends about things like hot flashes and foggy brain. They were usually surprised and relieved to hear that other women went through the same things.
When I was growing up in the 50s many doctors blamed autism on mothers, accusing them of being cold and failing to bond with their child. This happened even when the woman had other kids who were thriving.
My best friend’s mother was born in the early 1920s but she was kept even more in the dark than my mother. I will never forget when she told us that she had had no idea how babies were made. She only found out shortly before her wedding when her father-in-law-to-be took her aside and told her what was going to happen on her wedding night! He was a physician and somehow had realized that she was clueless -luckily. That still boggles my mind.
When my mom was in her 60s one of her friends admitted to her that sex had always been really painful. The woman had had 5 kids but had never told anyone, not even her doctor, until my mom talked her into it. The same person later died from breast cancer. Her tumor had grown too big before she noticed it because she was uncomfortable about doing a self exam. After all touching yourself might be a sin! This woman was well educated and her husband was a hospital administrator. That kind of silence caused a lot of suffering and even death.
I’m 73 and feel as if our generation of women straddle Donna Reed days of twin beds and perfect white everything, and Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, MS Magazine and Gloria Steinem and Roe vs Wade miraculously making abortions legal. Thank you for putting the focus on our daughters, granddaughters. Pre Roe as you so well know was anti women, pro patriarchy; shut up and sit down; know your place, smile more. Today’s women won’t put up with that kind of crap nor keep hidden all that comes so naturally to women, please God🙏.
The problem started when women went out to work to help support their families, men lost control then.
Plus the pill.
I apologize to everyone here for yelling "Kill Whitey" over this abomination in Texas.
As a non-American who was frequent consumer of cable news from the U.S., it's interesting to see how the mainstream news media establishment is just as guilty or even worse than Fox "News" for not doing its job properly and resorting to dishonest reporting in order to get clicks and revenue. The recent attacks against President Biden over how he handled the evacuation of American troops and personnel reminded me of how the media here in my country (Philippines) treated the late president Benigno "Nonoy" Aquino the 3rd. He was trying to help rebuild the Philippine economy and public trust in the government. However, like the American media establishment, the media treated him very harshly for things he wasn't directly involved in (e.g. the Luneta hostage incident in 2011), things which he was somewhat involved in (the gunfight between Special Action Forces and Islamic insurgents in Mamasapano), and things which he wasn't in his purview (traffic, Metro Rail Transit). Despite the relentless and often undeserved criticism, he managed to leave the country with a robust economy and a massive government surplus. However, like the American media treated Donald Trump, the media here in the Philippines treated Aquino's successor Rodrigo Duterte like a celebrity despite his vulgar rhetoric & murderous background as Davao City Mayor. Now, the Philippines is once again the "Sick Man of Asia" due to the government's disastrous Covid-19 response and failing economy. Add to that, the recent exposés on massive corruption committed by officials close to Duterte during the pandemic. Recently started reading this blog because I didn't like the over-the-top negative coverage the Biden was getting from cable news outlets like CNN. Reading about how veteran war correspondents like NBC's Richard Engel engaging in dishonest reporting made me feel like giving him a punch in the face for that (not "fake news", just dishonest reporting). It bothers me that people that would be considered "respectable" journalists like Jake Tapper are engaging in shtick that they usually criticize Fox News, NewsMax and O.A.N. for doing. The Afghan evacuation wasn't going to be as clean & orderly as those idiots thought it should be. They shouldn't have editorialized it or invited Republicans to trash it since the G.O.P. started this whole mess to begin with. What is wrong with straight and factual reporting on an unfolding event that's going to be as chaotic and disorganized as expected? Why are they focused on the bottomline that they forgot to do their jobs? Why are they so afraid to the conservative media ecosystem that constantly attacks them? It would be better if they just cancel out the noise and focus on the story that's happening.
Interesting foreign perspective ! thanks for sharing
Your welcome. As someone who lives in a country where the Catholic Church is a huge influence in Filipino life, the subject of abortion is a huge taboo that it's not discussed in public, and just like the mostly rich and white Republicans who are against it in public, but are okay with it in private, it's also true for the mostly rich Filipinos here. While abortion couldn't become law here in the Philippines, the previous administration of the late former President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino the 3rd had to deal with Church resistance to the passage of the Reproductive Health Law because of the inclusion of artifical methods of birth control which didn't sit well with Church hierarchy. It's a very loose parallel to how Republicans were against Obama's Affordable Health Care Act. As someone who was raised in a mixed religious household (Catholic mom & Evangelical Protestant dad), I share similar sentiments with President Biden that while he's personally against abortion, he does not want to impose his religious beliefs on the women who need it. While I disagree with the Church on their opposition to the Reproductive Health Bill, they're right about criticizing Duterte's bloody war against illegal drugs because of the many extrajudical killings being committed in the maniac's name.
The mainstream media is terrified of criticizing people’s religious beliefs even when those people are trying to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. As a result a lot of people I know aren’t even aware that our Supreme Court is dominated, not just by right wingers, but by right wing Catholics. I was brought up Catholic so I understand why Catholics believe abortion is murder. As you know the Church teaches that God “infuses” a soul into each ovum at the moment of conception making it a full human person from that moment on. Therefore preventing the growth of that ovum is murder. That assertion is a blatantly religious belief, not a fact.
There are many devout Catholics — like my parents — who accept the Church’s teachings on abortion and believe it is a mortal sin but also understand that our laws shouldn’t be based on their belief. Surely our highly educated SC Justices understand that principle too and have no problem violating the separation of Church and State to impose their own religious beliefs.
Unfortunately the press is so afraid of writing objectively about these kinds of religious issues for fear of offending conservative “Christians” that they have avoided covering these facts.
I’m remembering the horror Dianne Feinstein’s comment to Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing for the circuit court (?); ‘The dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s a concern.” Indeed.
I don't understand why right-wing Catholics & Evangelical Protestants/Christians in the United States feel entitled to impose their beliefs on the rest of the country. Obviously, they're afraid of losing the power that they've held to for years. Also, are they so fearful & judgmental of those who live outside their narrow-minded views of race, gender & sexuality that they seek to oppress them because they're going to destroy their "perfect" vision of America? Seriously, why can't they let those people live their honest lives?
Imo they’re driven by emotion, fear for sure, not reason. Expecting reasonableness is a fool’s errand, speaking from my own experience. I also think many of their life experiences are spent in closed, narrow circles with no diversity.
And last night the SCOTUS voted 5-4 to let the law stand. Gee, no one could have known how Amy Coney would vote on abortion. Hope Collins & Murkowski are happy with how they played their voters.
Also, liberals need to stop thanking Roberts for "siding with the liberal justices". When he knows there are 5 against he plays politics to make it look like he's reasonable.
Oh, and when do we investigate why Kennedy retired, and who cleared up all of "I like beer's" debt?
It's time to expand the court!!!
yes, more disastrous news re: the law last night
Note how silent Collins and Murkowski are...Not a peep from either one...gee I wonder why?
They know we know they knew this would happen.
It seems the msm cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. I’d love to see reporters digging into the ‘righteous’ anti abortion folks and their $$ behind this abomination of a law, and, as Eric emphasizes, where are the stories about women who have had abortions? Ask any pro choice woman of my era, pre Rowe, about conditions in those days; eg 2 of my 19 year old college roommates, desperate and alone, shamed, snuck into Philadelphia for a dangerous, illegal procedure performed by some quack referred to them by other 19 year old women in the same awful situation. One tried to end her pregnancy with a knitting needle, not unheard of in those days. Shame on the msm for ignoring this huge story only to spend hours and hours ranting and raving over the ‘debacle’ of the Afghan evacuation. Thanks, Eric, for highlighting this dereliction of duty among the msm. Another enraging failure by the press.
I wish they would dig into how many of those self-proclaimed right wing “Christians” in Congress have paid for their wives or mistresses to have abortions. You can bet Trump has done that. I remember fondly when Larry Flynt offered a reward for people who came forward with proof of the hypocrisy of Republicans who were trying to destroy Clinton over Monica. The ex-wife of Georgia’s “family values” Congressman Bob Barr gave Flynt proof that Barr had paid for her to have an abortion. He was gone in a flash. That still gives me goosebumps.
Hypocrisy is the coin of the realm over in Wingnuttia, but getting teary-eyed over "the babies" is especially brazen coming from the same nitwits who screech about masking school kids and cheer when their elected reps vote to reduce food stamp (SNAP) benefits. And remember - over there - "choice" is reserved for anti-vaxxers.
"The right to life ends at birth”
As Randi Rhodes often says - the love the fetus but hate the babies.
Barney Frank, “Conservatives believe that from the standpoint of the federal govt, life begins at conception and ends at birth.”
Theirs is a very long con. Orrin Hatch coaxing nominees to affirm 'settled law' and all. Performative piffle used to be the worst trick in their book. Seems like 'an informed electorate' never really was a thing. The press killed its chances long ago. Great read, Eric.
a very long con
How long will it take other red states to pass similar laws? Not long (Florida already looks to jump to the front of the line.) We are moving rapidly into the setting of a dystopian novel. Not just regarding abortions. Anything is fair game as Republicans work feverishly to turn the country into a hellscape of holier-than-though fascist vigilantes policing our lives. And now legally packing concealed guns, no permits needed.
The media, pinballing between breaking news stories, by and large doesn't appear equipped to deal with heretofore inconceivable challenges to the nation's future. And lots of them.
Kristie Noam (sp?) has announced she’s looking into the Texas legislation to see how fits in ND.
Proverbial race to the bottom. So predictable. The big question is what other things will they seek to ban and delegate ennforcement to private citizens, aka vigilantes, thus shielding government officials from lawsuits. It's a clever albeit despicable ploy.
It’s starting to feel like a runaway train. Dems must get rid of filibuster or we’re lost. Manchin is at it again, showboating. Maddening.
Oops. SD.
The bottom line with the DC Press Corpse is that they do not care about Roe because it will not affect them.
bingo
It wasn't until Rachel Maddow broke the story on her show that it became national news. What I do know is that here in Texas, our state legislature is made up of many, many rural and isolated white males who have an evangelical bent toward the biblical submission of women. These men epitomize the Republican party in all of its dystopian ways through legislation. They now have an Open Carry gun law which allows anyone to openly carry a gun without a permit. We are hoping to remove our current governor-- who is a Trumper by the way--in the next election. Our state is moving toward being more purple. We welcome anyone who is blue to move here.
I think it's going to be very hard to get people to move to Texas these days but I understand your sentiment.
Folks have been yelling Purple Texas for years. I'm not so sure.
The fundamentalists have blamed women since Eve at the apple, but they never blame the snake.
Our Failed Political Press ™ is in mostly male newsrooms, with (mostly) male editors making decisions. A “woman’s issue” is never going to be above the fold as long as this is the case.
When the newsrooms start looking like America with equal representation of women minorities, maybe this perception of “less important” stories will finally change?
Side note: in high school I drove a classmate I had known since kindergarten to Planned Parenthood; her boyfriend headed for the hills. Under this new Texas law, I would be targeted for driving her there and the boyfriend would remain unfettered. This Texas law is utterly perverse.
Fundamentalists never blame Adam and his “the woman made me do it” excuse, either. Those always religions put the blame for men’s promiscuity on those eve i’ll women who seduced them. The unspoken message is they fear that men don’t have the strength to avoid temptation which is a pathetic view of their own sex.
What TRULY scares me is how the 5 radical Xtians on the court have given the green light to neighbors snooping on each other...JUST LIKE THEY DID IN EAST GERMANY!
bonkers. and again press has completely whitewashed that part
Coney Barret makes it 6.
Setting up websites for the purpose of getting the vigilante bubbas a way to claim their ten grand for squealing on their neighbors? And giving them a free pass to carry guns? Without any permit, training, background checks...concealed? (felons & wifebeaters exepted, thank God)? Where are the Earp brothers when you need 'em? At least they banned guns in town. (and got shot at for it...)
Exactly. It’s back to the Wild West.
What could possibly go wrong?
The media's lightweight coverage of the Texas ban is a mystery (maybe) but with answers.
The given, yet again, is that he mainstream media are primarily establishment propaganda outlets, which is to say conservative and GOP-promoting. That's a start but the big problem is that there's let's say a black hole, a huge gravitational pull. Anything like honest, competent reporting requires acknowledging that what SCOTUS did was to say the control of precedent is no longer all that applicable. Their 5-4 vote (like the breadth of voting restrictions) says precedent is bullshit and that they'll happily base a decision on party-serving whim and nothing more; no law-based decisions needed. (This has of course been an ongoing issue with the Roberts court as well as an ongoing failure of the media.) But acknowledging how the GOP majority on SCOTUS rolls is beyond anything the mainstream would or could do, a bridge too far for them. Indeed, any reporting that doesn't start by noting the lawlessness of the decision -- *that* precedent -- is failing.
Another factor is that honest reporting on this implicitly defends the right to abortion which would upset conservatives, maybe even some Republican pols who don't engage in media bashing as part of their shticks, so another reason not to report accurately and honestly.
Not going to say the mainstream always fails but when they don't, it's the rare exception that proves the rule. And TBH, their failure is so frequent that their essentially toxic and should be ignored other than as a study, as it were, in the nation's collapse (again, the failure of a true national Covid response is just the latest big example).
The media is like a bee hive,made of mostly worker bees blindly producing honey($$$$$) for their Queen bee who only answers to the owners of the hive.The last 5 years have produced a lot of “honey” for these owners without any danger of being “stung”.
Anything Plant and Krauss do is fantastic but the original-
https://youtu.be/6N9xFcxS6EM
Oh...... that is a great take on Lucinda's great song. Much better than reading Politico these days.