Ya' know...."abortion" is a moot point. What the hell difference

[Thtwudbeme]

does it make at the point where so-called middle class people can't even afford to go to the damned doctor?

We can't afford heat, food, rent and a visit to a doctor that we have never met until we are sitting there in that damned robe....hoping that the Dr. that has come through the pathetic excuses for medical school even listens to us.

Jesus---this country just flat out sucks at this point.

[TaleWgnDg]

1. As a kid's legal advocate, I'll tell my next pregnant teenager client who

was raped by her father, brother, or whomever . . . your sentiments. No problem.

[Thtwudbeme]

2. Oh spare me. I was a paramedic

AND a violent crime survivor.

We are screwed, and you of all people should know it.

[Caoimhe]

6. KUDOS to you, I could never do that n/t

[leftchick]

3. excellent points

I was just reading in our local progressive weekly paper about the plight of the homeless in our area. Very depressing. And to know that the homeless rate has increased dramatically over the last few years. along with attacks on the homeless. God forgive ameriKa. :(

[Thtwudbeme]

5. I read that too.....I sent Michael to the closest liquor store

and threw the newspaper out.

I feel totally helpless at this point.

Meltdown....Alito and the news put me in meltdown---

[leftchick]

7. I have been in meltdown this whole week as well

I am now into the wine. I was thinking this morning I may have to take anti-depressants to get through the last half/third of my life. If I can afford them. :cry:

[catmandu57]

13. Let me join you guys

I've been feeling total burn all week, just dragging, it's hard to rouse myself into coherence.

[tnlefty]

14. I've had that same sinking, sick feeling as I did the night and early

morning hours of Nov. '00, and for a few days after. It was as if I could visually see the futures of my kids being flushed down a toilet! I was watching the hearings and I would get sweaty palms, shaking hands and the churning in my stomach. I can't believe this country has gone so awry that we would actually have someone who thinks it is okay to strip a child to be searched, rule against a mentally challenged man who was sexually assaulted in his workplace, and who wants to give evil the powers of a king as a SC justice, and not that many people around me seem to even give a shit, much less be outraged.

[Caoimhe]

4. Well

abortion isn't the same as going in to get your sniffles checked out. Most insurance doesn't cover the cost. Last I checked I think it was about $500. NOW, for someone without money, especially younger girls who don't even have transportation, this is huge.

I heard an interesting tidbit on NPR last night. Before ROE and before state laws allowing abortion (Washington, Oregon and California will remain with their state laws even if Roe is overturned) there was a 747 that left Sea-Tac airport every Friday night, full to brimming.. with women and girls needing abortions. That flight would head for Japan, and the same plane, with the same passengers, would fly back in Sunday. OF COURSE there will ALWAYS be opportunities to obtain abortions IF YOU HAVE MONEY.

[Gloria]

9. So, why can't we set up "zones" here in the states....group

states around "safe" states....and get NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and NOW to start dedicating fundraising for transportation costs and dr. fees if needed for women who are in shit states? It took an easy 48 hour Greyound ride for $89 bucks to get from El Paso to Newark, NJ....and that's about 1200 miles. Let's assume most travel will be around 500 miles or less. We could move a lot of people around pretty inexpensively if the organization is set up right. You don't have to give your name or any info to get a bus ticket. You can buy ahead of time, but you still don't have to identify yourself. So nobody will have to know (ie, BIG BROTHER ALITO). And, there is also the option of volunteer
"rescue" rides. We have Chihuahua Rescue, why not rescue for women??

We can do this. There should be NO excuse for any woman to be forced to stay pregnant or become a victim of a botched illegal abortion.

[Caoimhe]

12. We could do this, but there still remains the issue of minors

and transporting minors for such procedures is considered illegal in many states. Even in my progressive state of Oregon, there was a case in 1994 where a girl was taken under the wing of a school counselor and the grandmother of her boyfriend and desperate to have an abortion, she was driven by one of them to get an abortion (there are no parental consent laws in Oregon).

The school was sued by the parents when they found out (they were religious fundies) and it came out that the school counselor had changed the records to show the girl hadn't been out of school that day, so the girl wouldn't get in trouble with her parents. I felt so bad for her and the women who wanted to help her. I think both the school counselor and the Grandmother were charged with conspiracy to transport a minor for a medical procedure and then they got the counselor for forging the school attendance records.

My way of thinking is that if your daughter won't talk to you about something like this, you deserve not knowing!

[Berry Cool]

16. Actually, you DO have to ID yourself to get a bus ticket nowadays.

As a person who actually rides buses sometimes, I can testify to the truth of this.

You are now asked for an ID. Even if you pay cash. It's part of the whole post-9/11 "let's make the passengers THINK we're keeping them safe" procedure.

[TaleWgnDg]

11. Exactly. Which is why the Republican Party of today supports

anti-abortion legislation. Why is this so? Because an anti-abortion stance gets the Republicans of (moneyed) means into elected power by pandering for votes to off-the-wall head-up-the-*ss ignoramuses of ultra-conservative bible-thumpers, all while those Republicans of means can get an abortion anywhere and at any time unlike John Q. Public who must rely upon the upholding of Roe v. Wade.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. Hear hear

:cry: Last time I went to the doctor it was around $250 and this is without health insurance and I only saw the doctor for a few minutes for a check up and then they had to draw some blood for a test on some medicine I'm taking.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I have health insurance, but also a $1000 deductible, AND

once I meet the deductible, I still have to pay 20%. That's what I get for my megabucks per month.

:grr:

[vickitulsa]

15. Speaking as someone who is close to homeless, lives on a small

disability check and in the Medicare/Medicaid/Food Stamps system that keeps all who depend on it frightened of cutbacks and individual disqualification at any point, I still think a lot about the abortion/Roe V Wade issues.

When you depend on the Medicare/Medicaid system for healthcare, you learn in pretty short order that you have little to NO CHOICE about the sort of patient care you receive and who you get it from. It's a scary and frustrating situation -- yet you still feel grateful that you get any healthcare AT ALL.

I've tried to envision what life in the U.S. might be like if Roe V Wade WERE overturned. One thing is immediately apparent: things won't be like they were BEFORE these decades of "Choice." I always remember John Irvin's little ditty from Cider House Rules (the book, not sure if it was in the movie) -- "An orphan or an abortion."

But considering how many doctors and other healthcare professionals, including non-medical staff, currently work in clinics that provide abortions, that's a LOT of people who could still perform abortions if they chose to defy an overturning of Roe V Wade, right? I know it would be dangerous and how many would risk it is impossible to know.

Still I can't help but think of how the federal govt gave in and re-legalized the sale of drinking alcohol after Prohibition proved to be insanely causing more crime and social harm than was prevented. So many people defied the Prohibition against sale and purchase of alcohol it was just crazy to try to keep it illegal. And the black market in alcohol contributed hugely to the establishment and growth of mob crime, not to mention taking so many law enforcement personnel away from "normal" duties to chase down bootleggers and rumrunners.

So my question is, just what WOULD a post-Roe-overturned America look like? Even with Roberts and Alito seated on the Supreme Court, WILL Roe in fact BE overturned? Knowing 70% of Americans (according to the poll results I keep hearing) do NOT want Roe to be overturned, wouldn't the uproar assailing the Court if they were considering a case to overturn Roe be tremendous?

Frankly, even though I am worried about an assault on Roe, I am far more concerned about what this further-right-than-ever Supreme Court will mean in terms of the many OTHER ways they can further hurt America's poor, of which I am officially one....

[Ilsa]

17. I'm very afraid that it will only be "tremendous" at the point in time

when a woman NEEDS an abortion. I'm very afraid there is too much complacency on this now, and it sickens me, even though it is not likely I'll be in need of an abortion.