I knew women who had back street abortions

[placton]

before Roe, Some went to Skippy O'Murphy (perfect name for abortion butcher) in a dirty apartment on 12th street in the truly mean streets if Detroit. Another almost bled to death after she had a "D&C" late at nite in her doctor's office. Others were teens who were scared and had no where else to turn. Please don't give me this BS about how it's really "all ok" and that "this will be fixed later in the process." Obama will do the same about this as about GLBT rights: lip service and no follow up or actively working against it. I got an email from a Dem Congress critter in MI (not Bart the Shitpack), crowing about this great victory. It seems now the only abortions Pelosi and the gang will protect are the bills they pass. And, women? It will get much worse. The HYDE shit was passed by Goopers - this was passed by the party we all sweated blood for. For me? NO MAS!

[Cleita]

1. Me too. One woman I knew, who had been raped, became sterile and

couldn't conceive any more children and another died from bleeding to death brought to the hospital ER too late. Others although they made it through physically, were traumatized by the experience.

[tsuki]

2. I cannot talk to young women about this, They just don't believe.

They think it is all "hype" like the dead fetus in the dumpster. They simply don't want to get involved.

[handmade34]

3. I remember

and am outraged by the amendment! I used "herbal methods" to abort back when it was illegal. I was lucky; others weren't. The right of choice is worth fighting for.

[Hepburn]

4. When I was in college in the mid-1960s...

...I lived in a dorm on campus. I had not been able to rouse the gal who roomed across the hall from me. So, I went to get the RA who had a key to open the dooor and we walked in on her dead body. Blood all over the place. Bled to death from a back street abortion.

[Barack_America]

5. When was Roe v. Wade overturned?

I apparently missed this!

[Statistical]

7. I am confused also?

Because abortion may not be covered by all insurance women will be going to dirty 12th floor apartments to get back street abortions?

Crazy me I thought they would go to some place like Planned Parenthood which offers services for low income Americans.

I mean today <100% of women have abortion covered by healthcare so I guess there are millions of backstreet abortions today?

[kickysnana]

12. Obviously you have bought the hype that anyone can get an abortion any time.

What a snide thing to say. There are very few of these clinics available now and taking time off of work or traveling is out of the question for many women who need the service and as far as I know it is not free. You also get photographed and harassed.

[Barack_America]

13. To be fair, I think that the number of available clinics and...

...federal funding for the procedure are largely separate issues.

The dire lack of availability (which I do not deny) has more to do with local and state laws designed to limit access than it does payment methods.

[csziggy]

20. No, they are not separate issues - at least internationally and maybe here

The "Mexico City Policy" (originally instituted by Reagan, continued under Bush I, rescinded by Clinton, but re-instituted by Bush II, again rescinded by Obama) prohibits federal funds going to any organization that provides abortions or even has abortion as part of their counseling on family planning and reproductive health even if the organization does not use the federal funds for that part of their services.

So if a women's clinic even told a woman that abortion is a last resort choice, they got no federal funds even if they did not offer abortions, give referrals to an abortionist, or do anything active to assist a woman to get an abortion - even when their lives were at risk or the pregnancy was the result of rape. This policy restricted the access of refugee women to health care and reproductive help a tremendous amount and directly caused the death of thousands of women.

I know this was true for international organizations, I am not certain about the policy in the US, but I suspect it may be true - and it is surely a policy that the right wing would like to inflict on all of us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Amendment

If a clinic must turn down federal funds even if those funds are not used for abortion counseling or services, that limits the availability of the clinic to low income women. Add that to the pressures by anti-choice groups and the state laws, and the availability of good quality abortion facilities is much less now than it was in the 1970s.

For high risk, medically necessary abortions in late pregnancy, the availability is now highly threatened. After the Tiller assassination, reports were that there were only two doctors left in the US that have the expertise and are willing to the procedure. Those are not abortions by choice, they are needed to save the life of the woman, but Dr. Tiller was killed because he did them and was unapologetic.

[sandnsea]

24. No, it is largely due to fear

Most smaller locations just aren't willing to put up with the demonstrations. It takes a sizeable population to get a large enough number of liberals to counter the religious nuts.

[sandnsea]

23. And this legislation has nothing to do with that problem

It's not going to change it one way or the other.

[Marlana]

29. I'm going to repost this because some people just don't seem to understand

Here's something I posted in another thread.

I had a friend who was in the Army back in the late 90's and early 2000's, before 9/11. She was engaged to another soldier, got pregnant and when she was about two months along had an accident at work and had a miscarriage. She needed a D&C since her body didn't expel the fetus when it died and the Army considered that an "elective abortion". She had to go off base to have the D&C done and her insurance wouldn't cover it because of the Hyde amendment, so she paid for it out of pocket. This is one reason why I'm pissed about the Stupak amendment, for some women, who can't afford to pay for an abortion out of pocket, their choice could be coming up with the money for one or to carry a dead fetus in your womb until (or if) your body expels it, which can cause so many other problems. Nice choice, there.

Under the Stupak amendment any woman on the public option or who receives a subsidy or buys their insurance on the exchange would have to pay for this exact procedure out of pocket because it is considered elective.

[placton]

8. my friend?

list one thing Obama has said or done about reproductive rights? The Shitpack Anti-abortion Health Insurance Subsidy Bill is just another example of the former Democratic Party selling out.

[Barack_America]

10. Nominate Sotomayor to the SC?

:shrug:

I don't deny that the Stupak Amendment is selling out women's rights, but I do deny your assumption that it will return women to alley abortion clinics.

[noamnety]

19. Actually - in effect it has been.

The cornerstone of Roe vs Wade was the right to privacy.

If access to medical procedures are dependent on the circumstances around which a woman got pregnant (did you consent? did you object? were you passed out drunk? did you say no but mean yes? did you enjoy it? were you sleeping with a stranger or your uncle?) then we have lost the right to privacy.

The standard in Roe vs. Wade is that a woman may abort her pregnancy for any reason up until the "point at which the fetus becomes 'viable."

The government is overstepping their bounds and saying that - as the government - they are endorsing some reasons as acceptable, and other reasons as NOT as acceptable, and they have the right to demand to know all the details around the conception. The point of Roe vs. Wade was that the reasons are private, and a woman has a right to KEEP them private, including WHO she slept with. If she has to file government-required paperwork stating who she slept with to get an abortion and the circumstances around it to get access to health care benefits, that's effectively an overturning of Roe v. Wade.

[sandnsea]

22. No kidding. Women's groups played politics and lost

I wish they would stop now and get some coverage for smart men and women in this legislation.

[DURHAM D]

6. I'm one of those women.

Its 1959 all over again.

Keep supporting Obama's world view if you think the first 75 years of the last century were the high point of American life.

I wonder if he can grow a lovely mutton chop beard?

[Ilsa]

9. K&R for all the young ones who can't fathom what it was like

before Roe vs Wade. These stories are too important to leave in the past.

[Barack_America]

11. Again, when was Roe v. Wade overturned?

I apparently have missed something huge.

[KittyWampus]

14. wait, did abortion suddenly become illegal?

[placton]

15. it blows me away

when DUers see abortion rights narrowed over and over, docs murdered, vets' funerals disrupted, and very few places that offer abortions for poor women - with some states having one or 2 only - a right without the ability to exercise it means nothing. The blood will be, literally, on your hands. I won't support another party that ignores women, gays, kids, poor, sick people. I am none of those, but support them.

[Barack_America]

17. So, recognizing there is a difference between legality and funding means I support...

...all of those things? And have blood on my hands.

Alrighty then.

:eyes:

[Warpy]

16. One of my friends didn't make it

She was found by a roommate, bleeding and fevered, and rushed to the hospital. She never told us if she'd done it to herself or she'd gone to a butcher.

She just died hard.

This is what fat, smug old men like Stupak want to push us back to.

[Barack_America]

18. That is certainly what he wants to do.

But it's not what he accomplished.

And I am very so for the loss of your friend.

[annabanana]

21. There is a DUer who's mother's picture became iconic of the fight.

Her mother died from a botched back alley abortion. Her body is naked, and she is leaning forward over her knees. I have posted the picture before in discussions of the right to choose. I will not repost it, but women "of a certain age" know which picture I mean.

[niyad]

26. she was the mother of one of our posters? that image is seared into my memory, and I never want

another woman to be there.

[niyad]

25. I, too, remember the days before Roe. too many stories to recount here, but

I remember every one of them.

to all the dems who voted to throw women under the bus, to all the people who are totally clueless about what that vote meant, **** ***

[juno jones]

27. My MIL had 2 illegal abortions in the 50's.

I've never asked her about the circumstance, tho I can imagine it would have been very frightening, especially for a woman with 3 kids already.

[hfojvt]

28. point of order

"this was passed by the party we all sweated blood for." Uh, wrong.

Here's the vote tally on the Stupak amendment

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll884.xml

Democrats voted 194-64 against.
Republicans voted 176-0 for.

Why do some people always want to blame the whole party for things that only some Democrats did?

If you care deeply and want to attack freely, stick to the sixty four.