Handmaid's Tale files

No such thing as a Late Term Abortion


Late term abortion is a phrase that Republicans created for propaganda purposes.

Dr. Barbara Levy: The phrase "late-term abortion" is medically inaccurate and has no clinical meaning. In science and medicine, it's essential to use language precisely. In pregnancy, to be "late term" means to be past 41 weeks gestation, or past a patient's due date. Abortions do not occur in this time period, so the phrase is contradictory.

Dr. Jennifer Conti: In obstetrics, we don't divide pregnancies into terms. "Late term" is an invention of anti-abortion extremists to confuse, mislead and increase stigma. The appropriate language is "abortions later in pregnancy.

Conti: According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abortions after 21 weeks make up less than 1.3% of all abortions in the United States. This means that abortions that occur beyond 24 weeks make up less than 1% of all procedures.

Abortion later in pregnancy is not used as an alternative to delivering healthy women's full-term, viable pregnancies. Additionally, it's callous to suggest that healthy women with viable pregnancies at term abruptly change their minds and seek abortion care as the solution.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/06/health/late-term-abortion-explainer/index.html

Anti- Choice propaganda invents a phrase-

There is no such thing as birth day abortions!

A phrase invented by Anti- Choice, to describe a medical procedure that does not exist.

The only way to respond to “abortion until the moment of birth” or “birthday abortion” questions is to point out that those are imaginary procedures, and that the questioner is acting in bad faith. It is bad strategy to be put on the defensive by a claim that has no basis in reality — and it is an utter waste of time to defend oneself to an enemy dead set on taking one’s words out of context.

Click to expand...

https://medium.com/s/story/democrats-are-falling-into-a-political-trap-on-abortion-7ecfdb18a6ef

Texas effort to defund Planned Parenthood and lift up
faith-based, anti-abortion clinics in state and national
family planning programs

"The experiment failed dramatically."

The Heidi Group’s quick rise and fall is a cautionary tale
of what happens when government prioritizes politics
over health care.
–
by Sophie Novack
June 5, 2019

Republican lawmakers slashed the state’s family planning budget
by two-thirds, shuttering 82 clinics.

Two years later, they kicked Planned Parenthood and other
abortion provider affiliates out of the state’s low-income
women’s health program, forgoing millions in federal dollars
to begin a state-funded program instead. At the time, less than
a quarter of the estimated 1.8 million poor Texas women in
need of publicly funded contraceptive services were getting them.
The cuts resulted in tens of thousands more women losing access
to reproductive health services like gynecological exams, birth
control, cancer screenings and STD testing.

For fiscal year 2017, the Heidi Group was awarded $1.6 million
to serve 51,000 patients in Healthy Texas Women; it spent $1.3
million and served 2,300, according to HHSC data.

In the Family Planning Program, the group got $5.1 million to
serve nearly 18,000 people. After realizing the Heidi Group was
falling short of those targets, the state clawed back and reallocated
funds mid-year.

It ended up spending $605,000 to serve just over 1,000 patients.

HHSC released data for fiscal year 2018 in May, but did not
specify the number of patients served by contractors.
According to an Observer analysis, which added the patients
served by Heidi Group subcontractors and the Heidi Clinic
in each program in 2018, roughly 4,000 patients were served
through Healthy Texas Women and about 2,700 through the
Family Planning Program. The state ended Everett’s contracts
in December, and launched an investigation into more than
$1 million in questionable spending.


https://www.texasobserver.org/insid...anned-parenthood-with-an-anti-abortion-group/

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2019-05-31/lawmakers-do-little-to-support-womens-health/

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...anti-abortion-group-millions-for-13638235.php

*“Heidi Clinic”
— named for the daughter Heidi Group CEO Carol Everett
would have had if not for the abortion that she says ruined her life.
Everett, 74, is a prominent anti-abortion activist

Margaret Atwood says it's "a form of slavery to
force women to have children they can't afford"

mic.com

"Margaret Atwood has an eerie prediction about the
outcome of abortion restrictions, one that bears an
uncanny resemblance to the dystopian future depicted
in her hyper-relevant novel, The Handmaid's Tale."

Margaret Atwood Says It’s ‘A Form of Slavery to Force
Women to Have Children They Can’t Afford’

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/323976_Margaret_Atwood_Says_Its_A_For

Speaking at New York City’s Book Con on Saturday,
Atwood argued that when states obligate women into
childbearing, they institute “a form of slavery,”
Insider reported. State-mandated reproduction has
two outcomes, she said: That women die, and that
orphanages fill up.

Atwood referred specifically to Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott
(was) is poised to sign Senate Bill 8. The legislation not only
requires abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains,
but also bans the most common second trimester abortion
procedure — dilation and evacuation — as well as dilation
and extraction, the typical procedure for late-term abortions.
Dilation and extraction abortions are, generally speaking,
only performed when the mother’s life or health is in danger.

If there is something that a rape survivor does not want, is another rape.


Missouri Enforcing Mandatory Pelvic Exams for Abortions,
Critics Decry ‘State-Sanctioned Sexual Assault’

By Reed Richardson

Jun 6th, 2019, 10:21 pm


“Now, doctors at this Missouri clinic, they do perform pelvic exams
right before they do an abortion, which is standard medical practice
which is fine. But now, as of this week-
what the state has started doing, what the state government
is now doing, is that they’ve told the doctors at that one remaining
clinic that they must do a second medically unnecessary invasive
pelvic exam on every woman before she was, before she is allowed
to start the punitive three-day waiting period that is required of all
women who need an abortion in Missouri.”

DrAmyA
@AmyAddante

Today I was forced by the state of Missouri to perform
an unnecessary pelvic exam on a patient terminating her
pregnancy for a fetal anomaly. She is heartbroken over
her situation and I was forced to do an invasive, uncomfortable exam.
It broke me as a physician to do this to her

1:57 PM - 3 Jun 2019

“A doctor calling it state-sanctioned, essentially, sexual assault,”
Maddow said. “State-sanctioned sexual assault is the new price
that the state of Missouri is extracting from Missouri women if
they try to get an abortion. Now, why would the state government
do that? What is the benefit to the state of doing that?”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/misso...ritics-decry-state-sanctioned-sexual-assault/

Next up-

Gruesome rape by a transvaginal ultrasound wand, by someone that does
not know what the fuck they are doing.
Checking for the presence of a viable fetus ?

No, wait. That was done to a woman that had a severe medical
condition that required surgery-
"hospital technician “repeatedly jammed the probe in to various internal organs."

How I was feeling, at the time- Fuck this is bad

This is a woman's story, about her experience

Why are women ignoring the screaming of their survival instincts ?

This is political violence used against women.


"An encounter in an alley reminded me why women always need survival instincts"

31 May 2019

‘Most women, in their lifetimes, will either be victims of, or in close proximity to, some kind of male violence.’

For long periods one forgets about these calculations, running like malware on one’s system and backed up by a lifetime’s expectation that something bad is coming your way. You could say it’s paranoia born of conditioning designed to curtail women’s movements, or you could say it is a smart internalisation of what we all know to be true: that most women in their lifetimes will either be victims of, or in close proximity to, some kind of male violence.


A friend’s husband once averred that, statistically, it was extremely unlikely a woman in New York would come to harm in a city where murder and sexual assault rates have never been lower, and therefore there was no reason not to cut through the park late at night. The women in the room turned to look at him en masse.

How bizarre to move through the world with this kind of oblivious confidence.


In Massachusetts I found the station platform, which was full of people, and a moment later the guy with the backpack turned up. Look, I thought; he’s just a regular guy and I was silly to panic. Then he dropped down on to the tracks, walked across two live rails and disappeared into the bushes. Oh my god, he was that guy! The guy who disappears into the bushes! Probably harmless but still, I thought, my reflexes weren’t off, and once again it enraged and amazed me that we move through the world ignoring the fact that 50% of the population is always ready to run.

Guardian dot co dot uk

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-massachusetts

Following the trails that lead off from the #White Pride flag
Fuck me, if it does not lead me to Fresh Fuckery of the
Extremist Religious Right!




Matt Walsh Verified Account
@MattWalshBlog

Here is what appears to be abortionists playing
with the bodies of dead children. The abortion
industry is the most evil institution on Earth.
These people make ISIS look compassionate.

3:16 PM - 5 Jun 2019

Matt Walsh Verified Account
@MattWalshBlog

To all the people saying these are "dolls":
1) Why does the one "doll" have a hole in the back
of its neck and a crushed skull?

2) Why are the clinic workers handling the "dolls"
with rubber gloves? 3) Why are the "dolls" in the
same kind of metal tray that abortionists use?

6:09 AM - 6 Jun 2019

Fr. Frank Pavone Verified Account
@frfrankpavone

This my friends is what EVIL looks like!
Our own investigation into the abortion industry
saw them playing catch with the babies in the hallway.
Another investigation saw them playing "wishbone"
with the aborted baby body parts.

Thank you to @TaylorRMarshall for the video link.

5:05 AM - 5 Jun 2019

article title-

A ridiculous video is being shared by anti-abortion activists—is it real

(the pic accompanying the text, is a collection of plastic
medical models, portraying the stages of growth a fetus
goes through.

There are 7 models for each stage of developement.

"dolls" !)

2019-06-07

Anti-abortion advocates are sharing a video of unclear origins
on Twitter that shows people in lab coats toying with what
people claim to be aborted fetuses. But a look at the pixelated,
low-quality video shows the small figures are most likely dolls
that are used in medical practices. Still, that hasn’t stopped p
eople—mostly men—from using the video to try and spread
panic.

Twitter has an extensive set of rules against videos that are
violent and “gory,” plus rules against spamming, but the
policy strictly on fake information is not clear, aside from
a 2017 blog post that states the site is working to improve this.
This is not the first time such content has been allowed to remain
on such platforms; recently, Facebook refused to remove a doctored
video showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/fake-abortion-doll-video/

(People did push back against this propaganda.)

A Twitter representative said they’re looking into the
abortion doll video, and the Daily Dot will update the
report when they respond.

comment- Most science museums have had exhibits
featuring pregnancy, and fetal developement,
to explain it to school children.

Children are very accepting of scientific facts,
if they have not been brainwashed.

Evolution stages are included.

If you raise your hand
to my sister, you will feel
the weight of us all.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2019/06/03/pro-choice-anti-abortion-bills-anita-diamant

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott Scott vetoes handgun waiting period;

Gov. Phil Scott announced Monday evening that he has vetoed S.169, gun control legislation that would have required Vermonters to wait 24 hours to buy a handgun.


signs expansive abortion protections

He signed H.57, a bill that forbids the government from interfering in a woman’s decision to have an abortion at any stage in her pregnancy.

Jun 10 2019- June 11, 2019

The governor’s decision to sign H.57 means Vermont law, currently silent on abortion, will now have some of the broadest protections in the country.

“Like many Vermonters, I have consistently supported a woman’s right to choose, which is why today I signed H.57 into law,” Scott wrote in Monday’s statement.

“This legislation affirms what is already allowable in Vermont – protecting reproductive rights and ensuring those decisions remain between a woman and her health care provider. I know this issue can be polarizing, so I appreciate the respectful tone and civility from all sides throughout this discussion.”

Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, the House minority leader, was among the House Republicans who said the bill was too expansive because it failed to set any limits on when an abortion can be carried out or add extra regulations for teenagers.

https://vtdigger.org/2019/06/10/scott-vetoes-24-hour-handgun-waiting-period-bill/

Pro-Choice Rep Is TIRED Of Your 'Sex-Starved' Mansplaining

6/12/19

REP. TORRES:

Mr. Speaker. It is tiring to hear from so many \sex-starved males
ON THIS FLOOR talk about a woman's right to choose. Mr. Speaker...

REP. TORRES:

Mr. Speaker, if it pleases my colleague on the other side, I will
withdraw my statement about SEX-STARVED MALES ON THE FLOOR.

REP. TORRES:

It is tiring to be here on this floor or in committee as a woman,
to continue to be counseled about what types of affordable
family planning conversations that rightfully I deserve to
have with my own doctor, choosing when women want
to have a family, and to avoid pregnancies before they
become pregnancies. It is unfortunate that that is
something that continues to be denied to
American women, day in and day out.

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/06/pro-choice-rep-tired-your-sex-starved

Truly, how many different ways must these anti-choice
lawmakers be told that a woman's reproductive life and
decisions are none of their damn business?
-Aliza Worthington

Tyrany of White Evangelist Christian Extremist Religious Right

Lou Dobbs Drips Misogyny While Mocking Kirsten Gillibrand

Sen. Gillibrand eloquently defends the requirement that judges
be pro-choice, and Lou Dobbs can only snarl and laugh.

Speaking of religion, someone needs to let these guys know that
Christianity is not the only religion out there. For example, in
Judaism, abortion is not only perfectly legal and allowable,
but required if the life of the mother is in danger. If the
pregnancy endangers the mother's life, the fetus is considered
a "murderer in active pursuit." Furthermore, Jewish law
considers seriously the psychological and emotional distress
a pregnancy, birth, and raising the child would cause the mother.
An example from a May article in the Jewish Telegraph Agency:

“It is clear that in Jewish law an Israelite is not liable to capital
punishment for feticide … An Israelite woman was permitted to
undergo a therapeutic abortion, even though her life was not at stake.
This permissive ruling applies even when there is no direct threat
to the life of the mother, but merely a need to save her from great
pain, which falls within the rubric of ‘great need.’ Now, is it
possible to imagine a case in which there is more need, pain,
and distress, than the present one, in which the mother is
confronted by the [prospect of a] suffering child whose
certain death is only a few years away and nothing can
be done to save it?” (Responsa Tzitz Eliezer 13:102)

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/06/lou-dobbs-drips-misogyny-while-mocking-sen

Bradford Pearson Verified Account
@BradfordPearson

One of the sources for my book—who spent his childhood
in a Japanese concentration camp in Wyoming—regularly
visits family detention centers. I asked him once how the
two compared.

“Brad,” he said. “It’s worse than anything we ever experienced.”

(link)

7:36 PM - 11 Jun 2019

Trump Administration to Hold Migrant Children at Base
That Served as WWII Japanese Internment Camp

HHS said Fort Sill will be used “as a temporary emergency influx shelter”

TIME TIME @TIME


Fox News host Laura Ingraham offered a different description
of the facilities used to house migrant children separated from
their undocumented parents:

Summer camps.

“Since more illegal immigrants are rushing the border, more
kids are being separated from their parents and temporarily
housed in what are essentially summer camps, or as the
San Diego Union-Tribune described them today as looking
like basically boarding schools,” she said on her show,
“The Ingraham Angle.”

- Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

June 19, 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...tention-centers-are-essentially-summer-camps/

Trump administration cannot block abortions for immigrant teens
in custody, court rules

The American Civil Liberties Union initially brought the
case on behalf of a 17-year-old girl from Central America
held in a government-funded shelter in Texas.
The government’s Office of Refugee Resettlement in
2017 had adopted a policy of refusing to “facilitate”
abortions for teens in its custody who had crossed t
he border illegally.

In its 81-page ruling Friday, the court noted that under
the policy, the former director of the office, E. Scott Lloyd,
had to review individual abortion requests and had never
approved one, including when the pregnancy resulted from rape.
Even when one teen obtained private funding and transportation
for the abortion, the director refused to let her leave the shelter to
undergo the procedure.

“That is not a refusal to fund an abortion; it is a refusal to allow it,”
the court said in an unsigned opinion joined by Judges Sri Srinivasan
and Robert L. Wilkins.

The Trump administration’s policy departed from that of the
Obama administration, which did not block migrants in U.S.
custody from having abortions at their own expense.
Srinivasan and Wilkins voted with the majority to allow
immediate access. Kavanaugh dissented.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html?noredirect=on

(Click second and third pics to hear songs. They're somewhat unrelated to these topics, but they were among the songs I was listening to while on them.)

https://stormbringer.fandom.com/wiki/Corum_Jhaelen_Irsei

The chieftain of the Denledhyssi Mabden who genocided his race, Glandyth-a-Krae, eventually captured and tortured the prince. During his torture, Corum's left hand was amputated and his right eye was put out. As a replacement, he was given the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn by the sorcerer Shool. After that, he defeated Arioch and Xiombarg and banished them from the Fifteen Planes.

Click to expand...

5:25

bodysong said:

...
Dr. Jennifer Conti: In obstetrics, we don't divide pregnancies into terms. "Late term" is an invention of anti-abortion extremists to confuse, mislead and increase stigma. The appropriate language is "abortions later in pregnancy.

Conti: According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abortions after 21 weeks make up less than 1.3% of all abortions in the United States. This means that abortions that occur beyond 24 weeks make up less than 1% of all procedures.
...

Click to expand...

If there were, say >100 000 abortions performed a year in the US and only 1.3% occurred after 21 weeks, that'd be:

>100 000 x 1.3% = >1300 occuring after 21 weeks

Mizuko kuyō (水子供養) or "stillborn memorial service", is a Japanese ceremony for those who have had a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. This practice has become particularly visible since the 1970s with the creation of shrines devoted solely to this ritual. Reasons for the performance of these rites can include parental grief, desire to comfort the soul of the fetus, guilt for an abortion, or even fear of retribution from a vengeful ghost.

Click to expand...

Kṣitigarbha (wp)

(my bold)

Kṣitigarbha (Sanskrit: क्षितिगर्भ, Chinese: 地藏; pinyin: Dìzàng; Japanese: 地蔵; rōmaji: Jizō; Korean: 지장(地藏); romaja: Jijang; Vietnamese: Địa Tạng) is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. His name may be translated as "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix", or "Earth Womb". Kṣitigarbha is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six worlds between the death of Gautama Buddha and the rise of Maitreya, as well as his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, as well as the guardian of children and patron deity of deceased children and aborted fetuses in Japanese culture, where he is known as Jizō or Ojizō-sama.

Usually depicted as a monk with a halo around his shaved head, he carries a staff to force open the gates of hell and a wish-fulfilling jewel to light up the darkness.

Click to expand...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ksitigarbha_Bodhisattva_Painting.jpeg



patron diety of aborted fetuses in Japanese culture

bodysong said:

Margaret Atwood says it's "a form of slavery to
force women to have children they can't afford"
...

Click to expand...

a lame reason sometimes given by pro-choicers—better a dead child than a poor one.

Many pro-choicers argue women's rights while largely ignoring whether fetal life is sentient. Personally I'm not sure and I tend to be pro-choice myself, but I find their apparent insensitivity to the issue annoying.

bodysong said:

That women die, and that
orphanages fill up.

Click to expand...

or there are more adoptions. Only a small % of North American women die from pregnancy. In abortion, all pre-natal life—whether or not you consider them sentient—die in abortion: at least with current technology.


(my bold)

bodysong said:

If there is something that a rape survivor does not want, is another rape.
...

Click to expand...

my thread:
Why do they call them "survivors" of sexual assault when almost all live through it?
https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1487082


(my bold)

bodysong said:

Probably harmless but still, I thought, my reflexes weren’t off, and once again it enraged and amazed me that we move through the world ignoring the fact that 50% of the population is always ready to run.

Guardian dot co dot uk

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-massachusetts

Click to expand...

You are making presumptions about 50% of people—and the other 50%.

(The link doesn't work.)

bodysong said:

...
Matt Walsh Verified Account
@MattWalshBlog

Here is what appears to be abortionists playing
with the bodies of dead children. The abortion
industry is the most evil institution on Earth.
These people make ISIS look compassionate.

3:16 PM - 5 Jun 2019
...

Click to expand...

I wonder what he thinks of the Alabama meat industry?

Does he enjoy fried chicken—I'm sure there's lots of factory farm chickens in Alabama.


I'd like to see this guy tell the perhaps 1000s of Arab Christian, Shiite, and Yedzidi (and yes, Sunni) women raped into pregnancy to keep their gifts of God—ISIS being a product of Dubya's failed policies—which the Christian Right cheered.

bodysong said:

...
Matt Walsh Verified Account
@MattWalshBlog

To all the people saying these are "dolls":

Click to expand...

It can't possibly be a fake.
:D




I created this thread a week ago:

Should I bother reading and/or watching The Handmaid's Tale?
https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=90932607

I thought of creating it here in Politics, but my history on making threads here hasn't been all that, if you will, fruitful.

Possible misperception on my part, but Politics seems to be a place where leftists link to a lot of stuff (I suppose like I'm doing :D) and high-five each other.

The confidence-bordering-arrogance-and-maybe-occassionally-crossing-it might be necessary, but I find it enervating at times.

a search for my threads in Politics:
2 replies to the last 3 threads all in the last 23 months, and one of the replies being mine.

Compare this to my threads in GB:
more replies—by a multiple—in a single (relatively) recent thread like:

songs about Trump
https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1498092

DMBFFF said:

Inspired by page three of this thread:


...


Trump vs Talking Heads - Swedemason
2:02
...

Click to expand...

(my bold and size increase)

DMBFFF said:

(click pic for video)



9:35

...
I've yet to see the TV series as I regard the scenario to be so improbable as to be ridiculous and potentially boring (FWIW, I've yet to see Game of Thrones or most of the recent Star Trek movies as I'm kind of fed up with bad sci-fi in the latter case and lack of heroes in the former), but I saw a few scenes in YouTube.

Click to expand...

DMBFFF said:

Ann_Tagonist said:

Man...that's some hard watchin'.

Click to expand...

Ann_Tagonist said:

It's a tale. :)

Click to expand...

:D

BotanyBoy said:

Sounds like what every professional victim feminist thinks the USA is like.

Click to expand...

point

This Is America: Women's Edit
3:54
4,04
6,889 views


counter-point

The Problem with This is America: Women's Edition
5:24
56,774 views


a bit better than the first one

МС ХОВАНСКИЙ - ЭТО РОССИЯ / Childish Gambino "This is America" (Пародия)
2:38
7,769,031 views


:D




(sources)
https://www.vox.com/2018/2/13/17009...-moss-emmys-red-costumes-created-ane-crabtree
https://www.weeklystandard.com/char...essing-up-like-offred-from-the-handmaids-tale
http://features.crosscut.com/handmaids-coalition-resistance-olympia-washington-state-capitol-protest
https://www.google.com/search?q=han...UIECgB&biw=1920&bih=907#imgrc=5iEY1TBbOtj1dM:
https://www.peta.org/blog/the-dairy-industry-the-handmaids-tale/
http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1&page=7
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/colby-cosh-another-word-of-praise-for-the-best-star-trek

[size=+1]I have a little fan-fiction-of-sorts of Handmaid's Tale I might post on this or the other thread later.[/size]

Click to expand...

(I thought it funny)

I Am Margaret Atwood
WireTap
May 24, 2012
Season 2012, Episode 300066245
07:03
A conversation with author Margaret Atwood gone awry. Featuring Sean Cullen and Jonathan Goldstein.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2238894643


RMR: Celebrity Tip with Margaret Atwood
1:46




Rush - 2112: The Temples Of Syrinx (Lyric Video)
2:11






[size=+1]A few thoughts I've come up with.

1. What if Washington, DC was attacked by a group of religious terrorists, and in the process murdered Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Brent Kavanaugh?

What if was during 1985-1986 and they murdered Ronald Reagan?


2. For the record, the handmaids (and possible half-sisters), of Leah and Rachel (wives and 1st cousins of Jacob), were Bilhah and Zilpah, not OfJacob; and her name was Hagar, not OfIsaac.


3. If the Lincoln Memorial's been damaged, I wonder how's the Statue of Liberty? What would Toby Keith think?


3. Have Atwood and the TV producers demeaned and defamed women?

Let me get this straight:[/size]

[tr][td]entity[/td][td]Gilead[/td][td]rump US[/td][td]Canada[/td][/tr][tr][td]freedom[/td][td]a dictatorship that's almost Stalinist[/td][td]might still be free[/td][td]likely relatively free[/td][/tr][tr][td]democracy[/td][td]pretty well none[/td][td]might still be democratic[/td][td]compares well to US[/td][/tr][tr][td]tolerance[/td][td]murderously intolerant[/td][td]might still be tolerant[/td][td]quite toleant[/td][/tr][tr][td]nukes[/td][td]Gilead with nukes? Why hasn't it been nuked by Russia and China?[/td][td]presumably has some ICBMs[/td][td]none—but likely could acquire them in a few years[/td][/tr][tr][td]women[/td][td]lost half of it's skilled workforce[/td][td]might have gained skilled women[/td][td]likely gained skilled women[/td][/tr][tr][td]infertility[/td][td]infertile men shoot blanks into traumatized sex slaves[/td][td]likely using things like IVF on consenting people[/td][td]likely using things like IVF on consenting people[/td][/tr]

[size=+1]Yet the oppressive, one of the most racist and misogynistic geographic areas in the world, Gilead, is the most successful by far and is expanding.

It's as if the contribution of relatively free women, LGBTs, and POCs count for nothing in the factoring by Atwood and the producers of the series.

There are also criticisms of "white feminism" and "torture porn".[/size]


(my bold)

[size=+1]In Bob Black's Feminism as fascism:

[size=+1]For their own purposes (some of which are as mundane as sexual rivalry with straight men for the women they both desire), self-styled radical feminists actually reduce women to nothing but helpless, cringing near-vegetables, passive victims of male contempt and coercion. This profoundly insults women in a way which the worst patriarchal ideologies — the Jewish notion of woman as a source of pollution, for instance, or the Christian nightmare of woman as temptress and uncontrollable sexual nature-force — fell short of. They defamed woman as evil but could hardly regard her as powerless. The new woman-as-victim stereotype is not only directly traceable to nineteenth century Victorian patriarchal attitudes reducing (bourgeois) women to inert ornaments, but by denying to women the creative power inherent in everyone, it places women’s demands on a par with those advanced for, say, baby seals.[/size]

Click to expand...

Indeed, the TV series might be a bit racist/chauvinist in implying that Mexico is more toxified than parts of the US with similar population densities.

I read somewhere in some notes that 1:4 pregnancies fail, yet the place the Mexican ambassador's from has had no babies in 6 years.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mexico was bigger than all states along the Atlantic and Gulf combined, its population is about a third the US, its GDP passed a trillion years ago, and yet it's now so desperate, yet in the story, a woman is sent to deal with an illegal regime because they somehow can't get fertile women, as if the rest of Latin America didn't exist?!?

Stupid!
Stupid!
Stupid!
Stupid!

and so are some of the comparisons in this thread with Handmaid's tale.




There has to be better books.[/size]


Category:Feminist science fiction novels (wp)

[size=+1]A few WP articles I've glanced at:[/size]

(bold in quotes are mine)

When She Woke
October 2011

In an unspecified future 26 year old Hannah Payne awakes in a prison cell having been chromed (i.e. having her skin altered) red for murder. Hannah lives in Texas after a great outbreak of a sexually transmitted infection caused the majority of women of the world to become sterile leading to widespread panic, the rise of Christianity, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Hannah belonged to a mega-church and after her father was the victim of a terror attack which threatened to leave him partially blind her family was offered comfort by the reverend Aidan Dale. Hannah and the reverend began an affair leading to Hannah's pregnancy. Unwilling to shame the married Dale, Hannah had an illegal abortion and was picked up immediately afterwards and convicted of the murder of her fetus. Because she refused to name her abortionist or Aidan, Hannah was sentenced to 16 years as a chrome, which also meant that she would be unable to bear children during that time because of an implant.

Click to expand...

Hannah resumes her journey to go north to Canada. On the way there she sees a news report that Aidan publicly confessed to adultery without naming the woman he had an affair with and then collapsed of a heart attack. Hannah continues on and crosses the U.S. border into Québec, learning upon her arrival that Kayla is also safe.

Click to expand...

The Gate to Women's Country

The Gate to Women's Country is set in the future, 300 years after a nuclear war destroyed most of human civilization. The book focuses on a matriarchal nation known as Women's Country, and particularly the city of Marthatown.

Click to expand...

While away from Women's Country, Stavia and Chernon are captured by a band of "Holylanders", members of a struggling community to the south of Women's Country. They practice polygamy and a fundamentalist patriarchy with Christian underpinnings[citation needed]. The Holylanders are brutally misogynistic, treating women as slaves to their husbands, and children (both sons and daughters) are subject to severe corporal punishment which they term 'chastisement'. Chernon betrays Stavia after their capture, during which time she realizes she is pregnant by Chernon. She makes an escape attempt, and is struck a blow to the head and incapacitated.

Click to expand...

Swastika Night
First published in 1937

Swastika Night takes place in a world where the Nazis and Empire of Japan defeated their enemies and conquered the world (from a modern perspective, the novel is an alternate history in which the Nazis won World War II, though at the time of its writing the war had not broken out and it was a work of speculative future fiction.)

Click to expand...

Alfred then vows to return women to how they should be as in the novel they have become ugly things, with shaved heads and no self-respect used solely for reproduction and kept in a place called the women’s quarters from where they cannot escape and are seen as little more than animals.

Click to expand...

He, She and It

The main story of He, She and It is situated in North America in the near future of the year 2059. At that time, the economic and political power is held by few multis—huge multi-national enterprises with their own social hierarchy that have produced an affluent society. The main part of the population, however, lives in the glop outside of the multis' enclaves within an environment that has mainly been destroyed. Here, the life is dominated by poverty, gangs and the law of the stronger man. An exception from this are the so-called free towns that are able to sell their technologies to the multis but remain autonomous. Communication is handled via a network which allows the participants to project themselves into Cyberspace.

Click to expand...

Mizora
first published in 1880-81

As a utopian novel, the book devotes some time to the futuristic technology such as "videophones." The Mizorans can make rain by discharging electricity into the air. Though Mizora has no domestic animals, its women eat chemically-prepared artificial meat — an innovation that is only under development in the early twenty-first century.

Lane plays with the customs and conventions of her own society, as utopian writers normally do. In Mizora, a narrow waist is considered a "disgusting deformity" — reversing the preference of Lane's own time for tightly-corseted women.

Click to expand...

Moving the Mountain (novel)
1911

The central chapters in the book deliver Gilman's program for reforming society. She concentrates on measures of rationality and efficiency that could be instituted in her own time, largely with greater social cooperation – equal education and treatment for girls and boys, day-care centers for working women, and other issues still relevant a century later. Yet Gilman also allows for technological progress: electric power is the motive force in industry and urban society, power generated largely by the tides (a technology that is only being developed in the early twenty-first century in the real world), plus "wind-mills, water mills", and "solar engines".[8] The sky is full of "airships".

People now practice a "new humanitarianism". Vegetarianism is in fashion, hunting is out, and zoos are no more. (Gilman's concept of animal rights, however, provides for the elimination of predators, to save their prey.) Tobacco and alcohol are also out of fashion, because emancipated women condemn those habits.

Click to expand...

Golden Days (novel)

Golden Days is a novel by Carolyn See about a middle-aged divorcee and single mother who moves to Southern California and lives the California dream until the nuclear bombs fall.

Click to expand...

New Amazonia
1889

The history lesson is followed by a tour of the new society, which embodies a version of state socialism. Men are allowed to live on the island, but cannot hold political office: "masculine government has always held openings for the free admission of corruption, injustice, immorality, and narrow-minded, self-glorifying bigotry." The Amazonians are vegetarians; they employ euthanasia, eliminating malformed children — and bastards. They maintain their superiority by practicing "nerve-rejuvenation," in which the life energy of dogs is transferred to humans. The result is that the Amazonians grow to be seven feet tall, and live for hundreds of years but look no older than forty. The narrator tries the procedure herself: "The sensation I experienced was little more than a pin-prick in intensity, but...I felt ten years younger and stronger, and was proportionately elated at my good fortune." (The procedure, though, is fatal to the dogs.)

Click to expand...

Parable of the Sower (novel)

Plot

Set in the 2020s where society has largely collapsed due to climate change, growing wealth inequality, and corporate greed, Parable of the Sower centers on a young woman named Lauren Oya Olamina who possesses what Butler dubbed hyperempathy or "sharing" – the ability to feel pain and other sensations she witnesses. As a teenager growing up in the remnants of a gated community near Los Angeles, she begins to develop a new belief system, which she comes to call Earthseed. When the community's security is compromised, her home is destroyed and her family is murdered, and she travels north with other survivors. Society outside the community walls has reverted to chaos due to resource scarcity and poverty, and mixed race relationships are stigmatized amid attacks against religious and ethnic minorities. Lauren believes that humankind's destiny is to travel beyond Earth and live on other planets, forcing humankind into its adulthood, and that Earthseed is preparation for this destiny. She gathers followers along her journey north and founds the first Earthseed community, Acorn, in Northern California.[2]

Click to expand...

The Two of Them
Published: May 1978

Irene, a female galactic agent, rescues a young woman, Zubeydeh, from a male-dominant culture of a colonized planet, Ala-ed-deen, where women are kept in purdah.

Click to expand...

Unveiling a Parallel


Herland (novel)


Woman on the Edge of Time


[size=+1]a couple years before Margaret Atwood:[/size]

Native Tongue (Elgin novel)

Native Tongue is the a feminist science fiction novel by American writer Suzette Haden Elgin, the first book in her series of the same name. The trilogy is centered in a future dystopian American society where the 19th Amendment was repealed in 1991[1] and women have been stripped of civil rights. A group of women, part of a worldwide group of linguists who facilitate human communication with alien races, create a new language for women as an act of resistance. Elgin created that language, Láadan, and instructional materials are available.

Click to expand...

Until Media acquired the rights to the trilogy and are currently producing a screen adaptation.[4]

Click to expand...

She even created a "conlang" (constructed language): Láadan—which she released into the public domain (unlike, say, Klingon)

Wohiya Wodedide ShóSho Bethu (Áya Dan / Láadan)
81 views
1:04

Bob Offer-Westort
1 year ago (edited)
Thanks! It's great to see more Láadan content out there.

Click to expand...

Mc Hobbit
10 months ago
This sounds like Japanese or Mandarin. Are you a native speaker of an Asian language?

Click to expand...

DMBFFF said:

...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQcKZPU9LVs
0:28
...

Click to expand...

This will likely be my last post for the week, but I'll read and answer all replies.
:)

Reading happily about a graphic novel,

Renee Nault @Portland Indie con
@ reneenault
Victoria

Illustrator and comics artist, currently working on
The Handmaid's Tale graphic novel.
reneenault.com



When the article from the Guardian concerning the insanity about
the death of a fetus in Alabama, makes a re-appearance-


(The Stupid! It Burns!)

Someone tried to mansplain The Handmaid’s Tale – to the author

Twitter is a natural home to armies of mansplainers, ready to dive
headfirst into a woman’s mentions to tell her she’s wrong about
everything. Notable mentions go to the guy who mansplained
space to an astronaut, and his comrade-in-arms, who mansplained
vaginas to a female gynaecologist – which must surely count as a
double mansplain.

Joining these two heroes on the roll of honour is @Modbrat,
who did this:

Even under normal circumstances, it’s not a great look for a man to chime
in on women’s reproductive rights, but there was an added dimension to
this comment, because the woman he challenged, Margaret Atwood,
wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. She had been responding to an article in
the Guardian by Zoe Williams, on the loss of bodily autonomy by
women in Alabama.

Twitter users dropped by to give him a heads up.

She literally wrote the book, Chad.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) July 2, 2019

This Chad maidsplaining A Handmaid's Tale to
Margaret Atwood is the pinacle of Twitterdom.

https:/*******I3IG9x6vx5

— Jenmonkey (@SaruNinjaDesu) July 3, 2019

Idiot tries to mansplain The Handmaid’s Tale to Margaret Atwood.

MARGARET. ATWOOD. https:/*******jWCZ4sQb1W pic****itter.com/pi6DIlPEta

— Dennis Detwiller (@drgonzo123) July 3, 2019

So what show were you watching?

Because there is no way the author is the one that is confused here.

— Marie (@marielynn502) July 2, 2019

Seriously? You're aware she's the author of the book
the show was based on?
Do some research, dude …

https:/*******trSG62Dnzq pic****itter.com/MgtHfhHoXZ

— Laura Dümpelfeld (@Athalant) July 2, 2019

A lot more simply wanted to take the piss.

This is historic. I thank the gods
that I was alive to see this

https:/*******tN9Ai9prg9

— grahamsw (@grahamsw) July 2, 2019

Things you should read this summer, Modbrat:
1. the novel
2. the Google
3. the room

— Dr. MMC (@mckaycanter) July 2, 2019

Wow. Well, Chad.

You’ve now entered a dubiously notable

Twitter club as a go-to example of “mansplaining.”

— Henry Gale (@Henry815gale) July 2, 2019

Dude. Nah.

pic****itter.com/LQBMdjXUTF

— Buckle-up Buttercup (@NancyBarrera) July 2, 2019

Wow…this is beyond mansplaining.

It's Splainception.

— (((Sameach L. Jackson))) (@ChronsOfNon) July 2, 2019

Twitter user, Possum B,
had an understandable question.

This is satire right?…is this satire?

— POSSUM B (@buggiesmumsb) July 2, 2019

No, Possum B – sadly not.

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/07/03/someone-tried-to-mansplain-the-handmaids-tale-to-the-author/

Trump administration slaps abortion gag rule on
family planning clinics, effective immediately

July 16, 2019

Department of Health and Human Services informed clinics
formally on Monday that it would start enforcing the ban
as well as a "requirement that clinics maintain separate
finances from facilities that provide abortions."
Next year it plans to add another restriction,
forcing clinics to have abortion services housed
in separate facilities.


Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen wants patients
to know that "our doors are still open" and that they are
continuing to work with other groups to overturn those
regulations in the federal courts. "We will not stop fighting
for all those across the country in need of essential care,"
she said. Clare Coleman, president of the umbrella group
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association,
added that "the administration's actions show its intent is to
further an ideological agenda."

(AP News gets the scoop)

https://www.wgbh.org/news/national-news/2019/07/15/trump-abortion-restrictions-effective-immediately


"That's an anti-woman, anti-health agenda."

Sen Dianne Feinstein Verified Account
@SenFeinstein

This administration’s #TitleX gag rule is yet another attempt
to suppress women's reproductive rights and access to care.
This rule will block funding from health centers that provide
comprehensive, quality health care to millions of women.

#ProtectX

1:13 PM - 16 Jul 2019

Planned Parenthood Verified Account
@PPFA

BREAKING: The Ninth Circuit just refused to block the Title X
gag rule, meaning it can go into effect and endanger birth control,
cancer screenings, and other essential care for millions.

This is devastating.

#ProtectX

10:35 AM - 11 Jul 2019

Leana Wen, M.D. Verified Account
@DrLeanaWen

This is devastating news.

While we are incredibly concerned the panel did not recognize
the harm of the Trump-Pence administration’s gag rule,
we will not stop fighting for the millions across the
country in need for care.

Help us fight back:
(link to TitleX rights)

11:02 AM - 11 Jul 2019

Call Your Senators:
Protect Birth Control & Reproductive Health Care
It’s time to make sure our legislators do the job
we want them to.

Tell your senators to protect birth control and reject all gag rules.

Leana Wen, M.D. Verified Account
@DrLeanaWen

"Crisis Pregnancy Centers" falsely depict themselves
as health centers when their only purpose is to misinform,
shame, and deter anyone seeking safe, legal abortion care.

7:41 AM - 14 Jul 2019

5 Telltale Signs of a Crisis Pregnancy Center

Since they’re not exactly transparent.

SELF SELF @SELFmagazine


Nancy Pelosi Verified Account
@SpeakerPelosi

The Trump Admin’s vicious fight to place a gag rule on
#TitleX perfectly showcases their utter disdain for women’s
health & women’s rights. Their assault on women’s health
care rights must end now. #ProtectX

7:11 PM - 11 Jul 2019

Pelosi Statement on Ninth Circuit Ruling Greenlighting Trump
Administration’s Title X Gag Rule -...

Washington, D.C. –

Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals refused to block the Trump Administration’s Title X gag rule,
which threatens to deny access to abortion

7/17/ 2019

In a statement, Jacqueline Ayers, vice president of government relations
& public policy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said
the organization is refusing to comply with what critics call a "gag rule"
and instead has stopped using Title X dollars.

"It is unethical and dangerous to require health care providers to
withhold important information from patients," Ayers' statement said. "
During this period of limbo while we wait for the court to rule, our
affiliates are not using federal Title X funds to provide care. We are
continuing to fight this illegal rule in court and to provide care to
all people — no matter what."

Planned Parenthood says it will dip into emergency funds to
continuing providing care. Officials say about 40% of Title X
recipients nationwide receive health services at the group's clinics.

Federal funding for abortion is already illegal except in a few
circumstances, but the new regulations mean many organizations
that once provided other reproductive health services through
Title X are now barred from receiving those funds.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/17/7428...eyve-halted-use-of-title-x-family-planning-fu

The Handmaids Tale series on TV has reached a turning point-
(Will not spoil it, for those that have not watched the latest.

Meanwhile, in America there have been nasty turning points.

Trump Loyalists "Rape, Incest, Slavery were Good For America"

Steve King is trying to get legislation passed, that would
deny abortions to women who are pregnant as a result of
rape or incest

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/49219_GOP_Rep._Steve_King_Explains_the_Good_Side_of_Rape

Republican congressman Steve King has tried to defend
a proposal for absolutist abortion restrictions on Wednesday
by saying that without rape and incest the human race might
long since have disappeared.


“What if we went back through all the family trees and just
pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest?”
King told a breakfast meeting in Urbandale, Iowa.
“Would there be any population of the world left if
we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rapes
\and pillages that happened throughout all these different
nations, I know that I can’t say that I was not a part of a
product of that.”

In remarks first reported by the Des Moines Register, King
told the breakfast crowd on Wednesday that abortion should
not be allowed in any case.

“It’s not the baby’s fault for the sin of the father, or of
the mother,” King said.

In the past, King has expressed skepticism that pregnancy could
result from rape. After then Senate candidate Todd Akin said in
2012 that “if it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try
to shut the whole thing down,” King suggested Akin might be right.

“Well,” King said, “I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance
that’s been brought to me in any personal way, and I’d be open to
discussion about that subject matter.”

King later defended himself, saying: “I never said, nor do I believe,
a woman, including minors, cannot get pregnant from rape, statutory
rape or incest.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/14/steve-king-iowa-republican-rape-incest-abortion

As journalist Katherine Stewart, who covers the religious right,
explained in a New York Times article last December, the gist
of the white evangelical view of Trump is "that he is a miracle
sent straight from heaven to bring the nation back to the Lord"
and "that resistance to Mr. Trump is tantamount to resistance
to God."

https://www.salon.com/2019/08/22/ev...-he-was-chosen-by-god-now-he-says-it-himself/

One of the male mid-wives, to the terrible shit that splashes us,
everyday. They encouraged the structure that delivered Trump
to his throne in the White House, and much else that mirrors the
book", 1984," and the Handmaid's Tale.

The Onion took the opportunity to find some satire in the occassion.

WICHITA, KS—Urging calm as the wailing conservative politicians
jostled for a place at their deceased benefactor’s side, aides reportedly
struggled Friday to prevent dozens of kerosene-soaked Republicans
from lighting themselves ablaze atop David Koch’s body.

“I don’t want to keep living in a world without David Koch,”
said former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, one amongst
a throng of weeping Republicans including Mike Pence,
Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, and Mitt Romney who shoved past
the other mourners for the privilege of setting fire to themselves
and flinging their burning bodies onto the billionaire conservative
activist’s corpse.

“Get the hell out of my way, Rubio—you know he loved me best!
I should be on top of the body. Jesus Christ, David! David!
Don’t go into the next life without me!”

At press time, attendants were forced to intervene with
fire extinguishers after the entire Cato Institute board
of directors piled onto the corpse at once and caused
the blaze to rapidly spread across Koch’s enormous estate.

https://politics.theonion.com/aides-struggle-to-stop-dozens-of-kerosene-soaked-republ-1837517131

Gilead

September 3, 2019

Almost 35 years after “The Handmaid’s Tale” shocked
the world, Margaret Atwood has finally given birth to
“The Testaments.”

This isn’t just the most anticipated novel of the year;
it’s one of the most anticipated sequels of the modern age —
like Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” flying in on
Harry Potter’s broom. Last fall, the Annunciation of
“The Testaments” was heralded around the world.
In August, blessed reviewers received preview copies
printed with a false title and author, lest the book’s
revelations slip preemptively into the wrong hands.
A week before the novel was published, it was already
shortlisted for the Booker Prize. And on Sept. 10,
Atwood’s sold-out, publication-day appearance at
the National Theatre in London will be live broadcast to
1,300 cinemas from Canada to Malta.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ente...f17b7a-ce44-11e9-87fa-8501a456c003_story.html

1 Sep 2019

All we know is that The Testaments is set 15 years after
the final scene in the first book, in which narrator Offred
is hauled into a van by heavies, who might be from the
resistance or the regime that extinguished so many of the
human freedoms we take for granted.

When Atwood leaves the stage at midnight, fans will finally
lay their hands on a book many have waited 34 years to read.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...-handmaids-tale-sequel-the-testaments-profile

NPR
Book Reviews

'The Testaments' Takes Us Back To Gilead
For A Fast-Paced, Female-Centered Adventure

Sep 03, 2019

- Danielle Kurtzleben

What do the men of Gilead do all day?

(spoilers)

https://knpr.org/npr/2019-09/testaments-takes-us-back-gilead-fast-paced-female-centered-adventure

Lynn Neary
Sep 6, 2019

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Margaret Atwood's new book "The Testaments" is not out
until next Tuesday, but some Amazon customers already
have their copies of the novel. That has made a lot of
independent booksellers mad. They say Amazon violated
an agreement they all signed onto with the publisher.
They were supposed to keep the book under wraps until
the scheduled sale date. NPR's Lynn Neary reports.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE:
"The Testaments" isn't just any book. It's the sequel to
the perennial bestseller "The Handmaid's Tale," and it's
one of those books that publishers want to roll out very
carefully. They enforce a strict set of rules governing the
sale of such books. Matt Keliher is the manager of Subtext
Books in St. Paul, Minn.

MATT KELIHER:

The boxes aren't even supposed to be open until the on-sale
date, and publishers go out of their way to make it very clear
that this embargo is underway and not to break it, lest there
be some punishment.

NEARY: Amazon issued a statement saying there had been
a technical error, an excuse Matt Keliher does not believe.

NEARY:
At Astoria Bookshop in Queens, N.Y., owner Lexi Beach says
she makes sure that her staff knows the rules because, she says,
the consequences are clearly spelled out in the agreement she
signed. But neither she nor Keliher believe the publisher of
"The Testaments" will hold Amazon accountable.

KELIHER: Nope, not for a second. I don't believe that
Amazon really does anything by accident.

https://www.wyso.org/post/amazon-critics-angry-over-accidental-early-release-margaret-atwood-novel

Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.
Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Amazon released roughly 800 copies of “The Testaments”
a week ahead of schedule

According to literary newsletter Shelf Awareness, Margaret
Atwood’s “The Testaments” is under a worldwide embargo
until its official release date on Sept. 10. Nevertheless, roughly
800 customers’ Amazon pre-orders for the book were fulfilled
a week prior to its release date.

https://www.pennlive.com/tylt/2019/...asing-margaret-atwoods-new-book-too-soon.html

4 Sep 2019

Rachel Cass, of Harvard Bookstore in Massachusetts, told
Publishers Weekly that she had signed PRH’s “very strict,
very clearly stated affidavit” and, like many bookshops,
had not received her copies yet.

“This is bigger than just this book. Customers will see that
people who ordered online got their books. They will come
into our store and see that we don’t have it yet. They won’t
know or care about embargoes; they will just see that Amazon
can supply them a book and we can’t. They might not come in
next time.”

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2...recy-the-testaments?__twitter_impression=true

September 23, 2019

Trump administration accused of urging UN member states
to oppose abortion access

A leaked letter reveals the White House seeks to form a
coalition to oppose U.N. support for reproductive rights

https://www.salon.com/2019/09/23/tr...g-un-member-states-to-oppose-abortion-access/


https://www.theguardian.com/global-...-rallying-un-member-states-to-oppose-abortion

A letter, seen by the Guardian, is believed to have been sent to
governments deemed sympathetic to the (Trump) administration’s
view on reproductive health.

In the letter, apparently signed by the secretary of state
Mike Pompeo and health and human services secretary
Alex Azar, governments are encouraged to sign a joint s
tatement opposing “harmful” UN policies that promote
sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The statement will be presented to a high-level meeting
on universal health coverage at the UN general assembly
on Monday, says the letter, which suggests multilateral a
greements have been misinterpreted to promote pro-choice
policies.


“As a key priority in global health promotion, we respectfully
request that your government join the United States in ensuring
that every sovereign state has the ability to determine the best
way to protect the unborn and defend the family as the foundational
unity of society vital to children thriving and leading healthy lives,”
reads the letter.

September 24, 2019

The Trump administration has leapt back into the 19th century,
canceling as many fuel emission policies as possible and
rolling back more than 80 environmental rules and
regulations.

Trump spent most of the day at an event on religious discrimination,
held in a basement room and not attended by many world leaders
but appreciated by American evangelists.

The United Nations also held a forum on universal health coverage.
While Britain and others stressed the value of reproductive health
for women, especially contraceptives, the United States spoke only
of abortion, again an appeal to evangelicals.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said health
care should not include such terms as “reproductive health and
rights.” He said 19 countries agreed with him while the Netherlands
said 58 agreed with its position of giving women choices.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/...t-climate-catastrophe-un-while-trump-hung-out

https://independentmediainstitute.org/globetrotter/

Supreme Court Abortion: Roe v. Wade faces
an existential threat Monday

September 26, 2019

The constitutional right to an abortion is almost certainly
coming to an end — the only question is how long the
Supreme Court’s new majority will take to kill it off.
It’s not likely to be very long-
On Monday, the Supreme Court
will meet to decide whether to hear a case that could
leave little, if any, of this (constitutional right to an abortion)
right standing. For years, Justice Anthony Kennedy
held the balance on a Supreme Court divided between four
staunch opponents of this right and four supporters.
His replacement, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, looks
ready to change that.

https://www.vox.com/2019/9/26/20873873/supreme-court-gut-roe-v-wade-next-week-abortion

It's an Extremist Religious Right Wing War.

(Why is Mike Pence's wife so angry ?)

Men, women, and children are dying in America.

September 30, 2019

"Christian Hate Group: Liberals Would Never Accept
a Right-Wing (version of) Greta Thunberg!"

- Hemant Mehta

"...Christian hate-group Illinois Family Institute. They can’t stand
16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. Whether it’s her youth,
or her well-placed rage, or her grasp of scientific realities, or her ability
to recognize the bullshit politicians spew (even when they’re on her side),
they’re not fans. They think of her as nothing more than a kid who’s
“sanctimoniously lecturing adults.”

Without explaining why Thunberg is wrong, IFI’s Laurie Higgins
wants to know how progressives would like it if a young conservative
girl acted the same way:

(Extremist Religious Right Wing talking points/propaganda)

The simple answer is that (Right-Wing version of Greta Thunberg)child
would rightfully be criticized because that mini-conservative has all the
confidence and none of the facts. The only thing that speech is good for
is an audition for FOX News. It’s not going to change any minds because
that kid’s just parroting right-wing talking points that have been repeatedly
debunked. The idea that same-sex parents are inferior to straight ones, or
that transgender people don’t exist, or that sex education is harmful have
no basis in reality. There’s no “hard science” or “crystal clear” social science
defending those beliefs. There are only conservatives who long for everyone
to live in an evangelical bubble and have no problem spreading fear and lies
if that’s what it takes.

(Greta) Thunberg’s words are backed up by damn near every scientist who
studies the climate. This hypothetical teen has the backing of right-wing
radio hosts. There’s a difference. Righteous anger doesn’t make you right.
Calling out bullshit, backed up by the facts, is why Thunberg is capturing
so much attention. She found a way to break through the noise.

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com...uld-never-accept-a-right-wing-greta-thunberg/