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#reproductiverights

1 post1 participant0 posts today

#Arizona court permanently blocks 15-week #AbortionBan

The ruling marks a victory for #AbortionRights months after a ballot measure added protections to the state #constitution

A court permanently blocked AZ’s 15-week #abortion ban from taking effect on Wed, months after AZ residents voted to pass a ballot measure adding abortion rights into the state constitution.

#law #ReproductiveRights #MaleSupremacy #SCOTUS #Dobbs #Republicans #evangelism
theguardian.com/world/2025/mar

The Guardian · Arizona court permanently blocks 15-week abortion banBy Carter Sherman
Continued thread

#Idaho #doctors, meanwhile, say it remains unclear which #abortions are legal, forcing them to airlift #pregnant women of state if a termination might be part of the standard of care. It’s often unclear in fast-moving emergencies whether pregnancy complications could ultimately prove fatal, doctors said in court documents.

A judge has blocked ID from any #abortion ban enforcement that would change #emergency treatment at the state’s largest #hospital system for now.

Continued thread

The #Biden admin had given similar guidance to #hospitals nationwide in the wake of #SCOTUS’ 2022 decision overturning the right to #abortion. It’s being challenged in other conservative states.

In #Idaho, the state argued that its #law does allow life-saving abortions & the Biden admin wrongly sought to expand the exceptions. The Republican controlled state agrees w/the dismissal, so it does not need judicial approval, #Trump #DOJ attys wrote in court documents.

Replied in thread

I'm sure he isn't the only one... Just the only one to get caught!

Staffer for #Musk’s DOGE resigns over #racist social media posts that advocated for #eugenics

#MarkoElez was one of two top #DOGE staffers granted access to the #TreasuryDepartment’s payment system

by Andrew Feinberg, Friday 07 February 2025

"One of the two staffers for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who was granted access to the U.S. Treasury’s sensitive payment system has quit his post after the White House was asked about his history of racist social media posts, including those supporting eugenics and repealing of the 1964 #CivilRightsAct.

"The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Marko Elez, a 25-year-old programmer who was brought into government service by the world’s wealthiest man had a profile on #ElonMusk’s social media site X featuring posts in which he said he supported a 'eugenic immigration policy,' and made other racist statements. Eugenics supports 'racial improvement' through 'selective breeding' to improve the human race.

"In one September post reviewed by The Journal, Elez reportedly wrote: 'You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.'"

Read more:
independent.co.uk/news/world/a
#USPol #reproductiverights #Fascism #BodilyAutomony #USHistory #WhiteNationalism #Genocide #BadDOGE

The Independent · DOGE staffer quits after exposure of racist social media postsBy Andrew Feinberg
Replied in thread

America’s Forgotten History of #ForcedSterilization

By Sanjana Manjeshwar on November 4, 2020

"In early September, a nurse working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) detention center in #Georgia came forward with shocking allegations of medical neglect and abuse, claiming that numerous involuntary #hysterectomies (uterus removal surgeries) were performed on detained #ImmigrantWomen. This allegation understandably evoked fury and outrage among the general public, with numerous people denouncing it as a #HumanRights violation and yet another example of the current administration’s cruelty towards women and immigrants. Many people, including prominent liberal politicians and public figures, viewed it as something distinctly un-American and at odds with our country’s values — a common refrain that echoed in response to the allegation was 'This isn’t the America I know.' There were countless comparisons to #NaziGermany and other #totalitarian, human rights-abusing regimes, as well as a pervasive sense that the United States was engaging in a uniquely cruel and unprecedented act. Unfortunately, this is a misleading impression.

"While the allegations against ICE are undoubtedly horrific and must be investigated, they are not at all unprecedented or un-American — in fact, they are very American. The United States has a long, egregious, and largely unknown history of eugenics and forced #sterilization, primarily directed towards #PoorWomen, #DisabledWomen, and #WomenOfColor.

"The American #eugenics movement originated in the late 1800s and has always been undeniably based in #racism and #nativism. The word 'eugenics' originally referred to the biological improvement of human genes, but was used as a pseudoscience to justify discriminatory and destructive acts against supposedly undesirable people, such as extremely restrictive #ImmigrationLaws, #AntiMiscegenationLaws, and forced sterilization. The ultimate goal of the eugenics movement was to 'breed out' undesirable traits in order to create a society with a 'superior' genetic makeup, which essentially meant reducing the population of the #NonWhite and the mentally ill. The eugenics movement was widely accepted in American society well into the 20th century, and was not at all relegated to the fringes of society like one might expect. In fact, most states had federally funded eugenics boards, and state-ordered sterilization was a common occurrence. Sterilization was seen as one of the most effective ways to stem the growth of an 'undesirable' population, since ending a woman’s reproductive capabilities meant that she would no longer be able to contribute to the population.

"The Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell (1927) decided that a Virginia law authorizing the mandatory sterilization of inmates in mental institutions was constitutional. #CarrieBuck, a 'feeble minded woman' whose mental illness had been in her family for the past three generations, was committed to a state mental institution and was set to undergo a sterilization procedure which required a hearing. The Supreme Court found that the Virginia law was valuable and did not violate the Constitution, and would prevent the United States from 'being swamped with incompetence…Three generations of imbeciles is enough.' The Court has never explicitly overturned #BuckVersusBell.

"California’s '#AsexualizationActs' in the 1910s and 1920s led to the sterilization of 20,000 disproportionately #Black and #Mexican people who were deemed to be mentally ill. #Hitler and the #Nazis were reportedly inspired by #California’s laws when formulating their own #genocidal eugenics policies in the 1930s. When discussing the Asexualization Acts of California, Hitler wrote, 'There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of citizenship] are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the #UnitedStates.'

"Throughout the 20th century, nearly 70,0000 people (overwhelmingly working-class women of color) were sterilized in over 30 states. #Black women, #Latina women, and #NativeAmerican women were specifically targeted. From the 1930s to the 1970s, nearly one-third of the women in #PuertoRico, a U.S. territory, were coerced into sterilization when government officials claimed that Puerto Rico’s economy would benefit from a reduced population. Sterilization was so common that it became known as '#LaOperación (The Operation)' among Puerto Ricans.

"Black women were also disproportionately and forcibly sterilized and subjected to reproductive abuse. In #NorthCarolina in the 1960s, Black women made up 65 percent of all sterilizations of women, although they were only 25 percent of the population. One Black woman who was subjected to a forced hysterectomy during this time was #FannieLouHamer, a renowned #CivilRights activist. Hamer described how nonconsensual sterilizations of working-class Black women in the South were so common that they were colloquially known as a '#MississippiAppendectomy'.

"Additionally, many Native American women were sterilized against their will. According to a report by historian Jane Lawrence, the Indian Health Service was accused of sterilizing nearly 25% of #Indigenous women during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, the year that Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court, supposedly ensuring reproductive rights for all American women, the reproductive rights of thousands of Indigenous women were entirely ignored as they were forcibly sterilized.

"Forced sterilization, especially in exchange for a sentence reduction, occurs often in the criminal #LegalSystem today. Government-sanctioned efforts to prevent incarcerated people from reproducing were widespread in the 20th century, and still continue today. In 2017, a judge in #Tennessee offered to reduce the jail sentences of convicted people who appeared before him in court if they
'volunteered' to undergo sterilization. In 2009, a 21-year-old woman in #WestVirginia convicted of #marijuana possession underwent sterilization as part of her probation. In 2018, an #Oklahoma woman convicted of cashing a counterfeit check received a reduced sentence after undergoing sterilization at the suggestion of the judge. According to a report by the Center for Investigative Reporting, almost 150 women considered likely to return to prison were sterilized in California prisons between 2004 and 2003. Although they had to sign 'consent' forms, the procedure, when posed as an incentive for a reduced sentence, generates an ongoing debate about whether or not consent actually exists in these situations. Proponents of the sterilization of incarcerated individuals often cite a lack of 'personal responsibility,' when in reality, many of these individuals face a lack of support and resources. Even if incarceration was somehow the singular determinant of one’s morals and character, sterilization as part of a prison sentence is still a fundamental violation of the right to #ReproductiveAutonomy — something judges and prison officials choose to ignore."

Read more:
bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/20
#USPol #reproductiverights #Fascism #BodilyAutomony #USHistory #WhiteNationalism #Genocide

Berkeley Political Review - UC Berkeley's only nonpartisan political magazine · America’s Forgotten History of Forced Sterilization - Berkeley Political ReviewIn early September, a nurse working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Georgia came forward with shocking allegations of medical neglect and abuse, claiming that numerous involuntary hysterectomies (uterus removal surgeries) were performed on detained immigrant women. This allegation understandably evoked fury and outrage among the general public, with numerous people
Continued thread

#ForcedSterilization of #DisabledPeople Isn’t a Relic of the Past

In a majority of states, #eugenics-era laws still let doctors sterilize disabled patients against their will.

by Julia Métraux
February 27, 2025

"'In order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence,' Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote for the majority in 1927’s Buck v. Bell, the state could—and should—'prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.' Forced sterilization, the court held, was not only legal but laudable.

"In 1924, 17-year-old Carrie Buck was institutionalized, having been deemed 'feebleminded' on the grounds of 'promiscuous' behavior. In reality, Buck was raped by her foster family’s nephew. Three years later, with the Court’s blessing, Virginia’s 'State Colony of Epileptics and Feeble Minded' sterilized Buck against her will. The decision, passed at the height of the 20th-century eugenics movement, has never been overturned.

"'There’s a very different standard being applied to disabled people’s autonomy.'

"To this day, 31 states and #WashingtonDC, still have laws on the books that allow for the practice—and just two, #Alaska and #NorthCarolina, have laws that fully ban the #nonconsensual #sterilization of disabled people, according to a 2022 report from the National Women’s Law Center. There’s no official account of just how many disabled people have been sterilized under those laws.

"Some of these laws aren’t even that old. In 2019, #Iowa and #Nevada passed new forced sterilization laws that applied to people under #guardianship. Both bills passed unanimously, and the end result is consistent with laws on the books in other states. There was no discourse among politicians—let alone objections—about the ethics of sterilizing disabled people without their consent.

"Sterilization and Social Justice Lab co-director and founder Alexandra Minna Stern said that early IQ tests, which sought to measure intelligence in part on the basis of class- and culture-based questions involving Beethoven’s sonatas, the early United States, and college athletics, were 'used to categorize people who would then be targeted for sterilization,' generally those who were '#marginalized or maligned in some way': in #California and the #Southwest, often #MexicanAmericans; nationwide, #Black, #Indigenous and #poorer white Americans, particularly women. The people behind the tests, Stern says, were 'white, #elite men who wanted to create a certain type of society in their own image.'

"NWLC senior counsel for health equity and justice Ma’ayan Anafi, who is also disabled, told Mother Jones that “forced sterilization laws are a really powerful example of how violations of disabled people’s bodies and rights are baked into our legal system today.”

Read more:
motherjones.com/politics/2025/
#USPol #reproductiverights #Fascism #BodilyAutomony

Mother JonesForced sterilization of disabled people isn't a relic of the pastIn most states, eugenics-era laws still let doctors sterilize disabled patients—even against their will.

[Thread] So, what's on my mind tonight? A lot of things, but especially the topic of #Sterilization -- both voluntary and involuntary. As we slide further into #Fascism, control over womens' bodies and #ReproductiveRights are becoming moot points -- as some in #Trump's administration are calling for #ForcedSterilization of certain people, and yet, hypocritically, #MAGA types are making #DeathThreats against women who chose sterilization. This is beyond messed up, but par for the course for Fascism. [See #CharacteristicsOfFascism Number 5: Rampant #Sexism -- #LawrenceBritt]. Read on...
#USPol

STOP CENSORING ABORTION: THE FIGHT FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

With #ReproductiveRights under fire access to accurate #abortion information has never been more critical—especially online

That’s why reproductive health and rights organizations have turned to online platforms to share guidance and resources but social media platforms are increasingly censoring or removing abortion-related content—often without clear justification or policy basis

eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/stop

Electronic Frontier Foundation · Stop Censoring Abortion: The Fight for Reproductive Rights in the Digital AgeWe are collecting stories from individuals and organizations who have faced censorship on social media platforms to expose the true scale of abortion censorship. Our goal is to demand greater transparency in tech companies' moderation practices and ensure that their actions do not silence critical conversations about reproductive rights.

I read recently that procedures in #Michigan are being refused for tubal ligation & similar type reproductive surgeries by one of the biggest healthcare providers in the state, a Catholic one.

A reminder that teaching hospitals who receive largely state funding or private funding are often taking patients, and in the case of #Wisconsin, one such school is getting women in within 2-3 weeks.

Once again, if you’re using a period tracker app, stop right now. Don’t discuss your cycle, your relationship status, your desire to have kids (or not have kids) with anyone you don’t absolutely need to discuss it with.

Republicans seem determined to roll back reproductive rights and make it “your body, my choice”.

We must fight back. One of the best ways to do this is to commit to give them as little information as possible.

Missouri bill seeks to create a registry of women who are high risk for having an abortion, and may allow crisis pregnancy centres to manage said list.

Please call your local lawmakers and urge them to vote no on this dystopian bill.

Our body, our choice. Always.

open.substack.com/pub/jessica/

Abortion, Every Day · Missouri Bill Would Create Registry of Pregnant Women "At Risk" of Having An AbortionBy Jessica Valenti

Republican States Claim Zero Abortions. A Red-State Doctor Calls That ‘Ludicrous.’

In Arkansas, state health officials announced a stunning statistic for 2023: The total number of abortions in the state, where some 1.5 million women live, was zero.

In South Dakota, too, official records show zero abortions that year.

And in Idaho, home to abortion battles that have recently made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the official number of recorded abortions was just five.

In nearly a dozen states with total or near-total abortion bans, government officials claimed that zero or very few abortions occurred in 2023, the first full year after the Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion rights.

Those statistics, the most recent available and published in government records, have been celebrated by anti-abortion activists. Medical professionals say such accounts are not only untrue but fundamentally dishonest.

“To say there are no abortions going on in South Dakota is ludicrous,” said Amy Kelley, an OB-GYN in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, citing female patients who have come to her hospital after taking abortion pills or to have medical procedures meant to prevent death or end nonviable pregnancies. “I can think of five off the top of my head that I dealt with,” she said, “and I have 15 partners.”

For some data scientists, these statistics also suggest a troubling trend: the potential politicization of vital statistics.

#Politics #USPol #Abortion #Pregnancy #News #USNews #ReproductiveRights #HumanRights #MichiganAdvance #GOP #Republicans

michiganadvance.com/2025/02/15

"There’s a hotly contested #election on that day [April 1, yes, really]. Susan Crawford, a Dane County circuit court judge, is keeping our hopes alive. Judge Crawford has a record of defending rights in the #Wisconsin Attorney General’s office and private practice by championing workers, voters, and #ReproductiveRights...

Her opponent, Brad Schimel, is an anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ bigot who would likely rule to re-gerrymander districts"
statuskuo.substack.com/p/a-sma

The Status Kuo · A Small Way To Make A Big Difference NowBy Jay Kuo

Louisiana signs extradition order for New York doc who prescribed abortion pill out of state. This is a war on women & reproductive healthcare.

“Carpenter did nothing illegal: New York is shield state that protects abortion providers & allows them to mail abortion meds without fear of prosecution”

I can’t stress this enough… if you’re able to stock up on abortion pills, plan B or oral contraceptives… now’s the time.

If you’re certain you don’t want to get pregnant, look into getting your tubes tied or an IUD placed.

Stop using period trackers. Encourage your friends to stop as well.

Even if you aren’t worried about your own reproductive health, by being prepared you may be able to help someone in need.

Lastly if you DO help someone end a pregnancy… No you didn’t. You helped them move. Or visit their aunt. Or shop for furniture.

Now is the time for discretion because Trump and his team of christofascists seem determined to criminalize pregnancy at all costs.

open.substack.com/pub/jessica/

Abortion, Every Day · Louisiana Signs Extradition Order for New York Abortion ProviderBy Jessica Valenti

Judge orders #CDC, #FDA to restore websites taken down after #Trump #gender order

A federal judge Tues ordered the nation’s premier health agencies to restore online access to several websites that monitor #HIV, #health risks for youths & assisted #reproductive technologies, which were abruptly taken offline to ensure they complied w/Trump’s recent #ExecutiveOrder on gender.

#law #whitewashing #bigotry #LGBTQIA #ReproductiveRights #PublicHealth
washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/20

The Washington Post · Judge orders CDC, FDA to restore websites taken down after Trump gender orderBy Salvador Rizzo

"The biggest surprise for [Smith College professor and Ms. contributing editor Carrie N. Baker]? “How unnecessarily long it took for the drug to gain FDA approval and how unnecessarily restrictive the FDA was.” RU 486, she notes, was invented by French researchers in the 1970s, patented in France in 1980, and approved by the French government in 1988. But it wasn’t approved in the United States for another 12 years."

motherjones.com/politics/2025/

Mother JonesThe forgotten—and incredibly important—history of the abortion pillMifepristone took longer to get approved than most drugs—but not because it was unsafe.