it shouldn't have to be like this

I can't believe the cruelty of people who would have forced me to wait and suffer to receive medical treatment with what I just experienced. I also can't understand anyone who would force someone to carry forward with a pregnancy who didn't want to do so.

I had a relatively simple miscarriage in medical terms - the fetus stopped progressing around 7 weeks for unknown reasons, and at week 10 I took mifepristone and misopristone to complete the miscarriage because my body had not yet dropped hormone levels. The process was horribly upsetting and painful. I badly wanted this pregnancy and I was deeply grateful that I could receive appropriate medical care by the accident of where I lived. The whole time, I could not help but keep thinking about how I was horrified that women elsewhere in my position were suffering due to puritanical policies.

I have always upheld the right of a woman's choice and donated to the Chicago Abortion Fund in my city. But this experience truly opened my eyes to how women are suffering around the country, whether through unwanted pregnancies or wanted pregnancies that do not go as planned.

I am heartbroken for all women who are suffering with pregnancy issues in anti-women areas. I am deeply broken by my loss but this feeling is only compounded by knowing there are women in other states dealing with so much worse.

I don't have any answers, but please please go to the polls these midterm elections. One election won't solve everything but I can only hope by consistently showing up at the polls that we can change things for women in the future.

if it happened to men...

"If you can't love your disabled child, then don't have kids" is bullshit. A lot of the time, it's not about love or the lack of it. It's about resources and the lack of it that parent/s can access. If a child is going to be an adult but still require the care needed for a 5-year-old, it's going to cause financial strain if there is no support. And when there is, it's VERY hard to access a lot of the time. Some parents just do. not. have. the. recourses. even if they really wanna keep the pregnancy.

But even if someone wants to abort their fetus because they found out there's a high chance it's going to have a disability, that's honestly none of our business. Being pro-choice means that you support whatever decisions women make with their bodies, especially ones you disagree with, and thinking you have the moral high ground to shame them makes you no different from the people who protest against abortion outside abortion clinics.

(sorry if this is the wrong flair, I wasn't sure which one to use)

A man came to my lawn in the middle of the night,

so I snuck out of bed and tried to give him a fright.

I ordered he leave and stay away from my garden,

instead he planted a seed at the wall's margin.

Time passed and I never knew of the seed,

and the rain watered it, and it grew like a weed.

First a few inches, and then a meter tall,

and the roots grew underground all through the fall.

I didn't find out 'til the vines climbed my house,

and it crushed my tiles, my arches and spouts!

It was too big now to harvest alone,

I asked for help before it was overgrown.

"No," they said. "That plant is alive!"

"If we remove it now then that plant will die!"

So it ruined my home, I have nowhere to live.

I asked why they didn't help, they said it was what I did.

"The plant was in your garden, it's your responsibility."

"Shouldn't have grown it if you hadn't the ability."

I did not plant it, it was forced in my soil,

and so it earned right to my home 'til it spoiled.

A home is a life, and mine was a temple.

A beacon of pride that never ever trembled.

But then that weed came and it was high maintenance,

and of course that old man never paid for the sustainment.

The ceilings slumped down and the cracks engorged,

and the home never returned to how it was before.

"It's not the plant's fault! It's innocent as a fly!"

They cared about a plant's life, but what about mine?

Hi Folks,

I’m looking to volunteer as a clinic escort and was wondering if anyone knew of places in the Bay Area that are looking for volunteers :) I’m also interested in other volunteer opportunities anything related to women’s health and advocacy. Thank you!

I’m very active in social media, and as someone who doesn’t want kids and doesn’t like them, but is fully pro choice, i just think some pro choicers are so stupid, like i’m sorry😭 but hello?

I saw this video of a pro choice woman who got pregnant after trying to conceive for a while, and the comments were FULLLLLLL of “pro choicers.” saying that she should abort her healthy, wanted, expected and already loved fetus…?

Like, i’d somewhat understand comments like that if the pregnancy wasn’t healthy or wanted. But… the fetus was completely fine? and wanted?

Now, i support abortion in absolutely any scenario, but i just don’t get why some “pro choicers.” forget what the movement is. Pro CHOICE also applies when the woman is pregnant and wants to keep the pregnancy.

And if you want absolutely every fetus to be aborted, you’re not pro choice. You’re pro abortion.

I just think it absolutely ruins what actual pro choicers want for women. And it’s sad to see, because even if they’re jokes, it still harms the way people look at pro choicers.

Why?

Imagine caring more about a fetus than the living woman carrying it. Imagine calling abortion “murder” while ignoring the women who die because they’re denied access to safe abortions.

If your ideology requires women to risk their lives just to satisfy your moral beliefs, maybe your morality isn't as righteous as you think it is.

I'm tired of people treating women's bodies like public property and reproductive rights like something they can vote away. If you support policies that put women's lives at risk, you should be held accountable for the consequences.

And honestly? Democracy shouldn't be an excuse to strip people of their fundamental human rights. The fact that a majority can vote to control someone else's body doesn't magically make it moral.

You don't get to call yourself pro-life while treating women's lives as expendable.

They claim to be pro life and rant about how abortion is murder and killing a human being.

But once the baby is born, they do not care. They don’t care about children, or women. They don’t care that a woman can die because of the pregnancy or childbirth.

The fact that they only care about human life before it is born is absurd to me. I never see these people advocating for single mothers, orphans, refugees of war etc. The only time they are “pro life” and care about anyone, is when it is a fetus.

How is it pro life that you want to put many women through an unwanted pregnancy? How is it pro life to force a baby to be born without a loving home, ending up in foster care and everyone knows how horrible the foster care is?

How is it pro life to have babies born for a mother who is in poverty or in active addiction? How is it pro life to make women give up their hobbies, career, mental health, hopes and dreams just because their birth control failed?

I can go on and on.

Today across all Poland at 18:00 in all major cities happened a protest to legalize abortion.

Ten years ago women in Poland came out on the streets and stood up against the government wanting to make abortion laws even stricter

Exactly 6 years ago the polish government band abortions. People in Poland were furious. They again went out to the streets and said their disapproval but it did nothing.

Three years ago a new political party won the votes of many women saying "within 100 days of getting elected we will legalize abortion" and they did nothing FOR THREE YEARS

Yesterday they passed an act that allows abortion but only in really strict circumstances. They only did that cause they were scared. They heard millions of people plan massive protests and they finally decided to do something. But today all of the planned protests happened. It was my first one and I have never felt so connected to a group of people. I lost my voice from shouting but I would rather lose my voice 1000 times more just so a women's life could be saved. Abortion saves life's and I won't let older men choose what to do with my body. And if you are a men reading this and you're thinking to yourself "it doesn't effect me" IT DOES. You probably have a mother, a sister, a cousin, a friend, a colleague and legal abortion can save their life.

Mi chiedo come si possa anteporre l’obiezione di coscienza di un medico alla possibilità di una donna di scegliere come affrontare una situazione così dolorosa e delicata. Voi cosa ne pensate?

I mean, it's a no brainer but I mean it in a sense where pro-choicers genuinely seem to believe that the fetus deserves more human right's than the mother. And it's insane bc that means these people consider every single woman unworthy of her bodily autonomy. Their sisters, wives, doughters, mothers, everyone. And with every passing day I just feel like allowing anyone to think this way is harmful to a society as a whole, bc if you genuinely believe this woman doesn't deserve her human rights just because she might someday get pregnant then aren't you going to consider her as someone below you? A subhuman unworthy of their human rights? Idk, I'm lwk just spiraling atp but it's so scary to me as a 18 year old woman that this may be how man and politicians think of us woman someday.

That would be one of my platforms if I were to be a president. To create an amendment guaranteeing the right for all women to have access to abortions nationwide, no matter the term