The Power of Action
What if I told you that if 3 out of 10 people could change the world by voting. Would that motivate you?
To say I am passionate about healthcare for women would be an understatement. I can't articulate the depths of concern I have for those that are, have been, or will be affected by the lack of proper healthcare and body autonomy we particularly in Tennessee are facing.
We can make forward progress in this area when our news media reports unbiased views. Websites such as Newsuffragettes.com that post "in the news" content relating to women's reproductive health get traction, and people vote. We need every person legally able to vote, to vote. I was surprised to learn that a study of registered Democratic voters showed that that only 20% of women, who are most affected by this barbaric movement, voted. When canvassing, many women shared that they didn't think that their vote mattered. It does! Several candidates that support women's health issues only lost by a small scale! Knowing the data above, I am sick inside that we could have avoided the situation we are now in.
To be clear, restricting abortion is reducing the quality of women's healthcare. The idea that women are using abortion as birth control is a bold faced lie. In simple terms, it's just not practical! Politicians use abortion as a “wedge issue” to divide the country and swing votes. It is important to look at the big picture and understand that an abortion ban may not affect you personally, but regulating healthcare by including the government in the decision making process of what is and isn't right for a woman's body, will have lasting, impactful and harmful outcomes for many groups of people. It has already happened, and will continue to occur, a quick internet search or a casual clickthrough our website will share some horrifying results of the current aftermath of the ban in just a short time.
It is important to help people understand the slippery slope of having a government body make decisions about your healthcare and what that means for someone you love and know personally could be harmfully impacted by these types of laws. It’s not just about a woman’s body and her right, but about the government controlling your medical decisions. Pop over to July 25, 2023 blog post and see how when Roe fell HIPAA was jeopardized and how the government also cut insurers responsibility for preventative care.
This aggressive blanket law will negatively impact everyone at some point, sooner or later. We shared in our list of blog posts that many representatives did not read the bill and signed it because someone said it was a good thing. Republican lawmakers have back peddled and have requested changes in the current Trigger Ban Law, to little effective effort.
While the efforts of Democrat Representatives Gloria Johnson and Yusuf Hakeem were shut down, Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes was able to make a slight change to the barbaric Trigger Ban Law HB1029 & SB1257. The update allows narrow exceptions for the health of the mother. House Bill 883 explicitly exempts ectopic and molar pregnancies from Tennessee's abortion ban, in addition to allowing doctors to perform abortions if in their "reasonable" medical judgment an abortion would prevent the death or "to prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman." Even with this amendment "reasonable" medical judgment as well as that molar or ectopic pregnancy is subject to review by a panel of persons that may or may not have medical degrees, or the patients best interest in mind. Should that patient die carrying a child that she wanted, due to a medical challenge, this would be considered an acceptable outcome by Republicans. There are so many what ifs that are not factored in.
The reason I vote and the reason that I fight as strongly as I do for women's rights is selfish. I have a, daughter who wants a child, and I worry about what would happen should she have a complication in pregnancy and needed to have an abortion. Will she be told her risk wasn't high enough or she wasn't important enough to save? Would she be told to wait in a parking lot until she is near death? Would they wait until she required a worse procedure that took away her ability to ever have a child again? That she would die, not be able to have a child in the future, have a long term medical need after, or horrifically have to birth a dead child or a child that could live a few short days in agony... it keeps me fighting.
Today in addition to the stress of a "normal" pregnancy women fear more what if's than before. The stress of pregnancy compounds. For those that have experienced high risks pregnancies, or have family history of them, the calculations to have a child become a choice between potentially life and death.
Right, Independent, or Left... let us collectively push for the voice of reason.
Healthcare needs should NEVER be left to a politician and should ALWAYS be between a medical professional and the individual(s).
Doctors and medical professionals should NOT be faced with criminal charges in order to do their jobs or question if they should save the life of a mother or face jail time, fines, and loss of licensure.
Be the change, start here, take action, and if you can commit to nothing else... VOTE.
Americans increasingly see themselves as supportive of the right to have an abortion and disagree with the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision last year overturning the guaranteed right to an abortion in this country, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.
Four in ten (40%) abortions occur by six weeks of gestation, another four in ten (39%) are between seven and nine weeks, and 13% at 10-13 weeks. Just 8% of abortions occur after the first trimester. Jan 20, 2023 KFF.org
Nearly three quarters of adults (74%) and 79% of reproductive age women say that obtaining an abortion should be a personal choice rather than regulated by law. kff.org