With A Sinking Heart

I don't know why I'm surprised. But I am. I'm shocked, horrified, and dismayed.

It's finally begun. The long war waged against women's lives has finally scored a huge, awful, horrid victory.

Thank you, fucking Supreme Court, for wishing me dead. Thank you so fucking much.

I'm actually crying as I write this. I just can't believe it. God. Let me remind you: there is NO EXEMPTION for the health of the mother. NONE.

Fuck.

Comments

[MomtoNoOne]

So we'll have to have emergent c-sections then? Or go to Canada.

I'm confused on the wording too. Isn't a partial birth abortion a D&C? Is there a distinction made between a medical procedure like a D&C and a partial birth abortion in which case we can still have late D&Cs?

[Catherine]

Just posted about this too. Fucking fuckhead motherfuckers.

[Sarah]

Fuck is right.

Terrifying.

I'm about to start researching places to live in Canada.

[Angela]

There are no words. Not that I'm surprised. Bush's MO is to destroy the rule of law; what's to stop him and his cronies on the Supreme Court now? This scares me to death because if I get pregnant, does that mean I have to die if things go wrong?

[Mary]

Again, I just read about this and clicked right over to see what you had said. This is awful. Just awful.

[Jaine]

Outraged for ALL women; especially outraged for you.

[Mary]

Again, I just read about this and clicked right over to see what you had said. This is awful. Just awful. What about all of us future mothers- what if we get sick? I just can't fathom it.

[Aurelia]

Please come to Canada! All of you brilliant awesome women! (I know this would not have helped you Cecily in an emergency like yours, sorry.)

But if you can't move here, let me know if you all want to set up an underground railroad.

Shopping trip to Toronto/Vancouver anyone?

[Jenni]

So if I get pregnant again with my chronic HBP but am not so lucky as I was this time and my health is in danger before viability they will just let me die? Or just do a c-section instead, a more complicated and dangerous condition instead? This is pure madness. I have to wonder if some docs will just do it anyway.

Do many women even do this sort of abortion anyway? I don't know enough about it, but I know in many cases it is a necesity for WANTED children when things go wrong.

This administration has no soul and the sad thing is that even if the country suddenly stopped drinking the kool-aid and elected decent leaders we'd have the courts still packed with a shower of conservative bastards until they drop dead. And mean people seem to live longer!

[wealhtheow]

I'm absolutely terrifed. I just hope everything goes okay with my pregnancy. I feel like I'm living in some sort of dystopian sci-fi world, where I'm only valued for my ability to produce babies. Call me naive, but I really didn't think this would pass without an exception for the mother's health. I feel so degraded right now.

[Abby]

I'm not how refusing an abortion in ANY case is medically ethical. How do they get around that? It's a conundrum, and I see lawsuits coming. Wrongful-death ones, probably, and the cost of prenatal care just skyrocketed, too, dontcha know.

My feelings on abortion are mixed, but I do NOT like being told what to do with my body so that puts me in the pro-choice camp. I think.

[R]

oh, dear God. We all knew this was coming, but it's appalling and terrifying all the same.

[Tracy]

Thank you, Ruth Bader Ginsburg for speaking up for the country's women. Too bad we don't have more justices like you. Ya' know...FEMALE justices?!

[Lawmommy]

I am appalled as well, but, I want to address some questions raised above. The law does not disallow second trimester abortions - instead, it is going to require a different procedure (one that requires the dismemberment of the fetus in utero). Doctors groups have stated that the procedure of removing the fetus intact can be safer for women in certain cases.

So, basically, what the Supreme Court is saying here is, "you can still have an 2nd trimester abortion, but, you cannot have THIS kind of abortion, you have to have a kind that might be less safe, depending on your particular circumstances."

It's assanine and the Justices should not be making decisions that doctors need to make. And, I am sure that they will try to use this ruling now to attempt to make illegal that other kind of procedure.

But, to be clear on the legalities, this ruling does not outlaw 2nd trimester abortions. (not yet anyway.)

Waiting for the other shoe to drop,
Gretchen

[wookie]

Yeah, we all knew that was coming. Doesn't make it any less painful.

So what are the alternative procedures that they're touting, anyway? And what procedure, specifically, are they forbidding, or are they leaving that part fuzzy so that doctors will let women die on the table rather than risk a lawsuit?

No one benefits from this. No one.

[Maura]

What so infuriates me about this - about the REAL LIVES that will be lost, about the women who will lose their kidney function, their brain function, their uteruses because of this - is that it was entirely forseeable when Bush nominated both Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.

There were forward-thinking Democrats, especially women, who supported a filibuster to the Alito nomination precisely because they knew that appointing him FOR LIFE to the Supreme Court would have disasterous consequences for women for GENERATIONS.

All the Republicans enthusiastically supported Bush's nominee. And, sadly, most Democrats refused to even consider a filibuster. I am SO ANGRY with people like Joe Lieberman who gamed the system to have it both ways -- he voted against the filibuster when it really counted, thus allowing Alito's nomination to come to a vote we knew we would lose. Then when Alito was safely going to cruise to appointment, and Lieberman's vote didn't matter, he voted against Alito's confirmation just so he could claim that he opposed him.

And even worse, NARAL completely let us down by giving Lieberman a free pass in his re-election, giving him credit for voting against Alito's confirmation even though it was the filibuster that really mattered.

I'm just so, so, so disgusted by our so-called allies, and so overwhelmingly sad for the real people whose lives will suffer (or be lost) because of this.

You were the first person I thought of, Cecily, when I heard the news this morning. I'm so grateful that you are here and that this is a place where women really understand the consequences of these "high minded" political decisions.

[Amy]

Cecily, you were the first person I thought of when I saw the news about this decision. Its just so terribly wrong that this country is allowing the SCOTUS to make these decisions for all women, instead of keeping the decision between a doctor and her patient, where it belongs.

Thank you for being brave enough to continue to share your story and put a real face and name out there for people to see and consider when they think about the issue of "partial birth abortion." Its only through the efforts of people like you -- and the example you provide of what is so wrong with today's decision -- that we have any chance of stemming this tide of moral hypocrisy that poses for current conservatism.

My heart aches for you today.

[Amy]

And, I should add -- my heart aches for all women in this country today. Pro-choice or not, this decision represents a terrible threat to womens' autonomy, and all should be wise to consider it warily.

[Melissa]

I am really sorry.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) already put up a press release condemning the decision. More are following.

This afternoon, at 3 P.M., Planned Parenthood and several other women's groups are holding a rally at the Supreme Court. I intend to be there, being lucky enough to work nearby. I'll be thinking of your story.

[jen]

I am sitting here absolutely so fucking angry that once again, something that a doctor and a woman should decide has been put into the hands of politicians and asshole Supreme Court justices that I'm crying. So, thank you for your acknowledgment of what a terrible day this is. Although I usually don't feel so strongly about something, I'm this close to hoping that this becomes an issue in one of the Supreme Court judges lives who voted to not help save the life of a woman that they know and love. I can't believe this has happened.

[Maura]

Gretchen and others,

The language in the law forbids "partial birth abortion", a term that is never used in medical science. Partial-birth abortion does not exist, period.

And while most people believe that the "partial-birth" term refers to the rare D&X procedure, most doctors who are still trained and willing to perform the more common late-term D&E procedures say that the law is worded so vaguely that it could easily be applied to D&E's as well. Many providers have already stopped performing D&E procedures altogether because they fear criminal exposure.

CRIMINAL exposure. They fear going to jail for performing a medical procedure that saves health and lives.

So, yes. We all have a reason to be concerned. Now. All of us.

[Queenie]

I'm another one of those who thought of your instantly when I heard the decision this morning. It's just too horrifying.

[Miriam]

Shit. Just shit.

[Sarah]

I was shocked to read the first reports of the decision. When people told me they couldn't tell the difference between Bush and Gore in 2000, I could always say the Supreme Court. And they didn't get it. God, it makes one think the SCOTUS is a bad setup... Despite knowing it was possible, this feels impossible. Implausible. Stupid.

[Mandy]

This is absolutely sickening. How is it possible that there is no exception for the health/life of the woman? I didn't think this would happen. I guess I am naive.