#92: Independence Day
We cannot afford to be tired. Stand Up, Tell Your Story, and Vote.
I awaken this morning to a dull monochromatic gray sky. I walk over to the window, pull back the curtains, and look out. The deck is wet. I don’t need a weather forecast to know that more rain is likely. Will l be able to see the fireworks tonight at the harbor below the bluff where I walk? Do I even want to? I dress in black…leggings, shirt, jacket, even my underwear…and get ready to walk into town to check out the apple pie contest at the city pier.
It’s July 4th…Independence Day…but I do not feel like celebrating at all.
I feel angry that our daughters and granddaughters no longer have the same legal protection to reproductive choices that I had fifty years ago.1
I am appalled that women who miscarry may now be criminals and incarcerated. 2 3
I mourn for the raped and impregnated ten-year-old girl denied an abortion in her home state. 4
And I am gobsmacked when recently I hear someone say they are too tired and it’s someone else’s turn to fight.
Yah, I know you're tired. We’re all tired, but we must not give up.
Stand Up
Tell your Herstory
and VOTE.
For those looking for a culinary link, here’s one more for you.
https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/planned-parenthood-advocates-arizona/blog/when-miscarriage-is-a-crime
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/03/1109015302/abortion-prosecuting-pregnancy-loss
https://www.newsweek.com/kristi-noem-challenged-question-ohio-child-rape-victims-abortion-1721295
Thank you Alison. I’m losing some subscribers with this post who only want recipes…but this newsletter has always been about more than pie.
Anyone who drops you because you care about basic human rights wasn’t really with you to begin with. My heart is broken, and I am more angry than I was throughout Trump's term of office. We need to throw out anyone who voted to stack our Supreme Court with radical right wing judges, any state legislators who would consider ignoring simle decency to curry favor with the minority who are "governing" us. We need to do whatever we can to help the effort to right this terrible wrong. I've never written to any politician before. Two days ago I wrote to President Biden to let him know that if he appointed an anti-abortion judge to a Federal District Court in Kentucky to make a deal with Mich McConnell for some future possibility to work together, that every woman who voted for him will have been betrayed. I am outraged that this action is still slated to happen, and that the White House is keeping it quiet. When he was campaigning, President Biden said we were fighting for America's soul. I guess we lost.
Women's rights are human rights. I am happy that I live in a state that has stepped up and joined with California and Oregon to offer abortions to out of state women, but unless that's backed up with financial aid for women to travel here, and legal aid for any criminal charges they may face when they return home, the help we're offering will not be available to many.
I was pregnant only once in my life, and had a miscarriage that would have taken my life if I had not had access to adequate health care. Yes I mourn the only child I might have had, but when I went to the ER for help, they helped me. What would they do now to a woman in the exact same circumstance if she happened to live in Texas? My miscarriage looked to medical professinals like a self induced abortion and I found out recently that, in fact, my medical history states that I had an abortion. Would they come after me retroactively? I can't believe they wouldn't.