Erin ConroyMay 14, 2023

If you can't choose whether to become a mom, with all its risks, #MothersDay is a cruel joke.

States enacting abortion restrictions increased their maternal mortality rate by 38%.

States with the toughest abortion laws have the weakest maternal supports.

Two of the women in the Turnaway Study DIED from giving birth after they were denied abortions.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1111344810/abortion-ban-states-social-safety-net-health-outcomes

Show threadErin Conroy

60% of people seeking abortion care are already moms.

Today is "the first Mother's Day since [GOP's Catholic SCOTUS]...struck down [our] constitutional right to abortion" in Dobbs.

58% of us now live in states where GOP legislatures ban or restrict abortion.

https://time.com/6276047/mothers-day-after-dobbs-abortion/

Flowers and Cards Are Nice. I'd Rather Have Bodily Autonomy

To mark the first Mother's Day since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Aubrey Hirsch drew a comic about the importance of bodily autonomy.

Time
May 14, 2023 at 4:36pmWeb
Show threadErin ConroyMay 14, 2023

The Turnaway Study looked at 1000 women in 21 states, similar when they sought abortions. The women's lives "diverged after in ways that were directly attributable to whether they received an abortion."

Abortion denial harmed women, & their children, for years/a lifetime: higher poverty, more evictions, more food & housing insecurity, debt & bankruptcies, & lower credit scores.

Domestic violence decreased for women who received the abortion, but increased for those denied an abortion.

Show threadErin ConroyMay 14, 2023

Two of the study's subset who were denied abortions, DIED from giving birth.

The study author includes in her book a very representative familial story that shows the lifetime harms to women under religious regimes like the ones the GOP seeks to impose.

Worth reading even just this transcript of her interview with Terry Gross.

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877846258/study-examines-the-lasting-effects-of-having-or-being-denied-an-abortion

Show threadErin ConroyMay 14, 2023

As is clear from clockwork GOP defenses of the murderers of Black men like Jordan Neely & children like Trayvon, by white men feeling vaguely "threatened," the battle to control women's access to abortion is not about morality or "life." It's domination.

As @tzimmer_history writes today, "The Right's political project...is about restoring & entrenching traditional hierarchies of race, gender, religion, & wealth in the local community, in the public square, in the workplace, in the family."

Show threadtoxtethogradyMay 15, 2023
@chargrille @tzimmer_history The Left's political project should be to destroy those hierarchies. Without concern, without pity, and without remorse in the same community, town square, workplace and even family where it has been entrenched...
Show threadErin ConroyMay 15, 2023
@toxtethogrady @tzimmer_history
100% here for this. I started with my own parenting. We worked hard to remember that his consciousnesses was as sensitive as ours (or more so) & give him say in family choices & maximal agency even when it made our “adult” lives harder. I remember what it felt like as a kid to be steamrolled & treated kind of like an animal to be trained. The more I parent, the more I think healthy & egalitarian political systems begin with healthy & egalitarian family relations.
Show threadJohnMasheyMay 14, 2023
@chargrille Indeed, The Turnaway Study is a really important book, well-written, good statistics, compelling personal stories:
https://twitter.com/JohnMashey/status/1540572502857945088 LA90-93
@JohnMashey@(mstdn.social,bsky.social) John Mashey (@JohnMashey) on X

LA90/ Then Dr Schwarz discussed the extensive Turnaway study (>40 researchers over 10 years, ~8,000 interviews, ~50 academic papers), watch https://t.co/0GmxZtagZi

X (formerly Twitter)
Show threadRicardo HarvinMay 14, 2023

@chargrille "Just move", so many white people love to say.

58%

Show threadErin ConroyMay 14, 2023
@ricardoharvin 100%. I hate that response. It's just a way to evade thinking about & taking responsibility to help build the society that works for everyone. We can't just abandon people who are suffering harms, right now, to the bigots.
Show threadRicardo HarvinMay 14, 2023
@chargrille Denial is a helluva drug; so sweetly seductive to far too many.