"I just want this type of support to be normalized."
August 27, 2015 5:27 PM Subscribe
The Rise of the Abortion Doula
As Abortions Become Harder to Obtain, Pro-Choice Activists Eschew Policy Debates for Flesh and Blood Activism
The Job of an Abortion Doula
My Year As an Abortion Doula
True Story: I’m An Abortion Doula
On Being an Abortion Doula: The range of emotions involved in helping women terminate pregnancies
As Abortions Become Harder to Obtain, Pro-Choice Activists Eschew Policy Debates for Flesh and Blood Activism
The Job of an Abortion Doula
My Year As an Abortion Doula
True Story: I’m An Abortion Doula
On Being an Abortion Doula: The range of emotions involved in helping women terminate pregnancies
At the rate the U.S. is going, we're going to need abortion doulas who work with Jane Collective members.
posted by rtha at 6:07 PM on August 27, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by rtha at 6:07 PM on August 27, 2015 [12 favorites]
We need Jane Collective now more than ever. Doulas are nice, and I applaud the clinics that offer that service, but I really wish there were a Jane Collective that could teach how to perform an abortion, because it's not an available service for the vast majority of women in my state any more.
posted by dejah420 at 6:21 PM on August 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by dejah420 at 6:21 PM on August 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
Next on Fox News: Abortion Draculas -- what the leftist feminazis don't want you to know.
posted by idiopath at 6:43 PM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by idiopath at 6:43 PM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
Jane Collective? What? That was in the 1970's. What in the everfucking year are we in that we are wishing for the Jane Collective? Jesus H. Christ on a stick. That was when abortion was illegal. It is not illegal now, as far as I know, it is just difficult to get one, but by fucking god Roe v. Wade hasn't gone under yet, has it? The right to privacy? Has it gone away now? Has it really? That we are calling up the Jane Collective?
Give me a break. It's still legal to get an abortion in most states. There are some people fighting it and they will have you think they have won, but for goodness sakes, it's still legal.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:30 PM on August 27, 2015
Give me a break. It's still legal to get an abortion in most states. There are some people fighting it and they will have you think they have won, but for goodness sakes, it's still legal.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:30 PM on August 27, 2015
Is a legal right still a right if no one in 500 miles will perform it for you?
Abortion is legal in Texas and Mississippi the same way that buying a pre-ban full-auto machine gun is legal in Washington DC.
Sure, you have the technical "right" on paper, but where are you going to get it?
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:37 PM on August 27, 2015 [43 favorites]
Abortion is legal in Texas and Mississippi the same way that buying a pre-ban full-auto machine gun is legal in Washington DC.
Sure, you have the technical "right" on paper, but where are you going to get it?
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:37 PM on August 27, 2015 [43 favorites]
It's still legal to get an abortion in most states.
It's telling that you have to qualify that -- as everyone knows, it is (as of Augist 27th, 2015) legal to get an abortion in all states but effectively impossible in some.
posted by Etrigan at 8:27 PM on August 27, 2015 [15 favorites]
It's telling that you have to qualify that -- as everyone knows, it is (as of Augist 27th, 2015) legal to get an abortion in all states but effectively impossible in some.
posted by Etrigan at 8:27 PM on August 27, 2015 [15 favorites]
> Give me a break. It's still legal to get an abortion in most states.
Irrelevant if you can't actually get one. There are a number of states where there is one (1) (ONE) provider in the entire state. And there may also be a waiting period, as there is in 26 states - you go, you watch a video to make sure you understand it's really a baby in there! and then you go back 24, 48, 72 hours later, to a clinic that may be hundreds of miles from where you live.
So give me a break, please, and read up on the rise in restrictions placed on availability for hundreds of millions of women in this country, who have the technical right to a legal medical procedure but the de facto inability to receive it without enormous hardship. Like, here's an article from frickin Bloomberg of all places:
So yeah. Jane Collective.
posted by rtha at 8:29 PM on August 27, 2015 [37 favorites]
Irrelevant if you can't actually get one. There are a number of states where there is one (1) (ONE) provider in the entire state. And there may also be a waiting period, as there is in 26 states - you go, you watch a video to make sure you understand it's really a baby in there! and then you go back 24, 48, 72 hours later, to a clinic that may be hundreds of miles from where you live.
So give me a break, please, and read up on the rise in restrictions placed on availability for hundreds of millions of women in this country, who have the technical right to a legal medical procedure but the de facto inability to receive it without enormous hardship. Like, here's an article from frickin Bloomberg of all places:
In November 2013, for instance, after a new law in Texas began requiring that clinics meet stricter building codes and that abortion doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals, 19 facilities stopped performing abortions, leaving 22 in the state. The fate of another dozen or so hung in the balance after the Supreme Court in June 2015 blocked Texas from enforcing the new restrictions at least until the court decides whether to hear arguments in the case. The Texas law is a case study in the way abortion opponents have changed strategies, opting for legislative action over the clinic blockades and violence of the past. Through 2014, states had approved 231 abortion restrictions since a Republican-led state-legislative push began in 2011 — more than had passed in the prior decade.(emphasis mine)
So yeah. Jane Collective.
posted by rtha at 8:29 PM on August 27, 2015 [37 favorites]
There is a difference between impossible to get because illegal and impossible to get because it's been legislatively rendered unavailable, but it is an irrelevant distinction to women who can't get a medical procedure because baybeez.
posted by winna at 8:56 PM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by winna at 8:56 PM on August 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
Give me a break. It's still legal to get an abortion in most states.
Give me a break. Surely you are not so ignorant as to believe that poor rural women in the US have any realistic access to abortion services in a good many States. Surely you recognize that it is impossibly expensive for many women to leave their slave-wages job, pay bus fare to a far-away clinic, pay for an often abusive consultation, pay hotel for the several day waiting period, pay for the actual procedure, and pay for the return trip — to a job they've probably been fired from, for daring to take time off.
Sure, women in the USA technically have access to legal abortion services.
Many do not have anything approaching practical access.
The Jane Collective is undoubtedly required these days. Desperately required.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:16 PM on August 27, 2015 [26 favorites]
Give me a break. Surely you are not so ignorant as to believe that poor rural women in the US have any realistic access to abortion services in a good many States. Surely you recognize that it is impossibly expensive for many women to leave their slave-wages job, pay bus fare to a far-away clinic, pay for an often abusive consultation, pay hotel for the several day waiting period, pay for the actual procedure, and pay for the return trip — to a job they've probably been fired from, for daring to take time off.
Sure, women in the USA technically have access to legal abortion services.
Many do not have anything approaching practical access.
The Jane Collective is undoubtedly required these days. Desperately required.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:16 PM on August 27, 2015 [26 favorites]
Is there anyone who could make a post about the Jane Collective? I would love to learn more about it.
posted by andoatnp at 12:22 AM on August 28, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by andoatnp at 12:22 AM on August 28, 2015 [14 favorites]
Did anyone else find the last article kinda weird?
How do your clients react to your presence?
Sometimes I’ll encounter clients who are incredibly emotional and incredibly forthcoming. Others are just silent and shut down and in their box—going through the motions. Regardless, I have to bring the same core of compassion and offer it in different ways to all of these different clients. Not all of them are interested in receiving it. Of the seven I was with yesterday, five of them were not really interested in connecting. They don’t want to make eye contact. They’re resistant to my offered hand.
They’re not interested in communication, so it challenges me to get creative as to how I can provide compassionate care to someone who is seemingly not wanting to receive it. I believe, nonetheless, that they’re still being affected by my presence, even on an unconscious level.
Uh, you can't force compassion upon someone, and maybe they really want to be left alone? Maybe the last thing they need in that moment is someone standing there subtly insisting that a compassionate witness is necessary for them? Seems like she's telling women how to feel. That would creep me out.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:27 AM on August 28, 2015 [13 favorites]
How do your clients react to your presence?
Sometimes I’ll encounter clients who are incredibly emotional and incredibly forthcoming. Others are just silent and shut down and in their box—going through the motions. Regardless, I have to bring the same core of compassion and offer it in different ways to all of these different clients. Not all of them are interested in receiving it. Of the seven I was with yesterday, five of them were not really interested in connecting. They don’t want to make eye contact. They’re resistant to my offered hand.
They’re not interested in communication, so it challenges me to get creative as to how I can provide compassionate care to someone who is seemingly not wanting to receive it. I believe, nonetheless, that they’re still being affected by my presence, even on an unconscious level.
Uh, you can't force compassion upon someone, and maybe they really want to be left alone? Maybe the last thing they need in that moment is someone standing there subtly insisting that a compassionate witness is necessary for them? Seems like she's telling women how to feel. That would creep me out.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:27 AM on August 28, 2015 [13 favorites]
andoatnp - this comic provides a nice overview
posted by anthropophagous at 7:17 AM on August 28, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by anthropophagous at 7:17 AM on August 28, 2015 [7 favorites]
Here's an article about the consequences of the restrictive laws that have been passed targeting abortion providers.
posted by batbat at 8:02 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by batbat at 8:02 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Thank you batbat!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:17 AM on August 28, 2015
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:17 AM on August 28, 2015
I've had a vague notion of making a Jane a collective post for ages. If no one else runs with it first, I'll maybe see if I can get to it soon.
posted by Stacey at 1:38 PM on August 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Stacey at 1:38 PM on August 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
The more we can do for ourselves & each other, the better off we will be.
"Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West" May 15, 1999 by John M. Riddle. Gives a fine summary about the evolution of the control over women's wombs. Turns out unborn babies became 'property' with the rise of the middle class.
Book also lists the herbs used over the ages as contraceptives and abortificants. Thanks to my dad for telling me about this fascinating resource!
Also years ago, and if anybody remembers the title & author and where it is on the net please let me know, there was an essay in the Whole Earth Review/CoEvolutionary Quarterly about how if a fetus is given legal rights, then it will become a field day for lawyers. Because the mothers can start suing the corporations that are pumping all the toxins into our air, food, and water that are causing the epidemic of infant and childhood cancers and deaths.
My womb, my property.
Compassionate helpers for every life transition is what kindness is all about.
posted by Mesaverdian at 2:24 PM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West" May 15, 1999 by John M. Riddle. Gives a fine summary about the evolution of the control over women's wombs. Turns out unborn babies became 'property' with the rise of the middle class.
Book also lists the herbs used over the ages as contraceptives and abortificants. Thanks to my dad for telling me about this fascinating resource!
Also years ago, and if anybody remembers the title & author and where it is on the net please let me know, there was an essay in the Whole Earth Review/CoEvolutionary Quarterly about how if a fetus is given legal rights, then it will become a field day for lawyers. Because the mothers can start suing the corporations that are pumping all the toxins into our air, food, and water that are causing the epidemic of infant and childhood cancers and deaths.
My womb, my property.
Compassionate helpers for every life transition is what kindness is all about.
posted by Mesaverdian at 2:24 PM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Uh, you can't force compassion upon someone, and maybe they really want to be left alone? Maybe the last thing they need in that moment is someone standing there subtly insisting that a compassionate witness is necessary for them? Seems like she's telling women how to feel. That would creep me out.
This.
I had two utterly not-sad, not-traumatic, non-event abortions (medicational abortion, which essentially induces a miscarriage at home), which felt like an annoying interaction with the medical system but not a particularly Deep Life Event, and it was annoying that everyone around me automatically assumed that this must be a Deep Heavy Intense Sad Experience and acted sad on my behalf because they assumed I must have been having conflicting emotions about it, which I wasn't. No amount of explaining that seemed to change my (relatively close) friends' take on the experience I was having.
posted by girl Mark at 11:17 PM on August 28, 2015 [6 favorites]
This.
I had two utterly not-sad, not-traumatic, non-event abortions (medicational abortion, which essentially induces a miscarriage at home), which felt like an annoying interaction with the medical system but not a particularly Deep Life Event, and it was annoying that everyone around me automatically assumed that this must be a Deep Heavy Intense Sad Experience and acted sad on my behalf because they assumed I must have been having conflicting emotions about it, which I wasn't. No amount of explaining that seemed to change my (relatively close) friends' take on the experience I was having.
posted by girl Mark at 11:17 PM on August 28, 2015 [6 favorites]
anthropophagous that comic is fantastic.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 1:29 AM on August 30, 2015
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 1:29 AM on August 30, 2015
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posted by The corpse in the library at 6:02 PM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]