#American Pregnancy Association

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

For pregnant women in abusive marriages, leaving their is spouse already a difficult decision. Their escape is made even harder in the four states that prevent them from getting a divorce.

Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas all have laws that mandate women seeking a divorce to disclose if they are pregnant, and prohibit judges from finalizing the divorce if they are. No such law exists in Arizona, but judges in practice still will not finalize the divorce of a pregnant woman, according to the American Pregnancy Association.

In Missouri, a law from 1973 requires couples to disclose “whether the wife is pregnant" while filing, and the two must finalize "any arrangements for the custody and support of the children." Justices count the gestating fetus as a child, and have therefore interpreted the law to mean until the pregnancy is finished.

Democratic state Rep. Ashley Aune introduced House Bill 2402 earlier this year, which would remove restrictions around divorcing while pregnant. Aune recently told NPR that "I don't honestly feel very hopeful" about its chance of passing in the Republican-dominated state legislature, but she said she felt compelled to try after hearing harrowing stories from survivors of domestic violence.

"How can you look that person in the eye and say, 'No, I think you should stay with that person,'" Aune said. "That's wild to me."

Activists say that the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 left pregnant women in abusive relationships with even less control over their lives, and less access to vital resources. Marium Durrani, vice president of policy for the National Domestic Violence Hotline told the outlet that the group received a 100% call increase in the year following the ruling.

"We're seeing lots more people citing reproductive coercion, sexual coercion, reproductive abuse, or pregnancy coercion as part of their experience," she said. "I mean, we are getting calls that are very explicitly like 'I am pregnant.' 'I am trying to escape.' 'I cannot get resources where I am or in my state or my locality.'"

If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence, there is help available. The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 800-799-7233. Other resources can be found here.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Eric Hananoki at MMFA:

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, news outlets have published numerous stories documenting how restricted abortion access has medically harmed women across the U.S. In contrast, numerous groups involved with Project 2025, including lead organizer The Heritage Foundation, have falsely claimed over the years that abortions are never medically necessary.  The Associated Press reported that doctors have said “that there are many circumstances in which abortion — meaning the termination of a pregnancy — can be medically necessary,” and AFP wrote that “the scientific consensus” is “that abortion is sometimes medically necessary.” 

Since Dobbs, media outlets have also highlighted cases where state abortion bans have caused significant medical issues.  ABC News talked to “18 women from across 10 states who say their medical care was impacted by abortion bans -- bringing some of them to the brink of death.” ProPublica reported on how doctors “say they can’t give women potentially lifesaving care.” The Washington Post “found that many hospitals have failed to provide specific guidance or policies to help doctors navigate high-stakes decisions over how to interpret new abortion bans — leading to situations where patients are denied care until they are on the brink of permanent injury or death.” And the AP reported this week on how “abortion bans complicate risky pregnancy care.”  Media Matters has documented how Project 2025 seeks to significantly restrict reproductive rights in the country. Multiple Project 2025 partners have also continued to signal that they want to criminalize abortion.

Many groups that are in partnership with Project 2025, such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Family Research Council, American Family Association, and lead sponsor Heritage Foundation, have all pushed anti-abortion misinformation falsely claiming that abortions are never medically necessary.

[odinsblog]

Leave it to fuck boy Elon Musk to always boost the tweets of racists, trans/homophobes and other Christofascists

The American College of Peds is pretty much like a “Crisis Pregnancy Center,” where they actively deceive people into believing that they offer abortions, but in reality they are an anti-abortion, Christian nationalist, hate group. The American College of Peds is running the same okie doke with their fake name (which closely resembles the name of a more respected association, American Academy of Pediatricians) and their proclamations about the LGBTQ community.

Edit: Elon Musk was not “fooled” by this. He’s a racist, crackpot conspiracy theorist who uses his platform to elevate the views of other racists and bigots. This is intentional on his part.

Here is their Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_College_of_Pediatricians

[valrvn]

Survey Results pt. 2

Sorry about the wait, I had a six day work week.

Please Note: Many respondents said they weren't sure of the cause of their fetish, and could only offer suggestions. So again, some of these answers are guesses on the part of participants, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Also, a couple of these graphs are breakdowns by percentage, these are indicated with a '(%)' next to the title

Reported Causes of Respondents' Fetish (%)

*Most respondents who said their fetish stemmed from encountering a pregnant person were young children at the time, a handful were teens. None were adults. Most pointed to pregnant grade school teachers and family members. Only a few cited complete strangers.

*"always had it" refers to respondents who claimed they had an unusual interest in pregnancy for as long as they could remember. Some of these cases started as a more general interest in large/round bellies that later crystalized into an interest with pregnancy.

*"kink osmosis" refers to those who developed their pregnancy fetish through other similar/connected fetishes.

*"didn't know" refers to those who claimed to not know (obviously) and offered no suggestions or guesses.

*"association of pregnancy with sex" refers mainly to those who first made the connection between pregnancy and sex in their childhood/early teens. Things like the first picture of a naked woman they ever saw being of a pregnant woman, leading them to subconsciously associate pregnancy with sex/sexuality.

*"playing pretend" refers to those who reported developing the fetish after playing pretend (either with dolls or with friends) as young children. NOT TO BE confused with those who claimed they would explore their interest/fetish through play, but didn't actually derive it from said play.

Types of Fetishes Which led to the Development of the Respondent's Pregnancy Fetish

*Many cited just a belly kink without going into further detail

Kink Osmosis (When Developed) Breakdown (%)

*As expected, only a small minority of respondents who cited kink osmosis as the source of their pregnancy fetish reported developing their pregnancy fetish during childhood.

*People who developed their pregnancy kink in adulthood are hugely over-represented in this category.

Types of Media Cited in by Respondents who Blamed Media Exposure (%)

*Many people specifically cited cartoon episodes where characters would get fat/round/inflated.

*Media cited by multiple respondents included Birth Stories 2000-2004 (a Canadian documentary TV series), A Baby Story 1998-2007 (an American reality show that ran on the Discovery Channel and TLC), Birth Day 2000- (an American TV series), The Fairly Oddparents 2001-2017 (specifically the episode where Cosmo gets pregnant), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which adaptation was never specified), the Aliens franchise, Men in Black II (2002), and The Sims.

Breakdown of Responses by Those who Stated that the Interest in Pregnancy was Always There

Gender of Respondents who Cited Fear as the Cause of their Fetish

Gender of Respondents who Cited Their Gender as the Cause of their Fetish

*Cis men reported their fetish as stemming from a need to prove their masculinity/male identity, cited a lack of confidence in said masculinity

*Trans women often cited gender euphoria associated with fantasies of pregnancy

*most trans men, AFAB NB people, and cis women cited a discomfort or fear regarding their ability to become pregnant, though a few trans men and AFAB NB also claimed that transitioning led to them reclaiming their reproductive abilities.

Types of Experiences Among Those who Cited Personal Experience as the Cause of their Fetish

A FEW NOTES

*two people specifically cited the art of metalforever on DeviantArt as the cause of their fetish

*YouTube was cited by 13 people, specifically birth videos, and in one case, those Elsa Spider-Man content farm videos.

*fanfiction and fanart were also a common source of people's fetishes

*6 people pointed to a parents/close relatives or family friends who were medical professionals who worked regularly with pregnant patients (midwives, nurses, doctors, OBGYNs).

*23 people recounted 'playing pretend' as young children and acting out scenarios involving pregnancy and/or birth.

[follow-up-news]

A solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban as a rising number support access to abortions for any reason, a new poll finds, highlighting a politically perilous situation for candidates who oppose abortion rights as the November election draws closer. Around 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s an increase from June 2021, a year before the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure, when about half of Americans thought legal abortion should be possible under these circumstances. Americans are largely opposed to the strict bans that have taken effect in Republican-controlled states since the high court’s ruling two years ago. Full bans, with limited exceptions, have gone into effect in 14 GOP-led states, while three other states prohibit abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before women often realize they’re pregnant. They are also overwhelmingly against national abortion bans and restrictions. And views toward abortion — which have long been relatively stable — may be getting more permissive.

[laurentspeach]

capri lore i literally just made up

-mainland of akielos invaded isthima a few hundred years pre canon, there’s still a lot of tension between them. akielos considered isthima “underdeveloped” and thought they needed to adapt mainland culture

-veretian women more oppressed than akielon women, a lot of veretian women moved to akielos post alliance

-patran culture similar to byzantine culture

-slave labour used to be legal in akielos but was outlawed like 100 years before sexual slavery was. their slave labour system was also the “debt labour” thing in ancient cultures where if you were in debt to someone you’d be their slave/servant for a specific amount of time before your debt was cleared

-same sex coupling is common in both countries, but it’s rare to marry. coupling between two women less common + accepted in akielos until veretian women moved there

-vere worships one god while akielos worships multiple (though mootie suggested they have the same gods under different names which i also like)

-vere in general is more religious than akielos

-akielos is richer in precious gems and spices, vere richer in salt and silver, patras richer in gold

-southern akielons have a very warm and slow accent, like a southern american drawl

-southern akielons also prize hospitality more than anywhere else

-vask’s less physically capable women are usually concubines, there are some male ones but not as many bc they don’t want to risk pregnancy from an unfit male

-akielon noblewomen wear veils a lot of the time—not the ones that cover their face, but over their hair, and it’s usually sheer. used to deflect the suns light from making the top of their dark hair burning hot lol

-akielon women tend to be curvier than veretian women, but not necessarily taller

-a lot of isthimans have brightly coloured eyes, but their complexion is darker than most mainlanders (mostly bc they’re out in the sun more)

-paler skin isn’t more prized in akielos, damen is just weird. pale skin is associated with vere, so is generally looked down upon by most akielons

-akielos’s main meat consumption is seafood and lamb, vere has more beef and chicken

-only rich women can play sports in vere, and only particular ones, all women can play all sports in akielos

-female soldiers in akielos don’t have their own tents, men are just expected to behave, which they do most of the time

-there are what would be considered “clubs” today in akielos, where there’s dancers on a raised stage. mostly women, but some men

-akielons are generally better dancers than veretians

-akielons don’t generally like spicy food, but it’s more common than in vere. patrans like their spicy food though, so the spice trade is big between patras and akielos

-in aleron’s court, female pets would perform as well, since there were noblewomen in power back before the regent cast them all out

[acti-veg]

Hey, acti!

I wanted to ask if you have any resources on vegan pregnancies. Maybe some of your followers can recommend books or the like (English or German)? I found a few cookbooks but maybe some are more in-depth than others. I mostly want to be able to calm down "worried" relatives and be prepared for things that I might have to supplement differently (or whatevs).

Thanks a bunch in advance!

Hey anon, congratulations first and foremost! The American Dietetic Association state the following:

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. The NHS holds a similar position, with some more advice on particular nutrients to look out for and supplements to take here. healthline have a good guide too, that one is here. World of Vegan have an excellent page with a lot of other recommended reading here. There is an exhaustive guide to vegan pregnancy nutrition by a doctor here, you also may find this post interesting from the perspective of someone who has been through it. There are loads of books on the topic, you can find a list here. I hope that helps!

[sassyfrassboss]

I wonder if the pushback Meghan and Harry are receiving is also a trauma induced choc after covid. I mean it is so global, almost systematic and it's a good thing but they are also so many people who are awful but don't receive that much attention. Even I, like I didn't really care about them because I can't stand Harry but the Oprah interview changed it. The race baiting in particular but also their handling of the mental health problems (too much buzz words and word salad) and the lies....

What I'm saying is that I was wondering if it's also the fact that after so many people lost their family's members without being able to say goodbye we had to see priviledge people moan and attack their own family. And then the so public death of Philip and the so public widowhood of the Queen.

I say that because I was listenning music in shuffle mode and it went on "For those who can't be here" and I remembered when I heard it first. I just learnt the death of a friend. I can't listen to it now actually because I cry each time. I remember, I thought about Catherine, that she gets it. She understands, she thinks about these things. She associated herself with the right song at the right time.

I just wondered if it's the same thing with the Oprah interview. When people see H&M now they feel again the anger of that behaviour at that time.

I was just having this conversation with my mom the other day.

The total lack of awareness when they were being interview, even in the Netflix doc, was beyond the scope of rationale.

A, at the time, 37 year old man complaining his father cut him off financially and that it was lucky his mum gave him $20m otherwise they wouldn't have had anything.

I remember at this time inflation was starting to hit, people were losing their jobs, their homes, family members, etc...

But yet the WORLD was supposed to feel badly for the "Princess in the Tower" because no one was fawning over her during her pregnancy and treating her unborn child as if it was the next Emperor of the Universe. We were supposed to feel badly that the press justifiably vilified her for her lies and her attitude and her bullying. We were supposed to feel badly that while many people went to bed hungry she was crying in an opera box wearing thousands in jewels and clothing.

My favorite part was in Netflix when they acted like they were so destitute and had a hard time affording their $15M mansion.

Like what???

You know what I do when I really really really want something I can't afford? I either let of that dream or I set aside $$$ each month so I can eventually afford what I want.

But yet these two are here whining about how they just had to have that house and were going to do whatever they could to get it. Or whoever they could hahaha.

I truly think they are way past their sell by date. No one cares for them anymore and people have moved on with their lives. Americans could care less about H&M because many of us are worrying the F*** out over the 6-9% cost of living increase and the fact that some groceries have gone up 75% in the past two years.

[darkmaga-retard]

Story at-a-glance

Natural light is a crucial nutrient many of us lack. When ultraviolet (UV) light enters the bloodstream, it can unlock phenomenal health benefits

In the 1930s, ultraviolet blood irradiation (UVBI) emerged as a revolutionary treatment. Hospitals across America adopted it, and it produced miraculous results for patients, demonstrating remarkable efficacy against a wide range of conditions (e.g., infections, autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease, and pregnancy issues)

Unable to monopolize the therapy, the American Medical Association (AMA) published a flawed study that discredited UVBI, leading to its decline in the U.S. However, Russia and Germany continued to recognize its value, conducting decades of research proving UVBI’s utility for various challenging medical conditions

In America, UVBI is primarily used by integrative practitioners to treat complex illnesses that do not respond to other therapies such as Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, spike protein injuries, and chronic migraines

[rapeculturerealities]

A pregnant woman traveled to Oregon get an abortion due to the Louisiana ban | CNN

Victoria’s story about the distance she traveled and the hardships she endured to get an abortion reflects a wider American reality, where women seeking the procedure must navigate through a patchwork of states with varying levels of access.

The average travel time to an abortion facility more than tripled, from less than 30 minutes to more than an hour and a half, after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to a November study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for women in Texas and Louisiana, average travel times to the nearest abortion facility were seven hours longer – almost a full workday in travel time to get an abortion.

Victoria says she was grateful she could drop everything and afford to spend $1,000 for the procedure, including same-week airfare with connections both ways and appointment and medication fees.

“It was so hard for me wrap my head around the fact that I was able to do this, but I’m one of the lucky ones and that there are so many women who are in much tighter positions,” Victoria said. “And, God, what are they going to do?”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day:

I remember the feeling of hands inside me. Pulling, tugging, moving things aside. My emergency c-section wasn’t painful, but that feeling of being invaded was somehow worse than physical hurt. For years, the thought of the surgery would send me into a PTSD panic, my knees literally buckling and vomit coming up the back of my throat. In my memory, my arms are tied down while I’m being cut—but I know that’s not true. It’s just my brain’s way of making the powerlessness of the moment seem tangible. 

Because I was so early in my pregnancy, just 28 weeks along, doctors had to cut me both horizontally and vertically, making it life-threatening for me to have a vaginal birth in the future and increasing my risk for uterine rupture. I didn’t know it then, but I would never have another child.  So when I see anti-abortion groups blithely suggesting that women with life-threatening pregnancies should be forced into c-sections rather than easier, safer, and less traumatic abortions—it feels personal. Because I chose my medical nightmare; it was necessary to save both my life and my daughter’s. I can’t imagine the horror of going through such a thing unnecessarily, or at 16 weeks pregnant instead of 28. What if my tied-down arms weren’t a post-traumatic illusion, but a legal reality?

For nearly a year, I’ve been tracking this growing strategy: Some of the most powerful anti-abortion organizations in the country are using carefully-worded legislation and seemingly-credible clinical recommendations to codify medical atrocities—pushing doctors to force pregnant women into unnecessary labor and c-sections, even before fetal viability and sometimes even when a fetus has died. Why would anyone do such a thing? The answer is as simple as it is awful: Anti-abortion groups and lawmakers want to prove that abortion is never necessary to save a person’s life. The problem is that they know pregnancy can be deadly, especially in the United States. Rather than admit abortion can be life-saving, their solution is to force doctors to end deadly pregnancies in any other way—even if it means torturing women in the process. 

Anti-abortion lawmakers and activists are so desperate to divorce abortion from health care, they’d prefer to see us dead than allow critically ill women to get care they disagree with.  I mean that literally. This is how they kill us. With the sly shifting of medical standards and surreptitiously-placed legislative language. Because while these people are cruel, they’re certainly not stupid. Anti-abortion extremists know the only way to normalize medical torture is to move quietly and slowly.  After all, dystopias aren’t created in a day. They’re built, law by law and talking point by talking point, through medical regulations, bureaucracy, and fear. From a Supreme Court ruling in Idaho to timid guidance from hospital administrators in Louisiana—anti-abortion groups don’t need to own up to their grim vision when they have others embedding the nightmare bit by bit. 

That’s not to say they haven’t been busy themselves. Using extremist groups with credible-sounding names—like American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs or the Charlotte Lozier Institute—the anti-abortion movement has carefully disguised radical calls to hurt women as simple scientific recommendations. They’ve inserted the nonsense term ‘maternal fetal separation’ into legislation, court cases and conservative talking points, removing ‘abortion’ in an attempt to further the lie that the procedure is never necessary. They've published papers and trotted out ‘experts’ who claim it’s “medically standard” to force women into c-sections or vaginal labor when their lives are at risk. Again, even when it’s too early for a fetus to survive.

Anti-abortion legislators have done their job too, passing laws that allow their state to define what conditions are life-threatening during pregnancy and the best course of action for doctors. They’ve written mandates that emergency terminations be performed in a way that “provides the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive.” If states must be forced to save women’s lives, it appears, they’ll make sure we suffer greatly for the trouble.  It’s not a coincidence that reports coming out of anti-abortion states show a sharp rise in c-sections. With their license and freedom on the line, doctors and hospitals are falling in line. One Texas OBGYN who was directed to give a septic patient a hysterotomy told researchers, “The morbidity is going to be insane.”

To people who value fetuses above women, that’s a price they’re willing to pay. Indeed, all of this cruelty starts to make morbid sense when you understand that the broader anti-abortion goal goes beyond forced c-sections or redefining medical standards. They are trying to make Americans numb to women suffering and dying during pregnancy. They’re treating it as unpreventable—natural, even—so that voters don’t bat an eye when the maternal mortality numbers skyrocket. 

Jessica Valenti reports on the rise of c-sections post-Roe and dishonest efforts to divorce abortion from healthcare by anti-abortion zealots in her Abortion, Every Day blog.

[odinsblog]

Funny how SCOTUS “originalists” ignore this history

Benjamin Franklin is revered in history for his fixation on inventing practical ways to make everyday life easier. He was a prolific inventor and author, and spent his life tinkering and writing to share his knowledge with the masses.

One of the more surprising areas Franklin wanted to demystify for the average American? At-home abortions.

Molly Farrell is an associate professor of English at the Ohio State University and studies early American literature. She authored a recent Slate article that suggests Franklin’s role in facilitating at-home abortions all started with a popular British math textbook.

Titled The Instructor and written by George Fisher, which Farrell said was a pseudonym, the textbook was a catch-all manual that included plenty of useful information for the average person. It had the alphabet, basic arithmetic, recipes, and farriery (which is hoof care for horses). At the time, books were very expensive, and a general manual like this one was a practical choice for many families.

Franklin saw the value of this book, and decided to create an updated version for residents of the U.S, telling readers his goal was to make the text “more immediately useful to Americans.” This included updating city names, adding Colonial history, and other minor tweaks.

But as Farrell describes, the most significant change in the book was swapping out a section that included a medical textbook from London, with a Virginia medical handbook from 1734 called Every Man His Own Doctor: The Poor Planter’s Physician.

This medical handbook provided home remedies for a variety of ailments, allowing people to handle their more minor illnesses at home, like a fever or gout. One entry, however, was “for the suppression of the courses”, which Farrell discovered meant a missed menstrual period.

“The book starts to prescribe basically all of the best-known herbal abortifacients and contraceptives that were circulating at the time,” Farrell said. “It's just sort of a greatest hits of what 18th-century herbalists would have given a woman who wanted to end a pregnancy early.”

“It's very explicit, very detailed, also very accurate for the time in terms of what was known ... for how to end a pregnancy pretty early on.”

Including this information in a widely circulated guide for everyday life bears a significance to today’s heated debate over access to abortion and contraception in the United States. In particular, the leaked Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade and states that “a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation's histories and traditions.”

Farrell said the book was immensely popular, and she did not find any evidence of objections to the inclusion of the section.

“It didn't really bother anybody that a typical instructional manual could include material like this,”she said. “It just wasn't something to be remarked upon. It was just a part of everyday life.”

(continue reading) more ←

[dreamsandscenes]

“Tommy only married Grace because she got pregnant”. (Let’s just ignore that they were together for about 2 years before they actually got married, I guess) But if he didn’t want to marry her/be with her, he could’ve very easily told her to go back to her American husband.

It wasn’t like she was alone and going to struggle and be shamed by society for having a baby out of wedlock as a single woman. He wasn’t leaving her to fend for herself with a child on the streets. She didn’t need him to take care of her; she was already married, so she would’ve been fine. If he didn’t want to be with her, Grace could’ve simply told her husband the baby was his and then gone back to America with him to live life as a wealthy housewife. It actually would’ve been easier for everybody if this had happened. It certainly would’ve been safer for Grace.

Tommy and Grace choosing to be together was the hardest option for them. Grace getting a divorce was challenging at that time in history. It seems that Clive may have refused to divorce too, since it took 2 years for Tommy and Grace to actually get married and even then, Grace is only allowed to because by that time, Clive is dead and she is a widow.

Leaving Clive would’ve meant Grace lost pretty much everything - her house in New York, any money she had, most likely all of her possessions were stuck in New York too, and I can’t imagine a lot of her family/friends would’ve wanted to associate with her due to her getting a divorce and living with another man. Choosing to end her marriage, and be with Tommy, probably left the rest of her life in shambles.

Tommy and Grace living together out of wedlock, with Grace being married to someone else, would’ve also been hard for them to deal with at the time, due to the societal standards. A lot of people would’ve looked down on both of them, and shunned them for that. It just wasn’t accepted.

Not to mention, Tommy’s family hated Grace. I can’t imagine that would be a fun experience for either of them to deal with. The Shelby’s are not the type to be polite and keep their mouths shut.

There were so many reasons for Tommy and Grace to choose not to be together and get married. I love them both, but I can take my shipper goggles off and recognise that it wasn’t the smartest decision for them to decide to be together. But they did. They CHOSE to do that, no matter how hard it would be, because they wanted to be together. Why would either of them choose to go through all that if they didn’t love each other? If they didn’t truly want that, they simply wouldn’t have done it. Tommy would’ve have just let her go back to America. The pregnancy didn’t force them to be together

[torchlitinthedesert]

Transcript under the cut.

Paul

"Life had just started to get a bit messy when Linda became pregnant with Mary. Allen Klein [the American business manager] was involved iwtht he Beatles and, over the year, things seemed to get more chaotic and worrying. Then, the miracle: our Mary. The chaos got pushed to one side and all I cared about was being a dad. But there was still a lot of unpleasantness flying around, so in the end I said: "Let's get out of here, go to Scotland and be a family." It wasn't planned, but Mary came at exactly the right time. She changed my perspective to a degree where I could look at what was happening with the Beatles and think, "Does it really matter?"

If you were a dad in the late 1960s, you were part of taht first wave who got involved with the whole process of pregnancy and birth. One afternoon I remember going down to the local Family Planning Association and picking up a booklet called You Are Having A New Baby. I loved reading it: "At this-many-weeks, your baby will be as big as an orange." And then being there at the birth! In my dad's day, that would have been unheard of.

My first solo album came out in 1970 and I decided to use one of Linda's photos of me and Mary on the cover. This tiny head poking out from the inside of my jacket. These days you wouldn't do it because it feels dangerous to put pictures of your kids out there, but back then we weren't bothered. A lot of musical acquiantances warned me that being a dad would change my professional life. You can't take kids on tour, you can't have them in the sutdio. My professional life did change because I was no longer in the band, but I was still writing and recording. For the first Wings tour in 1972 we simply packed a load of nappies and toys and took the kids with us.

Later, when they were at school, I'd have a word with the headmaster. "Look, we'll be away for six weeks and I don't relish the thought of getting a call in Australia saying something happened to one of the kids." The school gave us a list of the lessons they'd be missing and we took a tutor with us, which the kids hated. They saw it as a six-week holiday. Like all parents, we were dreading the rebellious teens, but the most rebellion we had from Mary and Stella was having to listen to Wham! all day long. Looking back, I guess that wasn't too bad.

In 1998 Mary and the kids lost their mum and I lost … Linda. I knew it was my job to be “strong Dad who keeps it together”, but you can’t do that the whole time unless you completely hide your feelings. Eventually my emotions started leaking out. That’s when the roles were reversed and the kids rallied round me. We got through it, but we all struggled because she was the glue that held everything together.

Linda would have been so happy to see how far vegetarianism has come since we started the food business [in 1991]. And now Mary’s continuing the tradition with her own vegan cooking show. Yes, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved musically, but I’m also proud that Linda played such a big part in bringing vegetarian food into people’s homes.

Christmas and new year were a big family thing when I was a kid, so I keep the tradition going. Me and Nancy [Shevell, whom he married in 2011] like to go to Mary’s, the grandkids running around with their new toys. I do it for them as much as me — I want them to experience the same joy I felt at their age. That connection with family is what keeps me sane. I’ve got my fingers crossed for 2022. Like everyone, I’m hoping we’ll get a chance to do some of the things we’ve missed out on, see the people we love. It’ll be nice to have a bit more normality.

Mary

My earliest memories are split between London and the farm in Scotland. The excitement of city life versus absolute solitude. It was still exciting but in a different way: riding ponies, climbing trees, helping Mum in the kitchen. And the sound of Dad’s guitar.

It makes me laugh now, but there were some afternoons when we’d be watching cartoons and Dad would wander over with his guitar. He’d sit down and start playing this beautiful music, messing around with melodies and songs. We’d all give him an evil stare. “Dad, we’re watching telly. Go in the kitchen.” One time he said: “Do you know how many people would love to be sitting here now, listening to me play guitar?” I just shrugged. “But we can’t hear The Wombles.”

Being a vegetarian family in the late 1970s marked you out as different. Everybody said it was all Mum’s idea and she’d forced Dad to stop eating meat, but they did it as a team. I remember them discussing recipes and Dad saying he still wanted something he could slice for his Sunday roast. Mum was always excited about cooking and she inspired me. Dad’s pretty good in the kitchen — he’d make a great sous-chef. If you ask him to sort out the mashed potato, it’ll be the best you’ve ever tasted. He’s meticulous, just like he is in the studio.

Of course people made fun of Mum and Dad for being veggie. They made fun of Mum for a lot of things, saying she wasn’t a real musician, she wore odd socks and charity-shop jumpers. The real problem was that she didn’t fit the mould of the woman they wanted Paul McCartney to marry. They wanted someone who went to all the chichi parties, but Mum was more interested in feeding the animals on the farm.

Mum and Dad insisted we went to the local comprehensive school, which made me feel a bit awkward at the time. I’d be in school for a term, then off on tour. When I came back, all my friends had made new friends. Now, when I look back, I realise what a smart move it was. It kept us grounded.

Dad was almost too enthusiastic when it came to helping with homework. On my own I could knock it off in half an hour but Dad would get out the encyclopaedia, he’d be cross-referencing and drawing graphs. The teachers must have got suspicious when I gave in these ridiculously detailed essays. Dad said education changed his life and he wanted to pass that love of learning on to us.

I look at Dad and think, after all he’s been through, how has he managed to stay in one piece? He has found a way of keeping a level head, no matter what else is happening in his life. My own personal theory — I’ve not talked to Dad about this — is that he needs normality because that’s what inspires him. Real life and real people. That’s where all the music comes from.

Every year that goes by I seem to find a new level of admiration for what Dad has achieved — and Mum too. My husband and I have this game where we try to get through a day without coming across a reference to Dad or the Beatles. What usually happens is that I get to around nine o’clock, then something comes on the radio or I see an ad for the new Beatles documentary.

I do listen to the Beatles at home, but it’s the Wings stuff I play the most. Mum’s not around any more, but when she’s doing her backing vocals I can still hear her and Dad together. There’s a song called I Am Your Singer — that always gets me. “When day is done, harmonies will linger on.”

[batboyblog]

dispatches from Republican America, Jan 24 2024

Texas:

“Texas saw an estimated 26,313 rape-related pregnancies during the 16 months after the state outlawed all abortions, with no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association,”

“The authors noted that while some pregnant rape survivors who need abortion care may be able to travel out of state or manage the pregnancy at home with abortion pills, the bans leave many survivors without a viable alternative.”

Oklahoma:

On Tuesday, Oklahoma's superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters, announced he was appointing right-wing social media influencer Chaya Raichik — best known for her controversial Libs of TikTok social media accounts — to an advisory role on the state's Library Media Advisory Committee. That will allow her to help determine which books are appropriate for Oklahoma school libraries.

Raichik's social media accounts are known for targeting liberals, LGBTQ people and teachers. Often, she uses incendiary claims and conspiracy theories to suggest without evidence that members of these groups engage in the indoctrination or sexual exploitation of children. And both Raichik and Walters have been accused of stoking bomb threats toward people and places featured in Raichik's videos: Walters has faced calls to resign over claims that he helped incite bomb threats toward a librarian when he reshared an edited Libs of TikTok video. That video also led to bomb threats against his home; Walters called such threats "reprehensible and unacceptable," according to KOCO News, and said they were being investigated. Raichik, meanwhile, has been accused of inciting threats against hospitals and schools.

Ohio:

Ohio has banned gender-affirming care for minors and restricted transgender women’s and girls’ participation on sports teams, a move that has families of transgender children scrambling over how best to care for them.

The Republican-dominated Senate voted Wednesday to override GOP Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto. The new law bans gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies, and restricts mental health care for transgender individuals under 18. The measure also bans transgender girls and women from girls and women’s sports teams at both the K-12 and collegiate level.

Officials expect the law to take effect in roughly 90 days. 

Texas (again):

Texas is apparently taking advantage of a loophole in a recent Supreme Court ruling involving the US-Mexico border in order to keep putting up more razor-wire fencing along the Rio Grande riverbank.

The Supreme Court's 5-4 Monday ruling delivered a huge win to the Biden administration in its ongoing legal battle with Texas over the southern border by allowing federal border agents to cut or move barbed wire fencing the Republican-controlled state installed at the border.

The ruling does not call for Texas to take any action in the matter — and the state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, suggested in a post to X on Wednesday that Texas will keep putting up the fencing, even if federal border agents take it down.

"Texas' razor wire is an effective deterrent against the illegal border crossings encouraged by [President Joe] Biden's open border policies," Abbott said. "We continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration."

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Major conservative influencers on social media platforms such as Twitter and Rumble have coalesced in recent months around talking points that connect birth control with a variety of negative health outcomes, which experts say instill fear in women who could otherwise benefit from using birth control.

But the information the influencers are referring to lacks crucial context, says Dr. Danielle Jones, an OB-GYN, and they fail to include recent scientific developments that challenge their narrative.

Tim Pool, Ben Shapiro and Steve Bannon have all made anti-birth control content in the past six months. Sometimes, they feature female conservative personalities who make content about women’s issues.

Alex Clark, who hosts a pop culture show for the youth conservative messaging organization Turning Point USA, is one conservative woman who has railed against hormonal birth control in recent months. The progressive watchdog publication Media Matters for America first reported that Clark said her “mission” is “to get young women off this pill.” In a response sent in a direct message, Clark wrote “Birth control can be right for some in some cases, but we shouldn’t just take it blindly because of acne and we shouldn’t treat it as the default for all women.”

While some strains of conservative politics have spent years attacking birth control, the more recent resurgence of anti-birth control talking points comes alongside a broader push from online conservative creators against the medical establishment and treatments from vaccines to gender-affirming care, all of which have been recommended in certain circumstances by the American Medical Association. In her response, Clark called birth control “synthetic,” as opposed to pregnancy, which she called “natural.”

The social media trend of attacking birth control has also coincided with legal and legislative efforts targeting birth control access, most notably emergency contraceptives. In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling that revoked the constitutional right to an abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court “should reconsider” other decisions, including those codifying the right to contraceptive access.

Jones, who is also a YouTube creator with 1.2 million subscribers, has made multiple videos discussing the rhetoric around reproductive health. In an interview, she said the primary tactic she’s observed on social media to undermine birth control has been “to take a study that backs up what they’re saying, then use that to draw some extravagant conclusion.”

“It’s thinly veiled, but it’s veiled enough that the average person often doesn’t identify it,” she said.

Many videos point to a 2018 study that found an association between taking hormonal birth control and suicide attempts and suicide in women in Denmark. But researchers and physicians who have cited the study have urged patients not to stop using hormonal birth control. Rather, health care experts have said that doctors should discuss any potential mood effects of the medication with patients, as other studies have contradicted the 2018 study, and pregnancy can also have mood side effects.

Ashley St. Clair, who has more than 673,000 Twitter followers, referred to the association suggested in the study in a tweet in which she said “Did you know the birth control pill increases risk of suicide and suicidal ideations?” In June, Twitter owner Elon Musk liked a number of anti-birth control tweets, including St. Clair’s tweet.

Jones said the 2018 Dutch study into suicide and hormonal birth control was “really important and well-done.”

But she said just reading the 2018 study’s abstract and drawing conclusions from that alone is lacking crucial context when making medical decisions. Primarily, she said, the risks of contraceptive use are not compared to the same risks in pregnancy, which she said are higher. The 2018 study specifically acknowledges that pregnancy also has association with higher rates of suicide.

In a phone interview, St. Clair said she believes women are being put on birth control at a young age without being told the risks of depression and suicidal thoughts.

“I was on it at 14 and I wasn’t told these things,” she said. “I really believe there needs to be more education for women around this.”

Similarly, Clark wrote in her response to NBC News that she wants patients to be “radically thoughtful” about making medical decisions.

“That starts with understanding the potential side effects, not downplaying them,” she wrote.

Jones tells her own social media audience to consider the motivation of people who post about birth control online. Oftentimes, they’re coming from a religious or political perspective, or they’re trying to sell something, she said, adding they are neglecting the scientific consensus in favor of alarmist sentiments. She pointed out that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended that birth control be offered over the counter to anyone.

“There’s extensive data on this,” she said. “If birth control is safe enough to advocate that it should be over the counter, there’s absolutely no reason it should start to become a topic of legislation about who can access it and why.”

Still, Jones said, the way conservative influencers weaponize research about birth control's side effects has a real-world effect.

She said it is a daily occurrence for women at her practice to decline using hormonal birth control out of fear that it will cause permanent changes to their body and fertility.

“You basically are scaring people out of using birth control and not even comparing it to pregnancy,” Jones said.

In place of birth control, she said, many conservatives have taken a page from the natural health community and promoted cycle tracking and other fertility awareness methods. Several of the female conservative influencers write for and share articles from Evie Magazine, a media company whose founder also created a cycle-tracking startup called 28 by Evie. Conservative billionaire tech titan Peter Thiel has invested in the startup and more recently in fertility companies targeting international markets. During her interview, St. Clair also suggested that women should be taught to track their cycles as an alternative to medication birth control.

But, Jones said, fertility awareness methods to prevent pregnancy could fail “even in the most experienced person.” They require taking the temperature every day before getting out of bed, monitoring cervical mucus and knowing exactly what to look for, keeping track of all of these things on a chart, and avoiding intercourse or using another method to prevent pregnancy within the fertile window, she said.

According to the Mayo Clinic, fertility cycle tracking is among the least effective types of birth control, and that effectiveness varies by couple. It said that as many as 24 out of 100 women who use natural family planning will become pregnant within the first year. A 2021 study of period-tracking apps for fertility planning found that out of 10 apps used, all of them gave conflicting dates of fertility, most of which were incorrect.

“People get pregnant because they didn’t know they had to do all these things to make that effective,” she said.