#miscarriages

Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day:

From constitutional frameworks down to local ordinances, the idea is to give anti-abortion activists the power to criminalize care, intimidate providers, surveil patients, and undermine basic civil liberties. And let’s be clear: They’re not just barreling towards a future without abortion. Conservative lawmakers are chipping away at women’s ability to participate in the public sphere at all—attacking birth control, sex education, and workplace protections. [...]

And that’s the thing: Though conservatives haven’t managed to reduce the number of abortions, they’ve been massively successful in pushing ahead with their broader agenda. They’re playing the long game, working on policies that will come to full fruition in years, not months. Consider their efforts to quash the next generation of abortion providers: States are restricting what future doctors learn about abortion—whether by banning instruction on the procedure, ending partnerships with pro-choice training programs, or just relying on students being too intimidated by “aiding and abetting” laws to seek out such education on their own.

[...]

That’s not to say their legal strategy is all future-looking. Furious that the number of abortions has gone up and women are obtaining care despite state bans, conservatives are going all in on taking down abortion pills and telehealth.

Anti-abortion activists and legislators have taken what’s best described as a spaghetti-at-the-wall approach: major lawsuits to roll back FDA approval; attempts to revive the Comstock Act, and state legislation that classifies the pills as a controlled substance or makes providing them a felony. They’ve been lobbying the FDA and Trump administration using junk science that says mifepristone is unsafe despite all credible evidence to the contrary, and—most recently—have launched a full-scale campaign to claim that abortion pills are poisoning the groundwater, harming the wildlife, and making women infertile. It’s as desperate as it sounds. But with so many balls in the air, they’re sure to catch at least one.

Even with abortion more popular than ever, Republicans wasted no time after Dobbs diving into extremism: So-called "equal protection" bills that would punish patients as murderers were introduced in more than a dozen states this year—with increasing co-sponsors and decreasing pushback. Unable to get enough state legislators on board, the abortion ‘abolitionists’ behind these policies have started running in local elections. And winning.

States have also moved to punish people who help women cross state lines for care—targeting abortion funds, support networks, and even websites that share information about abortion. In Idaho and Tennessee, Republicans passed laws (being battled out in court) that criminalize lending a teen gas money to leave the state for an abortion, or texting them the url of a clinic. Most offensively, lawmakers are doing all this while co-opting terms like ‘trafficking’ and ‘coercion’ to make it seem as if their efforts are all about protecting women. It’s an especially disgusting move given these same legislators will reject even the most nominal ‘exceptions’ for women’s lives or raped children.

The truth? Anti-abortion legislators and activists are intent on creating a culture of fear and punishment. Consider how some states have weaponized civil law—allowing citizens to sue anyone who ‘aids and abets’ abortion. The idea is to strip patients of any community support, sense of safety, or confidence that they can seek care without being snitched on. And though conservatives are spending a lot of time taking out everyone around a patient, it’s only a matter of time before the attacks land squarely and regularly on those who have abortions.

In addition to the rise of ‘equal protection’ bills, Republicans have started to float restrictions on our right to travel and are increasingly pushing legislation to mandate the burial or cremation of pregnancy losses. Why? To open the door for arresting women. More than they already are, that is.

In the first year after Roe was overturned, more than 200 people were arrested on pregnancy-related charges. In just the last few months, we’ve seen a woman in Georgia arrested for her miscarriage, charged with ‘concealing a death’, and a Texas woman spend five months in jail for how she disposed of her miscarriage. In the off chance any woman thought they might be able to lose their pregnancy or self-manage their abortion in peace, conservative lawmakers have redoubled attacks on medical privacy rules in order to access patient records, and ramped up their digital surveillance efforts—whether it’s accessing data from automated license plate readers or your private Facebook messages. [...] What ties all of this together? Fetal personhood—the idea that embryos, fetuses, and even fertilized eggs are constitutional human beings. This notion undergirds every bit of legal strategy, every bill, and every messaging move we’ve seen over the last three years.

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA The Patron of Those Against Fire and Miscarriages Feast Day: April 29

"Eternal God, eternal Trinity, you have made the blood of Christ so precious through his sharing in your divine nature. You are a mystery as deep as the sea; the more I search, the more I find, and the more I find the more I search for you. But I can never be satisfied; what I receive will ever leave me desiring more. When you fill my soul I have an even greater hunger, and I grow more famished for your light. I desire above all to see you, the true light, as you really are." -excerpt from 'The Dialogue of Divine Providence'

One of the few women to be declared Doctor of the Church, Catherine, was born Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa, on the Feast of the Annunciation of Mary - March 25, 1347, in Siena, shortly before the Black Death ravaged Europe. Her parents were Lapa Piagenti, the daughter of a local poet, and Jacopo di Benincasa, a cloth dyer who ran his enterprise with the help of his sons.

At the age of six, after experiencing a vision of our Lord, Catherine consecrated her life to God. When she reached the age of 12, to convince her parents that she would never marry, she cut off her beautiful hair.

Catherine entered the Third Order of St. Dominic in 1365, and led a life of penance and prayer in her house. She was often subjected to trials and desolation.

One day, Catherine exclaimed: 'Oh Lord, where were you when my heart was so sorely troubled with temptations?'

The Lord replied: 'Daughter, I was in your heart, fortifying you by my grace.'

While Siena was celebrating a carnival, Catherine was praying in her room when our Lord appeared to her, accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary and a crowd of the heavenly host. Taking the girl's hand, the Blessed Virgin held it up to her Son, who placed a ring on it and espoused Catherine to himself. Although she cared for the sick and the prisoners, she was unjustly accused of being a fanatic and a hypocrite.

In 1375, as she was praying in the church of St. Cristina in Pisa, she received the stigmata from our Lord according to Raymond of Capua's biography. Because of her holiness, she was constantly called upon to arbitrate feuds and misunderstandings.

In June 1376, Catherine went to Avignon in France, to urge Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, whence the pope has been absent for 74 years.

She spent the rest of her days composing 'The Dialogue of Divine Providence', a book which she wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Besides, Catherine wrote about 400 letters of great interest, all of them remarkable for beauty and spirituality.

Showing a remarkable combination of respect, frankness and familiarity, she called the Pope, 'my sweet daddy,' while reminding him of his obligations as the leader of the Universal Church.

After offering herself as the victim for the Church, Catherine died peacefully in the Lord at the age of 33 on April 29, 1380, having eight days earlier suffered a massive stroke which paralyzed her from the waist down. Her last words were: 'Father, into Your Hands I commend my soul and my spirit.'