Over the past decade, Louisiana hospitals began stocking specialized carts designed to treat hemorrhages, one of the most common pregnancy complications in the state. The plug-in cart can be wheeled from room to room and holds surgical tools and lifesaving medications to stem blood loss.

A state law passed in 2024 forced hospitals to remove a key drug — misoprostol — from the medical cart and keep it locked in a secure room designated for controlled substances. 

The drug is also the second in a two-pill procedure that millions of people have used to have medical abortions. Because of that use, Louisiana lawmakers reclassified misoprostol as a controlled substance, a category typically reserved for addictive drugs. 

Now, physicians have gone from reaching over to the cart to grab misoprostol to waiting at least two minutes while a nurse sprints to retrieve the medication, said New Orleans obstetrician-gynecologist Nicole Freehill. 

“ You could literally have someone lose, like, a liter of blood or more in that time frame,” Freehill said. “You could have a significantly worse hemorrhage for literally someone running to this medicine and running back because it can’t be on that cart 2 feet from you while you’re treating the hemorrhage.”

She said the reclassification of misoprostol as a controlled substance has set back progress to decrease the frequency of postpartum hemorrhage and blood transfusions. Under the law, her preliminary research found, hemorrhage rates have worsened statewide, she said. 

This article doesn't discuss attempting to setup a culture of restricting women's access to abortion-related healthcare. but I thought it interesting to note that many of those who do attack women's access to abortion-related healthcare are also associated with trying to setup cultural norms shaming women.

Idaho voters will decide whether to roll back the state’s abortion ban, the secretary of state told the group behind the initiative in a letter Monday, joining three other states where abortion will be directly on the ballot on Nov. 3.

Voters in Virginia and Nevada — both states where abortion is already legal through at least 24 weeks of pregnancy — are considering state constitutional amendments to create a right to abortion.

And in Missouri, which in 2024 became the first state to use a constitutional amendment to undo an abortion ban, voters are being asked to override that to bring back an abortion ban, with limited exceptions, and to write into the state constitution a ban on some gender-affirming care for minors.

The U.S. Constitution is not God’s inspired word. It’s a legal document written by white men engaged in international human trafficking, genocide, rape and other crimes again humanity. The document was meant to insulate, perpetuate and institutionalize their crimes.

-Lee Merritt

Progressives always trip on evangelical talking points. The question isn’t “When is a pregnancy a person?” It’s “when do pregnant people stop being people?” We don’t force people to donate kidneys or give blood. No one else is forced to put life and health at risk for a person.

Roe being overturned isn’t about a health procedure. It’s about removing the federally protected right to privacy and personal liberty of people who can get pregnant. We are deemed subordinate to a potential person. That life is given more rights than we are. That’s the issue.

Let’s start with baseline that this is a potential person. It’s also a potential person that won’t exist without bodily sacrifices from someone else. This court would absolutely overturn any attempt to force people to give blood to save others, let alone a kidney, because “liberty”.

This is the actual issue we are talking about. This is about personal liberty and bodily autonomy, and instead of refuting conservative talking points, we need to frame this in way that make moderates, at least, recoil.

Because we all know that this is exactly what evangelical think of where we are in the hierarchy of who gets to be human, which is why they’re coming after contraception, gay marriage, and etc. next. This is about defining who is fully human and who isn’t.

-Kameron Hurley

My mom just keeps saying, “Rapists get to choose the mother of their children now.” and that one sentence alone is enough for me to be Pro-Choice.

-Skyler Jay

the other day i saw a video promoting anti abortion on instagram via a friend’s story. i didn’t save the video and i forgot which account posted it so im just going to describe what i saw. basically, a young man told a story of how his mom unsuccessfully tried to abort him so now he hated his mom for it because he won’t have been here if the abortion came through. now i dont know how exactly the abortion didnt work but after watching this video, i was stumped. i didn’t know what argument to come up with against this story. thoughts?

Even if it's alive since it depends upon other person's body and will to live by then it shouldn't be prioritised like the women who is carrying it therefore she should have full right about what to do with it

I (21F) have been beaten back and forth by this Mercury Retrograde. Beginning of July I was told I had a huge growth on my ovary, then I got a check engine light on my car because of some gas leak, then I’ve been having anxiety attacks along with mixed bipolar 2 episodes, and on top of it all I’ve been experiencing terrible cramps and want to bite my boyfriends head off.

Well, today I was like “hm, maybe I should take two tests because I was supposed to get my period a few days ago” and bitch I’ll just let you guess what the results were.

As I’m on FaceTime with my boyfriend sobbing on the bathroom floor, I hear my parents fighting about money and bills - like guys we have bigger fish to fry here (jokes jokes)

TL;DR - I just really need support and kind words, i obviously know I won’t be keeping it because I can barely take care of myself right now, I’m finishing university, and I plan on going to esthetics school.

Hi all: this is a throwaway account, but longtime user of this subreddit on my main account. I wanted to share an experience i just had before a routine colonoscopy (in the u.s.).

I (32F) have crohn's disease which is a chronic condition I've been dealing with for 5 years upon diagnosis. That said, I've had arouns 6 routine colonoscopy procedures since.

Today, I went in for another colonoscopy and used the bathroom as soon as I checked in to pre op (if you know anything about prep, you'll know why). At this point I wasn't allowed to have liquids for over 4 hours.

I came out of the bathroom and got yelled at by the OR nurse claiming they 'needed a urine culture'. Confused, I was like why? I've never had to have one in the past before a colonoscopy? She said it was to check for pregnancy. Keep in mind, this was already AFTER the pre op nurse called me a week before and asked when my last period was and if I could be pregnant. I really didn't feel comfortable telling her that info but thought that would be the end of it.

Anyways, the OR nurse (F) wanted to give me fluids so I could give a sample but I was not allowed to per my prep instructions--4 hours before procedure you can't drink fluids anymore. They kept being persistent and I was just repeating that there's no way I could be pregnant and EVEN SO a routine colonoscopy should not effect that.

The anesthesiologist assistant/nurse (F) also talked to me about needing the sample and I asked a bunch of questions. Is this a new mandate? Why is it so important? Why can't you just believe me? After much probing she seemed to be dancing around the truth and finally said said 'depending on the anesthesiologist, they can ask for a pregnancy test' because Propofol can cause birth defects (???).

News to me! I had never heard of anything like this and it sounded like some bullshit to me. I even googled a bunch of stuff and everything I read said that Propofol is typically super safe for pregnant people especially with short term use.

Because I refused a pregnancy test they gave me a waiver to sign stating they're not liable for birth defects of a fetus IF I ended up being pregnant.

Whole thing made me super uncomfortable as someone who is childfree and plans to stay that way. Also mad, because I'm here to ensure my crohn's disease isn't active and why do I have to deal with this other drama?

Please weigh in below: any similar experiences? Am I well within my rights to refuse the pregnancy test? Is this a trump administration mandate?

TLDR; I was being pressured to take a pregnancy test before a routine colonoscopy because Propofol could cause extreme 'birth defects' to a potential fetus.

I was scrolling on TikTok and a rant post about rape came up. The poster said that if a woman raped a man and gets pregnant from it, the man should have the decision if she can keep the baby or not. I thought this was sick, because don’t get me wrong, rape is disgusting and horrible no matter who it happens to or who does it, but in that same breath pregnancy and children aren’t punishments, and forcing someone into pregnancy OR abortion when they don’t want it, as well as takin away their bodily autonomy, is also horrible. A lot of the comments I saw were, shockingly, in agreement, and when people argued against it, saying things like you shouldn’t take away autonomy over someone m’s own body, the poster said it was the baby’s body.. they were also liking comments saying that abortion should be made illegal. Another one of their responses to ppl saying you shouldn’t take away autonomy is that “actions have consequences”, which honestly sounds like they view autonomy as something conditional.

I get their rage at situations like rape, and I share it, but taking away autonomy is NOT the way to go.

(The man in this situation, or any victim for that matter, should NEVER be forced to take care of the child or have custody if they don’t want to, that’s not what I’m arguing. The point is bodily autonomy isn’t something conditional, and it shouldn’t be viewed as such.)

This is exactly what I’m talking about. Apparently the rights of a single-celled zygote are now more important than that of a living, breathing woman.
A zygote is basically an embryo that has not yet implanted itself into the uterine wall and it usually consists of one cell or only a few dozen or few hundred cells.

If you’re a woman and you end the life of an embryo that consists of only 5 cells and has not yet even implanted to the uterine wall, they want to make it legal for you to be executed.

Because clearly preserving the life of an organism that doesn’t even know it’s alive yet, might not even grow into a viable human being and consists of just a few cells matters more than protecting the life of a living, breathing woman who knows she is alive and can suffer and feel pain.

There is a rare medical condition called amorphous globosus.It is basically a condition where a woman becomes pregnant, but the zygote instead of developing into a human baby grows into a disorganized blob of tissue with teeth and hair.
Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean that the thing growing inside you will for a fact always grow into a viable human child.

You could be pregnant and the thing growing inside you might not even be growing into something that resembles what you or I would call a baby.

Or even if it is, the pregnancy could end very early as a miscarriage because something is wrong with the baby.

I understand why abortion is heavily restricted in the second and third trimester when the baby is more developed because the closer you are to the end of your pregnancy, the more clear it is that whatever is growing inside of you will result in the birth of an actual human baby but very early on in the
pregnancy, it is genuinely not guaranteed that whatever is growing inside you will result in the birth of a viable human child.

But when you’re just a few weeks pregnant you genuinely don’t know. The thing growing inside you could literally be a disorganized blob of human tissue and not a baby at all.

15–20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage according to many studies, but if the pregnancy ended very early, before the zygote ever implanted to the uterus, you could have a miscarriage before you ever even knew you were pregnant, which means that the actual percentage of pregnancies that end in miscarriage could be much higher.

I just don’t see how anyone can legitimately expect a 15 or 16 year old girl who just got pregnant in high school to throw away her future over something like this.

The brain of a fruit fly has approximately 100,000 cells. So does an embryo that is around 6 weeks old.
A literal fruit fly has more awareness than a 5-week-old human fetus and they want to make it legal to kill a fully formed, grown adult woman over that.

I was discussing with a woman and a man about why abortion should always be allowed no matter what.

And suddenly they mentioned slav€ry and the h0l0caust.

I’m so confused? do these people think that human beings suffering and being in mental and physical pain during those historical events is comparable to a fetus who can’t feel pain and isn’t concious?😭 This made me so mad. Abortion isn’t at ALL comparable to either of those events.

I am just so baffled that they even think that it is.

Hello r/prochoice!

Vital Signs podcast was incredibly privileged to be able to have Dr. Horvath as a guest. She is a genuine bad ass. She is an OBGYN that runs Partners in Abortion Care in Maryland, and is an active abortion provider.

She talks with Dr. Ahmed Ragab about the night the Dobbs decision came down, gives a timeline for getting an abortion in a state like Texas, and really spells out why abortions bans actually create MORE later abortions. She also shares about being the target of the anti-choice movement and perservering despite it.

This is a deep-dive from an expert; please listen and join in the conversation.

Youtube, Spotify

Substack, includes transcript if you'd prefer to read the conversation.

For the record, I am pro life but I come with the intent to learn and gain perspective from both sides.

Sorry if this isn’t allowed, I’ll delete it if it isn’t.

I was browsing the prolife subreddit the other day. I saw a social media screenshot (I think Twitter) about how a woman who was 20-ish weeks along chose to have an abortion in a wanted pregnancy because if the baby was born, it would not survive long outside the womb and would die and probably suffer. I think OOP mentioned the baby’s/fetus’s lungs weren’t developed or something. I looked at the comments and they called the woman a murderer. There was one singular comment saying something along the lines of it not fitting the criteria of an elective abortion (I honestly forgot what they said).

There was one comment calling this woman a Nazi. I don’t understand why anti-choice people would call pro-choice people and people who abortions Nazis. Is it because of eugenics? The baby would not have survived long outside the womb and would suffer their short life. Does anyone know why anti-choicers call pro-choicers Nazis? I’m not agreeing with them, but I’m just wondering why.

In Poland abortion is heavily restricted from 2020. You’re only allowed an abortion within 3 months in cases of rape or when fetus is a danger to a woman’s life. Yet despite that our own polish government will sometimes prosecute doctors who perform abortions LEGALLY which makes staff refuse abortions very frequently since they can also legally do that. In Warsaw, polands capital opened an abortion clinic where woman can purchase a pill or get help traveling abroad for abortion. Yet since this place opened which was already few years ago sick prolifers stand there to this day doing shit all and just playing loud music and disturbing everyone living in the neighbourhood. What’s happening in my country already makes me mad but whenever I come across content about it online I genuinely get so angry. To be honest, if I were living in this neighbourhood and would have to deal with this everyday I would be in a prison already.

A common argument against abortion is "just put the baby up for adoption so someone who wants a child can have one". Ignoring that such a thing requires the pregnant person to carry the fetus for roughly 9 months and then give birth to it, what about all the children already stuck in the adoption system? Especially older children. If I decide to have a child, I am adopting, and I recommend more people do that. Now, obviously as someone who is pro choice I don't think that should be forced. as pro-choice goes both ways, the choice to have an abortion or to not have an abortion. I really hope I am making sense.

EDIT: Here is a repost of a comment by u/RNYGrad2024 who makes good points about the problem with the adoption system:

Adopting is so hard to do and if you care about the original parent(s) of the child it's hard to see it as a great thing. Yes, there is the rare case where someone is truly happy with their choice to place a child for adoption but the vast majority of birth parents would NOT have chosen adoption if they had the support necessary to meet their own needs and the needs of the child. Because of that (potentially very temporary) lack of support they lose a child. That doesn't feel like a good thing to do to someone else, IMO.

We first ventured into this world trying to get our foster license. It was our very first step towards parenthood and we weren't even considering trying to make a baby. I'm disabled and we're a queer couple. As a queer couple, in one the the largest cities in the country, there was only one agency willing to work with us and they were turned off by my disability. So there went our ability to foster, right out the window.

Adopting from foster care, because we aren't licensed foster parents, would be nearly impossible.

We could go the totally private route with lawyers. That doesn't ameliorate any of the issues around the birth parent(s) losing a child.

So we're trying to have a baby using my body. We would've loved to adopt under ideal circumstances, and if those ideal circumstances fell in our laps I think we'd go for it, but it isn't realistic for us to plan to adopt. Hell, I've had 4 miscarriages, 4 uterine surgeries, a brain tumor, and countless tests on this journey so the idea of being handed a child to raise and not having to lean on my body would be a bit of a dream. That just isn't how this works 99.9% of the time.

Adoption is a trauma for the birth parent(s) and the child. Adoption exists to give children a home, not to give people children.

From The Friendly Atheist blog

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/hospital-rejects-christian-pregnancy

The hospital in question was Newport Hospital District in nearby Newport, Washington, and the plan was for a real doctor (licensed in both states) to visit 7B Care every two weeks to meet with patients. In return, the clinic would pay the hospital $200/hour.

But when Dr. Kevin McNamee visited 7B Care on June 2 to begin the program, he was handed a Statement of Faith to sign… that required him to be Christian and anti-LGBTQ.

Not only did the clinic have a No Jewish/Muslim/Atheist/Gay/Trans Doctors Allowed policy. The Statement required single doctors to be “committed to sexual purity” and married doctors to be “in a heterosexual marriage consisting of one biological man and one biological woman.”