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Share your donations as a reply to this comment, please, so I can keep track!

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Jun 27, 2022Liked by Leah Libresco Sargeant

Re: “What organization supporting vulnerable parents and children would you recommend and why?” — I’ve recently become a regular blood donor, and while my blood is not going specifically to vulnerable parents and children over other patients, my pro-life convictions are a big part of why I started donating. For me, donating blood is an acknowledgement that we are mutually dependent, that we all have claims on each other, that we have bodies so we can take care of each other. I’ve always wanted to have babies so that I could nurture another life with my body, and (so far) physical motherhood has not been an option for me—but I can nurture people by donating blood *right now*.

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Jun 25, 2022Liked by Leah Libresco Sargeant

Thank you for all you do, Leah! I donated $50 to Our Lady of Hope Clinic, a pro-life, non-profit clinic in Wisconsin.

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This is a as close to how I feel about abortion and the national debate of any article I've read. Abortion is a series of failures of more powerful people -- at every level of the culture -- that leaves a dreadful choice to the two vulnerable souls left at the bottom of a sexist and oppressive culture. We could start by saying that any man who is the DNA identified father is responsible for 50% of the burden of raising the child. Monetarily and hopefully in other ways. We have the technology. I have a feeling that would spur a lot of changes immediately.

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Jul 4, 2022Liked by Leah Libresco Sargeant

Abortion, it seems, may never be unthinkable as long as sex is viewed as merely recreational. I can’t imagine abortion becoming unthinkable even if our society does a better job of caring for women until our approach to sex changes. If views of abortion depend on how we understand sex, how can we change our society’s view of sex?

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Jun 26, 2022Liked by Leah Libresco Sargeant

I also made a $25 donation to Sisters of Life :)

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founding

Up until now, I haven't questioned that you were engaging in good faith. The New York Times interview and this post *does* make me question if you are willing to discuss abortion honestly.

In the past you've opposed legislation like SB8 in Texas. Here you call for a 50 state ban on abortions. I get that publicly taking a stand against horrific policy branded as 'pro-life' can get you ousted from the pro-life blogosphere. But this is a moment for being honest about policies that are good and ones that will have horrifying outcomes for our democracy *and* maternal health.

And what does a world where abortion is unthinkable look like, actually? We know what it looks like. Wishing for a world where abortion is unthinkable is wishing for a world where women will be forced to endure horrific pregnancy complications due to preexisting conditions. Where women will have to carry a pregnancy to full term for a fetus who will never live, with a higher likelihood for life altering and future-pregnancy-complicating injuries. And it's a world where all women are treated first and foremost as vessels for new life, not as people whose pain and joy and worth is irrefutable.

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(Not related to Roe, but related to the questions:) For me, the evils I feel most helpless about are those related to U.S. foreign policy, whether that's been failing to help refugees, leaving the immigration system as an unworkable mess, undermining/deposing other countries' governments, giving money/weapons to dictators, failing to protect Afghans who helped the U.S. military, etc. I've been learning recently about the Iran-Contra affair (and the U.S.' broader involvement in the Middle East during the 1970s-1990s), and gosh, I knew it was crooked, but I didn't know how crooked it was.

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founding

Reading the work of writers like you and Erika Bachiochi has really moved the needle for me on abortion, in part because you are consistent and unmoving on focusing on dignity for all instead of punishment. But I want to press you a bit to say more about laws, in the here and now, because the change in law is coming before the change of heart that you are aiming towards.

You want abortion to be illegal in all 50 states. How will cases be investigated? Who will be punished, and to what extent? I don't know about you personally, but Erika Bachiochi has certainly said she supports rape exemptions. In a country where perhaps 1 out of 10 rapes leads to an actual conviction, and those convictions happen far after the rape itself, how would rape exemptions be approved or adjudicated?

I have come much closer to believing in the pro-life movement's vision for the future. But decisions on all of these questions have to happen in the here and now, in the world of today, and I am not hearing anything good or hopeful about these specific questions. And if the path towards this future you want is full of terrible and unjust laws for today, is its foundation built on sand?

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It’s hard to pick just one evil, which is depressing. I live in an area that still permits abortion on demand well into the second trimester, and I definitely see welfare advocacy mired in the evil of abortion here. Advocates reject anyone who favors limits on abortion, let alone an almost complete ban, which makes change on abortion and welfare issues seem impossible.

Another thorny thing I come back to over and over is labor rights - I cannot afford to pay much more in food than I am currently paying, but I know that prices now still rely on underpaying and mistreating so many workers along the food production chain. Likewise, I often wish I could have more childcare, but at its current prices it is already unaffordable and even if my income were higher it would still be relying on underpaying workers (mostly women). But yet I still need to feed my family. I do find hope in efforts to raise the minimum wage and provide more worker protections.

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I agree with Leah's assessment; however, I don't think outlawing abortion is the answer or even necessary to have fewer abortions. If the U.S. has a broader safety net -- with TANF, the child tax credit, universal health care, paid paternal leave, and birth control, the abortion rates will go down on their own, without any government restrictions. And yes, available birth control is essential, and Justice Thomas's remarks on it from Friday are scary. What pro-life and conservative groups purport about it is untrue.

I think the privacy element in abortion is important, especially now, as women's period tracker apps could be used against them or penalized for traveling across state lines for an abortion. Women will be scrutinized and controlled in ways they have never been before.

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Yes, yes, yes and yes. This is 100% the way forward.

One thing - those Greeks and Romans and infanticide? Zero archaeological / physical evidence. Even in the supposed designated places. Big doubts as to whether that ever happened.

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