Abortion - Their Lies ... Valenti - Great Book!

 

Jessica Valenti approaches abortion and the much bigger issues of the current oppression of women and girls deeply in: “Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win”.

Valenti personalizes her own pregnancy stating:

… I was twenty eight weeks pregnant, I felt ill – just a little off, really.   I was able to see my ob-gyn immediately, and within minutes of taking my blood pressure, which was sky high, she had me admitted to the hospital across the street.   Within three days my liver was failing.   A doctor would late tell me it was as if my health and body “fell off a cliff”.   Without the quick care I received, I would have had my daughter and likely wouldn’t be here either.  (p.144-5)

Jessica Valenti has written: ABORTION EVERY DAY  (Substack)– , with research assistance, daily over recent years, sharing the worsening abortion related landscape in the U.S. in great depth.  She writes about hypocritical Republican politicians, and lazy, distorted mainstream media, buying distortions and lies and much more.  

Valenti repeatedly exposes the minimalization and marginalization of women and girls.  Many are greatly hurt physically and emotionally, including increasingly dying as a result of allegedly caring people.

Jaci Statton was told to wait in the parking lot of an Oklahoma hospital until she was just about to die.   Only the, doctors said, could she come in to get an abortion.   In Texas, the mother of a twenty-five year old woman was told that her daughter, who had a nonviable pregnancy that was making her ever sicker, couldn’t come back for an abortion unless she had a stroke.  (p.118)

Valenti digs deeply into the values of the Anti-Abortion Movement, exposing truths that the mainstream media consistently ignore.   She notes how they take at face value the inconsistencies and even outright lies put forth.   One can only hope that this book and her Substack Blog will help wake up not only women, but a lot more men!   An example of this type of “exposure” (which shouldn’t need to come from an “activist”) is:

They crafted legislative language, again and again, that would give them exactly what they wanted, even if it meant people would die.

They didn’t even bother hiding it very well.  Look at any Republican “life of the mother” exception – they all contain a caveat.  And that caveat says that women whose lives are at risk can be given abortions, unless the risk is that she’s suicidal.

Let’s pause a moment here.   Republicans know that forcing people to be pregnant against their will makes them want to kill themselves.  And they enshrined, into law, that they don’t care.  …

We didn’t need Republican laws to tell us that women would rather end their lives than be forced into childbirth. …

A 2022 study from the University of Pennsylvania found that abortion restrictions cause a “significant increase” in the suicide rate among women of reproductive age.   This was no causal link.  Researchers looked at decades of data and found that the suicide rate among older women didn’t increase.  Nor did other kinds of deaths like those by motor vehicle accident.  “This association is robust,” said one of the study’s authors, Ran Barzilay.  “It has nothing to do with politics, it’s all backed by the data.”

This large-scale study was done before we lost Roe; imagine what those numbers will look like a year or two from now. (p.121-2)      

Another good example follows:

Anti-abortion groups know they don’t have science on their side, so this kind of fabricated evidence has become increasingly important to their work.   The Texas abortion “complication” reporting mandate, for example, lists twenty-eight medical issues as abortion complications – conditions that often have nothing to do with abortion.  Still doctors are required to tell the state about any woman who develops one of these issues if she happens to have had an abortion at any point in her life.

Doctors who don’t make these reports can be fined for each “violation”; after three violations, they could lose their license.   It’s a policy that forces doctors to lend their name and medical credibility to the collection of false data – “research” that will be used for the state to claim abortion is unsafe.

The list of “complications” are vague and nonsensical.   Some, like “adverse reactions to anesthesia,” are risks associated with having any medical procedure.  Others like “infection,” could develop in a patient for a reason completely unrelated to abortion.   The law also lists complications like “pelvic inflammatory disease,” which is a type of infection and therefore could be counted twice. (p.125)

Jessica Valenti gives a lot of examples that show how Republicans build more and more extreme laws, as new restrictions are passed in other states, as well as their own states.

She shows how deaths caused by these laws are ignored/ left out of the news at times, seen as “exceptions” rather than the norm, and so much, much more.

This book clearly shows how infant mortality rates are higher in states which forbid abortions.   She also makes very clear – how those who are poor and often Black – are the Victims of the oppressive laws. White   men push legislation which dispro-portionately hurts poor BIPOC – girls and women.   

The War on Women also applies increasingly to birth control!    The goal is for women to be frequently pregnant, not working,

home with children.  Meanwhile “their men” take care of things! This is a Re-Born –  “false-positive” in this dystopian world. 

I can only imagine how this book might have had an addendum if it has been concluded after DT took office in January, 2025!    She predicted that things would get much worse, if current realities happened!   Valenti continues exposing the New Horrible realities in her daily blog.

A concluding quote is telling.   I want to note that the court decisions and Republican efforts in Ohio continue, despite a (bitterly fought) ballot initiative enshrining abortion rights in their State Constitution.  It is:

… Republican state representative Bill Dean told the Dayton Daily News in 2022 that “there’s no great risk of dying from pregnancy.

“Pregnancy is a natural thing that women are made for,” he continued.  “That’s the way God made them.   The myth is that it is dangerous; it’s no more dangerous than living every day.   I’m not a physician.   But I would imagine a lot of times, it’s the lifestyle of the lady that’s having the pregnancy.  We also have the most obese people in the whole world.  It’s just individual cases.” (p.148)

(I hope any reader of this would see the obvious – “truth” that this is a veiled Racist – characterization of Black Women!!!)

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Down the street from me in Chicago was a “self-made” Black Conservative man (and his adoring wife, who told me, she hoped that she wouldn’t out-live him).  He has a well-paying job. He is a lay Christian minister.   I (positively) surprised him attending one of his church’s services in the local park near where we both lived.

I was greatly bothered by his views related to consensual penile/vaginal sex between adults of childbearing ages.  

The first part of his beliefs was troubling!   There never should be such sex unless both individuals were prepared to give birth and raise any child/children that might be potentially born.   (“Killing the Baby” (sic/sick) was murder in his mind.)

The second belief astounded/astounds and horrifies me as I think about it today!   The man and the woman – alone – have 100% responsibility for – every one of their children!  

I questioned him in detail on this!   The local community/ state/ nation – have no responsibilities for this hypothetical couple for:  1. Affordable healthcare,

2. Quality education – for the children,

3. Community Support in any other ways – such as safe housing and/or sufficient food for the children.

It is the privileged, white men – such as myself, who I hope will WAKE UP!   We are the ones who are allowing, if not actively supporting, the Dominant Patriarchy.  It threatens girls, women, and gender-non-binary people.   Secondarily – it also seriously hurts boys and men – we ourselves!  

Our Silence is Deafening!

Buy this book!   Read this book!   Share this book!   It’s very important!   Thanks!

Men – check out:

Men 4 Choice - https://www.men4choice.org/ and/or

Men for Equity and Reproductive Justice (MERJ) –

https://joinmerj.org/ - the four of us really could use more men to join us  - our website lists MANY – local and national women’s groups – you should support and/or

Elevated Access - https://www.elevatedaccess.org/ - an amazing effort begun by a man who was a pilot of a small plane and volunteer – supporter – of The Midwest Access Coalition - https://www.midwestaccesscoalition.org/

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ABORTION EVERY DAY - https://jessica.substack.com/