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Let’s just take this head-on, because this narrative that giving women a choice in motherhood equates to “killing babies” is flat-out bullshit.
https://twitter.com/repdottieb4mo/status/1252227915443572736
https://twitter.com/repdottieb4mo/status/1252227915443572736
Choice is essential in a democracy. Just as essential is the freedom to make that choice.
From our choices in voting to our choice in donating our own bodily organs. We have the autonomy to make choices about our government and our bodies.
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From our choices in voting to our choice in donating our own bodily organs. We have the autonomy to make choices about our government and our bodies.
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When a woman confirms pregnancy, it often occurs in a doctor’s office. Sure, she may have done an at-home kit but many women will seek a doctor consultation after to confirm.
At that moment, a doctor-patient relationship is formed. That woman has privacy with her doctor.
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At that moment, a doctor-patient relationship is formed. That woman has privacy with her doctor.
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And just like a person with cancer has the right to keep his condition private—from his employer or his government, a woman has the same right to privacy.
Why should the government have a right to know if or when I have my tonsils removed, I have cancer or that I’m pregnant?
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Why should the government have a right to know if or when I have my tonsils removed, I have cancer or that I’m pregnant?
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The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution provides a right for citizens to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects.
The Third Amendment prevents the government from quartering soldiers in your home—because that is a private space.
So, too, is the human body.
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The Third Amendment prevents the government from quartering soldiers in your home—because that is a private space.
So, too, is the human body.
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The Fifth Amendment protects individuals from self-incrimination, which protects the privacy of personal information.
Like medical records.
The Ninth Amendment reserves all other rights for the people. Like other forms of privacy.
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Like medical records.
The Ninth Amendment reserves all other rights for the people. Like other forms of privacy.
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The right to privacy is founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty & restrictions on state action.
When a patient chooses a particular healthcare outcome, that decision is private. And patients have a right to choose the decision that’s best for them.
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When a patient chooses a particular healthcare outcome, that decision is private. And patients have a right to choose the decision that’s best for them.
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A state can only interfere in that privacy when it has a compelling interest to do so.
And when a pregnancy is so early that it’s not viable, that compelling interest does not exist.
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And when a pregnancy is so early that it’s not viable, that compelling interest does not exist.
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In that first trimester there is merely the potential for life.
Potential.
In the way a person in need of a bone marrow transplant or a kidney transplant has the potential to live.
But we don’t forcibly take organs from citizens to keep living people alive.
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Potential.
In the way a person in need of a bone marrow transplant or a kidney transplant has the potential to live.
But we don’t forcibly take organs from citizens to keep living people alive.
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Autonomy matters.
If a woman doesn’t want to give her son a kidney, she doesn’t have to.
If a brother refuses to give a portion of his liver to his sister who later dies, he is not a sister-killer.
Women, too, have the choice to turn that potential for life into reality.
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If a woman doesn’t want to give her son a kidney, she doesn’t have to.
If a brother refuses to give a portion of his liver to his sister who later dies, he is not a sister-killer.
Women, too, have the choice to turn that potential for life into reality.
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And let’s talk about that choice.
Making the deliberate choice to be a mother matters. Deciding with intention that you choose to be a mom—that moment of intentionally matters.
Because people have the right to self-determination.
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Making the deliberate choice to be a mother matters. Deciding with intention that you choose to be a mom—that moment of intentionally matters.
Because people have the right to self-determination.
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Pregnant women undergo an incredible physical transformation. At the end, they have, what’s essentially, a major surgery.
Hormones will shift the stability of your mental state.
Monthly doctors visits, hospital stay, and delivery will cost thousands of dollars.
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Hormones will shift the stability of your mental state.
Monthly doctors visits, hospital stay, and delivery will cost thousands of dollars.
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Depending on the location, women of color are three to five more times likely to die in child-birth than white women.
You may not have family support and doing pregnancy alone is hard.
And in America, there’s no guaranteed paid maternity leave from work.
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You may not have family support and doing pregnancy alone is hard.
And in America, there’s no guaranteed paid maternity leave from work.
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So when we talk about choice—we’re talking about an overwhelming and complete disruption to that woman’s life.
The factors she weighs. The hills she has to climb. The obstacles she must overcome to have a safe delivery—those are hers and hers alone.
She deserves a choice.
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The factors she weighs. The hills she has to climb. The obstacles she must overcome to have a safe delivery—those are hers and hers alone.
She deserves a choice.
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I want women who want to be mothers to become mothers.
I want women who are survivors of rape and incest to have a choice in their future, even though they didn’t have one in their past.
I want women who suffer a miscarriage to mourn her loss + not fear prosecution.
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I want women who are survivors of rape and incest to have a choice in their future, even though they didn’t have one in their past.
I want women who suffer a miscarriage to mourn her loss + not fear prosecution.
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I want all women to have access to birth control, to know all of their options, to have access to high-quality affordable healthcare, and to not be pressured into making any decision other than the one that’s best for her.
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I want our government to make policy that is family-focused and family-supportive.
That means providing a guaranteed 18 weeks of paid maternity + paternity leave.
It means ensuring pregnancy outcomes aren’t dependent on a woman’s zip code.
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That means providing a guaranteed 18 weeks of paid maternity + paternity leave.
It means ensuring pregnancy outcomes aren’t dependent on a woman’s zip code.
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It means providing high-quality low cost infant care and daycare and preschools, everywhere.
It means fully-funding public schools.
It means expanding food and nutrition benefits to kids who need it.
It means creating a society that values equity of opportunity.
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It means fully-funding public schools.
It means expanding food and nutrition benefits to kids who need it.
It means creating a society that values equity of opportunity.
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It means promoting women at the same rate as men, even though we had a baby.
Hell, it means valuing—really valuing that we can handle being mothers and bosses.
It means paying women the same as a man for the same work.
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Hell, it means valuing—really valuing that we can handle being mothers and bosses.
It means paying women the same as a man for the same work.
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These changes would create a society that incentivizes the creation and supports the success of families.
But we don’t support pregnant women in America.
We shame them if there’s no father.
We demote them if they miss meetings for prenatal exams.
We ignore their needs.
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But we don’t support pregnant women in America.
We shame them if there’s no father.
We demote them if they miss meetings for prenatal exams.
We ignore their needs.
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Some women do experience post-partum depression and anxiety.
If a woman hasn’t made a deliberate choice to be a mother, and instead feels forced or obligated to do so, her mental health + physical health suffers.
Women don’t stop mattering when the stop turns pink.
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If a woman hasn’t made a deliberate choice to be a mother, and instead feels forced or obligated to do so, her mental health + physical health suffers.
Women don’t stop mattering when the stop turns pink.
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Women deserve a choice and if we want a woman to choose pregnancy, then we better create a society that supports those choices.
But the choice—why she’s making the choice, how she makes it, is private.
The government has no right to a woman’s mind or body.
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But the choice—why she’s making the choice, how she makes it, is private.
The government has no right to a woman’s mind or body.
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Anyone who makes pregnancy a battle between “killing babies” and “life” misses the point entirely.
The debate is choice & privacy versus control & power.
It’s about forced pregnancy, because that’s what happens with no choice.
You force women into pregnancy.
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The debate is choice & privacy versus control & power.
It’s about forced pregnancy, because that’s what happens with no choice.
You force women into pregnancy.
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Often, what they don’t say publicly is this feeling that because you opened your legs and got pregnant like a slut, you must suffer the consequences.
That’s pregnancy as punishment.
Where the round tummy is the new scarlet letter.
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That’s pregnancy as punishment.
Where the round tummy is the new scarlet letter.
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Women have fought against these stereotypes for generations—often against other women.
But it all comes down to the same fight.
Choice + Privacy vs. Control + Power.
Choose.
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But it all comes down to the same fight.
Choice + Privacy vs. Control + Power.
Choose.
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