Early Abortion Looks Nothing Like What You've Been Told

[Nevilledog]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/opinion/early-abortion.html

No paywall
https://archive.is/Qqava

*snip*

Primary care clinicians like us who provide early abortions in their practices have long known that the pregnancy tissue we remove does not look like what most people expect. After Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and early pregnancy termination was banned across more than a dozen states, we felt it was important to make this information public and show the images we have seen more widely.

It’s important to us to counter medical misinformation related to early pregnancy because about 80 percent of abortions in the United States occur at nine weeks or earlier. So much of the imagery that people see about abortion comes from abortion opponents who have spent decades spreading misleading fetal imagery to further their cause.

Last fall, as members of the MYA (My Abortion) Network, a clinician-led organization dedicated to educating people about abortion and expanding early abortion services into primary care settings, we launched a multimedia project to provide accurate information regarding early pregnancy tissue after abortion.

The Guardian published our first photos on Oct. 19; they went viral, appearing in media outlets and getting shared widely on social media.

Many people, even those who support abortion rights, did not believe the photos were accurate. Some insisted we had deliberately removed the embryos before taking the photos. The images weren’t consistent with those often seen in embryological textbooks, magnified on ultrasounds or used in anti-abortion propaganda; these enlarged images are not what you see with the naked eye after an abortion. A Stanford gynecologic pathologist has validated our photos, but many people could not believe the pictures were presented unaltered.

*snip*


Forced birthers still won't accept this

[raging moderate]

1. Please, can this be shared to Facebook?

I went to this page as directed, and it is a great presentation of the facts. I tried to see how to share it to Facebook, but that was not among the links that were offered. I am terrible at all this internet stuff. I think this could do some good, on Facebook.

[Nevilledog]

2. I don't do Facebook so hopefully someone rose can help

[barbtries]

7. copy the URL

and paste it in facebook.

[dawn5651]

8. just copy the link and post that to facebook...it works i do it all the time

[Bayard]

3. Wow

Notice there's no beating heart either.

[raging moderate]

4. I did it! I posted the article to Facebook!

I went back and looked and looked again at both of these links. The New York Times one just allowed me to use their link to post this article to Facebook. So many people actually do not understand how very simple a fertilized egg is, or how more than half of them are flushed out of the uterus soon after conception. They think the body develops much sooner and faster than it does. They also do not understand the complexities of gestation and the many horrible problems that can arise! My daughter had several times when she might have died, and she had several embryos that would have suffered horrible lingering deaths, if the old abortion laws had been in place. And the geneticists determined that it must have been some modern environmental poison (perhaps a chemical solution or garden herbicide?) that somehow got into her mother-in-law's body during adolescence. Medical researchers have learned a great deal about gestation that was not known back before Roe V Wade. Modern doctors fortunately have learned a great deal and found many good treatments. It was an awful ordeal, but my daughter kept trying anyway, through much fear and pain and grief. Now she and her husband have two beautiful little girls.

[Timeflyer]

5. The truth doesn't look like the "dead babies" forced birthers manipulate opinions with

so they will deny the truth and continue the war on women who want to control their own bodies.

[Vinca]

6. Decades ago I worked for a doctor and his nurse practitioner wife who performed early

abortions in the office via suction. After the procedure, the wife would get out her lighted, magnifying gizmo to identify the embryo. It looked like a tiny, fluffy puffball. Most people would be surprised.

[Emile]

9. Picture before 10 weeks

[Biophilic]

10. Unfortunately the Forced-Birthers will only see what they want to see.

This has so much more to do with power and control than anything to do with the fetus. It is such an amazing social war, but an unfortunately accurate one for our country right now. Those who believe since and care about the living and those who want control and really do not care at all about the living. Makes me both sad and very angry at the same time.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Been saying for years, we should test the "pro-lifers" by having them identify what is a

Last edited Sun Jan 22, 2023, 06:11 PM - Edit history (1)

human embryo and that of a pig.

[jmowreader]

13. More to the point...

Have them identify what is a human embryo and what is dryer lint.

[crickets]

12. Glad to see this being shared again. K&R!

[Nevilledog]

15. NY Times published this today.

Guardian covered it months ago. Better late than never, I guess.

[crickets]

17. I remember it from months ago.

Glad to see to see that it's getting covered by a major US news source... finally.

[Warpy]

14. Religious zealots won't believe it

since it doesn't look like a teeny tiny 3 month old baby, which is what they think all first trimester abortions look like, that if they could get what's in those dishes under a microscope, they'd see tiny hands and feet and a tiny mouth sucking a tiny thumb. There is nothing anyone can do to convince them otherwise, not when they can use it so effectively to bully half the human race into slavery.

[Emile]

20. You got it. That's exactly how they think.

[CTyankee]

21. They would say that the images have been "manipulated" to look like this. At this point, most

people have seen those former images and they stuck in their minds.

My book producer is only 29 years old, but his religion (a Lutheran fundamentalist) will always dominate his thinking. He lives with his parents and sisters. He has disabilities that impair his speech but make him a very good IT person. He identifies as a Republican. At this point, I can only hope that the humanist spirit that produces great art that I try to interpret in my books will be an opening to humanism.

[Warpy]

24. Some, maybe most, people never break away from that stuff

because they find the certainty of religion, even the most hogwash certainty, to be very comforting in a world that is changing so rapidly. It's hard for me to understand the mindset, I'm happier with questions, while they need unchanging answers.

ETA: the tissue was manipulated, the blood was washed off it. Otherwise, it is 100% accurate.

[Hekate]

16. Excellent article and encouraging movement

[Martin68]

18. It's a matter of science versus unscientific propaganda. At nine weeks the "embryo" is to the naked

eye, an undifferentiated shapeless man of cells. 80% of abortions occur by nine weeks. Forced birth advocates post pictures of very visible little embryos as they are often illustrated in textbooks that have enlarged them from microscopic size to something that actually looks like it is an organism.

[calimary]

19. The brainwashing has taken its toll.

Some people, presented with facts and confirmation of those facts STILL don't want to believe.

Sounds reminiscent of the whole MAGA thing.

I'm not sure what we do about that. When you present proof and they still don't believe you. Is it a human version of the horse that you can lead to water but you can't make him drink?

I keep kinda going back to repetition as a tool. The messaging needs to go out, all over everywhere, and repeated on heavy rotation. Delivered by all kinds of different message-deliverers and delivering systems. Repetition works. Any teacher can vouch for that. Why do you think we had math drills and spelling tests in primary school? Anything that just drives the point home again and again and again, through whatever teaching strategy.

Maybe it wears you down, maybe it gently "beats you into submission", I dunno. But seems to me we need to look at what needs to be done, and then look at the tools we know, AND the tools we know we have readily available, to undertake and complete the task. And as we go, hopefully we'll come across, stumble onto, or develop and build from scratch the best and most effective tactics. How do we make message delivery interesting, provocative, fun, tempting, amusing, refreshing, compelling, intriguing, you-get-the-idea'ing ? Basically, how do we make it work?

[CTyankee]

22. Ask Kellyanne Conway. She had "alternate facts." and some made up "massacre."

After that little performance she was banned my "Morning Joe" by none other than Mika B.

[peggysue2]

23. Of course, the 'pro-life' contingent won't accept this

Because they want and need women to believe they're aborting Thumbelina, a fully formed human being regardless of gestation age. Same thing with the heartbeat laws which are ludicrous because there is no heart at six weeks.

These photos expose another Big Lie.

It's all about manipulation and control of women and taking reproductive health rights back to the 1950's when a woman's only choice was an unwanted pregnancy or a back alley.

Too much democracy? No. Too many straight, white Christian men terrified their power to control others is slipping away. Be it women, people of color, gay or any other rising, often vulnerable group, the billionaire patriarchal class is looking for any means to put the so-called 'woke' genie back in the bottle.

At the moment, we're at war on many fronts. One of the biggest weapons against Americans is misinformation, disinformation and rank propaganda. We're seeing it writ large with bans on abortion, bans on book, burning books, retooling education curriculums, all on the premise that empathy, the historical record, medical facts, truth in general is somehow dangerous and depraved.

It's all connected. The more exposure of these lies and distortions the better.

That's our Superpower. It's called resistance, an eff-you to the wanna-be Kings and King-makers. It's also a wakeup call to the rest of the country:

Push back now or lie down and get run over later.

[calimary]

25. One thing I found most satisfying: reading through the comments.

A VAST majority, almost ridiculously lopsided, wrote in expressing support, appreciation, and agreement with the article. There was the occasional exception, but comment after comment after comment voiced affirmation. So many different ways to word it, too! SERIOUSLY interesting especially if you're trying to organize your thoughts around how to defend the pro-choice position. As an ardent pro-choice advocate, I felt extremely supported, defended, and validated, reading through them. And I didn't even get all the way to the last one!