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Showing Original Post only (View all)Abortion actually is becoming RARE. Jailing women for "suspicious miscarriages" is trending. Coincidence? [View all]
Use of the term "rare" was a message that tested well in the 90s, but from where we sit now...it sets off all kinds of alarm bells. Namely because so many women can't access the procedure. Mandatory wait laws, mandatory counseling, mandatory invasive imaging, admitting privilege rules, and insane over-regulation has added up to the effective virtual repeal of Roe in many states.
Republicans in Mississippi cackled openly about how laws requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges in local hospitals were aimed at eliminating abortion in the state altogether.
The use of the word "rare" has always bothered me and I thought I was the only one. I was glad to see the discussion on the term in this thread from yesterday.
Back in the 90s, under the misguided messaging that abortion should be "rare," Democrats entered into bipartisan negotiations with RW ideologues thinking they could "find common ground." Its just a mandatory counseling session here, and a 24-hour cooling off period there. Whats a transvaginal ultrasound between friends? Surely this won't lead eliminating most of the women's clinics in Texas, or contribute to a woman in Indiana being sent to to prison for a 'suspicious miscarriage. To suggest this was a slippery slope down which the rest of rights would tumble, was considered unreasonable...because WE ALL AGREE IT SHOULD BE RARE, NO?
How wrong we were.
We've evolved beyond needing to use the word entirely. We can talk about having full access to family planning AND childcare AND healthcare AND equal pay so that having a family doesn't relegate women to poverty and abuse. And jail time for miscarrying.
Leave this "rare" language where it belongs -- in the 90s.