Reproductive rights: A distressing vision of a post-Roe USA in which miscarriages turn women into suspects..."In her new book Handbook for a Post-Roe America, Robin Marty provides a blueprint for accessing reproductive-health care and fighting for your rights in a country where abortion has become a crime."..."Roe is more vulnerable than ever. In the book, Marty sketches a variety of ways in which Roe could fall, but they’re all similarly bleak: if, or as Marty argues, when the Court overturns the ruling, around 22 states will almost instantly criminalize abortion, forcing countless pregnant women to face prosecution in their own state or travel hundreds of miles—just in one direction—to receive care. The implications of this are overwhelming, but they’re not entirely unprecedented."..."We’re also seeing these heartbeat bans and we know that there are at least three more states that are going to be introducing them in the next legislative session. They’re trying to find a federal court that will say that a heartbeat should be looked at as a point [where] abortion can be banned. And in that case, a heartbeat ban might make it up to the Supreme Court as well."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Once abortion is completely illegal, all miscarriages are going to be looked at as suspect. We’re going to see a lot more instances where people find themselves facing jail time over ending a pregnancy themselves or accidentally ending a pregnancy themselves, as Purvi Patel or Bei Bei Shuai have. We’re going to see that prosecutors will get to decide for themselves who they do and don’t follow up with when investigating for criminal charges. As that continues to happen—and it will happen far more frequently because there will no longer be accessible abortions—stories of people who are unjustly being put into jail or who are putting their own health at risk are going to get out. They are going to garner sympathy as they pile up in the way that they did in the 1960s and ’70s."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STORY: "How to Protect Yourself When Abortion Is Illegal: A Q and A With Robin Marty," by Glyn Peterson, published by The Nation on January 22, 2019. (Glyn Peterson is a freelance writer and researcher based in Brooklyn.)

SUB-HEADING: "In her new book Handbook for a Post-Roe America, Robin Marty provides a blueprint for accessing reproductive-health care and fighting for your rights in a country where abortion has become a crime."

GIST: "Forty-six years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide, Robin Marty, a writer and reproductive-rights activist, has published a guidebook helping readers to plan for its demise. Handbook for a Post-Roe America emerged from a Twitter thread Marty wrote after the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was long seen as the fifth vote to protect the ruling. Now that Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh is in Kennedy’s seat, Roe is more vulnerable than ever. In the book, Marty sketches a variety of ways in which Roe could fall, but they’re all similarly bleak: if, or as Marty argues, when the Court overturns the ruling, around 22 states will almost instantly criminalize abortion, forcing countless pregnant women to face prosecution in their own state or travel hundreds of miles—just in one direction—to receive care. The implications of this are overwhelming, but they’re not entirely unprecedented. “While Roe and the cases that preceded it made birth control and abortion legal,” Marty writes, “they did nothing to curtail the coercive power our government wields over the bodies of those who can give birth.” This book is for everyone, Marty told me, but she wrote it primarily with newly mobilized activists in mind—people with relative privilege, who may not have been directly impacted by the hundreds of abortion restrictions that have been put in place in the decades since Roe. Before her book’s January 15 release, in time for Roe’s 46th anniversary on January 22, I spoke with Marty about how these new activists can avoid surveillance, plan for their own reproductive emergencies, and support organizations that have already spent decades fighting for reproductive rights. "

-------------------------------------------------------------

A taste of the interview: (Read the rest at the link below: HL):

Glyn Peterson: Now that the Supreme Court no longer has the votes needed to uphold Roe v. Wade, which bans and restrictions are you watching closely?

Robin Marty: There are a number of D and E bans. D and E is the way that abortion is usually performed after the first trimester, and the anti-abortion movement has proposed that the process is cruel to the fetus. We’ve already had a federal court that said that this is not a constitutional ban, but there’s a very strong possibility that the Fifth Circuit will say that it is, in which case we have conflicting cases that will go up to the Supreme Court for review. That’s probably the most likely one. We’re also seeing these heartbeat bans and we know that there are at least three more states that are going to be introducing them in the next legislative session. They’re trying to find a federal court that will say that a heartbeat should be looked at as a point [where] abortion can be banned. And in that case, a heartbeat ban might make it up to the Supreme Court as well. A more likely way that abortion will get limited is that the Supreme Court will essentially decide to ignore abortion laws that are unconstitutional, allowing them to go into effect in their states. By doing that, the Court could essentially outlaw or almost completely outlaw abortion without actually having to directly overturn Roe."


--------------------------------------------------------------

GP: You write that after Roe is overturned, once people see “the actual impact of no longer having legal abortion available, there is a strong possibility that voters and legislators will realize that total bans do far more harm than good.” What aspects of a total ban will be jarring enough to change minds, when it is already nearly impossible to access an abortion in certain corners of the United States?
 
RM: Once abortion is completely illegal, all miscarriages are going to be looked at as suspect. We’re going to see a lot more instances where people find themselves facing jail time over ending a pregnancy themselves or accidentally ending a pregnancy themselves, as Purvi Patel or Bei Bei Shuai have. We’re going to see that prosecutors will get to decide for themselves who they do and don’t follow up with when investigating for criminal charges. As that continues to happen—and it will happen far more frequently because there will no longer be accessible abortions—stories of people who are unjustly being put into jail or who are putting their own health at risk are going to get out. They are going to garner sympathy as they pile up in the way that they did in the 1960s and ’70s.

The entire story can be read at:

 https://www.thenation.com/article/abortion-roe-illegal-robin-marty/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.