Gilead Is Real: The War On Abortion And Women's Rights 2

[Alisamer]

5 minutes ago, dramallama said:

A brief moment of levity

My answer is "Just a Girl" by No Doubt.  I saw someone on Facebook comment "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" by Shania Twain, and I thought that was also an inspired choice.

Hmm. Maybe "Doll Parts" by Hole? Or "Criminal" by Fiona Apple? Maybe "Only Happy When it Rains" by Garbage. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Tucker Carlson just inadvertently helped raise $14,000 for abortion rights"

Quote

Hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, Tucker Carlson took to the airwaves to rail against companies that would pay for employees’ abortion-travel costs. “They’re against families,” the Fox News host said of the firms on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

But as Carlson was offering his commentary, an image from his show was actually being put to a starkly different use: raising money for groups that facilitate abortion.

Anonymous bidders in the digital space known as web3 were offering thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency for an NFT made out of a screen image of Carlson. The piece centered on a show last year in which Carlson argued for body autonomy on coronavirus vaccines. The NFT would go on to sell Saturday for 12 eth — about $14,500 — with creator Jenny Holzer saying she will donate the money she makes from the sale to groups including Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the D.C.-based advocacy organization PAI.

(An NFT, or a non-fungible token, is a digital image uniquely stamped to its creator. Eth is the name for a popular cryptocurrency linked to the ethereum blockchain, on which many NFTs live.)

The move underscores the freewheeling nature of web3, in which wild injections of money commingle with loose standards of creative ownership. It also makes for one of the odder acts of unintentional philanthropy — activists outraged by the Court’s overturning of Roe raising money on the back of someone who has vigorously attacked the 1973 ruling. Last week, Carlson called Roe “the most embarrassing court decision handed down in the last century” and a “widely acknowledged joke.”

On his May 11, 2021, program Carlson talked to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) about Johnson’s decision not to receive a coronavirus vaccine. As Carlson agreed with Johnson — “Well of course; it’s your body, your choice, as we’ve heard for almost 50 years,” the Fox News host said — a chyron displayed the body-autonomy message. “Making an informed choice regarding your own body shouldn’t be controversial,” read the text at the bottom of the screen.

Planned Parenthood in Florida quickly noted the chyron’s parallels to abortion rights. Those echoes also struck a D.C.-based communications strategist named Gillian Branstetter, who observed similarities to Holzer’s work as well. A veteran artist, Holzer is known for combining texts and images to make political points. In the 1970s she created the “Truisms” series, which fashioned art out of such messages as “Abuse of Power Comes As No Surprise,” which she then broadcast in lights over Times Square.

Shortly after, Branstetter screen-captured the image of Carlson, Johnson and the chyron, appended the message “This is like a Jenny Holzer installation or something right?” and tweeted it out to her tens of thousands of followers. That gave Holzer the idea to create an NFT out of Branstetter’s tweet. When news of the court’s draft opinion overturning Roe broke this spring, she decided she would sell it once the ruling came down.

“I will confess a lot of ignorance about NFTs generally, but was happy to give permission for this work to help raise some much-needed funds for abortion access,” Branstetter told The Washington Post via a Twitter DM on Monday. Branstetter is a communications strategist at the ACLU but emphasized that she conducted this action as a private citizen independently of her employer. (Branstetter’s deal with Holzer has her receiving 15 percent of the money the artist receives from the sale, all of which she says she will donate to the DC Abortion Fund.)

In a phone interview, Branstetter said that she remained slightly flummoxed how digital commentary could be so efficiently converted into significant fundraising.

“Don’t ask me to explain how my Tweet turned into almost $15,000 for abortion rights,” she said.

Holzer did not reply to a request for comment The Post made via her studio. In a statement announcing the sale, she explained her rationale for the NFT. “Although the heading was meant to be read as an anti-vaccine remark, the words could also be a pro-choice statement,” she wrote of the chyron.

A Fox News spokeswoman did not reply to a request for comment from the network and Carlson.

Holzer put the NFT up for auction about 12:30 p.m. Friday, just after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization came down. She listed it at half an eth, or about $600. Within six hours, a quartet of bidders had raised the price to nearly $13,000, before the winning bid was made Saturday around noon.

The sale on the Foundation NFT site listed an anonymous cryptocurrency address as the buyer. The Post located a Twitter account that last November had said it was the owner of the address; that account, which tweeted Friday about the Holzer auction, says it is affiliated with a group called PleasrDAO, which calls itself “a collective of DeFi leaders, early NFT collectors and digital artists who have built a formidable yet benevolent reputation for acquiring culturally significant pieces with a charitable twist.” (DeFi refers to decentralized finance, the term used for financial transactions in web3.)

Despite the sale, who actually owns the NFT is a complicated question, legal experts say. The NFT was created by Holzer off a screen-capture by Branstetter, but the image is of Carlson as he appeared on a Fox-owned show.

“I think it would come down to a fair-use argument, and both Fox and the NFT creators could make a case,” said Darren Heitner, a Florida-based intellectual-property lawyer with deep experience in this new digital space. “But I’d probably lean to the Fox side that this isn’t fair use because of the fact that the NFT is not really transformative and is definitely a commercial use,” he said, citing two of the legal criteria that would prohibit use.

But Enrico Schaefer, another prominent NFT lawyer, said he thought Holzer and Branstetter had a strong claim of ownership. “The First Amendment would protect the project since it was clearly designed as commentary and criticism,” Schaefer said. He added that the charitable use of the funds could also blunt the idea that this had a commercial purpose.

Heitner said one interesting question posed by NFTs, which are often resold, would be whether Fox could theoretically win an injunction that would stop the Carlson NFT from being sold again. “This is a really new area of law, and I don’t think we’ve worked out a lot of the details yet,” he said.

In the meantime those behind the NFT were less keen to get caught up in those details and more eager to spread their abortion rights message.

“Bodily autonomy and self-determination can be fraught, but privacy and health are pillars of the women’s reproductive rights movement,” Holzer wrote on Instagram. “Social health is the goal. We must protect the rights of the individual that protect the health of society.”

 

[libgirl2]

22 minutes ago, dramallama said:

A brief moment of levity

My answer is "Just a Girl" by No Doubt.  I saw someone on Facebook comment "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" by Shania Twain, and I thought that was also an inspired choice.

Anything by Motorhead or Black Sabbath. 

[Audrey2]

I would go with "keep your hands to yourself" by Georgia Satellites. I don't know that all the words would work but the title definitely does.

[Seahorse Wrangler]

"Yes, it's fucking political" by Skunk Anansi.

[Dandruff]

An abortion legal info hotline to assist women in and outside NY:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/ny-ag-law-firms-reproductive-rights-groups-launch-abortion-legal-service-hotline/3753065/

[meep]

More of saying the quiet parts out loud. 

[Smash!]

56 minutes ago, meep said:

More of saying the quiet parts out loud. 

So they want women to suffer, to die. The white, hetero men can rape women and abuse children without consequences and they have to carry the resulting pregnancies to term no matter if they have the means to even support themselves.

How weak have those people to be to feel threatened by women who by the law are equal to them.

Those fuckers destroy democracy in open daylight and the Democrats who at least on paper are in the majority do nothing because they might piss off someone? Damn you got one job in 2020: prevent these lunatics from getting more power and influence.

 

[Ozlsn]

 

4 hours ago, dramallama said:

A brief moment of levity

My answer is "Just a Girl" by No Doubt.  I saw someone on Facebook comment "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" by Shania Twain, and I thought that was also an inspired choice.

"Malcolm in the Middle" theme song, followed by "Titanium". 

[47of74]

If not for his money Fuckerberg would be another incel in his mother’s basement so this doesn’t surprise me. 
 

Quote

Facebook and Instagram have begun promptly removing posts that offer abortion pills to women who may not be able to access them following a Supreme Court decision that stripped away constitutional protections for the procedure.

Such social media posts ostensibly aimed to help women living in states where preexisting laws banning abortion suddenly snapped into effect on Friday. That's when the high court overruled Roe v. Wade, its 1973 decision that declared access to abortion a constitutional right.

Memes and status updates explaining how women could legally obtain abortion pills in the mail exploded across social platforms. Some even offered to mail the prescriptions to women living in states that now ban the procedure.

Almost immediately, Facebook and Instagram began removing some of these posts, just as millions across the U.S. were searching for clarity around abortion access. General mentions of abortion pills, as well as posts mentioning specific versions such as mifepristone and misoprostol, suddenly spiked Friday morning across Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and TV broadcasts, according to an analysis by the media intelligence firm Zignal Labs.

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by 47of74

[closetcagebaby]

The cheapest abortion appointment I’ve seen while volunteering is about $375. Mine (a pill abortion without ultrasound) was $450. But the top end? $18-20k. And we’re only going to see more of those now because people are going to have to wait, travel, etc. 

[byzant]

7 minutes ago, closetcagebaby said:

The cheapest abortion appointment I’ve seen while volunteering is about $375. Mine (a pill abortion without ultrasound) was $450. But the top end? $18-20k. And we’re only going to see more of those now because people are going to have to wait, travel, etc. 

WhaT the fuck how? How is that an option for anyone I'm literally a professional and solidly uk upper middle with house bought and horse and holidays and the last thing that cost me 18k in gbp was my house deposit . How can anyone face that cost for basic health care 

[Destiny]

WhaT the fuck how? How is that an option for anyone I'm literally a professional and solidly uk upper middle with house bought and horse and holidays and the last thing that cost me 18k in gbp was my house deposit . How can anyone face that cost for basic health care 

Welcome to the USA! I hate it here.

[closetcagebaby]

1 minute ago, byzant said:

WhaT the fuck how? How is that an option for anyone I'm literally a professional and solidly uk upper middle with house bought and horse and holidays and the last thing that cost me 18k in gbp was my house deposit . How can anyone face that cost for basic health care 

It’s not!! It’s not feasible for basically anyone. They are only possible because of abortion funds - a bunch of tiny funds working together pitching it to make sure a person can access medical care. It’s…inspiring and infuriating at the same time. 

[Coconut Flan]

25 minutes ago, byzant said:

WhaT the fuck how? How is that an option for anyone I'm literally a professional and solidly uk upper middle with house bought and horse and holidays and the last thing that cost me 18k in gbp was my house deposit . How can anyone face that cost for basic health care 

I'm far too old to need an abortion, but if I did it would cost me about $8.  Not all US health plans are horrible.  If one of my daughters needed one, it would be $0.  The very high figures usually are private all the way and some of the estimates I've seen include travel, hotel, time off work, and meals along with the abortion.  

Planned Parenthood here charges about $540 for a medical abortion full cash pay.  There may be associated extra charges for some patients.  However, they take all kinds of insurance, arrange for third party pay for services for uninsured patients if qualified,  and have a sliding scale for payments based on eligibility.   They will do telehealth visits and make arrangements for out of state patients.   

One of the ladies at the beauty salon needed to take her teen daughter in and I think she said the total out of pocket cost ended up being about $50.  This can be done without breaking the bank if taken care of early on (before 10 weeks).  

Edited June 29, 2022 by Coconut Flan

[closetcagebaby]

6 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

I'm far too old to need an abortion, but if I did it would cost me about $8.  Not all US health plans are horrible.  If one of my daughters needed one, it would be $0.  The very high figures usually are private all the way and some of the estimates I've seen include travel, hotel, time off work, and meals along with the abortion.  

Planned Parenthood here charges about $540 for a medical abortion full cash pay.  There may be associated extra charges for some patients.  However, they take all kinds of insurance, arrange for third party pay for services for uninsured patients if qualified,  and have a sliding scale for payments based on eligibility.   They will do telehealth visits and make arrangements for out of state patients.   

One of the ladies at the beauty salon needed to take her teen daughter in and I think she said the total cost ended up being about $50.  This can be done without breaking the bank if taken care of early on (before 10 weeks).  

You’re lucky about your insurance! That is not the case for most people. To clarify, the multi thousand dollar appointments I have help fund include the costs for the procedure itself, not any other associated costs. Even for the cheaper ones, a decent amount of people would not be able to pay $400-500 at the drop of a hat and the appointments basically get more expensive each week. Medicaid in many states doesn’t cover abortion due to the Hyde amendment, which restricts federal funding being used for abortions. Planned Parenthood, in my experience, is…not super helpful for low income patients. They have their own funding called the Justice Fund but unlike abortion funds it requires means testing and they don’t always offer it to people who are calling for appointments. 26 states have imposed restrictions on private insurances that are offered on state marketplaces. I have worked to help people fund their appointments for years and it’s hard and it sucks. 

[Destiny]

I just checked my insurance and it offers exactly zero coverage for abortion. I’d have to pay OOP.

[Coconut Flan]

16 minutes ago, Destiny said:

I just checked my insurance and it offers exactly zero coverage for abortion. I’d have to pay OOP.

I'm sorry.  I checked with my daughters and all pregnancy/maternity related care is covered 100% if they used in network providers.  I'm sure it depends on the state and the provider.  I know my one daughter paid nothing when she had the granddaughter and they had a co-pay for the grandson's surgery he had when a week old, but it wasn't that much.  If the pediatrician who saw him had had it done while he was still in the hospital there would have been no charge.  

[Destiny]

I'm sorry.  I checked with my daughters and all pregnancy/maternity related care is covered 100% if they used in network providers.  I'm sure it depends on the state and the provider.  I know my one daughter paid nothing when she had the granddaughter and they had a co-pay for the grandson's surgery he had when a week old, but it wasn't that much.  If the pediatrician who saw him had had it done while he was still in the hospital there would have been no charge.  

According to my insurance, my portion of an uncomplicated vaginal delivery is over 8K. I’m not sure how that works out when my OOP max is 5K, but that’s what their estimator says. My point is, while you and your daughters might be lucky, that’s not the case for the majority of people in this country.

[Coconut Flan]

The majority may, but there are a lot of people who have decent coverage.  I can't live in such a tiny bubble that everyone in my family has reasonable coverage as do the neighbors I talk to and then virtually the entire rest of the country does not.  Everyone employed where my daughters or SILs work has the same coverage available to them.  One SIL works for a very large employer so that's over a hundred thousand people with that option in just one situation.  Some of the people choose other options and that is their choice to live with those decisions. 

I know that sounds kind of bad in some ways.  I do know many people struggle with insurance.  Also though the horror stories do make better stories than saying yeah I like my health insurance just fine.  

I only bring it up once in awhile because our foreign visitors probably get the idea we're all struggling mightily to pay hefty medical bills and can't get medical care when it's true for some, but not all.  

That we aren't all on a more level playing field is a huge problem. 

What I can't figure out is how some employers manage to provide quality health insurance at a reasonable cost with what appears to be ease and others can't even get close.  

On the Planned Parenthood front, the information about payment assistance is on their website and the lady at the salon said it was all quite easily obtainable.  But that is one county and one Planned Parenthood Office and I'm not about to speak about any others.  

Edited June 29, 2022 by Coconut Flan

[byzant]

1 hour ago, Destiny said:

Welcome to the USA! 

Im so sorry. the fact folk are arguing "oh I've got lucky so it's all fine " is mind boggling, 

It would'nt occur to anyone here to pick a job based on whether or not it lets them get their basic human health needs met and that's clearly a basic good 

the idea your right to humane free medical treatment depends on what job you have is frankly abhorent and I'm so sorry for you all and if it wasn't based on super privilege would strongly recommend Scotland- strong liberal government makes the rain all the time worth it

Edited June 29, 2022 by byzant
Rif

[Coconut Flan]

37 minutes ago, byzant said:

Im so sorry. the fact folk are arguing "oh I've got lucky so it's all fine " is mind boggling, 

That is absolutely NOT what I'm saying.  I am saying that we aren't all having an issue in the US because that's the impression many people get from the discussions.  That isn't saying that a lot of people don't have problems and I'm very aware of that.  

My belief is we do need to reform both providing of health care and funding it in this country.  I think the first step needs to be to make all healthcare non-profit.  We're going to have to work our way into a better system.  It's too bulky to change it overnight.

I also know that at least one poster on this forum bitches about healthcare and has the same insurance my mother has.  It's perfectly fine insurance and my mother has never had problems with it.  Yet this poster calls it crap insurance that covers nothing which frankly is a misconstruction.  

In my situation I am danged lucky that I kept my employee insurance into retirement.  A lot of people don't.  For several years I paid more for insurance than I was getting back in covered Medicare deductibles.  Quite a few people said drop it.  I admit I'm a cautious sort. and kept it. Then I developed an incurable, exotic disease.  That insurance is covering $20,000 to $50,000 a year in Medicare deductibles.  I can easily see the horrible situation I'd be in if I'd made one different decision.  You can't say I'm unaware.  

Edited June 29, 2022 by Coconut Flan

[nausicaa]

4 hours ago, Coconut Flan said:

That is absolutely NOT what I'm saying.  I am saying that we aren't all having an issue in the US because that's the impression many people get from the discussions.  That isn't saying that a lot of people don't have problems and I'm very aware of that.  

Yeah, it's frustrating on here when people think trying to be factual and objective is akin to "supporting the enemy."

I get this is an emotional topic for people, and I'm pissed too, but I find speaking in exaggerated absolutes might feel good but only gives people who disagree with you more leverage to undermine your arguments.

And an abortion with my insurance plan would cost me $50. For my best friend it would be completely free (they even covered her IVF). I know people who had early (pill) abortions for a couple hundred dollars. 

[nelliebelle1197]

7 hours ago, Coconut Flan said:

The majority may, but there are a lot of people who have decent coverage.  I can't live in such a tiny bubble that everyone in my family has reasonable coverage as do the neighbors I talk to and then virtually the entire rest of the country does not.  Everyone employed where my daughters or SILs work has the same coverage available to them.  One SIL works for a very large employer so that's over a hundred thousand people with that option in just one situation.  Some of the people choose other options and that is their choice to live with those decisions. 

I know that sounds kind of bad in some ways.  I do know many people struggle with insurance.  Also though the horror stories do make better stories than saying yeah I like my health insurance just fine.  

I only bring it up once in awhile because our foreign visitors probably get the idea we're all struggling mightily to pay hefty medical bills and can't get medical care when it's true for some, but not all.  

That we aren't all on a more level playing field is a huge problem. 

What I can't figure out is how some employers manage to provide quality health insurance at a reasonable cost with what appears to be ease and others can't even get close.  

On the Planned Parenthood front, the information about payment assistance is on their website and the lady at the salon said it was all quite easily obtainable.  But that is one county and one Planned Parenthood Office and I'm not about to speak about any others.  

It is probably your state regulations that make yours better than the other 300,000,000 not in your state. Most people are not privileged enough to have high income jobs with employers that can afford benefits at the level in which your daughters have. Your insurance and that of your neighbors and children IS a privilege that most Americans do not enjoy. Your state likely forces insurers to provide better plans and your children likely work for employers who offer better plans. Most people don't have that.

As @Destiny points out, most people are in the situation she is in. I am in your position as is my mother, who is wealthy enough to afford a rich Medicare supplement and pays nothing outside her premiums. I work with low income people in a state that did not expand Medicaid and has loose regulations on insurance providers. I recently conducted a study with our clients and 95% of clients self reported issues accessing basic healthcare and simple prescriptions due to little to no insurance access. You are in the small minority as I am. My clients are among the majority who die early, live sicker and have poor health outcomes closer to developing nations than the rest of the West. Even more people are in Des' position than that. We are the minority and we need appreciate the privilege.

[Manda]

7 hours ago, nausicaa said:

Yeah, it's frustrating on here when people think trying to be factual and objective is akin to "supporting the enemy."

I get this is an emotional topic for people, and I'm pissed too, but I find speaking in exaggerated absolutes might feel good but only gives people who disagree with you more leverage to undermine your arguments.

The absolutes are not helpful.  Calling people names doesn't help either.