Roe v. Wade Overturned. Lysol Sales Spike!
May. 3rd, 2022 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraWow.
Apparently, the Supreme Court is going to overturn Roe v. Wade.
I’m not entirely sure what to think.
I get the logic: States do retain primary responsibility for health under the U.S. Constitution. I’m no lawyer, but construing the Constitution’s rather nebulous 14th Amendment to guarantee a right to privacy has always seemed like a stretch to me.
Still.
I’m not buying the sanctity of all human life arguments being pushed by patriarchal assholes in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia & Florida—those being the states that have already or are most likely to enact strict abortion constraints once Roe v. Wade officially topples.
If the patriarchal assholes in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia & Florida really gave a shit about the sanctity of human life, they would enact legislation to mitigate the devastating effects of the staggering levels of childhood poverty in those states.
But they don’t.
Leading one to believe that it’s not the sanctity of human life they want to protect but rather a multi-tiered social system in which the people at the bottom are truly suffering.
I mean—can you really enjoy your privilege without the opportunity to look down on all those people who don’t have your privilege? Without the opportunity to gloat?
Hey! You had sex! Maybe you even had an orgasm! Well, this will teach you to try to find pleasure!
###
Full disclosure: I’ve had three abortions.
I was conscientious about birth control. I used barrier methods: diaphragms, IUDs. (I didn’t like what pills did to my body.). Birth control doesn’t always work.
I’ve read countless human interest stories about women who’ve had abortions. For many of them, it seems to have been an agonizing decision.
It wasn’t for me.
I never had the slightest twinge of regret about my abortions.
Not at the time. Not afterward.
I went on to give birth to two children.
Having had abortions didn’t impair my ability to be a good mother in any way.
###
I’ve written several times before in this very space about the likelihood that Roe v. Wade would be overturned.
I was and remain very, very puzzled that there isn’t more outrage among sexually active women of reproductive age and concluded that this must have something to do with the availability of chemical abortion: These days, more than half the abortions in this country are facilitated through the use of the pills mifepristone and misoprostol.
A pill-facilitated abortion is so much less messy than a surgical abortion! And surely, it’s the mess that all those thunderous old patriarchs, those snipe-faced anti-abortion protestors are objecting to, right? All those little fetuses washing down the drain and into America’s sewer systems!
Those women might want to give the issue another think-through.
Because medication abortion is likely to be subject to many of the same restrictions as surgical abortion methods.
If you’re a fan of old ads like I am, you will have noticed the prolificacy of ads from the pre-World War II era that tout the use of Lysol as a douche to keep your lady parts clean and, uh, fresh-smelling.
Since having sex doesn’t make your pussy smell bad but the use of Lysol will, one is forced to conclude that smell wasn’t really the issue here.
So what was?
This article does a good job of tracking the evidence that Lysol was widely used as a contraceptive—and when contraception failed, as an abortifacient. The code is clear in the advertisement above: Note the calendar on the wall above the weeping woman: a missed period.
The piece quotes a 1969 article in The New England Journal of Medicine that speculated that between 200,000 and one million illegal abortions were taking place in the U.S. every year in those pre-Roe v. Wade times. Abortifacients of choice were Lysol, permanganate, knitting needles, wire coat hangers etc, etc.
Overturning Roe v. Wade is not going to eliminate abortion.
Overturning Roe v. Wade is merely going to increase the sales of Lysol and knitting needles.
As well as increase the number of deaths among sexually active women of reproductive age.
Better case scenario: A modern-day underground railroad for abortion patients.
Though I believe one of the states that recently passed anti-abortion legislation—Texas?—actually is actually trying to make it illegal to travel to another state to get an abortion.
I can’t see how that could possibly stand up in court.
But we live in deeply fundamentalist and disturbing times.
So who knows?
In the meantime, the National Network of Abortion Funds has a list of organizations in most states that help women who can’t afford to travel to get an abortion:
https://abortionfunds.org/
I just made my donation!
###
In other news: Just got my second COVID booster. Timed it for maximum efficacy when I am in Sicily.
Apparently, the Supreme Court is going to overturn Roe v. Wade.
I’m not entirely sure what to think.
I get the logic: States do retain primary responsibility for health under the U.S. Constitution. I’m no lawyer, but construing the Constitution’s rather nebulous 14th Amendment to guarantee a right to privacy has always seemed like a stretch to me.
Still.
I’m not buying the sanctity of all human life arguments being pushed by patriarchal assholes in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia & Florida—those being the states that have already or are most likely to enact strict abortion constraints once Roe v. Wade officially topples.
If the patriarchal assholes in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia & Florida really gave a shit about the sanctity of human life, they would enact legislation to mitigate the devastating effects of the staggering levels of childhood poverty in those states.
But they don’t.
Leading one to believe that it’s not the sanctity of human life they want to protect but rather a multi-tiered social system in which the people at the bottom are truly suffering.
I mean—can you really enjoy your privilege without the opportunity to look down on all those people who don’t have your privilege? Without the opportunity to gloat?
Hey! You had sex! Maybe you even had an orgasm! Well, this will teach you to try to find pleasure!
###
Full disclosure: I’ve had three abortions.
I was conscientious about birth control. I used barrier methods: diaphragms, IUDs. (I didn’t like what pills did to my body.). Birth control doesn’t always work.
I’ve read countless human interest stories about women who’ve had abortions. For many of them, it seems to have been an agonizing decision.
It wasn’t for me.
I never had the slightest twinge of regret about my abortions.
Not at the time. Not afterward.
I went on to give birth to two children.
Having had abortions didn’t impair my ability to be a good mother in any way.
###
I’ve written several times before in this very space about the likelihood that Roe v. Wade would be overturned.
I was and remain very, very puzzled that there isn’t more outrage among sexually active women of reproductive age and concluded that this must have something to do with the availability of chemical abortion: These days, more than half the abortions in this country are facilitated through the use of the pills mifepristone and misoprostol.
A pill-facilitated abortion is so much less messy than a surgical abortion! And surely, it’s the mess that all those thunderous old patriarchs, those snipe-faced anti-abortion protestors are objecting to, right? All those little fetuses washing down the drain and into America’s sewer systems!
Those women might want to give the issue another think-through.
Because medication abortion is likely to be subject to many of the same restrictions as surgical abortion methods.
If you’re a fan of old ads like I am, you will have noticed the prolificacy of ads from the pre-World War II era that tout the use of Lysol as a douche to keep your lady parts clean and, uh, fresh-smelling.
Since having sex doesn’t make your pussy smell bad but the use of Lysol will, one is forced to conclude that smell wasn’t really the issue here.
So what was?
This article does a good job of tracking the evidence that Lysol was widely used as a contraceptive—and when contraception failed, as an abortifacient. The code is clear in the advertisement above: Note the calendar on the wall above the weeping woman: a missed period.
The piece quotes a 1969 article in The New England Journal of Medicine that speculated that between 200,000 and one million illegal abortions were taking place in the U.S. every year in those pre-Roe v. Wade times. Abortifacients of choice were Lysol, permanganate, knitting needles, wire coat hangers etc, etc.
Overturning Roe v. Wade is not going to eliminate abortion.
Overturning Roe v. Wade is merely going to increase the sales of Lysol and knitting needles.
As well as increase the number of deaths among sexually active women of reproductive age.
Better case scenario: A modern-day underground railroad for abortion patients.
Though I believe one of the states that recently passed anti-abortion legislation—Texas?—actually is actually trying to make it illegal to travel to another state to get an abortion.
I can’t see how that could possibly stand up in court.
But we live in deeply fundamentalist and disturbing times.
So who knows?
In the meantime, the National Network of Abortion Funds has a list of organizations in most states that help women who can’t afford to travel to get an abortion:
https://abortionfunds.org/
I just made my donation!
###
In other news: Just got my second COVID booster. Timed it for maximum efficacy when I am in Sicily.
