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Of Food Banks & Abortion Debates
Jul. 9th, 2022 07:12 amAmazing what people will donate to food pantries. Half-eaten boxes of stale cereal. Open jars of pickles. Jars of marshmallow cream that expired in 2013. Gift cards with a 9¢ balance.
I suppose the impulse behind donations like this is basically a good one—this stuff shouldn’t go to waste—but we spend the first hour of every shift throwing this stuff away.
The rule of thumb for all food bank donations should be: Do not donate anything you wouldn’t eat (or use) yourself.
Also—most food banks have enough cans of beans in their inventories to last until the sun goes red giant. Just sayin’.
###
And Flavia most decidedly did not say she was backing down from the abortion-rights fight. If anything, she is more committed than ever.
Which leaves me wondering about my own eagerness and relief when I thought I heard she was backing off—thereby giving me tacit permission to back off.
I guess I’m tired of being an activist.
And I don’t see that a lifetime of activism has actually accomplished all that much—either politically or for me personally.
As a feminist, the best thing I ever did was participate in the Berkeley Women’s Feminist Health Collective where for 18 months, with speculum in hand, I took women on guided tours of their own genitalia.
We live in vagina-positive times now, so it’s easy to forget that 45 years ago—which is not so far in the past—most American women were indoctrinated to believe their own genitals were ugly mysterious anatomical parts that shouldn’t be examined too closely.
Would you like to see what your cervix looks like? I’d ask. After I got done administering the STD test or the pregnancy test and doling out the fluconazole, penicillin pills, and abortion referrals.
About half of them did.
###
Tromping yesterday, I listened to a This American Life podcast about the closure of the last abortion clinic in Mississippi.
One of the true-life stories was about a logistics coordinator who was trying to find a clinic where a woman who was 25 weeks pregnant could terminate her pregnancy.
But they have the technology to save 24-week preemies, I thought. The survival rate for 24-week preemies is quite high, between 60 and 70%, and while it’s true, 40% of those saved 24-week preemies go on to develop long-term health problems that impact their quality of life, 60% do not.
That’s one thing I haven’t seen referenced in the reams of verbiage spilled since the Dobbs decision was issued: the impact that preemie survival rates may be having on the whole debate.
The other interesting legal issue is what effect the language in the individual state statutes is likely to have on IVF.
The compromise, I suppose, would be a ban on abortions beyond 15 or 20 weeks—which is where most of Europe is at on the issue.
But how does that work with the old rallying cry, My body, my choice?
And also, if it’s your body and your choice, doesn’t that give you permission to be a COVID vaccine skeptic?
It’s all too complicated.
Easiest to say, I don’t want to think about it anymore.
I suppose the impulse behind donations like this is basically a good one—this stuff shouldn’t go to waste—but we spend the first hour of every shift throwing this stuff away.
The rule of thumb for all food bank donations should be: Do not donate anything you wouldn’t eat (or use) yourself.
Also—most food banks have enough cans of beans in their inventories to last until the sun goes red giant. Just sayin’.
###
And Flavia most decidedly did not say she was backing down from the abortion-rights fight. If anything, she is more committed than ever.
Which leaves me wondering about my own eagerness and relief when I thought I heard she was backing off—thereby giving me tacit permission to back off.
I guess I’m tired of being an activist.
And I don’t see that a lifetime of activism has actually accomplished all that much—either politically or for me personally.
As a feminist, the best thing I ever did was participate in the Berkeley Women’s Feminist Health Collective where for 18 months, with speculum in hand, I took women on guided tours of their own genitalia.
We live in vagina-positive times now, so it’s easy to forget that 45 years ago—which is not so far in the past—most American women were indoctrinated to believe their own genitals were ugly mysterious anatomical parts that shouldn’t be examined too closely.
Would you like to see what your cervix looks like? I’d ask. After I got done administering the STD test or the pregnancy test and doling out the fluconazole, penicillin pills, and abortion referrals.
About half of them did.
###
Tromping yesterday, I listened to a This American Life podcast about the closure of the last abortion clinic in Mississippi.
One of the true-life stories was about a logistics coordinator who was trying to find a clinic where a woman who was 25 weeks pregnant could terminate her pregnancy.
But they have the technology to save 24-week preemies, I thought. The survival rate for 24-week preemies is quite high, between 60 and 70%, and while it’s true, 40% of those saved 24-week preemies go on to develop long-term health problems that impact their quality of life, 60% do not.
That’s one thing I haven’t seen referenced in the reams of verbiage spilled since the Dobbs decision was issued: the impact that preemie survival rates may be having on the whole debate.
The other interesting legal issue is what effect the language in the individual state statutes is likely to have on IVF.
The compromise, I suppose, would be a ban on abortions beyond 15 or 20 weeks—which is where most of Europe is at on the issue.
But how does that work with the old rallying cry, My body, my choice?
And also, if it’s your body and your choice, doesn’t that give you permission to be a COVID vaccine skeptic?
It’s all too complicated.
Easiest to say, I don’t want to think about it anymore.
