Reading Time: 11 minutes It’s been a rough few days for anyone following flu season data. While China has eased zero-COVID restrictions in the face of protests, despite currently experiencing a surge in case count (along with Japan), North American hospitals face what the American Medical Association is openly calling a “tripledemic”: a wave of flu, Respiratory Syncytial Virus […]
COVID crisis
Posted inSatire
An abortion guide for women who’ve slept with a Republican politician
Reading Time: 2 minutes Congratulations! You’ve just slept with a Republican politician. In the afterglow of such an auspicious event, something unexpected may have happened. You’re now pregnant. Uh oh! A lot of thoughts may be running through your head at this time, such as, “Should I keep the baby?” Listen. Are you listening? Look at me. We strongly […]
Posted inHealth
What’s driving panic around the BQ COVID variants?
Reading Time: 3 minutes On Friday, October 14, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released weekly COVID-19 data with a new breakdown of dominant strains for infections. These included the “sudden” emergence of BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which had been recorded under BA.5 in earlier data, and were now prominent and rising strains when recorded separately. Together with […]
Posted inReproductive rights
‘Nobody should go through what I went through’—the traumatic pregnancy
Reading Time: 6 minutes CN: Sexual assault Christian crisis pregnancy centers claim to be of service to women in need. Do they serve the actual needs of women, or simply advance a particular religious agenda? I spoke to Rebecca Trotter, a self-described “mom, writer, thinker, talker, teacher, and Christian” whose personal experience when faced with a traumatic pregnancy sheds […]
Posted inReproductive rights
Florida: Teen is not ‘mature’ enough for abortion, but mature enough to give birth
Reading Time: < 1 minute A Florida appellate court ruled that a pregnant 16-year-old was “not sufficiently mature” to access abortion services. The teen herself argued in her petition that she was “not ready to have a baby,” as she is still in school, does not have a job, and the father cannot assist her. Court records say that the […]
Posted inPolitics
When denial is your brand: A pointless recount effort begins in Kansas
Reading Time: 2 minutes Despite the overwhelming defeat of Kansas Amendment 2, a referendum to “affirm there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion,” and an insurmountable lack of evidence of voter fraud, nine Kansas counties are set to conduct a recount of the state’s stunning vote. After the amendment’s decisive rejection by voters, right-wing activists have worked to […]
Posted inPolitics
Stunning Kansas vote shows just how badly the Right has overplayed its hand
Reading Time: 2 minutes An earthquake at the ballot box in reliably-red Kansas has flipped the chessboard for the midterm elections and reproductive rights.
Posted inDeep Dive
Who or what is a person? Elephants, A.I., abortion, and personhood
Reading Time: 4 minutes The question of personhood is central to a variety of current controversies. American courts recently considered the question of whether elephants are persons. Google fired an engineer for suggesting that a machine is sentient. And the U.S. Supreme Court argued that Roe v. Wade failed to adequately consider fetal personhood. These disputes involve a conflict […]
Posted inReproductive rights
Kentucky judge slams ‘theocratic’ laws in ruling protecting abortion rights
Reading Time: 3 minutes On Friday morning, Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry ruled that abortion procedures could continue in the state of Kentucky, issuing an injunction requested by two women’s health clinics in Louisville, partly because he didn’t buy the “theocratic” religious argument that life begins at conception. Attorney General Daniel Cameron wants to use the overturning of Roe […]
Posted inReproductive rights
The anti-abortion SLED argument is no Rosebud
Reading Time: 4 minutes A popular apologist pushes back against the charge that his pro-life argument is built on religion. Is he correct? And does his pro-life argument make sense?