Journalist – Historian – Speaker
New in Pacific Standard: Since the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution was signed in 1983, granting equal legal rights to fetuses and pregnant women, it has functioned as a total ban on legal abortion. Next May, Ireland will hold a referendum over whether to repeal the amendment, and current polling suggests that pro-repeal will …
New at The Nation: Anti-choice activists have found what they think is a winning wedge issue: Down syndrome and other “sympathetic” disabilities. The latest attack was in Ohio, where, in late December, GOP Governor John Kasich signed a bill that bans abortions after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Ten states have either passed similar …
It’s happening. Ohio is going to pass an anti-choice bill that criminalizes speech between a woman and her doctor. I wrote about the ban here. Kasich will surely sign it. I’m pretty livid. This won’t help people with Down syndrome. It’s not intended to. It just keeps spreading stigma on the one hand, while serving as a …
NEW AT PACIFIC STANDARD: Ohio uses Down syndrome to attack reproductive rights. Ohio Republicans are the latest group to seize on Down syndrome as a wedge issue in the fight against reproductive choice. Senate Bill 164 would make it a felony for doctors to knowingly perform an abortion after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. …
The discourse around Zika has included a constant barrage of ableist language in which reproductive rights advocates suggest that a disability like microcephaly naturally means a mother would want to terminate. There clearly is a problem with access to reproductive choice, but I always maintain we can make that argument without implying that disability equals …
It’s my understanding that the head of NARAL – Missouri will read this Testimony at a Senate Hearing for SB 802, a bill that make it illegal to have an abortion after a pre-natal diagnosis. Resources. SB 802 text. An article I wrote for CNN on the Ohio version of this bill. My testimony: I …
This Facebook post from Mosul Eye, a source that I’m told has some track record of reliability, shows a video of disabled children (just hanging out, really), then claims the following: Through monitoring and following the death incidents of children with Down’s Syndrome and congenital deformities, we were able to learn that the Shar’i Board …
As I watched the finale of Game of Thrones, I spent a lot of time thinking about sexualized shame. We’re in a kind of ongoing conversation about internet shame lately, with much of the drama focused on white people who feel really uncomfortable being taken to task by historically marginalized groups (people of color). The …
UPDATE: I am leaving the essay below as is. I am increasingly persuaded by my smart interlocutors that the correct response to these kinds of essays is to offer empathy to the mother and to tell one’s own story as best one can in one’s own spaces. Thanks for all the feedback. Websites and newspapers …
A few weeks ago I wrote about an anti-choice bill in Indiana that was designed to drive a wedge between disability rights and reproductive rights activists. I argued: As we head into the 2015 legislative session, we need to be prepared for anti-choice filed a bill last week to prohibit abortions based on fetal determinations …