RantWoman has a number of popcorn kernels related to reproductive health erupting out of interactions with her media streams seasoned by her leading, as kindly as RantWoman can manage, to troll Lauren Boebert, R-CO03 on Twitter. Here are an assortment of comments meant to be held in the Light and that may or may not be useful either for organizational or individual discernment.
RantWoman would like to open with a First Amendment Freedom of Religion point: just as there are wide differences among Quakers about reproductive health issues, different faith traditions have very different understandings or when life begins. RantWoman sincerely hopes that whatever emerges from the FCNL policy committee's work can speak to that as an affirmative part of any revisions.
RantWoman further considers it important for Quakers from different states to talk to each other because many matters of reproductive and other health care either are handled at the state level or currently involve states trying to bar residents from travelling to other states to get appropriate health care. RantWoman sees this discernment partly as ways for Friends from different states to connect about points beyond what can be done through FCNL.
Background on FCNL discernment as dumped from a recent email.
Endangered Babies
Come to think of it, YES! The US has some of the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the world among industrialized nations. AND guns are the leading cause of death for children under 18. So the answer is YES, babies and children ARE endangered in the US. RantWoman can imagine a bunch of ways Rep. Boebert could vote to address this. RantWoman is pretty sure a hearing about wolf recovery is not the greatest place to do it. RantWoman does take seriously concerns about wolf recovery, for one thing because it is a hot topic in a number of states. RantWoman would SO like to hear mention of actual data and not just whining about extremists and the endangered species act.
RantWoman further notes furor, in light of the recent mass shooting in Nashville, about certain public figures who seem to care more about guns, and fear of topics such as Black History, sex education, and drag queens than they do about actual diverse living children.
In NPYM
Seattle TImes: Idaho hospital to stop delivering babies because...
There are Friends' meetings in Sand Point, Pullman WA / Moscow ID, and Boise. Moscow is right a cross the state line from Pullman WA. RantWoman is not going to research further rural health care issues in ID. RantWoman notes that she recently read a comment about housing and regulation from a very conservative Catholic transphobic Twitter connection. The linked article talked about permits for 5000 units of new housing in Couer d'Alene, about 30 miles from Spokane WA. All RantWoman could think was, look, even in cities women are going to have to travel miles and miles for health care.
ID is not only banning all abortions, no exceptions, they are also trying to bar women from travelling to other states (like WA ) for women's health care. RantWoman is not a lawyer; still RantWoman wonders how the heck that is even Constitutional and how fast some lawyers will be able to file cases and find out.
RantWoman is chagrined to learn that the #GOP urge to plop themselves into the middle of extremely sensitive medical issues is also afflicting MT in the form of a new MT on gender affirming care for minors. RantWoman has no information about whether the MT law is also going to try to apply across state lines.
RantWoman feels lucky to live in WA where the state Attorney General is very forward thinking. Probably enough said for this blog post.
Bad medicine.
RantWoman tartly notes that she is tired of listening to young female practitioners talk about having to move to other states and about the degree to which some of the public conversation is just about bad, really dangerous medicine that needlessly endangers women's lives.
RantWoman further concedes that she wonders where the heck the American Medical Association and related professional organizations are? Have they been sleeping through the entire conversation? Why have they not gotten their lobbying acts together to stop all this crap legislation???? (RantWoman further concedes that she harbors certain stereotypes about the AMA and would be glad to help light fires in the minds of any Quaker practitioners who might be in a position to address what RantWoman considers an oversight.
Back to Lauren Boebert
Rep Boebert is probably first member of congress to give birth in the cab of a pickup. RantWoman has not looked up how far it is from Silt CO where Rep. Boebert lives to a hospital. Still RantWoman imagines that giving birth in the cabs of pickups is more common than people might like.
Another Lauren Boebert point RantWoman has been sitting with: Lauren Boebert, who dropped out of high school because of an early pregnancy, is about to become a grandmother, at an age only slightly older than RantMOM was when her mother, RantWoman's grandmother died. Lauren Boebert's 17-yearo-old son has fathered a child with a 15-year-old classmate.
Probably lots of readers, like RantWoman, are thinking "OH GOOD LORD."
Here, RantWoman was caught up short. One of RantWoman's cousins would not exist if his parents believed in abortion. Those parents are working on 55 years of marriage.
RantWoman also thinks of rhetoric about 3rd generation welfare moms, of any race. Rep. Boebert, though, would not be here to stir things up if her mother had believed in abortion. RantWoman thinks this fact probably somehow informs Rep. Boebert
Other Popcorn Kernels
Individual Quakers are not immune to opinions that someone has too many children, that someone should have aborted a baby with some kind of disability, or that people should for God sakes have access to comprehensive sex education, USE BIRTH CONTROL, and AT LEAST GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL.
To be succinct, what does this point say about Quakers' own need to grow in faithfulness about the lives of ALL babies and young families???
Rural Americans are losing hospitals because states refuse to expand Medicaid
Speaking of taking care of the babies that already get born. RantWoman has not researched where CO stands on this. RantWoman does think it would be absolutely glorious if living wages were prevalent enough that, instead of half the babies in WA being born to mothers on Medicaid, there were a much higher percentage of young families with enough health care coverage and doctors willing to accept insurance plans not to need Medicaid. RantWoman would be even more thrilled if earnings reports were honest about what percentage of corporate workforces have their hours deliberately kept low enough that they will never qualify for the company benefit plans.
Rebel HQ: Many Boebert moments
Item about pronouns and small government conservatives that might somehow be relevant
Brian Taylor Cohen collects great Lauren Boebert moments
For any readers who need reasons to hold Mrs. Boebert in the Light.
How to talk to children about school shootings
RantWoman wishes this one weren't necessary, but besides the throbbing news du jour in Nashville, RantWoman knows two families, one from a local Meeting, and another from blindness circles whose daughters' lives were touched by a school shooting.
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