Forced-Birthers Force Suffering in Prescribed Drugs For Cancer, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis

On July 5, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote a column about post-Roe America: It’s the cruelty that will undo the forced-birth crusade. For decades, women like Rubin and myself have been called hysterics or exaggerators on the plans the Republican Party has for American women.

Last week it was revealed that a 10-year-old girl in Ohio was six weeks pregnant, having been raped by a family member. An abortion was no longer available to her in Ohio, because the state’s Republicans are absolutely prepared to impose God’s will that 10-year-old girls in America have babies.

There is — of course — no verification that God ever said such a thing on the subject of abortion, and until recent decades, even America’s southern Baptists firmly embraced the right of women to manage their own family planning, including abortion care.

Two Republican governors, Kristi L. Noem of South Dakota and Tate Reeves of Mississippi, were asked on Sunday news talk shows last week about their views of the Ohio case. Reeves responded that these are such a “small, minor” number of cases, no exception is warranted. Noem responded that “I don’t believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy.”

America’s Forced Birth Republicans

Like Jennifer Rubin, AOC and I will now be using the term “forced birth” to describe the Republican party’s position. Multiple religious institutions like the Catholic Church also demand forced birth everywhere in the world.

I responded to Rubin’s op-ed with new concerns mounting around drug serious shortages and/or a refusal of doctors and pharmacies to dispense drugs for cancer, lupus, and other diseases. Sometimes these drugs contain ingredients associated with being abortion-inducing.

While it’s true that — based on difficult-to-verify statistics — incest is associated with about one percent of abortions, the growing drug shortages associated with new abortion laws are not minor. And even if the number of child births associated with incest is 1%, the torturous sentence being given to those girls is staggering. In many cases, their pelvis is not even wide enough to birth a baby — should both forced-birth child-mother and baby survive.

This is my comment on WaPo in response to Rubin’s op-ed:

“ Jennifer, your writing has been just the best on this entire national nightmare. I am so glad you -- the sensible you -- are using the term "forced birth." Just today the "forced birth" movement has created "forced suffering" among hundreds of thousands -- if not millions of Americans soon-- who use drugs that the "forced birth" movement considers to be "abortion inducing".

Here in the British Medical Journal, we read that treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and cancer are being denied -- even to women collecting social security. Prescriptions are not being renewed because pharmacists are terrified they will be fined, shot at by an AR-15 carrying right-winger or defiled all over social media as a murderer. 80-year-old ladies must go to the doctor to get a note that they are not pregnant. One key example is methotrexate.

Also, according to the Mayo Clinic, 10-20% of pregnancies naturally result in a miscarriage. Now I know the "forced birthers" will call the esteemed Mayo Clinic a bunch of liars, because God couldn't possibly allow such a reality in his perfect world, but now millions of women who have natural miscarriages cannot get the right treatment in red states. So lack of treatment in red states could render them unable to have successful pregnancies in the future.

This entire nightmare is spinning out of control. And the "forced birthers" have the gall to say that it's just the price that American women must pay to live in our country. It's absolutely appalling. Thank you for your leadership, Jennifer.”