Black Ohio woman criminally charged after miscarriage underscores the perils of pregnancy post-Roe

Unrelated fun fact on child tax credits: There is a section of the internal revenue code that states if your child has been kidnapped, you can still claim the dependent.

This means that at some point in time, somebody lost a child, and their priority was maintaining that sweet, sweet credit to the point that they went to court to argue the matter.

Edit: It's in Internal Revenue Code section 152

(6)Treatment of missing children (A)In general Solely for the purposes referred to in subparagraph (B), a child of the taxpayer— (i)who is presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of the family of such child or the taxpayer, and (ii)who had, for the taxable year in which the kidnapping occurred, the same principal place of abode as the taxpayer for more than one-half of the portion of such year before the date of the kidnapping, shall be treated as meeting the requirement of subsection (c)(1)(B) with respect to a taxpayer for all taxable years ending during the period that the child is kidnapped.

That's an interesting precedent to set. That's your go-to retort?

What in ever fuck are you smoking? Is civics no longer taught in school ??? Walk us through the path to get this enshrined in the constitution. I'm really curious how that's happening.

The Democrats could have passed a bill, but "enshrining it in the Constitution" would mean passing a Constitutional amendment. First, they would need a 2/3rds vote of Congress. That means that the Democrats couldn't have a slim majority - they'd need a large majority. Or they'd need to find Republicans willing to vote for a Constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights. Basically an impossibility.

Even if the Democrats managed to get the Constitutional Right To Abortion passed, they would need to have 75% of the state legislatures pass it. Democrats don't control that name state legislatures.

So perhaps the Democrats could have passed a national law, right? Except that the Republicans would inevitably filibuster this in the Senate. The Democrats could have changed the filibuster rules, but not all of them supported changing these rules. (Mainly because it would prevent them from stopping the Republicans if the Republicans regained the Senate.) Any law that was passed would inevitably have been challenged up to the conservative Supreme Court.

You could definitely criticize the Democrats for not pushing harder to pass a law guaranteeing abortion, but a Constitutional Amendment was out of reach.

Yes, let's go die of exposure because there's a hole in the roof. Throw the whole house away just because there's glaring issues with it when there's no other viable choice in the vicinity.

What level of analogy do you need to understand that if you abandon the power you do have (ie minute nudge control of democratic establishment) you become irrelevant due to powerlessness?

To change what's acceptable, you shift what's considered acceptable, nip at the bits that are trying to stay with the old status quo, and repeat until you move the window to wherever you're trying to push it. That's how this works (if the window goes left for democrats, you would call that an "improvement"). Revolution is anomalous. Pushing for revolution and depending on the assumption of it happening leads to total powerlessness, which is less than what lefties have right now (right now I'd only call them mostly powerless).

You can't get away from dealing with the devil when Satan created the whole system in the first place.

Well, people did stop this in Ohio, specifically. Local organizers recently successfully petitioned to put abortion rights (which Republican representatives had been threatening) on the ballot statewide - voters got it passed, alongside marijuana legalization, all while facing (and continuing to face) significant antagonism and legal backlash from "elected" Republicans in the 2nd most gerrymandered state in the union.

Both parties suck, I'd go so far as to say both parties frequently do outright evil shit, but they are not the fucking same, and even if they were, that has yet stop people from coming together to get involved and improve their communities themselves. Observing politics near exclusively at the federal level tends to obscure that reality. I accept that this sort of doomerism can come from a place of ignorance, so I offer you suggestion: if you want things to get better, go help. Go find out what groups are actively working to induce local- or state-level government reform, or who are working to directly improve the lives of marginalized people in your community, and go help them. You can't exactly stop fed-level Dems from being useless hypocrites, but you can get involved with groups in your community to help with the work of bringing about positive change - and while that is harder than stewing about the state of things, it actually gets results.

Wait, why is raising money your problem here? TFG sells cut up pieces of fabric from a mug shot suit and NFTs to make money...

The only thing I'd relent on is that Dems trusted a Supreme Court decision to confer abortion rights, talk about Dems being dense, why rely on the highest court in the land to set precedent? How funny they couldn't foresee 6 Republican installed Justices tearing it out decades later, one (Alito) referencing a guy's treatise from 400 years ago.

Yeah, definitely the same...

You dropped this /s

Their exit velocity when leaving Ohio is so high that they simply can't stop themselves from catapulting into space.

Even if she hadn't gone to the hospital first, this could happen to anyone.

Hold up...

Watts miscarrying into, and then flushing and plunging, a toilet at her home;

She miscarried the fetus, and tried to flush it.

Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri told Ivanchak that Watts left home for a hair appointment after miscarrying, leaving the toilet clogged. Police would later find the fetus wedged in the pipes.

Ohio's reproductive rights amendment would have ensured she could have gotten help at the hospital, but it would not protect her from the consequences of trying to flush a fetus.

Thanks, I skimmed over that.

Her regular doctor told her to go to ER, ER left her waiting while they deliberated over the "legalities" of it, discharging her home just before the legal deadline for a legal medical abortion expired.

I feel like a good lawyer should be able to work out the situation now that it's in effect though ... no?

It seems absurd to actively pursue a case where the crime is no longer a crime. Like, a reasonable judge would have to dismiss the case ... right?

Edit: also worth noting abortion was not actually illegal in Ohio in September, the Ohio Supreme Court had put a stay on laws going into effect/being reactivated post repeal of Roe.

If it cost but a penny, republicans wouldn’t afford dignity for their own mothers.

And they couldn’t afford it without a bailout from California.

I've had several. I guess they figured they'd analyzed enough of them.

Oh man and that's free?

Also though, if it's your first or even second miscarriage in a row, they won't test it anyway. That's an optional thing you spend a lot of money on. They straight told me there's nothing we can do for you and there's no point in testing after 2, because it's so common that it's just normal.

If you go to pass it in the hospital that's thousands of dollars, and only makes sense if you fear for your life. Dealing with the major period at home on the toilet and with adult diapers is way cheaper and much more comfortable in your grief.

Good grief. 🥺

And yes to the comment. 😔