<p>[thread] Resisting Trump2/GOP fascism</p><p><a href="/tags/humanrights/" rel="tag">#HumanRights</a> <a href="/tags/socialjustice/" rel="tag">#SocialJustice</a> <a href="/tags/resistance/" rel="tag">#resistance</a> <a href="/tags/civildisobedience/" rel="tag">#CivilDisobedience</a> <a href="/tags/conscientiousobjection/" rel="tag">#ConscientiousObjection</a><br><a href="/tags/transgender/" rel="tag">#transgender</a> <a href="/tags/transrights/" rel="tag">#TransRights</a> <a href="/tags/translivesmatter/" rel="tag">#TransLivesMatter</a> <a href="/tags/blacktranslivesmatter/" rel="tag">#BlackTransLivesMatter</a><br><a href="/tags/trump/" rel="tag">#Trump</a> <a href="/tags/trump2/" rel="tag">#Trump2</a> <a href="/tags/gop/" rel="tag">#GOP</a> <a href="/tags/fascism/" rel="tag">#fascism</a> <a href="/tags/authoritarianism/" rel="tag">#authoritarianism</a> <a href="/tags/autocracy/" rel="tag">#autocracy</a> <a href="/tags/extremism/" rel="tag">#extremism</a><br><a href="/tags/heritagefoundation/" rel="tag">#HeritageFoundation</a> <a href="/tags/project2025/" rel="tag">#Project2025</a><br><a href="/tags/christianright/" rel="tag">#ChristianRight</a> <a href="/tags/catholicism/" rel="tag">#Catholicism</a> <a href="/tags/whitesupremacism/" rel="tag">#whiteSupremacism</a> <a href="/tags/antilgbt/" rel="tag">#antiLGBT</a> <a href="/tags/transphobia/" rel="tag">#transphobia</a><br><a href="/tags/misogyny/" rel="tag">#misogyny</a> <a href="/tags/paternalism/" rel="tag">#paternalism</a> <a href="/tags/sexism/" rel="tag">#sexism</a><br><a href="/tags/womensrights/" rel="tag">#WomensRights</a> <a href="/tags/reproductiverights/" rel="tag">#ReproductiveRights</a> <a href="/tags/selfdetermination/" rel="tag">#SelfDetermination</a><br><a href="/tags/capitalism/" rel="tag">#capitalism</a> <a href="/tags/corporations/" rel="tag">#corporations</a> <a href="/tags/billionaires/" rel="tag">#billionaires</a> <a href="/tags/libertarianism/" rel="tag">#libertarianism</a></p>
Edited 1y ago
<p>At 19 I was told my health came second to my future husband. </p><p>At 22 I was told I would feel differently once I was “in love” </p><p>At 24 my boyfriend was asked if he would still love me if I couldn’t bear children. </p><p>My autonomy was violated for 5 years for a hypothetical baby</p><p>I had severe endometriosis and adenomyosis. My periods hell. They were irregular, heavy and painful. I would lay on the bathroom floor in unrelenting pain, throwing up and too weak to move.</p><p>As the years dragged on I became more disabled from the pain and anemia. </p><p>Surgeries to control the blood loss failed. </p><p>Medications to put me into chemical menopause failed. </p><p>Birth control pills failed. </p><p>I needed a hysterectomy.</p><p>I had never wanted children. I wasn’t even sure I wanted marriage. I was also far too disabled to get pregnant or raise a child.</p><p>So I asked for the surgery. I asked my doctors to remove the diseased organ destroying my quality of life.</p><p>I was firmly told “No” because I might meet a man who wants kids. </p><p>That even though I was too sick to survive pregnancy and likely infertile, I couldn’t make the choice to remove my womb in case I changed my mind when I met my dream man.</p><p>I told the doctors I didn’t want kids, it didn’t matter. </p><p>I pointed out I was too sick to care for myself, let alone a child, and it didn’t matter.</p><p> I said that my “dream man” would love me even if I couldn’t have kids, and the doctors laughed.</p><p>I had no bodily autonomy. </p><p>Medical misogyny was ruining my life. </p><p>I spent the next few years getting second and third opinions. Fighting like hell to get the surgery I knew I needed to have any shot at a “normal” life. When I began dating someone, I brought him to my appointments hoping he could convince them to operate.</p><p>They asked him if he would love me if I couldn’t give him biological children. He didn’t want kids either, but they said the same thing to him they kept saying to me: “You might change your mind”</p><p>Why is the medical system so obsessed with us having babies? Misogyny and patriarchy. </p><p>We could have changed our minds. We could have also broken up.</p><p>What “could” happen in the distant future should never be given more weight than what was happening in the present.</p><p> I was slowly dying. Bleeding to death and confined to bed. Relying on blood and iron transfusions to survive.</p><p>I tell this story every few months because I think it’s incredibly important we talk about our lack of autonomy. </p><p>The post Roe landscape is putting our lives in danger, and my story can hopefully help people understand why.</p><p>If I wasn’t able to make the choice I needed for my body when there was no fetus involved, imagine how hard it must be for pregnant people who need to access abortion? </p><p>Forced birth advocates love to trumpet the “exemption for the life of the mother” rule to justify abortion bans</p><p>But if doctors weren’t willing to remove my uterus when it was literally killing me, why are we trusting they will terminate a pregnancy when the mother’s life is at risk? </p><p>A hypothetical baby came before my life… imagine what would happen if there was a real fetus involved?</p><p>We know what happens. </p><p>Women die. </p><p>They bleed out in parking lots. </p><p>They become septic, lose their fertility or spend months fighting for their lives in the ICU. </p><p>Their care is delayed because the fetus comes first. And delayed care comes at a cost.</p><p>I finally got my hysterectomy, but only because I was bleeding out in the ER and transfusions couldn’t keep up. </p><p>By the time they finally gave me the surgery I spent years asking for, my survival odds were only 50/50. </p><p>Had they done it when I asked, it would have been 99%</p><p>It’s the same thing for those experiencing miscarriage or abortion complications. </p><p>If they could get timely healthcare, their odds of survival would be excellent. </p><p>When we tell doctors they can’t intervene until the life of the mother is “clearly” in jeopardy?</p><p>That’s when we start dying. </p><p>We deserve better. We need full autonomy over our reproductive systems, and that includes access to sterilization and abortion.</p><p>It’s time.</p><p>More on what my hysterectomy taught me about medical misogyny:</p><p><a href="https://www.disabledginger.com/p/what-my-hysterectomy-taught-me-about" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.disabledginger.com/p/what-my-hysterectomy-taught-me-about"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.disabledginger.com/p/what-</span><span class="invisible">my-hysterectomy-taught-me-about</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/uspol/" rel="tag">#uspol</a> <a href="/tags/fascism/" rel="tag">#fascism</a> <a href="/tags/hysterectomy/" rel="tag">#hysterectomy</a> <a href="/tags/abortion/" rel="tag">#abortion</a> <a href="/tags/abortionrights/" rel="tag">#AbortionRights</a> <a href="/tags/reproductiverights/" rel="tag">#reproductiverights</a> <a href="/tags/misogyny/" rel="tag">#misogyny</a> <a href="/tags/patriarchy/" rel="tag">#patriarchy</a></p>
<p>We’re proud to welcome to the Observer masthead <span class="h-card"><a href="https://newsie.social/@candicequestions" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>candicequestions</span></a></span> and Mary Tuma as special investigative correspondents, joining <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mstdn.social/@stevanzetti" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>stevanzetti</span></a></span> as freelance reporters helping us tackle the <a href="/tags/environment/" rel="tag">#environment</a>, reproductive rights, and <a href="/tags/extremism/" rel="tag">#extremism</a> respectively: <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/home/staff/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.texasobserver.org/home/staff/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.texasobserver.org/home/sta</span><span class="invisible">ff/</span></a> </p><p><a href="/tags/reproductiverights/" rel="tag">#ReproductiveRights</a> <a href="/tags/abortion/" rel="tag">#abortion</a> <a href="/tags/healthcare/" rel="tag">#healthcare</a> <a href="/tags/climatechange/" rel="tag">#ClimateChange</a> <a href="/tags/news/" rel="tag">#news</a> <a href="/tags/fascism/" rel="tag">#fascism</a> <a href="/tags/journalism/" rel="tag">#journalism</a> <a href="/tags/nonprofit/" rel="tag">#nonprofit</a> <a href="/tags/media/" rel="tag">#media</a> <a href="/tags/environment/" rel="tag">#environment</a></p>
