11/01/24

Good morning! It’s Friday,

November 1st.

National Author’s Day

Well, well, well, finally – a day for a Kim.

It’s also National Deck the Everything Day, as in – decorate the whole dang place! Halloween is done, we’re in the home stretch before the election… at leave give yourself some nice decorations to make yourself feel better.

And now, the news.

Texas Law Kills

-via ProPublica

In Texas, where ProPublica is reporting that we know at least two more women have died thanks to the Governorship of Texas’ Greg Abbott.

One of those women was Josseli Barnica, who was 17 weeks pregnant when she found out that the daughter she was carrying would not survive. A miscarriage was already in progress.

At this point, per ProPublica’s reporting, a dozen medical experts agree that the hospital should have either sped up the delivery or give her an abortion. Either way, they should have done something to try and prevent Josseli from getting an infection.

Instead, doctors waited a grueling 40 hours, until they could no longer hear a heartbeat. 40 hours – cruel and, here in America, in the last two years, tragically common.

She was forced to wait 40 hours and, because of that, she did in fact get the infection that doctors feared.

She died three days later.

You may recall the story of Kate Cox, a woman who, at 20 weeks pregnant, learned her baby had Edwards Syndrome, a condition that has extremely low rates of survival past a few days. She’d been to the emergency room four times with cramping and what was described as “other concerning symptoms.”

Like Barnica, Cox lives in Texas.

Texas does allow for abortions to save the life of the mother, but the law is purposefully unclear. Doctors have asked for clarification, and Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, has repeatedly refused.

After a lot of back and forth, a district court ruled that she could have the abortion, but the state Supreme Court said no after Paxton appealed the district court’s ruling. He also sent a letter, shared on social media, to all hospitals where the dr who said she’d be willing to provide the abortion has admitting privileges, saying the hospitals, and doctor, could face felony charges and a fine no less than $100,000.

Eventually she had to leave the state to have the abortion she needed, in order to save her life.

That was just ten months ago.

And now we have this new reporting. Same state. Same lack of regard for the life of the woman.

But here, at least two women are dead.

A mother.

A human being.

There is not yet a comment from Paxton, Abbott, or Donald Trump who wants the replicate what’s happening in Texas all over the country.

But we can guess at what they’ll say.

Because last month ProPublica reported on the deaths of two other women who died for the same reason: abortion restrictions.

Those women lived in Georgia. Their governor called their deaths “fear-mongering,” and Trump hasn’t said anything beyond a joke that his Fox News townhall would get better ratings than one of the women’s family. Literally.

At the townhall, the host said, “Amber Thurman’s family have come out on a press call, and they’re doing what’s called a prebuttal to our town hall right now.”

He dismissively said, “Oh, that’s nice,” before adding, “We’ll get better ratings, I promise.”

And the crowd laughed.

At the strength of a family, deep in grief, talking about this awful tragedy.

So no, we don’t have a comment from anyone on that side but I don’t think we want that.

At Donald Trump’s rally on Wednesday, when talking about how his advisors told him not to say he was a protector for women, he said this:

"I said, 'Well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them, I'm going to protect them from migrants coming in, I'm going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles -- and lots of other things."

“I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.”

As a reminder, Trump has been found liable of sexual assault, and accused in multiple other cases.

“I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.”

But he will not protect us.

Despite him saying otherwise, Project 2025, which he can factually not separate himself from, wants a full ban on abortion.

He wants to track periods, medicine, everything.

He wants control over women.

He will not protect women.

We are not safe with Donald Trump.

Next week, I’m going to put out two episodes ahead of the election, and then one when we have the results. So it won’t be a normal week of the news.

Which means that, just like with the candidates, I do have a closing message…

To the men listening – we are begging you, begging. you., to see us as human beings.

To believe that we are worthy of the safety of the law that exists for you.

To believe we deserve health care, access to lifesaving measures, like you do.

We are not in the constitution, but we are begging you to believe we also should be afforded the same rights you are, within the Constitution. Specifically these three:

The 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The 9th Amendment: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

The 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

If you believe that we deserve these things, please vote that way.

Think of us as real people, for whom a second Trump presidency will have real, deadly, consequences, when you cast your ballot.

I have maintained this entire time that this is an election for the future of our democracy. And that it’s going to take everyone, giving everything we’ve got, to keep that democracy in tact.

It’s Friday.

There is still time to do something.

Time, money, or influence. Everyone has something. You might even have two out of three.

Our democracy is worth it.

You are worth it.

Your health and safety are worth it.

Four days. One weekend.

Let’s finish strong.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

So Monday and Tuesday, I’ll put out episodes about elections. Not breaking news, just voting. And then there won’t be an episode until they call the election. Which might be Tuesday night! Might be Saturday night! Who knows (and that’s okay! We don’t time travel here. We’ll know when we know).

I’m proud of people who are celebrating Deck the Everything Day. People that are taking their comfort where they can get it. We’re going to be okay, but you need to take care of yourself.

Watch some Ted Lasso, listen to Mandy Moore, eat sushi… these are all things I’ll be doing.

And because I know you’ll find your own way to take care of yourself (even though I do recommend just doing what I’m doing because it’s the best), and also because it’s never not been the truth… I’m proud the you.