If a conservative judge like Brett Kavanaugh is appointed to the Supreme Court, we can expect a barrage of dangerous new anti-abortion restrictions proposed and enacted across the country.

Originally published August 10, 2018 by Broadly

During a 2016 campaign stop, Mike Pence promised voters that Roe v. Wade would be “consigned to the ash heap of history” should Donald Trump be elected President. This February, Pence doubled-down on this vision when he announced his goal to end legal abortion “in our time” at a luncheon hosted by an anti-abortion group held in Nashville.

On the campaign trail, Trump also promised to nominate justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. in support of that aim, following the announcement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s resignation, he relied on the recommendations of religious conservative Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, a man who has been lauded for his dedication to “building a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe v. Wade.” The resulting nominee is Brett Kavanaugh, a man who recently supported the Trump administration’s policy of denying abortion access to immigrant women in federal custody, and a reliable conservative vote.

In the 60s, the Catholic Church came close to reversing its position on contraception as sinful. It didn't, obviously, and women today are still suffering under policy influenced by religious dogma.

Originally published in Broadly, May 24, 2018

This past February, Idaho State Senator Dan Foreman was videotaped berating a group of university students scheduled to meet him to discuss comprehensive sex education and a bill to increase access to birth control. “Abortion is murder. I stand against it,” Foreman shouted as he waved his bony finger at the students, who had driven 300 miles to meet him. “I’m a Roman Catholic; I’m a conservative Republican. I think what you guys do stinks.”

Despite Foreman’s outrage, the students weren’t there to discuss abortion rights at all, but rather to have a conversation about policies that would make contraception more accessible to women in the state and improve sex ed. Both of these things would in fact, reduce the abortion rate in Idaho—a topic that should theoretically have been a top priority for Foreman, considering his belief that abortion is morally equivalent to murder.

Originally published on the Metrotimes April 19, 2018

The DJ’s voice echoed throughout the club dripping in neon, mirrors, and nude women — “Are you ready to meet the most famous woman in the world?” The slew of Detroit police who had just raided the club to verify cabaret licenses had finally left and the crowd was anxious to see the woman who's rocked the world by taking a stand against the President of the United States. A congregation of fans from the packed room swarmed the glowing red, white, and blue catwalk and erupted in cheers as Stormy Daniels appeared draped in a short red cape and g-string and began to grind up on the stripper pole to Lenny Kravitz’s “American Woman.”

Daniels possesses the kind of marketing genius that Trump fans admire, leveraging the current controversy to book jobs and appearances including her “Make America Horny Again” tour at strip clubs across the country, which is how she found herself at Truths Gentleman’s Club on 8 Mile and Mound Road.

Onerous anti-abortion laws are designed to make abortion inaccessible — and by design they harm poor women and marginalized populations the most.

Originally published on Broadly, April 5, 2018

Imagine that you’re a 24-year-old woman living in Lubbock County, Texas, and you've just discovered that you’re six weeks pregnant. You know you can’t afford to carry a pregnancy to term at this point in your life, so you decide to get an abortion. However, you make an hourly wage of $13.20—which is 82 percent of what your male counterpart earns—and you’re uninsured, without credit or savings. Like 60 percent of women seeking an abortion, you are also a young mother. The nearest abortion provider is 300 miles away (one way), and you’ll have to visit the clinic twice to comply with Texas’ 24-hour waiting period law.

The clinic tells you that your procedure will cost $600. This is in addition to the cost of gas ($42), hotel accommodations ($160), lost wages ($316), medication and maxi-pads ($50), and childcare ($200), which adds up to a total of $1,368—or 65 percent of your monthly income. Depending on your current financial situation, this may be an inconceivable expense for you, especially if you lack support from a partner or family members, you’ve recently had car trouble, your child is sick, or you’re experiencing any number of hardships that women in poverty face.

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case that pits reproductive rights advocates against faith-based "crisis pregnancy centers," whose sole purpose is to talk women out of abortion, often through deceptive means.

Originally published March 20, 2018 in Broadly.

In 2002, Cherisse Scott was facing an unwanted pregnancy at age 28, living in Chicago and working as a paralegal. She made an appointment at what she thought she was an abortion clinic, she later recounted to New York Magazine—but instead of providing her with information about her full range of options, a counselor lectured her about the joys of motherhood, made her watch a graphic video of an abortion procedure, then presented her with a rattle and a onesie and referred her to another facility for a free ultrasound. At this second appointment, the technician told her, “If you have an abortion now, you’ll rupture your uterus and won’t be able to have children in the future.”

A day following the 45th anniversary of Roe V. Wade, The Satanic Temple appeared before the Missouri Supreme Court to defend the right to obtain an abortion motivated by religious belief. The hearing is the latest in a two-and-a-half year battle with the state of Missouri that began in 2015, when The Satanic Temple filed a lawsuit against the Governor and Attorney General of Missouri alleging that the state’s mandated “informed consent” materials, ultrasound, and 72-hour waiting period violated a member of The Satanic Temple’s First Amendment rights.

One month ago, on September 20th, I traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to visit the largest courthouse in the United States to hear oral arguments in The Satanic Temple’s (TST) federal abortion lawsuit at The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. A week earlier, The Missouri Court of Appeals heard arguments from both sides in a similar case filed by The Satanic Temple on the state level.

For over two years, The Satanic Temple (TST) has pursued a lawsuit against the Governor and Attorney General of Missouri, alleging that the State’s mandated “informed consent” materials, ultrasound, and 72-hour waiting period violated a member of The Satanic Temple’s First Amendment rights. This September, TST’s abortion lawsuits in the State of Missouri will reach a turning point when the Missouri State Court of Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit will hear oral arguments in a case that could change state regulations for religiously motivated abortions.

On January 27th, swarms of people descended upon Washington to attend the 43rd annual March for Life. Defined as a “peaceful demonstration to share the truth concerning the greatest human rights violation of our time, legalized abortion on demand,” the march aimed to organize individuals who share a belief that abortion access should be abolished in America. This position is deeply bound to religious beliefs concerning the beginning of personhood, which is obvious when reviewing the March for Life’s roster which included prayer led by Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, a Christian rock band, Bishop Vincent Mathews Jr., president at Church of God In Christ World Missions, and Vice President Mike Pence.

I am in the process of planning my abortion. It seems strange to say it like that but it’s true. I’m currently pregnant and planning my abortion which should happen roughly one week from now. I’ve never been pregnant before, so I’ve never needed to make these kinds of arrangements. That doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it. In fact, I’ve thought a great deal about abortion, and pregnancy, and the legal and moral implications surrounding such a situation. You see, I’m of the opinion that people should be able to manage personal decisions about their health and their future without the imposition of government regulations. The moral and philosophical opinions of some don’t always work for the rest.

I found myself holding the hand of a 13-year-old girl in a pitch-black corridor awaiting entrance into the House of Judgment, an evangelical haunted attraction called a "hell house" that aims to “scare people for Jesus.” By all appearances this is your typical small-town haunted house, featuring the sounds of shrieking women, enough strobe lights to give anyone a full-blown seizure, and a jittery gaggle of pubescent teenagers squirming in anticipation of a good fright. However, clearly unknown to some (specifically the chain-smoking baddie wearing the "HIGH AS FUCK" beanie and his young crustachioed comrade), this horror house has a mission of salvation.

Religion fanaticism defies the logical framework most of us subscribe to. This makes it incredibly difficult to communicate with the devout reasonably. Two plus two equals five, it’s as simple as that — the solution is in the good book and that’s all that you need to know. So when it comes to a secular democratic government, which has promised to protect us from religious oppression and ensure our right to religious freedom, we face an interesting dilemma.

In a recent interview, Michigan Senator Rick Jones claimed that The Satanic Temple of Detroit is a reason you should support the Michigan Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (MI-RFRA).   Exploiting fears of history’s most infamous scapegoat, the Senator is swooping in to offer MI-RFRA as protection from the local baking enterprises from Michigan’s Satanic community: “…if a man has a bakery and he bakes cakes for a living and the Satanic Temple of Detroit comes in and says, ‘I want you to make a satanic cake with a big snake and other symbolism and he says, ‘I simply can’t do that because of my religion.’ He should have the right to say no.”

Technological progress has radically transformed the ways we experience life. Our social and cultural interactions are no longer exclusively limited by our physical proximity to one another but are shared through a global network of diverse interconnected communities. Blurring geographic boundaries that have traditionally defined nations and peoples, the digital revolution has forged a new vision of the “global village” that assumes that all people share a common destiny. This concept challenges us to negotiate our place within this imagined community in consideration of our own personal experiences as members of actual families and neighborhoods, with real ethnic and cultural histories. 

You and I are witness to the dawn of a new reality.   For the first time in the history of humanity we are observing a radical transmutation in the ways in which we experience existence.  The Digital Revolution, defined by the modern achievements in technology and development of the global information society, has dramatically transformed the way in which mankind functions. Each of us has experienced the effects of these changes and many have happily adapted to the new order as advocates of the improved life.  This is the birth of the posthumanist man at the crossroads of the natural and the invented.  

Lately, there’s been a lot of legal debate surrounding several facets of female reproductive health and liberties, namely abortion law reforms and the “war” against Planned Parenthood. 

I am confused to as to why reproduction has become entirely a woman’s issue.  Isn’t reproduction a 50/50 operation?   Unless there has been some incredible advances in science, for every woman who uses these services there is a man who benefits from them as well.  Undoubtedly there is a massive number of males who would loose their shit if things like abortion or birth control wasn’t available…but their needs are unarticulated.