Abortion/Pro-Choice

The Hyde Amendment: 36 Years of Abortion Restriction

Brianne Bilyeu, , 2,629 Comments

The Hyde amendment was passed on September 30th, 1976. The amendment bars certain federal funds, primarily  Medicaid, from being used to pay for abortions. It is a mean, vile, arguably unconstitutional  provision that disproportionately affects low-income women and families. Every year it’s tacked on to an appropriations bill, and so 36 years after Hyde’s initial passage we’re still telling one portion of the population that they don’t get to have affordable access to abortion, that we don’t think they’re capable of making their own health care and family planning decisions, that we know what’s right for them, that if they were so stupid as to go get knocked up when they knew they didn’t want a baby then they shouldn’t expect us to help them out after the fact.

The National Network of Abortion Funds has a petition that you can sign to show your support of all women’s right to safe, affordable abortion:

Sign the petition below and join our call for coverage of abortion in public insurance programs as a part of comprehensive health care for all. Please also join our call for support for low-income women to care for their children with dignity. Take a stand for reproductive justice and a world in which all women have the power and resources necessary to make healthy decisions about their bodies and their families.

Petition:

It is time for Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment and restore Medicaid coverage for abortion. We must close the gap between the legal right to abortion and genuine access to care. I call on my Senators and House members to repeal the Hyde Amendment and ensure dignity and justice for all women.

The Hyde Amendment: 36 Years of Abortion Restriction
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Weekend Report

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , 579 Comments

I was hoping to get a lot of writing done this weekend because there is SO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT! I got exactly zero writing done, but looking back on my weekend, it turns out I did some pretty cool stuff.

Friday night was supposed to be a night of relaxing and hanging out with the Virtual Drinking Skeptically (VDS) gang. Unfortunately, work setbacks trashed that idea. I didn’t have all my ducks in a row and ended up working until midnight 🙁  Long story short, I grabbed some material (calibrators) for a study and forgot to check the expiration date. After doing all of the set-up on Friday morning, I went to use the calibrators and discovered that they were expired. No problem, I’ll just go grab a new lot, right? Ohhhh…so sad for me: there are no unexpired lots left in the freezer. Luckily, my company makes the darned things on site, so I’ll just go over to manufacturing and pick some up. Three hours later…

At some point during the morning’s series of fiascoes I noted with that sort of inappropriate hilarity that often precludes a mental breakdown that I was going through various stages of grief as my Friday night went up in flames.

  • Shock/Denial: WHAT? How the hell are the calibrators expired? What do you mean we don’t have any extra calibrators in the building? How is that possible? I am NOT letting this get in the way of Virtual Drinking Skeptically tonight.
  • Pain/Guilt: How could I be so stupid as to not check the expiration date before I started!? How could I have everything in place and forget that? I haven’t been to a VDS in months and I feel horrible for not showing up and supporting it because it’s awesome and I can’t believe I’ve ruined my evening like this!
  • Anger/Bargaining: How did NO ONE stock calibrators? Why did this have to happen tonight!? Maybe I could use the expired cals and write some sort of justification. No? Okay, if I can just get the study started, I can sneak away and come in over the weekend to finish things up.
  • Depression/Loneliness: This sucks. I hate working late on Friday nights. Everyone goes home to relax and start their weekend and I’m going to be stuck here pipetting samples until kingdom come. Which isn’t coming, so that means FOREVER. I’m not making it to VDS.
  • Upward Turn: Okay… I have new calibrators. The instruments are all ready to go. Let’s calibrate and see if the controls pass. Samples are thawed, time to start pipetting. If I can load 20 samples per hour and I’ve got 149 samples to load… awwww, man. Wait, calm…I can do this.
  • Acceptance/Hope: Okay, there’s no way I’m getting out of here in time for VDS, but I’ll just have to plan to make the next one. And hey, everything’s running well and I’m going to make it through at least half of these samples today. I’ll come back on Sunday and finish ’em up. And I’ll still have all of Saturday. Every little thing… is gonna be alright.

That’s a whole lot of emotion to go through over the course of a day! Like I said earlier, I left at midnight, but I did get to come home to a sympathetic partner and a whiskey nightcap. So that was nice.

Continue reading “Weekend Report” →

Weekend Report

Clinic Escorting Encounters

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 3,483 Comments

After President Bill Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994, protesters have been limited in their ability to interfere with people who visit abortion clinics. For example, they’re no longer allowed to physically block the entrances to clinics. But they still do their damnedest to convince clients to not to go through those doors on their own. And so there are clinic escorts.

Clinic escorts give clients the strength to walk past the protesters, to ignore the offensive, lie-filled literature that is thrust at them. We make it okay for them to avert their eyes from the little plastic fetuses, the swinging rosaries, the gory pictures that are held up as they walk by or are posted in their line of sight. We give them an excuse to not listen to the prayers, the hymns, the questions and accusations that are thrown at them.  We are a psychological barrier between the clients and the protesters.

On Saturday I was escorting at Whole Women’s Health in downtown Minneapolis. When I showed up there were 13 protesters lining the narrow sidewalk that leads up to the clinic entrance. Two were active protesters (antis who rush up to heckle the clients) and the rest were passively praying, singing, touching the beads on their rosaries, and walking up and down the sidewalk. This later group had four kids who looked to be under the age of 12 with them. It always makes me sad to see kids with the protesters.

Continue reading “Clinic Escorting Encounters” →

Clinic Escorting Encounters

Minnesota 2011 Annual Abortion Report

Brianne Bilyeu866 Comments

Last Tuesday several news sources reported some version of this headline:

Minnesota abortions at 37-year low

That particular headline came from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Every year since Abortion reporting has been in place since 1973 when Roe v. Wade made the procedure legal in the United States. States have their own unique reporting laws for abortions performed in each state, and in 1998 the Minnesota Legislature  updated their requirements and the types of questions that are asked of doctors and patients. In Minnesota it is required that all physicians liscensed and practicing in Minnesota who perform abortions, and all MN facilities in which abortions are performed to complete and submit a report for each procedure to the Minnesota Department of Health. All of that information is compliled into an annual report called the “Report to the Legislature: Induced Abortions in Minnesota”. Two Fridays ago, the 2011 annual report was released by the MDH.

The report is a fascinating read – in a dry “I’m reading 28 pages of statistics” kind of way – especially if you have an interest in who is getting what type of abortions, who is performing them, and even reasons why people say they are seeking abortions. This is a list of some of the information collected:

Continue reading “Minnesota 2011 Annual Abortion Report” →

Minnesota 2011 Annual Abortion Report

Child Care at Abortion Clinics?

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 463 Comments

Do you know what sounds like a good idea at first thought?

Free or affordable childcare in the same building/nearby clinics that provide abortion care.

Thoughts

The clinic where I escort doesn’t allow children or infants in the waiting area.

Some people who seek abortions have children.

People who are economically disadvantaged may be able to take advantage of free or inexpensive child care.

Buts

An abortion is a pretty irregular appointment (for one person – I’m not trying to imply that abortion is rare, or that a person will only have one abortion in their lifetime), and it is scheduled in advance. Should a parent should be able to obtain child care for this one time.

An abortion can be emotionally challenging. Perhaps a little downtime between having an abortion and seeing your bouncy, energetic kid  is in order.

Hmmm…

This is post 11 of 49 in the SSAweek Biodork Blogathon. Donate to the SSA today! Read more about my reader challenges here.

 

Child Care at Abortion Clinics?

I Can’t Believe I’m Doing This

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 484 Comments

Okay, I’m actually on the sidewalk right now. I had one teensy-tiny conflict with the SSA Week Blogathon – I’m clinic escorting from 9:45am to 11am. I’m blogging from my phone right now between clients.

This would be a really great time to donate to the SSA and request a Travel Blog from me. I’ll be in downtown Minneapolis and available to travel after 11am. From my I Am Your Dancing Monkey post:

Tell me WHERE to blog! I like this one and hope someone makes use of it. My blog tagline is “Thoughts from the big cherry”, which is a reference to the Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Walker Art Center. I love my adopted city and I love exploring it. You pick the place and I will scramble to get there in between blog posts. Don’t know the area? Jump on Google Maps or search for “Minneapolis landmarks” or similar. Pick a place and I’ll get there.

So here’s how it works. Donate a minimum of $10 to SSA and in the “Topic Suggestion” box write “Visit” and a place that is a) in Minneapolis, b) can be found if I google it, and c) is easily accessible to the public. No residential or private addresses please. Businesses, landmarks, etc. are cool. I will blog from that spot and put up a photo of me on location. I can’t promise that I’ll make it everywhere during the blogathon, but if you submit a location suggestion, I will try. I’m going to cap “travel blogs” at six locations so I can do some actual writing instead of spending all of my time driving around. If I don’t make it to your spot during the blogathon, I will do a wrap up post of those locations that were missed and have it up within one week.

This is post 9 of 49 in the SSAweek Biodork Blogathon. Donate to the SSA today! Read more about my reader challenges here.

I Can’t Believe I’m Doing This

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 336 Comments

Okay, I’m actually on the sidewalk right now. I had one teensy-tiny conflict with the SSA Week Blogathon – I’m clinic escorting from 9:45am to 11am. I’m blogging from my phone right now between clients.

This would be a really great time to donate to the SSA and request a Travel Blog from me. I’ll be in downtown Minneapolis and available to travel after 11am. From my I Am Your Dancing Monkey post:

Tell me WHERE to blog! I like this one and hope someone makes use of it. My blog tagline is “Thoughts from the big cherry”, which is a reference to the Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Walker Art Center. I love my adopted city and I love exploring it. You pick the place and I will scramble to get there in between blog posts. Don’t know the area? Jump on Google Maps or search for “Minneapolis landmarks” or similar. Pick a place and I’ll get there.

So here’s how it works. Donate a minimum of $10 to SSA and in the “Topic Suggestion” box write “Visit” and a place that is a) in Minneapolis, b) can be found if I google it, and c) is easily accessible to the public. No residential or private addresses please. Businesses, landmarks, etc. are cool. I will blog from that spot and put up a photo of me on location. I can’t promise that I’ll make it everywhere during the blogathon, but if you submit a location suggestion, I will try. I’m going to cap “travel blogs” at six locations so I can do some actual writing instead of spending all of my time driving around. If I don’t make it to your spot during the blogathon, I will do a wrap up post of those locations that were missed and have it up within one week.

This is post 9 of 49 in the SSAweek Biodork Blogathon. Donate to the SSA today! Read more about my reader challenges here.

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

Choice Leadership Conference Opportunity

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , 416 Comments

Damn. I’m too old for this and it sounds like a great opportunity.

If you are or want to be a reproductive freedom activist, NARAL is advertising a leadership conference in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) metro area on June 8-10 for young adults aged 18-30.

According to the website, the institute is at no cost to participants. Meals will be provided. Travel and lodging stipends are also available (funding comes from the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota). People of color, queer people, gender non-conforming people and trans people are strongly encouraged to apply.

The application due date is coming up quickly. For more information check out the web pages linked below:

The Choice Leadership Institute and Fellowship (CLIF)seeks to develop, educate, and empower emerging pro-choice leaders. Twenty pro-choice young adults, aged 18 to 30, will go through a full weekend of reproductive freedom and leadership trainings, followed by the opportunity to create a self-directed community engagement project.

Training sessions include Inequity in Access, Advocacy 101, and the Current Landscape of Reproductive Health in Minnesota. Presenting organizations include women winning, Take Action MN, and Pro-Choice Resources.

Applications for this exciting opportunity are due by May 23.

The future of choice is in your hands – apply today!

Choice Leadership Conference Opportunity

Happy Good Friday!

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 528 Comments

For the second year in a row I will be celebrating the holiday at Planned Parenthood , countering this kind of dumbz:

I’m pretty sure the “Chicken Strip” sign was for the DQ next door, and not an anti-choice protest sign. Poor framing of the shot. Mea culpa. *hehehe*

Our side had WAY more fun:

Plus we raised a crap-ton of money for Planned Parenthood through the Pledge-A-Protester effort.

Why is everyone out walking in circles in front of a doctor’s office? Let’s ask the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis:

Join with us to pray in front of Planned Parenthood on Good Friday. Fifteen area pastors will lead in scripture and prayer each half hour throughout the day. A life-sized cross will be our only sign as we carry the cross of abortion. An area will be cordoned off for a family-safe day of prayer. Last Good Friday, more than 2,500 Christians joined in prayer throughout the day at this vigil. Help us double those numbers on April 6! Invite your whole church.

One of the church congregations that attended last year had this to say about the event:
Pro-Life Action Ministry’s annual all-day Good Friday Prayer Vigil is quickly approaching. This is one of the most moving events you could attend to commemorate the passion and death of our Lord Jesus. This event will bring for you a deepened awareness and spiritual understanding of Jesus’ suffering and death which won our salvation. And it will greatly enhance the Good Friday services at your own church.

I don’t even…oww…it…so many irrelevant non-arguments…my head!

There’s still time to join in the fun today.  If you’re in the Twin Cities are, these are two way can get involved:

1) Come on down to the St. Paul Planned Parenthood Health Center (671 Vandalia Street) any time from 8am to 4pm today. Organizers will have signs that you can carry. Just jump in the march line and add your voice and presence to those of us who will be out to show that Minnesotans stand with Planned Parenthood!

2) Pledge a Protester – Over 1000 protesters are expected at the St. Paul Planned Parenthood today. For $10 you can “Pledge a Protester”, the idea being that the more protesters who show up, the more money they raise for Planned Parenthood. You know you want to: Click here to Pledge A Protester.

One more cup of coffee and then I’m out of here. Photos of the rally to follow in the next day or so. Happy Good Friday!

Happy Good Friday!