Mr. Elliot was rational, discreet, polished,—but he was not open. There was never any burst of feeling, any warmth of indignation or delight, at the evil or good of others. This, to Anne, was a decided imperfection. Her early impressions were incurable. She prized the frank, the open-hearted, the eager character beyond all others. Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still. She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.
Congratulations to the advocates & lawmakers who made it happen
Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day:
Okay, I promised I wouldn’t work on my vacation, but this news was too good not to share: Massachusetts just legalized abortion throughout pregnancy, becoming the 10th state to allow abortion after 24 weeks.1
At a bill signing ceremony today, Gov. Maura Healey said, “We believe that health care decisions should be made between women and families and their doctors, not politicians.”
Until now, abortion later in pregnancy was only permitted to protect the patient’s life or health, or because of a grave fetal diagnosis. The Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act changes Massachusetts law to allow abortion after 24 weeks “when based upon the professional judgement of the physician.”
“It comes down to a simple, but powerful conviction,” bill sponsor Rep. Christine Barber said. “Decisions about abortion care must remain between a patient and their provider. No one else.”
Barber said she was inspired to introduce the legislation after hearing from patients who were forced to leave the state for abortion care. Kate Dineen, for example, had to travel to Maryland after learning her son suffered a massive stroke in utero. As devastating as her diagnosis was, it didn’t fit the narrow legal requirements for abortion in Massachusetts.
“I am profoundly grateful that our state leaders are righting this wrong once and for all,” Dineen said today.
I wish women didn’t have to relive their most traumatic moments to create legislative change, but I’m so awed by those willing to do so—all in the hope it might save another woman from similar suffering.
Something that’s not getting nearly enough attention: the legislation also clears the way for clinic-based care after 24 weeks—it struck down Massachusetts’ requirement that abortions later in pregnancy be performed in hospitals. That’s a big deal!
Massachusetts just became the 10th state to legalize post-fetal viability abortions, permitting abortions after 24 weeks “when based upon the professional judgement of the physician.”
Right-wing and anti-abortion media are running with the inflammatory framing that the commonwealth legalized “abortion up until birth.”
See Also:
Resistbot: Massachusetts Just Repealed the Compromise It Wrote in 2020
this truly is what's happening to the economy. the source of "late capitalism" is computers
not even automation but the ability to tighten slack right up to the last point where people can stand it without going bonkers and killing people
and the ability to erase all social aspects from job hunting etc
a hiring manager is not allowed to take a chance on you anymore because they can use computer to 1) source most of their best available choices 2) fully quantify who's best on paper
true creative risk is now being actively punished by almost every institution except indie ones, bc the computer tells them to just push more of the same perfectly calibrated rat-lever slop
but removing all slack from the economy also removes chaos and that chaos has given us some of the best shit we have because you need to be colliding a bunch of random shit together to get cool good new shit
if you look at SF's insane, frantic hivemind striver culture - that is what those people want to export to the entire country, even though most of them are miserable crabs in a bucket
Scooby-Doo is a dog who can talk, which is amazing, and he largely uses his powers of speech to communicate how scared he is of ghosts and monsters, and basically the only thing his owners do is drive him around the country putting him inside various haunted houses and such. I wish I could take Scooby-Doo aside, I want to say to him, these people are not your friends.
I'm sorry but vaccines are so fucking cool. You're telling me that I just need to drop by my doctor, feel a pinprick, maaaybe feel a bit off for a day and then I have statistically significant, incredible chances of either completely avoiding getting a certain illness or at the very least have a pretty string guarantee my body will kick its ass swiftly??? Fucking magic potion.
