Less policy, more political theater 🎭 @plannedparenthood

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]All this hoopla and halaloo about abortion bans, weaponizing the court system to try to attack methopristone, overturning Roie Wade, and abortions haven't really decreased. That's interesting, isn't it? In fact, some data suggests they went up a little bit.

[00:00:14]But who could have known? Who could have foreseen this very predictable and observable pattern we already had data for? It's almost like ignoring research doesn't make it go away, even if you close your eyes and you wish really hard. Because if you looked at any of this research with actual good faith, you'd see that even in places with strict abortion bans, it doesn't eliminate abortions. It just increases unsafe abortions, which is kind of the opposite of what I assume the goal was, unless the goal was, I want the same problem, but more stressful. In the US right now, it's really just a patchwork of state laws. It really just depends on your zip code and your ability to travel, which is a fun new twist on American healthcare. Now it's a road trip. Good thing gas prices are stable and affordable. But yeah, people just travel to another state or they use tellahalth or they have medication like methopristone mailed to them. So if reducing abortions really is the goal, the approach doesn't even seem to accomplish that. But these bans are part of a larger strategy. First, they make it more complicated, more expensive, more dangerous. At the same time, they're making access to reproductive health care more difficult by attacking Planned Parenthood and forcing health care centers to close, which also provide services like cancer screening, STI testing, birth control. Thanks. I love having less access to doctors. I also hate pizza and puppies and concerts. I'm the worst person in the world. In my opinion, passing abortion bans is political theater and the legislative equivalent of running on a treadmill. Sure, you're putting in a lot of effort, but you're not actually going anywhere. Bans don't decrease abortions.

[00:01:38]They just shift how and where they happen. And I don't know, I just thought the system we had where you and your doctor make an informed decision was fair, given that there are millions of variables that can go into any given pregnancy. But sure, a sweeping policy with no room for individual circumstance is fine.