The language used to justify policy is…fraught. Every new program is a triumph, as is every cut to an existing one. Every new rule is a sea change, and every executive order a roadmap to utopia. These flowery-but-decisive statements come from all politicians, pointing in all directions, and they always […]
Read More“Summer of Justice” recap
Hot. The so-called “Summer of Justice” protest week was…hot. Wichita, Kansas, site of the original 1991 so-called “Summer of Mercy” protests, for which these protests were intended to be an anniversary celebration and renewal, has been experiencing a heat wave. Not exactly unusual for the third week in July. But […]
Read MoreGood luck, Indiana
Your governor is a monster. So’s mine, of course– my governor is Sam Brownback, after all. But yours might be even worse. Why’s that? Well, because on Thursday Indiana’s Governor Mike Pence signed into law a bill that makes abortion illegal in the event that a woman seeks one because of […]
Read MoreThey’re coming back
Operation Save America, the successor to Operation Rescue, has announced that they’re returning to Wichita for a “Summer of Mercy” anniversary tour. The city is reportedly unenthused. Hundreds of people from around the country are expected to converge in Wichita this summer for a week of anti-abortion rallies, protests and […]
Read MoreCaught in a TRAP
Yesterday the Supreme Court heard arguments for Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. This case involves the claim that two laws create an undue burden on the right of a woman to obtain an abortion in the state of Texas. One of the laws requires that doctors at abortion clinics have […]
Read MoreIt’s my Grand Old Party and I’ll lie if I want to (even if it leads to terrorism)
The claim that abortion is baby-murder hasn’t worked. More Americans are now pro-choice than pro-life. Most Americans also support the federal government continuing to fund Planned Parenthood, knowing that some Planned Parenthood clinics provide abortions. There could be many reasons for that. Maybe they know that abortions are only 3% […]
Read MoreConservative fantasy vs. reality, pt. 3
I took the “most likely” out, because this is just reality. Dan Lietha’s comic about Planned Parenthood: My response: The facts: Planned Parenthood services help prevent approximately 516,000 unintended pregnancies each year. Planned Parenthood provides nearly 400,000 Pap tests and nearly 500,000 breast exams each year, critical services in detecting […]
Read MorePages from a pregnancy crisis center manual
I currently live in Wichita, Kansas. It’s where I was born and raised. I moved away for college, and then elsewhere for the rest of college, and then out of the country for grad school, and then back to the states and back to Wichita. It’s a good city in […]
Read MoreThe cure for cancer
I love this because it illustrates some really bizarre assumptions and why they’re bizarre. Like the all-too-common-among-pro-lifers assumption that an unborn fetus represents absolutely limitless possibility. Unborn fetuses are positively magical that way– they could cure cancer, end world hunger, invent a perpetual motion machine, anything! They could save the […]
Read MoreWhat (I think) #TrustWomen means
Five years ago today, Dr. George Tiller was murdered. In my family’s church in Wichita, the church we’d been members of since…’92? Something like that. Before they moved into the newly built church at 13th and Rock, back when it was a smaller building on Kellogg next to Hooter’s. My […]
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