*The nonsensical b.s. about Tylenol being unsafe or a cause of autism (N.B.: geriatric sperm is one of many in a constellation of contributing causes), even the Jimmy Kimmel suspension a month ago, while important (1st Amendment Rights matter!), are all a distraction from the real, actual harms – including death – of women in this country due to ‘domestic’ violence, a deep, long-standing misunderstanding of same, as well as misogynistic policies and laws putting pregnant women at risk. And not just pregnant women as the State of Mississippi declared a pubic health emergency this past August due to a severe uptick in infant mortality rates. Well, when you cut pre-natal and post-natal care funding, when you force PP out of your state, when you lose ob/gyns due to anti-choice, forced birth, anti-pregnant people laws that make practicing medicine the right way impossible, women and infants are going to die. It’s that simple.
In domestic violence situations, the most dangerous time for women is when they are pregnant or have just given birth. The following below is from 2022, but things haven’t improved since – in fact I bet they’re getting worse given who sits in the Oval. This short article comes to us via the Harvard T.H. Chan school of Public Health. Something else to pay attention to right now? HHS Secretary Brain Worm is turning his focus to birth control, and abortion care. A sex addict who has a history of spousal abuse and gaslighting looking into women’s healthcare? What could go wrong?
Everything.
And one other thing re: autism. I remember well Jenny McCarthy and her crusade against vaccines, a crusade that continues to this day. Taking medical advice from a former porn star is about as smart as taking medical advice from BRAIN WORMY SEX-ADDICTS. But why? Because a much more likely cause of Ms. McCarthy’s child’s autism is her drug use during her porn career. Huh? The amount of drugs used by actors within the porn industry is off the charts. How do I know this? Because I worked with actors whose side hustle when not doing legit theatre/TV was doing porn. Did one of them work with Jenny from Chicago. Not sure, we’re out of touch and even if we weren’t, I wouldn’t ask. But, can we admit that maybe, just maybe that causality makes a helluva lot more sense than blaming vaccines given safely to literally billions of children worldwide? Ok. I got that out. Phew. The Chan School article:
Women in the U.S. who are pregnant or who have recently given birth are more likely to be murdered than to die from obstetric causes—and these homicides are linked to a deadly mix of intimate partner violence and firearms.
Homicide deaths among pregnant women are more prevalent than deaths from hypertensive disorders, hemorrhage, or sepsis, wrote Rebecca Lawn, postdoctoral research fellow, and Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology.
The U.S. has a higher prevalence of intimate partner violence than comparable countries, such violence is often fatal, and it frequently involves guns, Lawn and Koenen noted. They cited one study that found that, from 2009–2019, 68% of pregnancy-related homicides involved firearms. That study also found that Black women face substantially higher risk of being killed than white or Hispanic women.
Laws restricting women’s access to reproductive care and abortion can place women at further risk, since control over a woman’s reproductive choices often plays a role in intimate partner violence. Lenient firearms legislation also increase the risk.
Koenen and Lawn called gun violence a health emergency for pregnant women. But they added that pregnancy-related homicides are preventable*. When pregnant women have checkups, healthcare providers can identify those at risk of violence and try to help them.
*Yes, they are. We could demand stronger gun laws, and men could stop killing women. In fact, should men be allowed to own guns at all, given their violent tendencies and inability to control themselves? Food for thought.