[collegeburner]

You're right, I should be using my work environment to agitate for repealing all the ridiculous and unjust gun laws we have and the shitty bill congress just passed. It's more important that we win colleagues over to protecting our rights.

Not that I will do this, but when I see people talk about things like this, they usually do not feel the same if I suggest what I might do. I think the abortion laws in my state need a little loosening (though not a lot) but there are other people who want them even tighter. Are you just as okay with them agitating at work? Or will you want them to be censored by HR or fired or passed over for promotion/bonus?

[woodruffw]

You shouldn’t “agitate” for anything political at work, unless you mean that in a humorous way (I sometimes do!)

Instead, you should put your best self forward and treat your political positions as a humanizing element. It’s been my experience that extremely healthy workplace discussions can occur when people start from a place of human respect, not agreement (indeed, it seems like agreeing parties eventually find something to disagree over, no matter how trivial.)

[collegeburner]

I meant more in the political sense but yes, maybe not the best word choice. I agree with your position a lot more. I have had political discussions with my coworkers, just like I have had discussions on sports even though work is not a place for sports. And sometimes I have changed my mind based on what they said.

The concerning part is more that some workplaces have people or cultures that push politics very hard. Where you either agree with prevailing sentiment or are penalized in your career. In O&G you can not easily be a Democrat (or you had better be a Manchin Democrat). In tech you can not easily be a Republican (or you had better be a Romney Republican). I have seen people's careers fucked up by somebody who hated their politics. In other words it sounds like you are approaching this in good faith. But not everybody does. Or sometimes people do but they get mad and stop thinking so much. And that is hard to manage, and can make workplaces bad and hostile.

And of course there is always the problem that it is harder to maintain civility at scale like Facebook.

[woodruffw]

You’re right, it’s incredibly hard. It’s also easy for me, the outsider, to have a just-so story for a massive corporation :-)

In reality, who knows? But I’ll continue to be optimistic, at least until that’s banned at work too.

[escape_goat]

The Supreme Court decision will affect people's work lives at Meta, and that is something that needs to be discussed. There are apparently states now where women lose rights just by visiting a doctor, where they can be criminally prosecuted for an abortion outside of the state if there is evidence that they had been pregnant at any point. Should Meta employees be required to continue living and working in those states?

[55555]

Honestly I get that rights are important and worth fighting over, but from a practical perspective, if you want to have an abortion, what’s wrong with just ordering abortion pills online and taking them? That pretty much solves the problem, right? Just curious.

[MandieD]

Ok, “just curious,” there’s something called an ectopic pregnancy. You cannot be sure that’s why you’re bleeding and in pain, so in a normal place like Germany (where I had mine) or pretty much anywhere in the US before this Friday, you would go to your gyno or the emergency room to see what’s going on. If it really is a fetus that implanted itself in your Fallopian tubes or somewhere else where it will slowly bleed you to death, it must be removed medically (my and most early cases) or surgically. Depending on location, it either could never or is highly unlikely to result in an infant that could survive outside your body in any form.

If it’s in your uterus, either you’ll have the option of intervening to try keeping the pregnancy going (if the doctor thinks that’s even possible), or, more likely, be sent home with painkillers and encouraging words about “trying again”.

In Texas, my home state, I would be very hesitant to make that visit, for fear it wasn’t ectopic and that I was exposing myself to, at the very least, a rather physically and psychologically invasive and expensive investigation into whether I induced the miscarriage.

[55555]

Thanks for the info. Some of the people online claiming to just be curious actually are just curious. For other readers, the prevalence of ectopic pregnancy is 1 in 50 pregnancies which is surprisingly high.

I see how once the pregnancy is officially confirmed, intentionally causing a miscarriage would be scary/risky.

[MandieD]

Honest curiosity is refreshing. Additional info: once a woman has had an ectopic pregnancy, any subsequent pregnancy has about a 10% risk of also being ectopic.

So when I had a big early 40th birthday surprise, I went straight to my gyno for her to make sure it wasn’t going to be a repeat - especially since we already had plans to visit my family back in Texas a few weeks after that. Then, the concern was merely financial/logistical. Now…

The (mostly) happy ending: a boringly normal pregnancy that left me with lingering back pain and numbness in some toes, and the most wonderful little boy that I’d given up on having years before.

[fatherzine]

Worth noting that the abortion rate is 1 in 5 pregnancies. Roughly 10x the rate of ectopic pregnancies.

Note: Thanks both of you for engaging in a respectful conversation.

[escape_goat]

If anyone — say, the doctor who told you you were pregnant — has evidence that you were pregnant, you could be investigated and charged with a crime for suddenly not being pregnant. This has ALREADY happened to at least one woman who was simply suffering a natural miscarriage.

[bavell]

> states

Are there other states doing this or is it only Texas?

[escape_goat]

IIRC there was similar language in 'trigger' laws in some other states but I don't have a link to a good overview site and so am just pluralizing on the strength of that recollection.