Welp, next Thursday is Turkey Day, the annual “celebration” of a pretend history and traditions from the 1900s, when millions of American families will pretend that it’s perfectly OK for women to create the celebrations, decorations and meals whilst men eat and watch football.
Not us, at least not entirely. We’ll be watching the Purina National Dog Show. It’s just Mom and me and we don’t have big appetites, so I’ll just saute a couple turkey thighs, make cornbread dressing (day before), bourbon gravy, and green bean casserole (day before). I already have cranberry-orange-walnut relish that I made earlier and froze (the first half went into a loaf of bread). For dessert, cherry-topped cheesecake with Oreo crust, our fave. That’s it! Most of it made ahead, and our big meal at suppertime so we can watch the Dog Show uninterrupted.
I am a little disappointed that the Purina site doesn’t say more about the handlers. They are the reason dogs win — and enjoy the experience!
And Now On To The News
Abortion
A night of ‘hell’: abortion activists on their ‘inhumane’ detention in DC
Leaked audio: anti-choice group tells Tennessee legislature to wait a year or two before going after IVF and contraception.
A woman visiting Ohio for her brother's wedding had a miscarriage. The hospital refused to treat her, and discharged her while she was still bleeding, telling her to come back "in a few days" to ensure there was no fetal development before they could help her.
Yet another woman nearly dies because the hospital feared she wasn't close "enough" to death to end her non-viable pregnancy. This one was in Texas.
Many Hospitals Refuse To Provide Reproductive Care, Even In States Where Abortion Remains Legal:
"Voter approval of ballot measures protecting abortion rights in three states on Election Day was an important first step toward addressing the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Since that ruling, at least 13 states have implemented restrictions rendering access to abortion almost nonexistent. Still more states have applied extreme limits. People seeking abortion care are being forced to travel to other states, or figure out how to obtain medication abortion through the mail (which may not be their preference). Health providers are struggling to determine what pregnancy emergency care they can provide without violating newly-enacted abortion bans. Too many are unable to overcome these hurdles to get the care they need.
This dire situation is made even worse – in all fifty states -- by many hospitals’ policies of refusing to provide comprehensive reproductive and pregnancy care. Their refusals to provide patients with requested contraception and sterilizations leave patients at risk of unintended pregnancies in states where abortion is banned or restricted. But even in states where abortion remains legal, and voters have supported abortion rights ballot initiatives or rejected ballot proposals to ban abortion, reproductive care is being restricted in geographic regions dominated by hospitals with refusal policies. As a result of systemic racism, the people disproportionately affected by this situation are Black, Latinx, Native American, Asian American and other people of color, and those with low incomes. In other words, such policies stand in the way of advancing health equity."
Potentially divisive issue An FDA-approved rapid test strip identifying embryonic or fetal tissue in vaginal blood at bedside, originally meant to help diagnose miscarriage and rule out ectopic pregnancy, could be used as evidence to confirm that a miscarriage has occurred, so a D&C (dilation and curettage) procedure in such cases would not constitute induced abortion of a viable pregnancy.
Judge overturns Georgia’s ban on abortion around 6 weeks
"A judge overturned Georgia’s ban on abortion starting around six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling Tuesday that it violated the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted three years ago and was therefore void."
Other Medical
Research: New data from the Health and Retirement Study finds US dementia rate drops as education & women's employment rises.
Abuse
Hundreds of Women Set to Sue New York Over Allegations of Prison Sex Abuse
Work
Nike paid male employees $11,000 more than their female coworkers, newly unsealed court documents allege
Amber Heard
An interesting development in this saga- National feminist organizations break their silence on Amber Heard in an open letter of support:
"More than 130 people, including Gloria Steinem, and organizations in the field of women’s rights advocacy and domestic violence and sexual assault awareness have signed an open letter to support Amber Heard, who lost a defamation suit this year brought by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, for an op-ed in which she said she was a 'public figure representing domestic abuse.'
The letter, which was exclusively shared with NBC News ahead of its public release Wednesday, was signed by groups like the National Organization for Women, the National Women’s Law Center, Equality Now and the Women’s March Foundation. It was written by a group of people who identify as domestic violence survivors and supporters of Heard."
Religion
ReligionNews In Jana Riess's "Flunking Sainthood" column, New memoir unpacks what Mormon girls are taught about marriage-
'I needed to learn that I get to decide what my life looks life,' says Rachel Rueckert, author of 'East Winds.'
TheConversation The veil in Iran has been an enduring symbol of patriarchal norms – but its use has changed depending on who is in power.
In images of the uprising that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, 2022, [some of the most iconic] are those of unveiled Iranian women photographed from behind, facing police barricades or raising a fist at the scene of mass protests.
...oftentimes outside of Iran, wearing a veil is seen as oppression – and its removal as emancipation and freedom. [But this] fails to take into account the veil’s broader symbolism and ignores the complex history of mandatory veiling and unveiling in Iran in the 20th and 21st centuries. ... During the 1979 revolution, veiling became a symbol of resistance to the Pahlavi monarchy that ruled from 1925 to 1979.... [for many] the veil was a symbol of authentic national identity.…
Such a puzzle
Amanda Marcotte: Why did single women vote for Democrats? Republicans have an asinine theory:
"Republicans are big mad that single women voted for Democrats, and their explanation for this is that Democrats of brainwashing those hapless, unfortunate women who don't have husbands to make their decisions for them.”
Good News
117th Congress House Bill 5531 introduced by Marie Newman [D-IL-3), co-sponsored by Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-01), Don Beyer (D-VA-8) and Sylvia R. Garcia (D-TX-29) the Supporting Older Workers Act, aims to improve and advance the employment, economic success and well-being of America’s older workers ... most of whom, especially the older they get, are women The legislation would strengthen workforce development systems for older workers and reduce labor market barriers with career counseling and training opportunities, a grant program to support older worker coordinators, and creation of a new Older Workers Bureau at the Department of Labor. See also newman.house.gov and NCOA.org
Even before the pandemic, low-income older workers, especially people of color and those living in remote areas, faced the greatest barriers to finding new, quality employment. Since the pandemic, [their] the situation has worsened significantly ... older workers lost their jobs in massive numbers, and they have experienced long-term unemployment at greater rates than their younger counterparts.
As of September 2021, 1.3 million adults aged 55+ remained unemployed, and 48.9% of them were long-term unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis reports that as many as 1.9 million older adults have [been] left [behind from] the workforce entirely since January 2020.
Research shows that older adults’ health suffers when they struggle with finances, and health care costs increase when they are forced out of the workforce prematurely. Yet, maximizing older worker labor force participation could increase gross domestic product by almost 15%...
The Clitoris Steps Into the Spotlight With New Scientific Discovery: That discovery is the location of 10,000 nerves, more than were previously thought.
Peters and his colleagues completed the study by taking clitoral nerve tissue from seven adult transgender men who had received gender-affirming genital surgery. The tissues were dyed and magnified 1,000 times under a microscope so the researchers could count nerve fibers.
Peters says the finding is important because many surgeries take place in the groin region — like hip replacements, episiotomies during childbirth, and pelvic mesh procedures — and the revived attention to the clitoris may help health care providers know where nerves are so that injuries from medical mistakes are prevented.
(This is actually not the first study, but that’s another story.)
Center for American Women and Politics: See what’s new in political activism, training the next generation!
As always, this is a joint project! Many thanks to Tara, mettle, and SandraLLAP for items and discussion behind the scenes this week!