13 Comments

3/7 Hello Alan, et al., I have some more links for Plan C website about medical abortion. I keep them bookmarked on a Vivaldi (Belgian) browser. (I use Firefox with DuckDuckGo search engine, Brave with Startpage search engine [Brave incognito is Tor], and Vivaldi with Ecosia search engine).

https://www.plancpills.org/find-pills

https://www.mahotline.org/how-to-use-abortion-pills/#english-pdf (using mifo and miso)

https://www.mahotline.org/how-to-use-abortion-pills/#misoprostol-only-pdf (misoprostol only)

https://aidaccess.org/en/i-need-an-abortion

https://www.plancpills.org/find-pills

Great articles, Alan. I keep them in a separate email folder!

Happy Womens Day tomorrow everyone!

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Wow I don't use TOR!!! You are well hidden. I am saving the links in our resource file and will publish them

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Hi Alan,

If you check out Brave, which is based on the Chrome format but with a lot more privacy protection, believe started by a Firefox developer, the INCOGNITO mode for Brave is Tor.

I'm always experimenting with browsers and use different browsers for different purposes.

The browser that has the most organizing tools is Vivaldi, and they are very private too.

If you want a private email, use Mailfence. Outstanding email program.

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Also keep DuckDuckGo browser as a spare browser (not to be confused with the DuckDuckGo search engine--the browser is new, was in beta form in 2022).

As a woman who has had an abortion in 1970 and 2 decades later horrible periods due to uterine fibroids and finally a hysterectomy ending reproductive misery I had no use for, and in the pre-digital-technology era, WHY do women need period trackers in the first place???

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Hi Diana, I can only guess that some women want accuracy for fertility, but I'm an old man and just guessing. You must have been in terrible pain. Our attorney, years ago, had very sizable fibroids that required surgery - not minor surgery, it was horrible.

Thank you for the links for reproductive healthcare. I will add them to our resource list and publish them to everyone...Have a good weekend!!!

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Alan,

I am now an old woman, age 73, a survivor of patriarchy with plenty of scars.

I had an abortion pre-Roe in 1970 in Hawaii. My mother an RN had to intervene. We lived there but I conceived in college in Oregon through an abusive boyfriend (also responsible for a spinal fracture due to his intentional speeding in fog and went over an embankment to avoid a head-on collision--I went on to run 7 marathons, climb, ski, cycle--BUT--fracture came back to haunt at age 65 when, after qualifying for Medicare for two months, I had a life threatening spinal infection at the traumatized part of the spine, already described this in another post--$102,000 claim, two months in the hospital. Happily it was mostly charged to a Blue Cross Advantage Care I had at the time. Still a lot of copays, so many in fact that I didn't pay Federal or state taxes for a few years. I worked for Blue Cross in younger years and they were extremely abusive employers--karma to them!!

Had to escape a second abuser at age 40 which upended my whole life at the time, lost all of my furniture, my cat was murdered indirectly as a result of this escape, and the abuser #2, being enabled by the criminal justice system, eventually murdered his final two victims with a shotgun in a bar in front of 20 witnesses. That was late 90's, today he would have shot everyone in the bar.

As far as the fibroids: Had a hysterectomy a year after escaping abuser #2. Lost my job at the time due to his abuse, had to wait for another year and live with a relative as a fugitive, then crept back to my home city, found a cleaning job with healthcare, got the hysterectomy.

Have had about 10 surgeries in my life: Two surgeries in which I woke up in an anesthetic stupor but in total relief: 1) the abortion (full anesthesia D&C at Queens Hospital in Honolulu because my mom was a nurse at Kapiolani, the women's hospital where most abortions were performed); and 2) the hysterectomy.

NEVER HAVE I EVER BEEN SO GLAD TO DITCH A BODY PART AS THAT OPPRESSIVE UTERUS!!! Never wanted kids, especially after the traumatic abortion.

And yes, the periods from fibroids were extremely painful, used two tampons and a pad at the end, was basically hemorrhaging monthly and it was affecting work.

I have been in a rage against the USA employment-tied healthcare and patriarchy all of my adult life as a result of abortion and motor vehicle accident at 20, and second criminal abuser threatening and disrupting my life at age 40 enabled by a criminal justice system that knew he was violent (his former wife and step-daughter escaped him to a shelter; he was beating the wife regularly and pimping the 20-year-old stepdaughter); he was still roaming free when I met him, seemed normal at first, then all hell broke lose. The Oregon criminal justice system knew what a public safety threat he was--they waited for him to murder innocent people before imprisoning him. Unbelievable.

I met him at a public laundromat. Thank goddess I now, in the last decades of my life, have my own washer and dryer and do not frequent public laundromats with all kinds of lurking predators!!!!

Women should be paid combat pay and pensions just for surviving men, menstruation, the constant threat of pregnancy and patriarchy! You guys all needed to get vasectomies when young to keep us women safe and healthy!

My martial arts instructor did just that. Got a vasectomy in the 90's as a single man. Vegan, environmentalist and extremely masculine--and kind and wise. Unfortunately he now has ALS. There aren't enough good men and the good ones seem to die young.

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Thank you for writing, Diana. This has been a hard path for you with so many disappointments, not counting the bad people who wound up in your life. I'm glad you ran marathons. That takes so much focus. It's past me now. If it is ok I'd like to use parts of your story without attribution as examples. Stay well and I'm glad we're fighting for reform.

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3/19/23

Alan,

I replied just now but used a poo-poo mouth word and my reply vanished.

Please do use parts of my story to illustrate the personal ramifications of a poorly governed patriarchy with a despicable "healthcare" system.

My whole life has been such an example of what happens to vulnerable citizens, often women, in this American patriarchal system with inhumane healthcare tied to employment, which one loses or is fired from due to/or escaping from a violent abuser and any number of random reasons, like being a threat to management or not sucking up to the leadership but doing your job quietly.

The USA has a double problem of unjust, toxic workplaces AND poor healthcare tied to those very unjust, toxic workplaces. Not a fun country in which to live. No wonder mental and physical health is so poor here in the USA and morale increasingly deteriorates among the middle and working classes.

I continue to volunteer politically because the country is such a mess. Don't have children, just feel deeply for innocent young people and future generations.

Bernie's latest book describes in detail how both D and R politicians betray American citizens and workers with human rights issues like living wage, universal healthcare, sick leave, parental leave, childcare, education, affordable housing, and public transportation.

Inexcusable and tragic. If this is turns out to be a double-post, sorry. I took out the poo-poo word so it shouldn't be censored this time.

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My husband likes Duck Duck Go for anonymous browsing. You can also use a VPN to make it appear that you are in a different physical location.

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Hi Diana, Thanks for your dedication to universal healthcare. I understand and will not use your details in any way. I think that comments may be visible to other readers if they go to the substack.com site. If you like I can (or I think you can) delete the comments with personal details.

Let me know and have a good weekend...Alan

PS I had no idea that there was a bad word list

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Please do use parts of my story to illustrate the personal ramifications of a poorly governed patriarchy with a despicable "healthcare" system.

My whole life has been such an example of what happens to vulnerable citizens, often women, in this American patriarchal shit show with inhumane healthcare tied to employment, which one loses or is fired from due to/or escaping from a violent abuser and any number of random reasons, like being a threat to management or not sucking up to the leadership but doing your job quietly.

The USA has a double problem of unjust, toxic workplaces AND poor healthcare tied to those very unjust, toxic workplaces. Not a fun country in which to live. No wonder mental and physical health is so poor here in the USA and morale increasingly deteriorates among the middle and working classes.

I continue to volunteer politically because the country is such a mess. Don't have children, just feel deeply for innocent young people and future generations.

Reading Bernie's latest book "It's Okay If You're Angry About Capitalism" and my blood pressure is climbing. He tried to hard with legislation the last two years to advocate for the working class. He tells so much truth about selfish politicians both Republicans and Democrats that voted down a lot of legislation the past two years for the working class.

Thank you for your work on this high priority--emergency!!!--healthcare issue here in the USA. What an inexcusable, inhumane mess.

Thank you for your work.

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Remarkable collection of informative sites. Thank you for providing tips on anonymous browsing.

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You're most welcome. I'm glad you found it useful. I have a wife and daughter and I am incensed that they others can treat them as less than full persons.

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