Status Updates From You're the Only One I've To...

The introduction was long but important. I appreciated the context of laws and of the author’s medical practice as well as her explicit intent: sharing stories about abortion destigmatizes reproductive health decisions and humanizes what too many people see only in a vacuum as a political agenda while it affects real lives. And I’m grateful to know the storytellers were involved in not only sharing but curating.

I’m running out of ways to say you should all read this

These stories are all so intense this book needs to be mandatory reading

So everyone needs to read this is what I’m learning

Not even past the introduction and already having to take breaks. This is gonna be a heavy read

"Abortion is health care. But there is no other form of health care that requires patients to face as many obstacles"

“It’s not about being pro-choice. It’s about being pro-truth”

"State-mandated burial and cremation may directly violate an individual person's view on life and death. Not everyone agrees on when life begins, therefore not everyone agrees on when life ends"

📌“Language is a real barrier to care for gender expansive people. Changing your language to make it more inclusive and checking your assumptions in the way you ask questions to take a patient’s history can make a huge difference”

"Systemic racism no only puts Black people at risk of biases medical care but can impose physiological stress on Black people that can lead to chronic disease"

"Black college-educated women are more likely to suffer from severe complications during pregnancy and childbirth than uneducated white women"

📌”Historically, we have discussed reproductive rights as women’s rights, but they are not synonymous. Trans men and gender non-binary individuals, have been mistreated by the medical system and excluded from much of the language surrounding reproductive rights”

📌“Politicians have manipulated the complex emotions people have about life and personhood while fearing bodily autonomy to make abortion a polarizing tool to gain and hold onto political power”

📌”The obsession with banning abortion and restricting access to it has become political tool that disregards people’s health, as well as the realities of science”

“Denying someone an abortion to make a statement about morality is ignoring the root cause of the issue”

"These stories show that people who have abortions are human beings with varied life experiences, just like everyone else"
"One is not unique because they had an abortion. An abortion does not define someone; it is one event in a person's life"

“I believe that remaining silent about providing abortion care perpetuates the stereotype that abortion is unusual or deviant or that legitimate, skilled, intelligent doctors do not perform them.”

“This happens to me all the time: a man with a stethoscope is a doctor; a woman with a stethoscope is a nurse” 🙃

“To declare ‘I own my body’ is revolutionary. To say ‘I count’ is revolutionary. We do that by sharing our stories.”

The insurance thing is cray cray

Once you get past the introduction chapter and get into the stories...the book really picks up and becomes more personal.

“I truly believe that moving forward we should not equate “women’s health” with “reproductive health.” Women should not be reduced to their reproductive anatomy and reproductive health should be inclusive of all people, of all gender identities, needing to access it.”

Back to reading this one, hoping to actually finish it this time. It's very good, just a heavy read.

22

To think that this book was written in 2020 when people with uteruses had more access to abortion than they do today.

“and somewhere along the way, a woman’s right to use birth control turned into a woman’s responsibility to use birth control”

i'm crying because of everyone's stories

“We must trust that the person is doing what is best for them and their family” 🙏🏼
Con cada párrafo que leo pienso que empapelaría las calles con cada página de este libro!!

this book is just a lot

Picking this back up again, hoping to finish this time.

I’m already so glad I’m reading this book. If you’re a person who cares about access to reproductive care, read this book

I definitely appreciate the idea that cis men need to be more informed RE: sex ed, birth control, and abortions, but I'm not sure we needed an entire lengthy chapter about how cis men are "left out" of these conversations and "deserve a seat at the table" when it comes to abortion laws.