I’m sick of governments that ban things to “fix” a problem while refusing to address the underlying cause.

Abortion bans don’t fix the birth rate.

Junk food bans don’t fix obesity.

Vaccine bans won’t fix chronic illness.

Mask bans won’t fix crime.

These are just a few examples of things that this administration has banned in the name of making people healthier/happier.

In every case they’ve chosen to ignore the obvious systemic issues that are contributing to the problems their bans are trying to “fix”

Declining birth rates aren’t due to abortion bans.

They’re due to high cost of living, lack of affordable childcare, lack of universal healthcare and climate change.

A lot of people look at the current state of the world and can’t see any reason to subject a child to it.

People have always accessed abortions. They will always access abortions.

The only thing that a ban accomplishes is restricting safe access.

Infant and maternal mortality actually increase whenever abortion is banned.

People die.

Banning folks on SNAP from purchasing junk food won’t do anything for chronic illness or obesity.

Why? Because there’s systemic food insecurity. People are living in such severe poverty that junk food is all they can access or afford.

Food deserts are a very real problem.

People are living in places without access to a kitchen or the means to store bulk food.

People with disabilities may lack the physical ability to cook from scratch.

In many cases the healthier option costs twice as much, takes double the effort to prepare and gives you a fraction of the calories.

Banning an entire category of food without addressing systemic issues is a recipe to force people to starve.

We need to subsidize fresh produce and meats.

We need more money going to community food banks and programs like meals on wheels.

We need to give everyone a liveable wage so they have the time and energy to cook healthy meals.

Vaccine bans and restrictions are a legit threat to public health.

They’re done under the guise of “safety” despite the fact that vaccines have largely eradicated diseases which used to kill and disable in large numbers.

Once again, the answer isn’t to restrict access. It’s to provide free vaccination to everyone while also ramping up other public health efforts.

We should have clean air benchmarks in public spaces, masks in healthcare and paid time off.

We should stop normalizing sickness

Lastly there’s mask bans. Some places in the US are actually banning a medical device designed to protect people.

They say it’s to stop crime, despite the fact that there’s ample evidence showing sunglasses hide your identity better than a mask.

Once again they fail to address the systemic issues with disease spread and with crime.

Want to tackle crime? Start with guns. Then work towards addressing the vast inequity within society

Want to tackle infectious disease spread? Encourage masking. Make respirators free!

Each problem has a slightly different solution, but the overall tone is the same.

Provide for the people. Give them basic human rights like healthcare, affordable housing, food and water, education and childcare.

Those things will accomplish more than any ban

At 19 I was told my health came second to my future husband.

At 22 I was told I would feel differently once I was “in love”

At 24 my boyfriend was asked if he would still love me if I couldn’t bear children.

My autonomy was violated for 5 years for a hypothetical baby

I had severe endometriosis and adenomyosis. My periods hell. They were irregular, heavy and painful. I would lay on the bathroom floor in unrelenting pain, throwing up and too weak to move.

As the years dragged on I became more disabled from the pain and anemia.

Surgeries to control the blood loss failed.

Medications to put me into chemical menopause failed.

Birth control pills failed.

I needed a hysterectomy.

I had never wanted children. I wasn’t even sure I wanted marriage. I was also far too disabled to get pregnant or raise a child.

So I asked for the surgery. I asked my doctors to remove the diseased organ destroying my quality of life.

I was firmly told “No” because I might meet a man who wants kids.

That even though I was too sick to survive pregnancy and likely infertile, I couldn’t make the choice to remove my womb in case I changed my mind when I met my dream man.

I told the doctors I didn’t want kids, it didn’t matter.

I pointed out I was too sick to care for myself, let alone a child, and it didn’t matter.

I said that my “dream man” would love me even if I couldn’t have kids, and the doctors laughed.

I had no bodily autonomy.

Medical misogyny was ruining my life.

I spent the next few years getting second and third opinions. Fighting like hell to get the surgery I knew I needed to have any shot at a “normal” life. When I began dating someone, I brought him to my appointments hoping he could convince them to operate.

They asked him if he would love me if I couldn’t give him biological children. He didn’t want kids either, but they said the same thing to him they kept saying to me: “You might change your mind”

Why is the medical system so obsessed with us having babies? Misogyny and patriarchy.

We could have changed our minds. We could have also broken up.

What “could” happen in the distant future should never be given more weight than what was happening in the present.

I was slowly dying. Bleeding to death and confined to bed. Relying on blood and iron transfusions to survive.

I tell this story every few months because I think it’s incredibly important we talk about our lack of autonomy.

The post Roe landscape is putting our lives in danger, and my story can hopefully help people understand why.

If I wasn’t able to make the choice I needed for my body when there was no fetus involved, imagine how hard it must be for pregnant people who need to access abortion?

Forced birth advocates love to trumpet the “exemption for the life of the mother” rule to justify abortion bans

But if doctors weren’t willing to remove my uterus when it was literally killing me, why are we trusting they will terminate a pregnancy when the mother’s life is at risk?

A hypothetical baby came before my life… imagine what would happen if there was a real fetus involved?

We know what happens.

Women die.

They bleed out in parking lots.

They become septic, lose their fertility or spend months fighting for their lives in the ICU.

Their care is delayed because the fetus comes first. And delayed care comes at a cost.

I finally got my hysterectomy, but only because I was bleeding out in the ER and transfusions couldn’t keep up.

By the time they finally gave me the surgery I spent years asking for, my survival odds were only 50/50.

Had they done it when I asked, it would have been 99%

It’s the same thing for those experiencing miscarriage or abortion complications.

If they could get timely healthcare, their odds of survival would be excellent.

When we tell doctors they can’t intervene until the life of the mother is “clearly” in jeopardy?

That’s when we start dying.

We deserve better. We need full autonomy over our reproductive systems, and that includes access to sterilization and abortion.

It’s time.

More on what my hysterectomy taught me about medical misogyny:

https://www.disabledginger.com/p/what-my-hysterectomy-taught-me-about