issue #4 - i always feel like somebody's waaaaaatching me...

Happy Saturday, friend!

I’m nursing a bad cold that’s made yet another return, so I’ll be attempting to rest this weekend while keeping Rho entertained and hopefully reading this book.

Wish me luck.

I’ll be going live on Instagram on Sunday at 3 pm, making this taco salad, this enchilada casserole, and a big batch of tortilla soup. Husband requested Mexican this week, and Mexican is what we’ll be feasting on.

The Top 5 Reads

1. Facebook's plan: One messaging service to rule them all (Axios)

2. The Years (Victoria McGinley Blog)

3. How to turn off FaceTime on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac (The Verge)

4. I Had My First Date at 28 (The Cut)

5. Five Ways To Actually Be Pro-Life (Based On Evidence) (Medium)

The fifth article was also one of the most discussed, with a lot of great comments shared:

“A few thoughts on the ‘actually pro life’ article. While I disagree strongly about the ‘cluster of cells’ premise, I agree with the five points on how to actually help an unborn baby survive and thrive in utero and after. I think we need to look more at the mom’s side too. Moms choose abortion for a variety of reasons, but shame, ability to care for the child, addiction, are also factors. Those are things we can do something about. We can’t both demonize abortions and demonize a woman who has an unplanned pregnancy (looking at us, my fellow Jesus people). We can’t demonize abortion and have no real plan for how to help moms outside of adopting their babies (also needed of course but many moms could keep their children if there was true wraparound support). In short, if you’re going to take away the quick fix (abortion) you gotta be in it for the long fix."

"I agree with the poster who said the church cannot condemn abortions and then condemn unplanned pregnancy. In my opinion this practice points at the underlying issue I have with my faith…the entire leadership of the Catholic Church is men. This is one of the underlying reasons that treating the factors leading to unplanned/unwanted pregnancy (birth control, sex ed, etc) is not addressed. Men share much less of the burden for the pregnancy and birth control. The stigma of the women’s shame still applies. The shame of premarital sex, the shame of unplanned pregnancy, the shame of an abortion…women know what women need. If we continue to restrict a woman’s right to her body based on what men believe its to be, we will never get to the root of what is leading to the choice of abortion and how to prevent it using it as a last measure for avoiding unplanned pregnancy. I agree with this poster 100%. The pro life movement tends to not be pro-woman.”

“As a pro-reproductive health activist. I agree with many of the strategies outlined in the piece. What I also want your readers to know to know is that the Trump administration is about to implement new rules that prevent recipients of federal family planning grants from even offering counseling on abortion, and within a year, will even force grantees to physically separate families offering abortion from those providing family planning (contraception and related exams) as a condition of funding. Gagging domestic sexual and reproductive health providers and making us choose between abortion and family planning is a false choice. But unless courts enjoin these practices, Planned Parenthood clinics and other family planning providers will lose millions of unwanted dollars they need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This is cruel and perverse.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the difference between family planning centers and federally qualified and rural health centers, I recommendthis post.

Here’s my take:

If pro-birth (and that’s truly what it is, from a policy perspective) elected officials took the time to work across the aisle and invest in the programs that both prevent unwanted pregnancies and assist parents with effective, efficient services, it’d be a win for all.Unfortunately, they do not.What heartened me about this dialogue was the agreement on both sides that preventing unwanted pregnancies was worth the investment and is something that our tax dollars should support. We agree on more than we disagree, and this is a really important goal (preventing unwanted pregnancy) to be aligned on.That said, it’s a shame that our elected officials feel differently. Every time the power pendulum swings from Democrats to Republicans, it feels like women’s reproductive rights are on the chopping block again and again and again.

I could go on and on about this, but I’m eager to hear what you have to think. Join the conversation in the Facebook group and share your thoughts (we can disagree, but we can be respectful about it)

Catch Up

Monday

• The Big Pivot: 7 Insights from a Literary-Assistant-Turned-Future-M.D. (The M Dash)

• Stacey Abrams Says Democrats Will Win In 2020 ‘By Telling Our Story,’ Not Running Against Trump (Essence)

• What a medical school on a Rwandan hilltop can teach the United States (Politico)

• Rep. Ilhan Omar wants child care reimbursed for federal employees working without pay (StarTribune)

Tuesday

• When seeing is no longer believing: Inside the Pentagon’s race against deepfake videos (CNN)

• "This is a very dangerous situation": Experts sound alarm on measles (Axios)

• Kindness Is a Skill (NYT)

• The Bone Marrow Registry and Why Diversity Matters (There Goes My Hero)Regardless if your ethnicity,please join the bone marrow registryif you’re in good health and meet all the requirements. You never know whose life you may save.

Wednesday

• Alex Azar: Why drug prices keep going up — and why they need to come down (STAT)

• How Girl Scout cookies captured the heart of America (Vox)

• Hair Dye Disruptor Madison Reed Locks In $50 Million In VC: How Founder Amy Errett Gets To The Root Of Startup Success (Forbes)Bonus points for this very punny title.

• Before I Was President of Planned Parenthood, I Was Diagnosed With Cervical Cancer at a Routine Screening (SELF)

Thursday

• Conscious Money: The Double Returns of Impact Investing (goop)

• The Malign Incompetence of the British Ruling Class (NYT)

• How To Ask For A Favor From An Old Friend (Without Sounding Insincere) (Forbes)

• Things I Learned From Being Curious (Atelier Doré)

Friday

• The modern tragedy of fake cancer cures (STAT)

• How 10 Women Of Color Actually Feel About Working In Book Publishing (Bustle)

• Most pregnancy apps assume you’re married and heterosexual — and all the other ways they’re failing parents (The Lily)

• 6 Lamps to Help You Feel Like You’re at the Beach All Winter Long (The Cut)Don’t judge this article by its title - it explains the science of seasonal affectiveness disorder and how the lamps ACTUALLY work.

If you like what I’m sending, please forward it with someone you love (or someone you don’t). Or both.

Everyone could use some smart reads in their life.

xo,HPN