Building My Own Op-Ed Section
Because fuck 'prestige,' especially in this age of untrustworthy newspapers (:cough: WSJ :cough:)
Although I work in journalism, I don't come from a journalism background – as I often tell the interns I mentor, there's a lot you can learn by doing if you're willing to make embarrassing mistakes. In fact, my first time interviewing anyone was for my fairly huge BuzzFeed project, and while I would have preferred to cut my teeth on something a bit lower-lift and -profile I wasn't going to miss the opportunity just because I didn't know how to do it.
Since then, I've become much more comfortable with blending my very personal style of writing with a more objective/interview-based approach. But there's one style of journalism that seems like it should be right in my wheelhouse but has so far eluded me: the Op-Ed.
I mean, it’s right there in the name: Opinion-Editorial. Who has more opinions than I?? Who is more editorial than I, a literal editor? And yet, all of my attempted forays into the genre have ended in wimpers (and one bang that likely only reverberated on my end). The latest idea I actually drafted, pitched, redrafted, and submitted often enough to feel like I gave it a proper shot. Alas, not even a rejection email.
So, in this case, I'm going to stop pressing myself to land it in a newspaper and instead share it here. My current mindset around my writing is that getting it in front of readers who might enjoy or benefit from it outweighs any concern about prestige or 'legitimacy,' so here goes…
Please note: this was written in November of last year, so it’s set in a better (but still horrid) time before all…this.
Donald Trump's Presidency Is Already Having an Effect on Families – and It's Not the One Republicans Claim to Want
Written by Anne H. Putnam
The timing of my becoming a mother has never been perfect. My first engagement ended when I was 28, and with it went the children we'd planned. I met my now-husband at 30 and we married a few years later, but weren’t ready to have our first kid until I was 37 – officially geriatric, in the pregnancy world. And now we're trying for a second child just as I round the corner to 40.
But I never, in all my angst about timing, expected to be considering halting our conception plans because of the incoming president of the United States.
It turns out that I'm not alone in my fear that being pregnant under a second Trump term would mean putting myself in an exceptionally precarious state. Michelle Charriere, a childhood development and parenting influencer with 132k followers on Instagram as @babiesandbrains, recently started a conversation in her stories about her anxiety when it comes to trying for a second baby under the looming threat of a federal abortion ban, and her DMs have blown up with followers sharing their related fear.
Pregnancy and childbirth have always been risky – even in the U.S., well into the 21st century, they result in death for far too many women and babies. In 2021, more than 39 women died for every 100,000 live births, up from just under 24 in 2020. And now, under bans on abortion, and therefore also on lifesaving care during pregnancy complications and miscarriages, women are bleeding out in ER waiting rooms in red states. It’s not a good time to put our bodies into the already-vulnerable position of pregnancy, when men with no medical knowledge or basic empathy decide whether we have a chance of surviving it.
Charriere isn’t the only influencer talking about this. Erin Spahr, a therapist with 52.4k Instagram followers under the handle @feminist.mom.therapist, recently shared a reel about why getting pregnant under Trump’s second term is a risky idea. “It’s making pregnancy less safe for everyone,” she says, adding that she has clients who are expressing their sadness about this new impediment to their plans to expand their families.
While abortion rights are roundly supported in the U.S. (according to Pew Research Center, 63% of Americans believe it should be legal “in all or most cases”), Republican strategists seem intent on walking a very fine line: they court the evangelical vote with wild stories of “post-birth abortions” and accuse Democrats of murdering babies, while simultaneously promising their base that they'll (somehow, magically) make sure IVF isn't affected by their promised bans.
As the self-styled “party of traditional values,” Republicans often talk about motherhood (not parenthood, interestingly) as the highest of virtues. But for many women across the country, the prospect of a Republican government (in particular *this* Republican government) is driving them to get IUDs, stock up on Plan B for themselves and the people they love, and delay or even altogether reconsider growing their families.
At the moment, these bans exist only in a handful of states, and earlier this month voters turned out to support abortion rights in seven out of 10 states where they were on the ballot. But voters also elected Donald Trump to a second term as president and handed the House and Senate to the Republican party.
While Trump has said that he would veto a federal abortion ban, it would be unwise to put anything past him; after all, his lies during his first term alone total more than 30,000. And for those of us who live in blue states like California or Washington, state protections won’t hold up against a federal ban. I’m lucky to live close to the Canadian border, but who’s to say I’d have time (or be allowed) to cross for emergency care if I needed it?
For those of us who have been paying attention over the past few decades, it won’t come as a surprise that the Republican party is actively working against the values they profess to care about (freedom of speech, anyone?). But the possibility of a federal abortion ban, like so many of the policies and actions to be wary of from the incoming administration, is likely to shock Republican voters when it affects their lives, and the lives of the people they care about.
As for me, I don’t have time to delay, so I’m just hoping to be wrong about what’s coming. And getting a Nexus card, so I can cross the northern border in a hurry.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments, but let’s not get all ‘internet comments’ over here with personal attacks and whatnot. If my Op-Ed isn’t getting the visibility and prestige a newspaper would lend it, I’m not interested in dealing with the nutjobs.
Oh, and before I go, the random joy I promised to always include! I visited a local bookstore for work earlier today and spent four times as long as I’d planned to be there because I was chatting with the fabulous owner about all things kids, books, authors, media, and politics. It was absolutely thrilling and I regret none of the time I spent (though I hope I didn’t take up too much of hers). Also, look at these adorable gifts they sell!
