Several months ago I did a story on what had happened in Idaho after the Dobbs decision was followed up by the Republican controlled state legislature passing an extreme anti-abortion law. In that story I reported how the city of Sandpoint, Idaho had only one hospital, and the hospital decided to close its OB/GYN clinic leaving the women of Sandpoint without a hospital in which to deliver a baby, or get gynecological medical care. Well, as bad as that story was, it has gotten far worse. Since that first story, every OB/GYN specialist physician in the city has packed up and left, leaving the women of Sandpoint without even the most basic OB/GYN care. This is an extreme example of what is happening in Republican controlled Red states, but this is the trend across the Red states. How a woman votes Republican, I confess, I cannot understand.
Ob/Gyn specialist Dr. Amelia Huntsberger stands in her garage filled with moving boxes as she prepares to leave her home and practice in Sandpoint, Idaho. Credit: Natalie Behring / The Guardian
It’s a scene out of an American dream: a stretch of city beach buzzes with young families playing and laughing under the hot afternoon summer sun, moms chasing after children, splashing in the shallow ripples of Lake Pend Oreille. We are on the outskirts of Sandpoint, Idaho, a quiet, charming lakeside town in the mountain west. From the idyllic scenery and bustling beach, you wouldn’t know this is a place recently overwhelmed with anxiety, grief and fear born of state politics.
Lauren Sanders relaxes among the beachgoers in a sea-green bikini that reveals her pregnant belly, keeping an eye under her sun hat on her young daughter, Gwen, who’s angling to get back in the water.
Sanders will give birth to her second child at home later this year with the assistance of a midwife. Her pregnancy has so far been healthy and she wants to […]
It continues to feel like the GOP is waging a war on women. And to women, I say.. it seems like we really ARE that scary!