Much of the nation continues to reel from the news that a leaked draft opinion indicated the Supreme Court's ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization will move to strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that protects a person's right to choose reproductive healthcare without excessive government restriction.
Many people remember what it was like in the days before women could seek an abortion; many innocent women died in the absence of proper medical care or were forced to birth children they could not afford, trapping them in poverty.
But could a ruling overturning Roe v. Wade signal the loss of other rights in the future, especially those decided on the right to privacy, on which Roe was hinged?
People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor thisiscubes asked the online community,
"Americans of Reddit, what are your thoughts on Roe v. Wade being overturned by SCOTUS as per draft reports?"
"It was the single most traumatizing..."
"I used to be pro-life for the most part but felt abortion was necessary in certain situations (i.e. rape, incest, whatever). I thought I would have never had an abortion myself. I thought I could always give up the baby for adoption."
"Until I gave birth last month. It was the single most traumatizing experience I've ever gone through. I'm healthy and my pregnancy was not complicated but my heart stopped working after getting an epidural. I coded."
"Once they got me stabilized again, my baby then starting decompensating. They literally had to rip him out of me because I was too far along to convert to C-section."
"I still can't control feces leaking out of me, even 6 weeks later. What a quality of life improvement /s."
"I wanted this child so having my body absolutely wrecked for the safety of my child seemed worth it, despite the pain and complications I experienced from it."
"But now, having gone through that, I cannot imagine any woman being FORCED to go through what I went through. Against their will. So I’m pretty pro choice now."
tensorfascialatte
We are so sorry you had to go through that. We agree that giving birth can be harmful and traumatic, even for a wanted child, and no woman should have to go through that.
"I am currently..."
"I am currently in an OB triage hospital room waiting for a shot of methotrexate, which is considered an abortion."
"This pregnancy was so wanted. I had a miscarriage in February. I wanted this baby. But it is ectopic and it will kill me. And I am still crying so hard."
"My doctors have been amazing and caring and made this process so much easier. F*ck anyone who thinks the legal system needs to be involved here."
DuckDuckBangBang
We are so sorry you have to go through that. It’s none of the government’s business.
"Roe wasn't the start of abortions. It was the end of women dying from abortion."
badhmorrigan
We can't clap enough for this one.
"A back-alley abortion..."
"I’d rather kill myself than be forced to carry an unwanted child. A back-alley abortion would probably do the job for me, if I’m being honest. I will never allow someone - politician or otherwise - to shackle me with my own biology. I will protest against these despicable trigger laws tooth-and-nail until the day I die."
Sugar-Soul
Many women undoubtedly feel the same way.
"I think it's completely insane..."
"I think it's completely insane and infringes upon so many human rights. But I got my tubes tied back in March so I'm not really concerned for myself as much as I'm concerned for others."
evergreenessence
Empathy goes a long way. Even if you will not be affected (or as impacted), many others will be and they need our help and support.
"Get our your wallets..."
"You think our social services are overwhelmed now. Get out your wallets because there is about to be a generation of babies born where moms won't have the means to feed, clothe, and care for them."
milk2317
Sadly, this is all too true. It is a crisis in the making.
"My cousin had to terminate..."
"I had an abortion at 21 that saved my life. It was a terrifying and isolating experience, and the best decision I have ever made."
"My cousin had to terminate her pregnancy in the second trimester due to the fact that the fetus developed without a brain. She described the care she received as what kept her alive through her grief."
"If abortion was not an option, she would have had to carry to term."
I’m sick to my stomach over this. Women, especially women of color, are going to die."
kates6666
Sadly, the statistics are on your side on this. Many women, especially women of color, are going to die, and many children will grow up impoverished.
"Scared."
"Scared. I work with survivors of sexual violence. I am a survivor myself. I, and many other folks, have had our bodily autonomy stolen from us before. To see it on a federal level is horrifying."
ParticularAd2645
It is indeed frightening and survivors of sexual violence no doubt feel victimized alll over again.
"My daughter will never have..."
"As a woman, I will be legally lesser than males because I have a womb. My daughter will never have full autonomy over her body. Intersectionally speaking, women of color and under resourced women will bear the brunt of this. Nothing will change for white women of means."
LadyOfTheOddNight
White women of means can fly wherever they wish and get an abortion there. That will never change.
"The foster care system is proof the government doesn’t care about unwanted children yet want to force more to be born. It’s all politics though guarantee if any of them ever got in a sticky situation illegal or not an abortion will be had available."
jessiealabama
The United States' welfare system is also awful and that seems to be by design.
"My wife had a miscarriage last year. Because we were well past the point of most miscarriages (not quite to the stillbirth cutoff, but not far away), we were told the odds of my wife passing the fetus on her own were slim and that surgery was the safest option."
"We were required by law to acknowledge in writing that the procedure would terminate the (dead) fetus and that it came at risk of infertility and death. Our doctor was required to tell us the developmental age of the (dead) fetus and which developmental milestones occur around that time, as well as offer us an ultrasound to see the (dead) fetus."
"We cried the entire time. We desperately wanted this child. Our doctor cried, apologizing every step of the way that we had to go through this insensitive BS on top of losing the pregnancy."
"This fetus was dead in every sense of the word but because the procedure in question is also used for abortions we had to jump through these goddamn hoops to avoid putting my wife's health at risk."
"And it's not like my state doesn't offer alternatives for nonviable fetuses, conception due to rape or incest, or instances where health is at serious risk. This WAS the alternative. If we were actually getting an elective abortion it would have been significantly more time consuming and soul-crushing. You literally have to take an online course."
"Abortion access in this country is already a joke. All this is going to do is get people killed."
broganism
This is a heartbreaking story and we are sorry that you and your wife had to go through that.
As you can see, overturning Roe v. Wade has significant consequences. While the actual opinion will not be released until the summer, it's safe to say that the United States is entering a new era and that an entirely new wave of activism has begun.
Have some thoughts of your own? Feel free to share them with us in the comments below!
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I've watched people devour things I couldn't fathom swallowing.
Like... "Why are you doing that to your body?"
I love food as much as the next person, but somethings really should just stay on the vine.
So many of the current most popular foods make no sense to me.
Avocado. Just... why? It's green slime.
To each their own.
Redditormintylye wanted to discuss personal issues with the menu. They asked:
"What food does everyone love to eat, but you don't?"
I am very picky eater. I try not to be, but I can't help it. My list long.
Oink
"Ham it's so gross I like other meats but ham is just so disgusting."
AHHHyhu78uj
Fresh Roast
"Not a food, but coffee. The entire planet seems to start their day with a cup and I can’t get the taste for it."
boegan
"I actually LOVE the taste of coffee but I rarely drink it. I just try to wake up with a glass of water instead of the caffeine."
"I feel like the point of coffee is to wake you up, so it never made sense to me to drink decaf (even though I like the taste), so I just decide not to drink it. I do have a coffee pot and there are times where I’m feeling frisky, but I’m glad that it’s an addiction that I haven’t gotten into."
JSto19
Hell NO!
"Steak. Not red meat, just a fat steak. Gristle, fat, texture, and childhood trauma play a key role in why I dislike steak. Trust me, I've had numerous people - including my previous roommate who is a professional chef - try to get me to like it. It ain't happening. I do love a good burger though."
Killarogue
Separate
"Chocolate ice cream I love them separately though."
SuvenPan
"Yes! A lot of chocolate flavored stuff I'd say is more 'cocao' flavored if that makes sense, same with chocolate milk, chocolate pudding, etc."
motion_bum
"I'm the same. I like chocolate, but majority of chocolate flavoured things taste very different and are not enjoyable for me."
Amber-Dragon
bad sweets...
"Marshmallow peeps."
rmdelecuona
"They are overwhelmingly sweet. But I have childhood nostalgia associated with them so I still eat them."
SpaceBass18
Those Peeps are the work of Satan. I said what I said.
I'm ill...
"Mayo and ranch, but mostly mayo. The sight of a glob of thick ranch or mayo makes my stomach uneasy."
Helicoppter
Clearly the best...
"Sweet potato pie. I can’t stand sweet potatoes but to put it in a pie… that’s just too much."
WonderlissBliss
"Dog it tastes nothing like actual sweet potatoes. Sweet potato pie is like candy trust me. My mom used to make it for me when I was little."
"But she called it 'butterscotch pie' to trick me into eating it as she knew I'd want nothing to do with it if I found out it contained sweet potatoes. Clearly the best pie. I assume you haven't ever tried it. Big mistake. It's like if someone took a pumpkin pie and was like, 'what if I increase all of its stats by ten points'. Perfect pie."
fly_it_sigh_it
fresh off the boat...
"About the only seafood I'll eat is breaded fish sticks. Which has about as much in common with seafood as Taco Bell does with Mexican food. None at all. The smell, texture and taste of the rest of the seafood world is just nauseating to me. Which some people can't seem to grasp as I live less than a 10 minute drive to the fishing docks and get whatever I want fresh off the boat."
bbpr120
In your mouth...
"Caviar tried it once like pouring salt shaker in your mouth. Venison gamey Beef."
MissGoodbean
"Then you haven't had good caviar. I had it in Moscow and it was super. I don't like sushi or a lot of seafood."
highstreethellcat
Gross Greens
"Celery. What the f**k, people. Not good."
velthrar
"Crunchy water!"
Cat385CL
I actually love celery. But I'm weird.
Accepting reality is never fun.
Once the allure of childhood wears off, all we have is a hard smack of concrete reality.
Redditor Shutup_Iamtalking wanted all of us to take sometime and prepare for life's harsh realities. They asked:
"[Serious] What is a disturbing truth, every adult has to face eventually?"
In order to get through the day we have to deal with the menial facts. Good luck.
Farewell...
"Unexpected family deaths."
SunTzy69
"Every single person you know will die. It’s just a matter of who between you dies first."
Social-director
Routine
"Life maintenance. You are gonna have to wash those dishes, Do your hair. All your hygiene and house cleaning. It never ends"
VexOut
"Same for my mom - she went from being a SAHM to getting 2 part-time jobs (maybe 3 now?) she loves, makes just enough to hire a maid/masseuse/gets crap delivered instead of going to pick it up. She prefers the community and routine her jobs provide and would rather come home to a clean house than do chores and run errands herself."
TbhIdekMyName
When We Were Young
"Damn, this thread made me not wanna grow up anymore lmao."
wassass1n
"Hold on to your youth, take too many pictures, forgive quickly, tell your friends and family how much they mean to you, aim to make other peoples day."
renderguy20
Succession
"In a lot of ways, succeeding as an adult means constantly challenging yourself to be in situations that are really uncomfortable. This applies to work, school, social life, and even just the day to day life of getting stuff done."
zazzlekdazzle
"Wow... so much truth in this one. Whenever you open a new door, the rest of the world doesn't move out of your way or even try to make it easier."
Bart-o-Man
NOOOO!!
"The mail your parents got that you wanted as a kid?? Yeah... it's just bills."
jbrown3152
I hate truth. But here we are listening.
Tissue
"Like toilet paper, closer to the end, faster it goes."
Suspicious-Bear-8940
"This is a wonderful analogy."
semiferal916
As Time Goes By...
"Caring for your parents as they weaken and die. If you are lucky they keep their wits until the end."
AblativeLaser
"This is hitting me hard, and I'm not even in the worst of it yet. Last year my dad took me skiing, something which he used to do a lot when I was a kid."
"He used to be an excellent skier. This time he could barely see the counters of the slope, wanted to stick to the bunny slope, and even then came close to seriously injuring himself multiple times. He put on a happy face, but we both tacitly understood that this was the last time he would ever go skiing. It's hard not to get sad at that realization."
zemplis
Behave
"With the exception of your minor kids, all of your relationships are based on continuous mutual renewal, cancellation at any time for any reason. This includes your parents, your spouse/partner and your siblings. Consequences for behavior can thus be very disproportionate in an absolute scale."
NotAnotherEmpire
Good People
"You will have friends who turn out to not have been friends. Some people aren’t good people."
LivingLosDream
"You also will outgrow friends and that's ok. I'm nearing 50 and there are people who are no longer in my life simply because I'm not in that part of my life anymore."
"Nothing 'happened' per se, it's just that you move in different directions. I find adult friendships tend to be much more fleeting, if you don't have some commonality holding you together (the office, a volunteer organization, an activity, etc.) the friendships tend to fade."
SuchLovelyLilacs
That's Life
"Life is not fair. It will never be fair. You’re not guaranteed happiness and hard work doesn’t always pay off. You can do the absolute best you can and still not make it in this world. Such as life."
Rootrazz
Truth is hard. Life is hard. So if we're gonna live. It's gonna be hard.
When we're little, we're inclined to believe things that seem ridiculous when we get older. Most of us believed in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy at some point. Many of us believed unicorns existed, or that there were monsters hiding under our beds.
When we were 10, my best friend and I convinced our younger brother that we were spies that went to a special spy school in the middle of the night to train. When I was 12, I managed to convince my soccer camp rival that I was pregnant with a carrot. I'm still not sure how that worked!
The point is, when we're children, we tend to believe a lot of silly, or even stupid things. However, some of us carry some of those stupid beliefs into adulthood.
Reddit users shared some of the stupidest things that they or someone they know still believe thanks to Redditor OnionChan_.
He asked:
"What are the stupidest things that some people believe?"
Live Dangerously Or Not At All
"Had a former co-worker who believed it was safer to cross in the middle of oncoming traffic than at a stop light because they were forced to see you that way. We'd be walking and she'd just cross, horns blaring and swerving around her while we waited for the light to change."
"She also believed our manager was on her side though, and she was the lowest paid in the group - even below the minimum the school allowed. It was amazing she was still alive."
– VictoryaChase
Those Cows Are Talented
"Probably late to the party but I thought that cows rolled up those hay bales until I was like 16."
– Whakefieldd
"As someone who spent the last three days throwing hay bales, I wish cows contributed."
– The_Brain_Fuc*ler
It's Like Rain On Your Wedding Day
"Up until 6th grade I thought ironic meant something was made entirely out of iron. I was only corrected on my misunderstanding when my teacher asked me to explain my logic after I commented on how the hole puncher was the only ironic object in the room. I still remember the look of bewilderment on her face as I said it lol."
– NorthEasternDunes
And Also, It's Made Of Cheese
"I knew a woman who believed that there are high-end resorts on the moon that rich people are vacationing at. She was shocked and confused when I told her that I didn't also believe this."
– grannybubbles
Where Do Babies Come From?
"When I was little, I thought children came from your kidneys."
– Myst3rySteve
"You're kidding me."
– HertogJanVanBrabant
Someone Needs To Look At A Map
"Heard some guy say "Florida doesn't exist, the government made it up". He wasn't joking"
– BigBounceZac
"That's nonsense. Wyoming is the only fictional state."
– themattboard
"Technically the government made up every single state. Like how every word is made up."
– HyperSpaceSurfer
One Of The Biggest Conspiracy Theories
"Flat earth"
– New-Highway868
"if the earth was flat, cats would have knocked everything off the edge by now."
– stormquiver
"I just want to know what is the purpose of the conspiracy? Like if the earth really was flat what would be the purpose of hiding that?"
– afellowchucker
Nothing To Do But Laugh
"We use only 33% of a traffic light. Imagine how fast traffic would flow if we used 100% instead!"
– dracosdracos
"I got into this argument with someone once. I ended it with "Let me remove 90% of your brain and let's see how well you function.""
– Stoomba
Milk Is Milk Is Milk
"I saw a video of a vegan, drinking strawberry milk the nesquick brand. They said “it’s vegan because it’s strawberry milk. Not like cow milk. You know what I mean?” I get how they can have misunderstood due to almond milk, soy milk etc. but still, I found it very stupid and I feel like it’s very common knowledge that it’s strawberry flavored, like chocolate milk."
– _Plutooo_
"Really difficult to milk all those tiny little nipples on the outside of the strawberries. Takes a lot of work"
– Jothomp79
Double, Double Toil and Trouble
"That crystals have magical powers"
– Outlier25
That made me laugh out loud, and not because of its ridiculousness. I admit, for a long time, I believed that too!
People often go on and on about the dark web.
A secret place of scandal and horror.
But what is it really like?
Redditor AceofSpadesYTwanted to hear about the secrets and the salacious tales from the dark side of the internet. They asked:
"People who have accessed the dark web, what was it like?"
I've never visited the dark web, nor do I know how to find it. Thankfully. But tell me some stories.
The Regular
"Mostly just like the regular web but with illegal stuff. Drugs, weapons, passports or Kreditcard, apparent hitman service (not sure if that was real though). It is super slow though and the link collections you find for the Tor browser are mostly dead."
PvtPill
Layers Lag
"Slow."
SixBitDemonVenerable
"Just like VPN slows down your connection a bit like 5-10% slow if it's a good VPN with it's company spending lots of money on running thousands of servers. Dark web required multiple layers of encryption and proxies just like a using 3 VPNs on top of each other so that alone makes it much slower, moreover the proxies servers are cheap low budget ones run by volunteers (and some by intelligence agencies)."
idorandombs
Ah... simpler times indeed
"I've seen scarier stuff in the untamed age of the internet than I did when going through it."
hats4bats22
"We lived in simpler times back then, I loved growing up on the internet. Back when most people didn't even know what social media was, AOL chat rooms, MSN and Yahoo chat rooms."
funnystuffmakesmelol
Not a Browse
"'What it's like.' is just websites. What you find depends on what you look for. There's a bunch of piracy sites, a lot of counter-culture blogs, sites on hacking (not just blackhat stuff, but a lot of whitehat stuff too)."
"You will also find a lot of sites in other languages too, especially ones you don't normally see, as a lot of darkweb stuff is used to circumvent censorship (the most famous Darkweb network, TOR, was developed by the US Naval Research Lab), and most major news orgs will have some sort of presence there, just as a way to get tips they can't get otherwise."
"A lot of what people assume is there, isn't as common as you might think, and a lot of what is there of that, are government-run honeypots. It's not generally a 'browse' thing, you tend to go to the darkweb with a specific topic in mind, and go to that."
P2PJones
Watching You
"I think of the darkweb as a honeytrap. Drugs, guns, antisocial groups. There's no way a place with that potential isn't being monitored."
5point5inch
Sounds pretty run of the mill so far. With a few naughties here and there.
Bad Clicks
"Turns out the accessing the deep Web doesn't do you any good if you don't have any idea where to go. Like I know of websites that are supposed to be on the dark web but I don't want to go to them. That seems like a short road to a long prison sentence."
TheOneWes
Window Shopping
"A lot of freaking searching for correct url’s. Idk, I was just window shopping, if you’re not there to shop, and been around for a while, it’s not that interesting."
Chickenmilk_
"This is the best way to describe the deep web imo. I tried using it once out of stupid impulsive curiosity, and it was just rather boring, slow, and overall rather tedious to use. A lot of the websites are poorly designed and dated, and that's if they work at all. Not worth it if you have no business being there and don't know what you're doing."
J0HNNY-D0E
Meh...
"Oddly boring. I disconnected and covered up my webcam. Because all of those stories I heard, people accessed your webcam. The first thing I noticed was that it was as slow as hell. Can you imagine running a livestream on this thing? The next thing I found was surprisingly weird."
"It was selling fake magazine paper or fake newspaper paper to print forged coupons on. Not a single person opened a chat window saying 'I SEE YOU! You are x in y!' No red rooms, and any videos of creepy things would probably take days to load. No links to those either. I did find fake accounts to access scientific journals though."
CrazyCoKids
Risk
"Awkward and slow to use. It's hard to find what you are looking for, even harder to find a reliable source. The only currencies used are crypto currencies and anonymity is taken extremely seriously. PGP encryption is widely used for direct messaging."
"You have access to a reliable site it is just the same as using a website url and clearnet only slower and the interface is much older looking. I won't get into any details on how its accessed for very obvious reasons but the process of purchasing is normally just found a listing on one of the market websites (think eBay only much shadier), make sure the seller is reliable by checking reviews etc and then place an order."
"You message them directly using PGP (encrypted messages only they can decrypt) with your address and pay them using some crypto. After a few days a package shows up with whatever you brought in it. Usually disguised as something else. For example what I bought came disguised as a sim card!! It's all quite similar to the clearnet just with more security steps added in and a bit more risk!"
Cheekythrowaway69420
Rarities
"I haven't, but a guy I watch on YouTube used to do a weekly video series where he would look at stuff on the deep/dark web."
"Obviously for video purposes he was showing stuff that was YouTube friendly, but he frequently talked about how the dark web is pretty boring, and 99% of the stuff on it would be perfectly fine on the normal web. Yes, illegal content does exist, but it's actually pretty rare in the grand scheme of things."
Zoomii555
Well that is underwhelming but comforting. Maybe there is more good in the world than sleaze.