The Privilege of Feeling Good
Every week, Healthyish editor Amanda Shapiro talks about what she's seeing, eating, watching, and reading in the wellness world and beyond. Pro tip: If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll get the scoop before everyone else.
Healthyish friends,
Yesterday’s news about Alabama effectively banning abortions, even in the case of rape and incest, was troubling and terrifying for a lot of us. For me and many others born after Roe v. Wade, the legality of abortion has always been a given, a right we never questioned. Now, as states challenge and chip away at that right, and with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, it feels like the beginning of a post-apocalyptic future (All that Handmaid’s Tale protest attire really drives the point home).
This New Yorker interview with a Supreme Court reporter was perhaps the most chilling thing I’ve read on the subject in the last few days. Linda Greenhouse explains that the Supreme Court is unlikely to overturn Roe v. Wade in a single ruling. The more likely scenario, she says, is that they’ll gradually erode the precedent through rulings that are more narrow in scope, like requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at certain hospitals. “They could uphold this obstruction, and they could uphold that obstruction, and they could send all these signals,” Greenhouse says. “And so, if Roe finally falls, it’ll fall with a little push of a pinkie, rather than a frontal assault, because there won’t be much left of it.”
Each week in the Healthyish newsletter, I share my personal perspective. I talk about how we feel good in our bodies, whether that’s through the food we cook, how we move, who we’re with, or how we treat ourselves. And I talk about the things that get in the way of feeling good, like illness, stress, and mental health. I talk less often about the politics and privilege of feeling good: Who can afford fresh, healthy food and therapy and who can’t? Who has the time and support to take care of themselves and who doesn’t? Who has access to healthcare that respects a person’s agency over their own bodies, and who is being denied?
Today I’m thinking about that last question, and I’m donating to the ACLU, who’ll be taking the state of Alabama to court, and the Yellowhammer Fund, which provides funding to people seeking care at any of Alabama’s three abortion clinics. There are more resources for donating and supporting here, here, and here.
Until next week,
Amanda Shapiro
Healthyish Editor
Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit
