John Lee's Protest March Against Abortion

                                         Saw John Lee and Amy Lee yesterday marching

and protesting on the West side of
    McGretchen Mall.
    

They were wearing chicken suits,

carrying Red, White and Blue protest signs.

An untrained male poodle tagged
along for companionship.

he yelped and barked because he was unhappy.

"This is bullshit" he growled under his breath.
   
    Amy Lee’s sign shouted:
   
    I AM PROTESTING AGAINST

    INSANITY FOR THE
    FOR THE SAKE OF SANITY!
     
and because my husband
    John Lee asked me to come along

for company.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.

John Lee’s sign shouted:

______________________
_____________________________________________________________

I AM PROTESTING GENOCIDE THROUGH

THE PILL! 

DOWN WITH THE 

BABY DESTROYERS!

DOWN WITH THE BABY KILLERS!

UP WITH WOMEN DRESSES and SKIRTS
and

 THE BABY COUNT!

_________________________________________________________________________

The untrained poodle barked:
        Right on, Brother John Lee.
            Right on. I changed my mind!

This ain't no bullshit!

One female
shopper agreed, threw away her pills
and joined the march.
She didn’t have a protest sign
so she sang:
    

Baby face, you’ve got the

        cutest little baby face.

Meanwhile, the untrained poodle

changed his mind again as he
feigned concern about

/genocide,
birth control 
and babies/

He really wanted to bite Amy Lee’s luscious ass.

he knew that would be a mistake!

Oh, well. What the heck.
John Lee will kick me
where it hurts the most.

And they all marched on.

copyrighted by dorothy charles banks

The media and some Democrat won't accept Biden saying he is not dropping out of the race

UPDATE: For the good of America, according to 81-year-old President Joe Biden, he decided to step away from his 2025 bid for re-election. On Sunday, July 21, 2024, he made the announcement, handing over his 3,900 delegates to VP Kamala Harris. It is not yet known how many Democrats will run against her, but the big show down is expected to take place during the Democrats National Convention in a couple of months. Despite a tear-her-down smear campaign against her, as initiated by Donald Trump, Harris has hit the ground running, making herself known to more voters.

VP Kamala Harris, presidential nominee for 2025

   By Harris stepping up without hesitation, she is proving that from day one, she was ready to become president designate until voters decide if they want her or another Democrat in the White House. So far acceptance of her pending promotion has been received with open arm approval. Thousands of volunteers said they want to campaign for her. Harris campaign has received millions up on millions of dollars in donations. 

After thousands of Black women conducted a hook up via cell phones nationwide, they raised over a million dollars within an hour. Black men followed suit a few days later, as did White women supporting Harris's candidacy. Donald Trump is at a loss on how to effectively attack VP Harris or stop her momentum. He has resorted to calling her hateful names, a trick that worked with weaker candidates that ran against him in 2016. Kamala Harris is tough, and is ready take him on, beginning with a debate. Trump has to agree to a date. He was sure he would be campaigning against President Biden. He said he is going to wait and make sure Harris gets the nomination.

    Last week, on Sunday, June 27, 2024, President Joe Biden debated presidential candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump. Biden defeated him in 2020 but Trump has never accepted the defeat. Because he could not handle a peaceful turn over, Trump initiated a January 6, 2021, insurrection to overturn the Electoral College final count that reveals the winner after  votes have been counted and verified. If Trump could not win the election fair and square, he would thwart Joe Biden’s victory through an insurrection that was wild, deadly and loose but unsuccessful in achieving Trump's goal. Congressional men and women the Senate chamber that day were in serious and deadly danger. Their lives were saved by brave Capital police, who rushed them to safe places to hide.

    I have to honestly admit that President Biden seemed lost and slow Thursday night, whereas Trump spit out lies about accomplishments that he had not achieved. In fact, he took credit for President Biden’s achievements. Because Biden was not atop his A-game, the media and wishful Democrats are going crazy! They are demanding that President Biden drop out of the race so that another Democrat can beat Trump in 2024. Democrats disapproving of the President are weakly supporting VP Kamala Harris in public but not so much in private.

    Democrats, who have always wanted to run for president did not have the courage or skills to run when candidate Joe Biden was at his lowest, when pundits and the print media declared him a lost cause. The media encouraged Joe Biden to step out of the race, just like they are doing today. South Carolina’s Rep. James Clyburn, an African American, saved Biden from falling into the cockpit of obscurity. He rallied the Black community to vote for Biden.

Media refuses to attack candidate Donald 

Trump for repeatedly lying during debate, 

pounce on Biden instead

     As expected, the media are not talking about the lies Trump told during the debate. Republicans have zipped their lips, realizing that Trump also performed poorly. He promised to stop migrants from taking “Black jobs.” I take that to mean that “Black jobs” are low paying jobs that White folks refused to do. Oddly, that tidbit of news flew over the heads of the media. He said more African Americans will vote for him in 2024 because they now identify with him. The brag is he has an official mug shot, a court declared rapist, is a 34-count jury-certified felon, with more cases pending. Black folks identify with criminals, white collar crimes and thugs.  That appears to be the assumption.

President Joe Biden and presidential candidate Donald Trump

    At a couple of recent rallies, Trump told folks to vote for him. And then Trump said he really did not care about them; he only wanted their votes! At a different rally he made a similar statement without fear of negative feedback. He told them after they vote in November they will not have to vote again. Does this mean America will become a dictatorship run country if Trump wins in 2025?

    The assumption (this is me speculating) is Donald Trump is going to set himself up as a dictator, making sure there will be no more presidential elections in America. Folks attending the rallies did not appear embarrassed or shaken by Trump’s hostile confessions that he cares nothing about them. Where was the media? No media stink was made about these harsh words uttered by Trump. President Biden would not have gotten the same treatment had he said anything remotely close to what Trump said.

    Unlike Democrats, Republicans have never demanded that Trump step aside, even though he is a felon. Had fearful Republicans agreed to the first and second impeachments initiated by Democrats, Trump would not be a criminal candidate in the presidential race. He would be history; even though he would never go away. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that Trump is fighting to keep his rearend out of prison.

President Barack Obama debates hopeful 

candidate Mitt Romney in 2012

    When President Barack Obama debated Mitt Romney in 1012, he did not look lost; he looked puzzled. The media could not stop praising Romney for making the President Obama look like a lost sheep. Romney was sure he had the presidency in the bag. The media and Republicans told him not to sweat the election. He relaxed and went sea surfing, participating in fun activities. His wife proclaimed, “It’s our time!” She desperately wanted the presidency and her chance to be First Lady.

    Whereas the media still reminds us of President Obama “losing” the first debate to Mitt Romney, they backed off broadcasting that President Obama returned to the last two debates with a vengeance. This time Romney was looking lost and wondering what he had gotten himself into. In the midst of answering a question, he looked over at President Obama, who cooly and calmly said, “Carry on governor.” That shook Romney. His wife did not think it fair that President Barack Obama was on his way to winning a second term in office.

Ironically, some Democrats did not think Barack Obama deserved a first or second chance to be president. It was not the right time for a Black man to be the most powerful man in world. Even Black politicians were not sure the time was right. The presidential spot has always been reserved for White males, no matter their intelligence or political skills or association.

    And now President Biden is getting the same harsh rebuke reserved for Democrats. Trump is kicking back, feeling that the election is his to win. He has been told the election will be a “blowout” in his favor. Biden, who achieved a great deal while in office, has refused to step down, leaving the door open for Donald Trump’s blowout. He remembers Trump saying he would he a dictator for one day! President Biden knows better. He has dealt with too many dictators during his political career. He knows that is not how a dictator handles his dominance.

    When a dictator is elected, he fights to retain power through fear, imprisonment, wipes out the media, murder and intimidation. Ironically, the United Supreme Court (Republicans majority) have given Trump the right to do whatever he wants while acting as president. Assassinate or jail an opponent that challenges him during an election? No problem. He gets immunity so long as the crime appears to be an “official act”. President Biden disagrees with that decision. He vows not to use it.

    Like Obama, President Biden has never been a favorite of the media. About two weeks or less after he won the 2020 election, they began posting polls that showed Trump miles ahead of him! Joe Scarborough and Mika started “Morning Joe” with polls that showed President Biden “under water.” They preached he was “too old.” The newly minted president was wading deep in the mud, MSNBC talkers declared. They postured that there was no way he could dig himself out of the mud before the election. Trump took the polls to mean a 2020 victory. Almost four years later the attitudes have not changed.

    The media, acting as Trump’s agents, unofficial campaign managers and advisors, are giving him millions of dollars of free advertising 24/7, whereas President Biden is lucky to get media attention at all. As a candidate Trump said he was going to use the media to get elected. He learned the trick from the late attorney, Roy Cohn, who told him to never accept a loss. Cohn told Trump to blame and fight the media while using it simultaneously to achieve his goal.

   The media says President Biden is not out campaigning like Donald Trump. Never mind that as president he has loads of responsibilities on his shoulders. The media said the same thing about President Obama. The media and critics wanted him to hold press conferences constantly. They wanted him to brag about his achievements and then they could say he brags too much; that he wastes too much time hosting press conferences.

    Remember when the SEALS Team took out Osama bin Laden? The raid was meticulously planned and executed. Remember how angry the media. critics and TV talking heads got because President Obama did not mention former President George Bush’s name? Remember his performance at the Correspondence Dinner? He was the best comedian in the house that night. As he told jokes about his birth, he was also cognizant of what was happening with bin Laden. He delivered the news of Osama bin Laden’s demise the next day.

    The media demanded that President Obama give George Bush half the credit for taking down the renowned terrorist. They forgot that Bush, during a press conference, said that he “does not worry about” bin Laden anymore. He had put a high reward on capturing bin Laden. Terrorist faces were displayed on a stack of cards, all having a dollar mount for their capture.

    Bush was quiet during the media demands. However, Republicans needed and wanted to be associated with the killing of Osama bin Laden. They, along with the media, demanded that President Obama produce photos of the slain terrorist, proving that he was truly dead. The President said the photos were too gruesome for public consumption. Donald Trump promised to release the files and photos if he was elected president. He backed off the promise.

    It appears that President Biden’s one bad night during a debate was also too gruesome for public consumption. The media and Democrats are now on a roll, informing voters that President Biden is “too old” and should not have a second term in office. The “too old” debates have been around since early 2020, soon after Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. Who often boasted that Joe Biden was wondering around in his basement, not knowing where is. 

'Wannabes' are slow to step into the ring, 

waiting to get the nomination by default 

    Wannabe candidates are slow to come forward and announce that he/she is better suited to replace Biden. All the complainers, hiding behind an invisible shield, are highlighting VP Harris as the candidate to beat if push comes to shoving President Biden out the door. The complaining wannabe candidates want the President to step aside so that he or she can win cherished spot by default. They have no record to run on, so he or she will have to take credit for all that President Biden achieved. We will suddenly a lot of “what we achieved” and how instrumental he or she was helping the President achieve his agenda.

    Democrats will host its nomination convention next month. What are they going to do if this debate debacle has not been settled? Will they rally behind President Biden like Republicans are rallying behind felon and frequent liar Donald Trump? Without the consent of President Biden, VP Harris will not become their backstabber. With fever pitch racism so high in America, it would be a hard road to travel for another African American to get elected president, especially a Black woman. Not sure the VP wants the position by default.

    The media, TV talking heads and Democrats are not talking to the people who will vote in November. Their opinions are extremely important because they will be the individuals that will keep America’s democracy and freedom out of the hands of wannabe dictator Donald Trump who will be a second-term disaster for America. President Biden told his Democratic defectors to bring it on. “I’m not going anywhere!”

Women and Their Work gather for serious conversations, short stories and poetry

 PASSGES, a series of workshops, readings, performances, and other related art events took place in a context of feminist research, group support, and cooperate activity. It extended the definition of an art event to include consciousness raising and the possibilities of cultural transformation. It was an event in which group process and relationships deriving from it were the central achievements.

As one of the requirements for participation in PASSAGES, women were asked if they are willing re-examine their own--and society's--attitudes concerning sex and race, especially as portrayed in the arts and the media. The idea behind such investigations was that the women could transform and debate their thoughts and share their findings with the community at large in an art/cultural event.

Denna Stevenson

Creator of Metis

PASSAGES: Women and Their Work

___________________________________________________________

Women and Their Work participants: Theresa Macias, Kit Fontaine, Debbie Dew, Deanna Stevenson, Glee Ingram, Delores Carkuff, Helen Cox, Teresa Anderson, Dorothy Charles Banks, Rita Starpattern, Carol Ivey, Peg Runnels, Olive Spitzmiller, Orena Dennis. photo by Millie Wilson

During the summer of 1980 in Austin, Texas at the Laguna Gloria Art Museum I participated in a three-day event that started July 18, 19, 20. It sponsored by Denna Steveson, creator of Women and Their Work, specific specifically created for women of all ages and diverse backgrounds. It appeared to me that each woman participating in the event were already in full bloom of her womanhood and her own self-acknowledgement. There might have been a few women struggling like hell to reach these points in their lives.

The sisterhood of minds consisted of poets, authors, performers, artists, and women who just wanted to verbally tell their stories. We were encouraged to submit some of our work for a magazine, in which our works would be published. As a poet I submitted a number of poems, five of which were accepted. I smiled as I read the poems I submitted. I remember the sassy language that popped in my head as I wrote the poems, especially "pavlov's dog" and "you . . , who is not hipped at all". "pavlov's dog" was inspired by a discussion in psychology class.

A couple of days ago I was searching for a particular book in my small library when I pulled out PASSAGES after all these years. One author wrote about her fascination with laundry. She combined her life experience in poems and a historical essay. Another interesting piece caught my attention was the poem, Virgin Whore, written by Peg Runnels and Susan Shaw in photo below. The poem tells of the journey that all girls go through on their way to womanhood only to end up being called a "Bitch! followed by "Woman!"

VIRGIN WHORE

by Peg Runnels and Susan Shaw

I am the first
and the last
I am the honored one
and the scorned one
I am the whore
and the Holy One
I am the wife
and the virgin
I am the barren one
and many are her children
I am the silence
that is incomprehensible
I am the utterance
of My NAME

Text, Cnostic Gospel

____________________________________________________________________________

photo by Delores Gunter--

sitting Peg Runnels & Susan Shaw

Virgin and whore are states of mind. Virgins and whores are incomplete women: women who need men for identity, women afraid to be whole, women who haven't come to terms with their sexuality.

I was raised to make some man a wonderful wife. Of course that meant being a virgin.

"MEN NEVER MARRY THE GIRLS THEY SLEEP WITH."

I was taught to know my place and to keep it clean.

I wanted to be like Mother and Grandma and like Aunt Cora who always wore a girdle, even in the summer.

"DON'T LAUGH SO LOUD. DON'T WIGGLE. DON'T GET DIRTY. AND FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES, KEEP YOUR KNEES TOGETHER."

I lived in terror of getting caught playing doctor with the boy next door. I knew about "bad girls."

"BOYS WILL BE BOYS. IT'S UP TO YOU TO SAY NO."

The worst thing about being about Being a Sweet Thing was the waiting. Always waiting. Waiting to be noticed. Waiting to be asked. I smile a lot. I would think, I'm not pretty enough. So I smiled more.

"YOUNG LADY, THAT SKIRT IS TOO SHORT. MARCH BACK IN THERE AND WIPE OFF THAT MASCARA."

I cleaned my body until I squeaked. I sprayed, I softened, I deodorized. I made my body desirable, so they would notice me. And they did. They always noticed the PARTS.

"LOOK AT THE TITS ON THAT ONE." "I"M A LEG MAN, MYSELF."

Tits, thighs, ass, boobs, jugs, jugs, knockers, cunt, bunny, beaver . . . is this the virgin?

"DON'T BE SO UPTIGHT; I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU." "IF YOU REALLY LOVED ME, YOU'D PROVE IT. COME ON. TRY IT; YOU'LL LIKE IT."

I married at eighteen. Marriage has its boundaries, too.

"DON'T STAND TO NEAR THE WASHER REPAIRMAN; HE MIGHT GET THE WRONG IDEA. PRETEND YOU DON'T SEE HIM EYEING YOUR BREASTS. IF A MAN STOPS BY WHEN YOUR HUSBAND ISN'T HOME, TALK THROUGH THE SCREEN."

Don't be too clever.
Don't dance too close.
Don't hold a man's gaze too long.
Don't go out late at night alone.
Don't challenge.

That's enough "don'ts." Isn't it about time to stop playing Virgina and Whore?
I want my own life, my own sexuality.
Even though we're not whole yet, I think we're getting closer. Don't you?
I suppose. Last week a man called me an Amazon, and I felt proud.
Really? last week a man called me salty.

Virgin! 

Whore! Lady! Tramp! S

now White! 

Rose Red! Spinster!

Madam! Nice!

Good! Protected!

Experienced! Martyr!

Bitch!

WOMAN!

__________________________________________________________

poem by dorothy charles banks

you . . .  who is not hipped at all 

you try to impress me
with your
bullshit hype & stale club lines
all the while
trying to turn
me on
with your slick                                                                                    

tight pants
showing
a faint impression                                                                                

of your jacked up manhood
I look at you
and smile to myself
when I go sister soldier
and jump loud on you
you get embarrassed
and pretend
to blow
your nose
I laugh out loud
as you stand
in front of me
your pretend
manhood
draining from your
African nose
you curse at me under
your scotch and water breath
as you reach for
your glass to leave
I'm glad you
caught the hint

(C)

___________________________________________________________________

THE HISTORY OF LAUNDRY PASSAGE

by Frieda Werden

I must admit that I have always been fascinated with laundry. Some of my earliest memories involve laying a sheet in the middle of the living room floor, covering it with dirty clothes, and tying it into a bundle, to be picked up by the laundry service.  Or, I remember my mother kneeling beside the bathtub doing the wash by hand at a time when we had no laundry service or washing machine. To me the laundry is intimately connected with poetry. One of my earliest memories of writing a poem is of myself at the dining room table of my parents' home. I was in high school, and literature was a means of transcending fate. The poem I was writing went in part:

The wild wind hurls into the street

Old overalls with patched-up seats;

 But undershirt and pantaloon

Hanging docilely from noon to moon

Til plucked in haste by weary wives

With hair contrived to make it curl.

 No matter how much each one strives, 

This is the essence of their lives:

The moon and sun on wash unfurled

Upon the clothesline of the world. 

With the magic of poem making, the control of rhythm, assonance, rhyme and other devices. I hoped to exorcise the demonic vision of an adulthood I would shortly enter.

In looking at women's history, I am struck by the fact that women's accomplishments have taken place against the background of the daily tasks that no one did unless it was the women. The laundry is exemplary. Heroic deeds have been formulated around it: the first recorded strike by women laborers in Texas was a laundresses' strike in 1873.

It was generally Black women who did the laundry in the early days of what is now Texas--often free women of color who had come to the area because Mexico's anti-slavery constitution made it possible for them to exist here. When the Republic was formed and the new laws of the Republic--founded as much as anything to permit slavery--made free women of color a nonexistent class, each woman had to petition the legislature for special dispensation to remain the state. In the Texas Archives, there are a number of these petitions signed by upstanding male citizens of Galveston, the husbands, perhaps, of their clients. on behalf of well-known laundresses such as Zilpha and Zelia Husk.

Around the Mexican border, Mexican and Mexican American women also got into the laundry business. An oral history of an elderly El Paso woman reports that her sister once worked in the El Paso Laundry, a giant commercial laundry on the edge of Chihuahita--the poorest Mexican neighborhood in the city, located on a bend of the Rio Grande. There women slaved in the heat without fans through the hot summers, washing, feeding the sheets into the mangle (known as "el mango" to the workers)--a machine that could mangle hands as well as sheets. After a long day, the women could come home exhausted, wringing with sweat.

After the ideas of the Mexican Revolution made their way north of the border, a 1911 laundry workers' strike in El Paso increased the wages of laundresses to $1.50 a day. White women in El Paso complained because maids would no longer do housework for less than the $1.50, they could make at the laundries; the strike had raised the wage floor of women in the city. 

One of the best documented laundry stories, and the one I told in detail in the performance of my passage, is the story of the Belton Sanctificationists who started taking in washing in order to build a self-supporting women's religious and economic community.

_________________________________________________________________________

poem by dorothy charles banks

 Pavlov's Dog

like one of Pavlov's 

experimental dogs  

your mouth waters

as your trembling

hands travel to

play with the

diamond filled

toy lying

between my

right & left thighs 

I hear your breath

rushing from

you in short gasps 

I am turned off by

your labored

agony and panting

when I ask if

you are one of 

Pavlov's dogs

you hurriedly say

"Yes" and ask 

"Who is he"? 

I knock your hand &

face away 

turning on my side 

sliding out of bed

leaving you 

panting and alone   

I was not raised to

make love to

Experimental Dogs 

(C)

God was a practitioner of in vitro fertilization, surrogates and sonograms millions of years before it became a modern day wonder

Genesis 25:21: Now Issac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.”

22: But the children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If all is well, why am I like this’ so she went to inquire of the Lord.

23: And the Lord said to her: two nations are in your womb, two people shall be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other, and the other shall serve the younger. 

An alcoholic cousin explained the Bible like a seasoned preacher 

As an adult I find there are many incidents and conversations that trigger childhood memories and conversations I did not understand as a child. There are times when my mind voluntarily reflects on the past, hearing certain words or actions that remind me of a second cousin, who was an alcoholic. He and his sister were raised frequenting church by a highly religious mother, a widow. She later married a preacher, becoming co-pastor pastor of a small church. At the time it was time it was unpopular and “ungodly” for women to preach in the pulpit.

Because of his self-taught history of religion, Tom understood the Bible better than he understood the reason for his alcoholism. Sometimes he would hold “church” on the front porch as a small group of children gathered on the steps of our two-story house. He was always patient with us.

Being totally ignorant of the Bible and its characters, we peppered Tom with childish questions, trying to make it appear that we were contributing to the teach and preach sessions. We did not understand the meaning of the verses and words written in red. The color attracted our attention not the words. Why did God do this or do that, we asked. Who or what is the Devil and where does he live? Did God know him? My cousin Tom answered all our questions, none of which I can remember. We had no way of knowing if he was right or wrong. But no adult ever argued against what he preached as fact when talking to them.

Today, as an adult, I need to hear those conversations with my cousin, who died when I was in elementary school. I would love to hear him explain barren women as described in the Bible, and the women's subsequent pregnancies. How did they, in their old age, suddenly become pregnant, bearing great sons as noted in the Bible?

If Tom were alive today, I would ask him to explain the mystery of barren women. I committed to some research to learn about barren women. I remember hearing my grandmother talking about a couple of her friends were barren. “She would say, ‘They can’t have no babies and never will. I feel so sorry for them". In vitro fertilization, a procedure that helps couples or a single individuals have children, was nonexistent.

“In agrarian societies during the Biblical period (1200-600 BCE) bearing children was highly valued and women’s primary roles was that of mother. Birthing and raising children, however, were fraught, given the high rate of maternal death in childbirth and of infant immortality; only half of all children born survived to the age of five.

“In the Biblical stories of barren women, maternity is further complicated in order to heighten the drama of the arrival of the promised son, emphasizing the divine role in conception and birth. In the case of the patriarchal stories in Genesis, the matriarchs’ barrenness emphasized that it is God who disrupts continuity, in the transaction from one generation to the next, and then selects the true heir to be the covenant”. Barren Women in the Bible, by Rachel Adleman, 2021.

2024, abortions, IVF and scared doctors

 In 2022 the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, a fight so-called Christians have been wanting to do for 50 years. They say they are prolife but their actions towards real-life children suggests a different attitude. They seem to think that life applies so long the “child” is a fetus in its mother’s womb. After birth, they are on their own. States are making it a criminal act for women to seek abortions, no matter the age; no matter if she was raped by a husband, boyfriend, stranger or relative.

Doctors who perform abortions are threatened with prison, steep fines and their license revoked. This is to assure doctors will never perform another abortion. Expectant women, no matter their emergencies or life-threatening conditions, cannot get an abortion. In hardcore states where abortion laws are strict, the fetus or expectant mother will have to be at death’s door before a doctor will treat the mother or both. Doctors are afraid to help pregnant women in emergency rooms. They are fearful of following the Hippocratic Oath they are supposed to live by. 

Life or death of the mother, or the fetus does not sway male dominated legislatures to reconsider their stance on abortions. They have decided that destruction of a frozen embryo is tantamount to murder and prosecutable in a court of law.

The recent Supreme court ruling in Alabama on IVF awakened a bee’s nest. There is fear that the ruling might find a new home in other states. In the ruling women are barred from getting a legal abortion; IVF stops them from using the services of a clinic that attempts to stimulate pregnancy. A definite decision has not been made regarding IVF despite several states starting to entertain criminalizing IVF.

According to Mayo Clinic, “in vitro fertilization, also called IVF, is a complicated series of procedures that can lead to a pregnancy. It’s treatment for infertility, a condition in which you can’t get pregnant after at least a year of trying for most couples. IVF also can be used in prevent passing on genetic problems to a child.”

The Clinic continues: “During the intro fertilization, mature eggs are collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then a procedure is done to place one or more of the fertilized eggs, called embryos, in a uterus, which is where babies ae developed. One full cycle of IVF takes about 2 to 3 weeks. Sometimes these steps are split into different parts and the process can take longer. IVF can be used using a couple’s own eggs and sperm. Or may involve eggs, sperm or embryos from a known or unknown donor”.

During my reading about in vitro fertilization or IVF, I did not see the word “barren” in reference to women or couples wanting to get pregnant. In the Bible, childless women are commonly referred as “barren” when they are unable to get pregnant. Without the divine intervention of God, infertile today without the aid of invitro fertilization women and couples today will never realize motherhood and parenthood. Not all of the “barren” women mentioned in the Bible were 20- or 30-year-olds or younger. They were up in age when they realized that God looked upon them with favor.

Nothing under the sun is new; God was way ahead 

of the 21st Century medical world

There was an instance where a handmaiden was appointed a designated surrogate to bear a child for a childless couple. The wife, though loved by her husband, had to watch the surrogate grow bigger and bigger with the child sired by her aging husband. One of the many barren women mentioned in the Bible was Sarai.

According to Genesis 16, “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.” The story further states, “So Sarai said to Abram, ‘See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to find my maid; perhaps shall obtain children by her’. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.’”

“Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abam to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes”.

Reminding Abram of their covenant, God told Abram, after changing his name to Abraham, he would be the father of many nations. He changed Sarai’s name to Sarah.

And then God sprang more information on Abraham regarding Sarah in Chapter 17; 16. “And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her”.

Falling on his face, Abraham laughed and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child”? The child was born and he was named Issac.

I titled the section of this story “Nothing under the sun is new” because there is a belief that modern day medical miracles are comparable a newly penned novel. Surrogates are mention and used in the Bible. Through God’s intervention in vitro fertilization was regularly employed to impregnant “barren” woman who were doomed not realize the joy of motherhood. God knew in advance the sex of the children these once barren women gave birth to. God made these predictions without use of or observing sonogram. All of the wives that eventually got pregnant, were not young, nor were their husbands. Only the surrogates were much younger.

“In the Bible and until recently, the problem if infertility was attributed physiologically to women, through ultimately it was God who was seen as holding the keys to opening and closing the womb. Only female figures are identified by the descriptor “barren”. A woman’s infertility might also be marked by the phrase “she had no progeny.” Often these women suffered deep shame aa consequence, their barrenness attributed to some hidden wrong, sin or flaw”. (Barren Women in the Bible by Rachel Adelman, June 23, 2021)

Around 2004 the New York Daily News printed that Shebat St. James was the oldest woman to get pregnant, giving birth to twins in the United States. She turned 57. She got pregnant through in vitro fertilization with the help of donated eggs.

Mangayamma Yaramati,74, got pregnant with the help of in vitro fertilization.

Dalinder Kaur, 72, of India, was postmenopausal. She got pregnant with the help donor eggs. She gave birth to a child April 19, 2016. At the time she was reported being the oldest woman in the world to get pregnant. She also participated in IVF treatments.

Bhateri Devi Singh, 66 of Akwa, India, gave birth to triplets June 2010 with the help of IVF treatments from the National Fertility Center in Hayana, India.

OImkari Pannar, 70, gave birth to baby June 27, 2008 in Muzffarnagar, India. She underwent IVF treatments to get pregnant.

Margaret Adenuga, 68, gave birth to twins April 19, 2020 in Logos, Nigeria. She underwent IVF treatments.

Rajo Devi Lohan, 70, of Hissar, India, was postmenopausal, took part in IVF treatments, donor eggs. She gave birth November 2008, but she died while giving birth. She had a four-year daughter.

These were just a few women past their prime and were not expected to get pregnant. Some of them had never been pregnant but wanted children and were willing to do whatever it took to realize motherhood. Unlike in the Bible, none of them were visited by God, nor did he send angels to tell the women do not despair any longer. They would have the child they and their husband so desired.

I understand that doctors, researchers and scientists think that what they have discovered in the 21st Century is absolutely new and innovative. Many in these professionals would relate that their discoveries are brand new. They will attempt to explain that the impregnation of the older women in the Bible are either myth or conceived by natural means—via sexual activity.

Unlike the older women getting pregnant as cited in America and nationally, the wives in the Bible were much, much older, as were their husbands. And how would these men and women of healing and medical discoveries explain the huge age differences? What about the sudden fertility of the older women? Conceptions occurred without the help of in vitro fertilization, or a series of premenopausal treatments. Did God, in his wisdom, know the secret before it was passed down to man centuries and centuries later?

No matter your belief, whether it is in God or science, these so-called “myths” cannot be denied as they have been recorded in the Bible. If the recorded pregnancies, and use of surrogates are figments of Biblical scribes’ imaginations, who imbued them with the kind of infinite wisdom that bled into futuristic medicine?

The Pride of Life from 'Girl Frenzs'

Straight Talk

pages 230-239

by Bridgette Billingsley
 

Girl frenzs, there is nothing more beautiful than a newborn baby coming into the world, watching that child take their first breath shortly after the doctor spanks them on their bottoms. Isn’t amazing how a woman carries a baby in her stomach for nine months until the baby is fully developed, then the baby will come out whether the mother is ready to deliver or not.

Childbirth is a process; it’s a certain order that has to be implemented before the mother can deliver. Sometimes, circumstances and things happen during the process that causes the mother to deliver early. During the pregnancy, the mother and baby(ies) are one flesh. The unborn fetus is dependent upon the mother to survive. That’s the way it is with us and God. 

Just think about human life for a moment. We are made from liquid (sperm) and eggs (female reproductive organ). Isn’t that amazing? A human life like you and I made from liquid and eggs. You know, girl frenzs, God put all of our organs and different body parts inside us. He brought Adam, the first of his creations, to life from dirt. Adam didn’t exist until God formed him from the ground, breathed life into his nostrils the breath of life, then Adam became alive. He created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. That’s why we are called wo-man because we were created from the womb of man. 

God is amazing to me. I get so excited just thinking how our Father in heaven can just speak something and it will come to past. Adam and Eve were the first two human beings that God created, and guess what, they didn’t come about from sperm and eggs, but their children Cain and Abel did. What I’m trying to get you to understand, girl frenzs, is that God is magnificent; he can do anything! There is no other God or human being that can create life from dirt. Do you agree? Only the true and living God can do that.

Girl frenzs, do you ever think about how Jesus left heaven and came to earth in the womb of a woman? Think about it for a minute. Jesus was in heaven with God, sitting on the right hand side of God. After God created the world, he created Adam and Eve. They disobeyed God’s commandments in the Garden of Eden. God put them out of the garden. Their seed multiplied after they became sexually connected. Adam and Eve through their disobedience to God, sinned, entered the world. Before they disobeyed God there was no sin in the world.

 Throughout the Old Testament, people offered animal sacrifices for their sins. God accepted their sacrifices and forgave their them over and over again. Girl frenzs, open up your Bible and read some of the Old Testament books and see for yourself how ungodly people were and disobedient. They were to God before Christ came down to earth. God was then and still is now patient and slow to anger. 

God became so disappointed with the way people were living on earth and their disobedience he was going to destroy the world. God refused burnt animal sacrifices any longer from his people. No one on earth had any other sacrifices to offer up to God on our behalf. So, God decided he would provide a sacrifice that would return the world and mankind back to him. Jesus was the answer for the salvation of the world.

Can you picture Jesus’s face when God his father asked him to come to earth and live among his people? Can you picture Jesus’s face when God his father asked him to give his life as an offering to him? Can you picture Jesus’s face God the father told him he would have to come to earth as an unborn infant?

Jesus was obedient, he didn’t refuse his father not one time.

Imagine if God would ask some of us to do what he asked Jesus to do.

Can you imagine some of the responses he would get. Such as, “No way I’m going to die for those folks” or “Lord, you got to be kidding me. I don’t know those people, they’re on their own.”

“You want me to be a baby in somebody’s stomach! Oh, no way. I can’t do that.”

“Lord, you know I would if I could, but you caught me at a bad time, check with me later on.”

Girl frenzs, you know how crazy and proud people are today; they might come up with all kinds of crazy answers.

Jesus, as humble as he is, took on the form of an unborn fetus and was placed in Mary’s stomach by God the Father and the Holy spirit, and stayed there until Mary gave birth.  Girl friends, that’s good news to my soul. Thank you, Lord! Can you imagine Jesus our Lord and Savior, God’s precious cargo being placed in a virgin’s womb and being born into this world?

Girl frenzs, there’s nothing more beautiful than a newborn baby coming into the world. Jesus willingly left his home in heaven to come down to this cruel world and live among ungodly people. Jesus had everything in heaven. He had riches, he had powers, he had authority over the angels, he had love everlasting. He had life everlasting, and he had a loving and powerful father who loved him exclusively. But he willingly gave up everything to come down here on earth to be hated, mistreated, and beaten to death by the very people he was asked by his father God to come and save. 

Girl frenzs, isn’t that something! Can you see Jesus in your mind as a precious little baby. I know he was the most beautiful baby ever born in the history of mankind. The Bible says, “God loved us so much that he gave his only son.” God didn’t want to destroy the world. He lives you and I (Jn 3:16 kjv).

 Girl frenzs, if this chapter doesn’t help you to see how much God loves you, then you will probably never ever know. 

Girl Talk

Girl frenzs, Mary was a virgin, a clean vessel for Jesus to dwell. Remember I told you, God’s spirit can’t dwell in an unclean temple, meaning our bodies.  God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one. When sent to earth in the form of an unborn fetus, he could not put baby Jesus in just any body. The body he chose to carry his precious son was clean and had never been touched by a man. God wants us to keep our temples clean so his Holy Spirit can dwell inside us. It’s our comforter; it leads us and guides us in the world.

God found favor in Mary. He sent an angel to tell Mary that she would give birth to the son of the most high God. Can you imagine how afraid Mary probably was when she got the news that she was going to have a baby? Mary knew she was virgin!

 Read the story about Mary in Luke 1:26-38. Mary was a servant, a yielding vessel, allowing God to use her as he so pleased. Girl frenzs, we need to have the same attitude as Mary and allow God to use us for his glory. 

Soon after Jesus was born, his life was threatened by King Herro of Egypt. God’s angel appeared to Joseph and told him what God wanted him to do. Joseph didn’t ask any questions; he did exactly what the angel told him in a dream. Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus escaped Egypt safely. Jesus grew up just like us in a fleshy body. He was a child; he grew and became strong and filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. At the age of twelve years, Jesus was in the churches, sitting around older men listening to them and asking questions.

Jesus didn’t do things other children his age did, such as play. From the time he was old enough to talk, he was all about doing the work he was sent from heaven to do. Girl frenzs, you do realize that Jesus was God in the flesh? Can you grasp that! God took on a fleshy form to come down and save us. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one. It's called the Trinity. They are the one in the same body. 

Girl frenzs, God’s powers are so great our small brains won’t ever be able to comprehend his greatness and the magnitude of who he is. He’s God all by himself. He doesn’t need us, we need him. He’s the creator. He hung the moon and the stars in the sky. He’s huge!

Girl frenzs, when we say yes to God without hesitation, concerning his will for our lives, God will bless us for being his servants. God wants to use us, but we have to be yielding, clean vessels ready to be used. Mary the mother of Jesus was blessed above whatever she dreamed. Mary was proud to give birth to our savior; she knew God would take care of her. Mary will forever be called blessed by everyone who knows her or reads about her. Mary received the greatest honor God can pay.

Girl frenzs, Jesus understands our every weakness because he was tempered in every way that we are today. But Jesus did not sin. Whenever we’re going through rough times, we should go boldly to God and ask for his mercy and grace upon our lives. God will be kind and help us.

God sent Jesus to bring his message to us. God created the universe by his son; Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. Jesus holds the world together by his own powerful words. After he did what he had to do on the cross to wash away our sins, he sat down on the right hand side of God Almighty in glorious heaven.

The scripture says, “When God brings his firstborn son into the world he commands all his angels worship him.”

“When God speaks about the angels, he says, “I change my angels into wind and my servants into flaming fire.” 

God never said to any of his angels “sit at my right side until I make your enemies a footstool for you!” This footstool is underneath Jesus’ feet, meaning “hell.” All those who are Christ’s

enemies will be under his precious feet at the end. God’s angels are merely spirits sent to serve people who are going to be saved. Isn’t that great! God sends angels to help us along the way, and we have the Holy Spirit leading us, and guiding us into the truth.

Spiritual Talk

 Girl frenzs, I hope you remember how much God and Jesus love you! When you understand the depth of their love, it will help you stay faithful to God and Christ. God made Jesus lower than the angels when he came on earth to die for the sins of the world. God crowned Jesus with glory and honor and put everything under his feet, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. 

We are merely people of flesh and blood. When Jesus became like us, when he died, his work and mission was to go down to the pit and destroy the devil. He also rescued souls that were held in slavery by their fear of death. Jesus came to help us. He had to become like us to serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and living sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.

 Jesus paid the ultimate price for us. His death. Without his shedding blood, we would all be dead and lost in sin forever.

 Girl frenzs, we all must learn to let go of all our foolish pride. We walk around putting ourselves above others, thinking we’re all that and a bag of chips. We’re nothing without Christ in our lives. Nothing!

 Pride has deceived many people to think all they need is a good education and a good paying job, and that’s all that matters in this life. Making a lot of money and living large isn’t anything without Christ in your life. Nothing!

Girl frenzs, don’t you know the devil was a beautiful angel; he was the head angel in charge of praise before he got all puffed up with pride. He was called Lucifer. He wanted to be greater than God and got kicked out of heaven. You have to realize, girl frenzs, God is the source of where we receive all our blessings. God owns everything on earth. We have to humble ourselves and allow God to use us for his will.

 Stop saying what you’re not going to do and start saying yes to God. God gave us his very best, and you without a shadow of a doubt Jesus is the best gift ever given in the world. Don’t you want to give your best to God in return? There’s plenty of work to be done yet in these last days, but the workers are few.

Let’s all of us stop fooling around and start getting serious about the work of the Lord. What we do for the Lord is all that’s going to matter when we are before God in the day of judgement.

 I know when I face God I would love to hear him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into my rest.” We all have to work for the Lord! Let’s get busy! Jesus had a purpose when he came to earth and so do we. We’re not here to just live mediocre lives. We’re fooling ourselves when we think God is going to accept anything from us that’s not our best. We have to make an effort to give our best to God! 

Mediation questions for this chapter:

Girl frenzs, are you living a mediocre life, just hanging around taking up space in the world? What are you doing that contributes to the work of the Lord?

 Girl frenzs, are you willing to be a yielded vessel for the Lord to use for his glory? Why? Why not?

Girl frenzs, are you willing to pray and ask God what it is he wants you to do in his Kingdom? Why? Why not?

Girl Frenzs
By Bridgette Billingsley
Tate Publication, 2014

book can be purchased on Amazon