Olivia
Online
Bodily autonomy is the foundation of liberty.
@6pounddog
10th-gen American. Zelig 3rd cl. History stan. Diagnosed with Bulbar-onset ALS May ‘24. Given 6 months to live January 8, ‘26. You think you’ve got complaints?
E of sun, W of moon
Joined September 2013
1.3K Following
285 Followers
21.1K Posts
@gfherald Women are vessels. They’re not citizens. They may not even be human. They have no rights. They exist solely for the purposes of reproduction.
That’s what he thinks.
@RomanPBone1 What a cast!!! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
In the early 1960s, when women’s private lives were expected to stay hidden and obedient, Sherri Finkbine became a national lightning rod simply for telling the truth.
Known to children across Phoenix as “Miss Sherri” on Romper Room, she was the picture of wholesome motherhood on television—calm, reassuring, and trusted by families. Off-camera, she was also a real woman with four children, a wanted pregnancy, and a doctor’s prescription meant to ease morning sickness. That prescription was thalidomide, a drug still being quietly tested in the United States and not yet widely understood to cause catastrophic birth defects.
When Finkbine learned that the medication could result in severe deformities—missing limbs, organ damage, a lifetime of suffering—she made a decision rooted in care, responsibility, and maternal fear. She sought an abortion to prevent a child from being born into irreversible pain. In another era or another country, that decision might have remained private. In America in 1962, it became a public spectacle.
Arizona law denied her the procedure. As word spread, the backlash came swiftly. Sponsors withdrew. Viewers wrote furious letters. Religious leaders condemned her. Strangers debated her morality as if it were public property. Her job—built on the image of ideal motherhood—was quietly stripped away the moment she acted like an actual mother facing an impossible choice.
Desperate and running out of time, Finkbine traveled to Sweden, where doctors recognized the medical reality and allowed the procedure. She returned home having done what she believed was necessary—and paid the price. Her television career never recovered. She became less a person than a symbol, used by politicians, churches, and media outlets to argue about abortion without ever centering the woman at the heart of the story.
What made her case so destabilizing was not scandal or secrecy, but honesty. She did not hide. She spoke plainly. She said what so many women were thinking but were forbidden to say out loud: that love can include mercy, and that motherhood sometimes means choosing prevention over suffering. In doing so, she forced the country to confront a truth it wasn’t ready to face—that women were already making these decisions, with or without permission.
Long before Roe v. Wade, Sherri Finkbine’s ordeal exposed how quickly society would punish a woman for prioritizing medical reality over moral theater. Her story isn’t just about abortion. It’s about what happens when a woman’s compassion collides with laws written without her in mind—and how courage, once shown, can never be fully erased, even when the woman who showed it is pushed out of view.
© History Pictures
#drthehistories
@ThatEricAlper Joni Mitchell was the opening act for Crosby, Stills and Nash at LA’s Greek theater the summer of 1969.
Also my husband paid $7.50 to see the Stones with Ike & Tina as openers at the Forum.
It sucks to be old now, but being young back then was pretty f***ing good.
Who to follow
@DrHelenFry The memories my dad shared of his experience on an aircraft carrier sunk by the Japanese. He talked about it A LOT. He didn’t convey trauma, just that it was a huge event in the course of his life. Oddly, or perhaps not, the only movies he really liked were war movies.
@sciencegirl Everyone with ALS who’s lost use of their hands desperately needs one.
@lippyent Every American should visit Normandy and learn about what was accomplished there and what made it necessary. Everyone should take in the seemingly endless hills covered by crosses and Stars of David.
What’s happening today is a betrayal of those American soldiers and sailors.
@dieworkwear My faith in you is wobbling. In your collection of brands from the heyday of packs for backpacking you failed to mention The North Face, the premier brand of all.
@TheStingisBack 2 reasons: Rodgers & Hammerstein
@3BikeMike @Microinteracti1 You look a lot older than 63. My take is you are so filled with hate it’s coming out all over your face and probably elsewhere too. You must be impossible to live with — seething, burning with rage, imagining— and hating — everyone you think gets something you don’t.
@Noirchick1 Looking for a bed/breakfast tray like that? I got a fabulous one from Scully & Scully. I feel very Bette when I use it. Or Jean. Depending on my mood. The only thing that could make it better is if Thelma were there too.
@HWarlow There’s a story behind each expression that keeps drawing me back. Can’t stop imagining what dramas preceded them.
@AimeeBlaize676 @ThrillaRilla369 How did I know you were going to be a “Christ is king” person? So predictable.
@JWBuck69 @ThrillaRilla369 What if someone has ALS and is likely to die soon and their last wish was dinner out with the dog they love?
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