News with Nuance: Feb. 23, 2024

Your Friday dose of News with Nuance: the week's biggest stories, unpacked + more ..

Hi Readers,

I have to tell you that the past couple of weeks or so for me have had an odd, almost dreamlike quality to them. There has been a lot happening for me personally and professionally, and it’s a busy time - and then we escaped to the Minnesota Northwoods for a couple of days last weekend, and ever since then I’ve been in heavy work mode. But I feel like I just can’t quite make the full transition back to the grind.

Between national and local news, challenges I’m hearing from friends in the Church, and an impending book deadline (that is also REALLY exciting!) - I guess I just feel a huge sense of overwhelm. It seems like so many of us in the writing and ministry space are working so hard to put a lot of content out into the world, but there’s so much else out there that it just kind of gets lost in a swirling miasma of *stuff.*

I really liked

Erin Khar

’s recent piece on Whiplash, which she describes as the jarring feeling of going from deep, intense work on a project (in her case, a novel) to the daily work of parenting and life. Maybe I’m feeling that jarring sense today, as I face the daunting task of taking my work on my latest book from its safe, guarded home inside my laptop into the process of editing and publication, and eventually, out into the world, with all the slings and arrows and indifference that comes when people read (or don’t read) your work.

I’m sure many of you can relate to that sense of whiplash and the anxiety or uneasiness it can bring with it. But oddly, I also often find that the cure - for me - for that sense of unease is to continue doing the work that I’m called to do. For me, that’s often this News with Nuance biweekly newsletter. It gives me the opportunity to sort through the headlines and news stories of the past couple of weeks, with a focus on Christian Nationalism and also attention to the craft of writing. In doing this work, I often emerge from the writing of this newsletter feeling more focused and grounded in my own purpose and understanding. That’s why I’m so committed to continued publication of this newsletter — even though when I begin to amass all the stories together I always find myself bracing for the intensity of need in our world for honesty, truth, and deeply human stories. My hope is that as you read this newsletter, you can move from that same space of overwhelm and powerlessness, to a greater sense of understanding, perspective and - ultimately - hope in our shared purpose.

Let’s get to the news … with nuance …

Photography by Stacy Kranitz, ProPublica

The Headline: The Year After a Denied Abortion

I just wrote at-length about the sense of overwhelm so many of us are feeling in the world right now - and yet when I read this story about Mayron Hollis, all that keeps coming to me is the sheer difficulty and pain and suffering that she was asked to endure again and again and again in the face of a state and national government and conservative political party that has claimed to be Christian and “Pro-Life.”

If you click on the story, right at the top you will see multiple photos of a gnarly, knotted vertical scar running up and down Mayron’s abdomen, the result of giving birth soon after a previous Cesarean section, which led to the embryo implanting in scar tissue, leading to an extremely high risk of uterine rupture and death for Mayron and her unborn child.

Mayron’s life was saved by emergency surgery when she delivered her daughter, Elayna, at 26 weeks pregnant.

So often, anti-abortion advocates end the story right there. A miracle! The mother and baby both survived.

But ProPublica thought we should know the whole story. So they followed Mayron, Elayna, and the rest of their family for the next year.

So often women and mothers and media members anesthetize the pain and suffering of pregnancy and birth for the comfort of society, read, mostly men. But there is no ignoring the role of physical pain and suffering in Mayron’s story. You can’t read that she returns to the soothing comfort of drugs and alcohol without also understanding that she had to return to physically demanding, hard labor jobs just TWO weeks after surgery.

TWO. WEEKS.

I had an emergency C-section with my second son after a failed VBAC. In the first two weeks after giving birth, I contracted mastitis. We had to figure out breastfeeding and how to go from a family of three to a family of four. I had family members in from out of town to help and support from our church community. I came back at a minimal level of work around Christmastime, but I wasn’t fully back to work until 12 weeks. And it was still really hard, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Two weeks is unimaginable, and yet it’s more often the reality in a country that does not value supporting parents, or children, over the Almighty dollar.

The physical damage done to Mayron’s body due to anti-abortion laws in Tennessee that do not provide exceptions for the health of the mother is really unconscionable. And that physical pain leads to a whole host of other consequences for the entire family. There is only so much suffering human beings can endure.

It’s incredible to witness the human spirit in the survival of little baby Elayna. Against staggering odds, she made it to her first birthday. But I don’t think Tennessee’s Republican governmental leadership should get to count mere life as a triumph. It was in spite of their lack of care and assistance that Elayna has survived. I don’t think it’s right to count ensuring a child’s survival of life only to subject them to pain, suffering, and poverty as an act of Christian charity and faithfulness.

I watch over and over again how too many Christian leaders and right-wing politicians point fingers at, especially, women and say they’re: “bad mothers.” I’m sure they’d say the same of some of Mayron’s choices. But Mayron, like her own children, didn’t grow up in a vacuum. Just like wealth is generational, not earned, so is poverty. The story points out that Mayron’s mother and father were living with her. Her mother had health issues and was mostly bed-bound; her father struggled with alcoholism. Behind the scenes of alcoholism and drug addiction and possibly poor physical health due to obesity or lack of access to healthy foods are all the families who grew wealthy off prescription drugs, fast food, sugary snacks, and alcohol sales.

As I read this story, I see the human spirit of life and love just struggling, fighting, to endure. I see it being quenched and put out at every opportunity by those with the most wealth, power, and influence in our society. And I can’t help but think about how the supposed “Pro-Life” movement has distracted us from what it might really mean to support Life in America.

The Quote: “In her lowest moments, Mayron felt she was failing her daughters. “I felt like: I’m not good enough to have them,” she said. “Like, I can’t afford them, because I can’t get them the things I want them to have.”

…

Ever since her traumatic C-section, she noticed she no longer had any feeling when she went to the bathroom. Her stomach and back were sometimes numb or radiated pain. She knew doctors had removed her uterus, but she had never been totally clear about what had happened inside her body during the surgery or its long-term effects.

Story by Kavitha Surana and Stacy Kranitz, ProPublica