Steph Herold
@stephherold.bsky.social
6.3K followers 1.2K following 330 posts
Researcher studying abortion on TV & film. Studying Jewish texts, autism, motherhood whenever I can. Indiscriminate dog lover. She/ her. All views are mine.
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stephherold.bsky.social
An abortion researchers starter pack! Let me know if you’d like to be added. go.bsky.app/SHS3EQa
Reposted by Steph Herold
amyspitalnick.bsky.social
After two years it is so hard to believe anything. And yet if you care about Israelis and Palestinians having any semblance of a future, there’s no choice but to hope and pray this moves forward.
stephherold.bsky.social
Love it! Here’s our very modest NYC backyard sukkah #zmansimchateinu
stephherold.bsky.social
Zman simchateinu? Hopefully. Chag sameach 🌿🍋
Reposted by Steph Herold
ansirh.bsky.social
Abortion bans hurt everyone.

Abortion bans and restrictions create cascading effects that extend far beyond reproductive health care, compromising the quality and effectiveness of medical care across reproductive and non-reproductive specialties.
Cascading Harms: How Abortion Bans Lead to Discriminatory Care Across Medical Specialties - PHR
Our research highlights how abortion bans and restrictions create cascading effects that extend far beyond reproductive health care, compromising the quality and effectiveness of medical care across…
phr.org
stephherold.bsky.social
Q1 I am really drawn to and taken with this image of God as a nursing mother. Very different from the stereotype of the fire and brimstone God. #parshachat
rutiregan.bsky.social
32:13 He had them mount on the high-places of the land,
he fed them the crops of the field;
he suckled them with honey* from a boulder,
with oil from a flinty rock;
stephherold.bsky.social
Q0 Hi! I was reading the parsha last night and was very puzzled by it, looking forward to insights this week. #parshachat
rutiregan.bsky.social
Q0: Introduce yourself! Anything about you, your week, or your interest in #ParshaChat that you'd like to share.
Reposted by Steph Herold
truahrabbis.bsky.social
Baruch Dayan HaEmet. Our hearts go out to the loved ones of the two people killed in a horrible antisemitic attack at Yom Kippur services in Manchester. We pray for refuah shleimah for the wounded.

We stand with the Manchester Jewish community. No one should fear violence when they gather to pray.
Reposted by Steph Herold
moiradonegan.bsky.social
The basic infrastructures that allow women to be participants in public life—birth control & abortion access, no fault divorce, childcare access & affordability, civil rights law in employment and public accommodations, the minimal efforts to mitigate sexual and domestic violence—are all crumbling.
stephherold.bsky.social
Please keep me posted! #parshachat
stephherold.bsky.social
In my continued search to understand this parsha and this part in particular, I found this passage in Talmud - mascheket Chagigah 5a18 that seems to be saying - if you haven’t experienced God’s hiddenness, you aren’t really Jewish?? Which tracks but also 🤯 #parshachat
stephherold.bsky.social
That does make more sense. Also in the context of exile, too? #parshachat
stephherold.bsky.social
Actually was so stressed by that that I emailed two different rabbis about it before Shabbat 😅 #parshachat
stephherold.bsky.social
(Deleted to repost and add the hashtag!)
stephherold.bsky.social
Q1 Yes! I was stressed by the duality of Moshe twice saying God will not forsake us, and then God saying twice that actually God will hide God’s face from us / stay hidden. The repeated emphasis of both feels heavy/meaningful and contradictory. #parshachat
rutiregan.bsky.social
Q1: Today, we'll focus on Deuteronomy 31. Looking through the verses, what are your impressions? Does anything surprise you, raise questions, or stand out as particularly important? #ParshaChat
rutiregan.bsky.social
Deuteronomy 31:1-30, for #ParshaChat study of Vayeilech
Sefaria:
www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy....
Verses also threaded below:
stephherold.bsky.social
And, to say the quiet part out loud: they want us to suffer during pregnancy, and have no structural support when parenting. And whatever happens, we should carry shame, as if autism is bad, as if abortion is bad, when both are a natural part of life.
stephherold.bsky.social
I keep having this thought that the Right is using their (enragingly successful) abortion playbook for autism now. They are:

- creating fake science that sounds believable (abortion causes breast cancer? Nope, but people believe it! Autism caused by vaccines/Tylenol? Nope. But people believe it!)
stephherold.bsky.social
There’s so much more but I’ll leave it at that. Thank goodness for @autisticadvocacy.org holding it down for us.
stephherold.bsky.social
- saying such horrible, unscientific and frankly insulting shit that we are forced to repeat facts that everyone should know (ex: abortion is safe; autistic people deserve love and support) but that keep us forever on the defensive instead of offensive
stephherold.bsky.social
- abusing their big government power to keep people most vulnerable from the services they need, whether early intervention or abortion care, while saying that they’re doing so allegedly to help the very people they’re hurting. So insulting and cruel.
stephherold.bsky.social
- doubling down on stigma and misinformation to instill fear (in abortion seekers, in autistic people and our families)
- making it a huge act of courage to speak up, making it very challenging to organize, since
- they paint us (abortion seekers, autistic people) as subhuman, undeserving of care
stephherold.bsky.social
I keep having this thought that the Right is using their (enragingly successful) abortion playbook for autism now. They are:

- creating fake science that sounds believable (abortion causes breast cancer? Nope, but people believe it! Autism caused by vaccines/Tylenol? Nope. But people believe it!)
stephherold.bsky.social
Oh I misspoke! #BadSisters had a brief abortion plotline, but the character changed her mind and didn't have an abortion. Love that show, thought that was an unbelievable move for that character. #Emmys