Ashley Parker
Appearances
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
Yeah. And I mean, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I sort of and I in my slight defense, I had my pregnancy loss in my DNC before Roe was overturned. So the ignorance is like slightly more acceptable. But I write about this, but I show up for my DNC. And I'm signing forms, you know, in all sort of the typical medical forms.
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
And one of the forms says, you know, I understand that I'm having an abortion and I accept all the risks associated with an abortion. So I literally, I literally called the nurse over and I was like, she's going to be so embarrassed. I'm like, ma'am, you gave me the wrong form. This is the abortion form, but I'm here for the miscarriage. And like, she got this very like kind, sad look on her face.
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
Mm-hmm. And she was like, you experienced pregnancy loss, but what you're technically having is an abortion. And I was just, I mean, again, it sounds dumb, but I was just floored. And then afterwards, I remember my mom, when I was traveling for work, when I was pregnant again, she was asking me, she was worried if I was going to go, like if I was going to have to travel to a red state.
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
I was like... I cover Trump, so he does a lot of rallies in these states with his base. And I thought it was she was worried about masking and COVID, because obviously getting COVID is bad if you're pregnant. But she was worried that because I had had pregnancy loss and because I was pregnant, what if, God forbid, I had some sort of complication?
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
She didn't want me to be in a state where I might not be able to get the medical care I needed. Yeah. which again is just a crazy thing to think about when you're doing your job or for any women when you're going through life, right? Like, can I get the life-saving help I may need?
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
Right. And again, one of the reasons I wrote this essay is because – and there's nothing wrong with this, but like especially social media is often – It's like performative life, and there's nothing wrong with that. I love seeing when people have healthy babies, and I love seeing when people have beautiful weddings, and I love seeing nice vacations or tragedy moons.
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
But it's one thing to post beautiful pictures from – Hawaii or of your new baby. And very few people are like, I know what's going to be an Instagram, a great Instagram post, my sixth DNC. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to do like a selfie from the table with the ID. And it's just not out there. So it creates this sense, like you see all these things.
Pod Save America
Trump's "Liberation Day" Crashes the Stock Market
gender reveals and baby bumps and baby moons and happy families. And I'm so glad for that. But you just don't see the other side as much. And I thought it was important.