• Tuesday marked the 35th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. We told our stories and asked for yours.
  
• Heath Ledger died. We were all distraught about it and may have re-watched Ten Things I Hate About You and sobbed.
  
• Barbara Ehrenreich's comparison of the economy to a giant clit made us feel vaguely better.
  
• Also amusing: the myriad "talents" of Miss America contestants.
  
• Slut Machine doled out sage advice in the first video edition of Pot Psychology. Don't do drugs, kids!
  
• But do watch some barely legal Brazilian boys dance in their skivvies, get your old-ass hands pumped full of collagen and gnaw on some baby animals. It's been a doozy of a week, you're worth it!

Uh, right. The harsh reality, however, is that if access to abortion is further imperiled, the women who will truly suffer are the poor, not teens from Philadelphia suburbs with median incomes of $90,000. And although this is not a new revelation, several women have published specific anecdotes underscoring that point. Activist and Radcliffe fellow Kissling also writing in Salon, tells the story of Rosie Jimenez, a woman who died from a back-alley abortion in 1978 because Medicaid funds for abortions had been cut off. The botched abortion had caused an "infection that had turned her skin a dark greenish brown and caused blood to seep from her eyes." Rural women are affected deeply, too. Erica Sackin relates a story about a friend who " had to drive 15 hours and two states out of small-town Texas to an abortion clinic — a clinic that has since closed." Here at Jezebel we shared own stories of abortion, and asked you to share your own, in the hopes of lessening the stigma attached.

The message to be gleaned from today's anniversary is that the fight for our reproductive rights is not something that languishes in the distant past. It's a battle being waged every day by embattled abortion providers in Albuquerque who will only speak anonymously to the Washington Post about "Miffy" or mifepristone, the abortion pill, for fear of local retribution. An abortion ban is such a feasible reality that the NARAL pro-choice organization has developed a map showing which states are likely to outlaw abortion if given a chance to. (What would happen in your state?) On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and, in an election year with several geriatric Supreme Court judges on the verge of retirement, the least we can do today is remember that our reproductive rights aren't something to be taken for granted.

Abortion's Battle Of Messages [Los Angeles Times]
Anti-abortion Cause Stirs New Generation [Los Angeles Times]
Voices: A Real Anniversary Present [Metro]
Roe, 35 Years Later [Salon]
As Abortion Rates Drop, Use of RU-486 Is On Rise [Washington Post]
Map [NARAL]

Earlier: Unlike Alveda King, I Am Neither "Reformed" Nor A Murderer
Experts Don't Understand Why Fewer American Women Are Getting Abortions

I had my first abortion at the age of 18, while in the early throes of a love affair that eventually turned emotionally abusive. Fresh off my first year of college, I fell pregnant through a combination of raging hormones, high fertility, and, most notably, sheer recklessness. Four weeks later, hunched over and damp with tears after undergoing a D&C at my local Planned Parenthood, I vowed I'd never behave that stupidly again.

Talk about famous last words: Six years later, I did just that.

I could go on and on about my unwillingness to have a child, about the unsuitability of my romantic partners, or the precariousness of my financial situation as a young women in the big city without a trust-fund or even a savings account. I could talk about the dreams I had for my future, dreams that did not include a changing diapers, nursery school and single motherhood. I could express my belief that the embryos that existed inside me for four weeks were not fully-formed, functioning human beings. And I could converse for hours about my terror at the thought of disappointing my parents, or the long-held conviction (as a young girl I had walked hand-in-hand with my mother at many an abortion-rights march) that it was my right to control over what happened to my body, and that, when push came to shove, if I was going to talk the talk, I was sure as hell going to walk the walk.

But eventually I'd have to come back to the simple fact that, no matter how educated and "aware" I was, when I got pregnant I was young, stupid, and yes, "selfish". (Tracie, who's been through it too, disagrees: "It's not selfish. Having a baby and then not being a good mother would be selfish.") There was nothing comedic, heartwarming or cinematic (a la Juno and Knocked Up) about my getting pregnant (except for the time I was heating up soup in the kitchen and realized I was both barefoot and pregnant), or my choice to end a pregnancy. But most importantly, I was simply not willing or ready to have a child; I was just a baby myself. And although I can't speak of the reasons and realities behind the other third of American women who've undergone abortions over the past three and a half decades, perhaps some of you can?

Who's Getting Abortions? Not Who You'd Think [MSNBC, via AP]
If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would Be A Sacrament [Huffington Post]
Pregnancy Films Like 'Juno' Skip Message, Go For The Humor [USA Today]

Earlier: Experts Don't Understand Why Fewer American Women Are Getting Abortions
•Do You Care How Dudes Feel About Their Abortions?
•How Much Time Should Women Spend In Prison For Having Abortions?
•How Old Is Too Old To Have An Abortion?

The strange connection between heartburn during pregnancy and babies born with lots of hair. Perhaps this explains Suri Cruise. [NY Times]

HPV vaccine? Check. Next up: Chlamydia, also given the unfortunate moniker of "The Clam". [Feministing]

Speaking of that HPV vaccine: pharmaceutical giant Merck to stop urging state legislatures to mandate its use. [NY Times]

Speaking of Merck: the company plans to test AIDS vaccine on sex workers in the Dominican Republic. [International Herald Tribune]

Women are donating their eggs more and more — and for more money. [Salon]

John McCain says he's now in favor of overturning Roe vs. Wade. [Washington Post]

Naomi Watts pregnant. [NY Post]

We don't know why, and we are warning you now, that the pictures here, while totally safe for work, are a little disturbing.

We're delighted for little Amilla Taylor who was born at just 22 weeks but has managed to cling precariously to life. But as an article here highlights, this case could have some unpleasant ramifications - both politically and personally - for us girls.

"Meanwhile, although it doesn't often happen, the Abortion Act allows terminations to be carried out until 24 weeks in Britain; any time after that there must be incontrovertible medical evidence that it would be dangerous to continue. The law in the US is predictably fraught and unclear, and in any case varies from state to state. Roe v Wade bans it after the foetus is viable, which, as Amillia has shown, is something of a contestable point."

Food for thought, indeed.

Medical miracle, moral dilemma? [The Daily Mail]