(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . They finally attacked me for providing abortion care. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-20 Abortion activists gather in Charlottesville, Virginia; since the repeal of Roe versus Wade, Virginia has become a refuge for patients from out of state. Well. I knew it was only a matter of time. We knew if we came out publicly with the abortion news I posted in December- that I will be the only clinician in Virginia (and one of a handful nationally) running for office that have ever provided abortion care to patient- that it would make us a huge target. I was warned in detail about that. We had a safety review done that was stomach churning- encouraged to take our kids out of school when we announced the news, warning us that people might picket our house (since I’m only an ER Nurse, and not a Supreme Court Justice, my house doesn’t deserve special protections), that my name would probably be coming out of Tucker Carlson's mouth, that we would be attacked relentlessly. “Be damn sure you want to share that news,” I was told, “because once it’s out there, once it’s in the hands of the ‘Libs of Tik Tok’ types of folks, it’s going to get really tough for you.” This wasn’t a warning I took lightly. As you may remember, this past year one of Governor Youngkin’s political appointees found pictures of my kids and family, posted them online, and proceeded to mock and attack my kids- and, when asked about it by state newspapers, doubled down, insisting “If you didn’t want your kids attacked, you should have made better life choices.” It took the Governor weeks to finally “encourage” this appointee to “find work elsewhere”- obviously with no apology, or even any admission of wrongdoing after attempting to excuse away the actions of someone who cyberbullied a five-year-old. I was told it might get worse than that. They weren’t wrong. I'm not going to release most of the details of what happened, so as to not encourage any copycat attempts. It’s tough, because it makes some of this disappointingly vague- and, trust me, I want these people to pay for what they’re trying to do. But that’s the whole point behind stochastic terrorism; regardless of what I do, they’ll feel like they’ve “won” something. So I’ve shared all the digital evidence of with a number of journalists, giving them permission to release it if things ever escalate. One thing that is certain is that these people read each and every word I write here. This isn’t surprising, really. They know the stories I bring as a provider, of what I've seen in the ER on the front lines, pushes directly back against their attacks on our rights, reproductive and otherwise. I assume the biggest reason we got attacked is because there are folks gearing up to try and desperately save a politician who has put their politics before their morals and ethics; to whom winning means more than anything. Remember, the reason why I’m even in the position of being the only candidate in Virginia with any clinical abortion experience is people who put their politics before their clinical practice. I will admit that, though the attacks we’ve gotten are stomach churning, I am not immune to the delectable schadenfreude of this particular politician “finding out” after so many years of “(messing) around”. In that vein, one of the milder attacks I will share publicly that we’ve gotten is that “abortions in the ER don’t really count as abortions”. Again, I understand why they are making that argument: because if people truly understood the full depth and depravity of what these people are actually fighting to accomplish, the backlash would be even more immense than it already has been. The only thing I'm even slightly surprised about is that it happened now, months and months away from the election, instead of as an "October surprise". But I think I know the answer to that particular question: our fundraising numbers for 2022, which proved we were the most grassroots campaign in Virginia (and not by a little, by a LOT). They know exactly how powerful the experiences providers have, particularly for an emergency service provider who bears witness to the consequences of their attacks on reproductive rights. That’s why people like Virginia Attorney General, Jason Miyares, recently promised publicly to go after providers in the style of Ron Desantis and Greg Abbot, and “not women”, with the implicit subtext that “women” was synonymous with “rich white Republican women, daughters, and mistresses”. They want to go after the people protecting the most vulnerable among us, not prosecute those with the money to fly to wherever they’d like at the drop of a hat. And they know that if they don't try to take us down right now… it’ll be too late. So we know it won't stop. We know they'll keep trying to attack us. The closer we get to the election, the worst it'll be. But you know what? It won't work. The Republicans can try and go as negative as they want to. They can try and argue with the first-hand experience of all the folks I've had the honor of helping through some of the toughest moments of their lives. They can try. But the reason we’re the most grassroots campaign in Virginia, with more donations and small dollar support than anyone else in the Commonwealth, is because our people already know who I am. And that I’ll fight for them- regardless of the odds, regardless of what gets thrown at us, they can count on me being there to do what it takes to protect them. Thank you- thank all of you- for standing with me to make that possible. For donating to us- those $5, $10, and $20 donations are what have our opponent so spooked they’ll go negative in February. For volunteering with us- it can’t have escaped noticed that even though the election is months away, we’ve already had over ten thousand voters contacts in our district. They can attack me all they want. But it’s not going to keep us from proving that a working class, “pink collar” candidate and unapologetic progressive, someone who treated victims of the Unite the Right Nazi attack, someone who has been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, and who has actually provided bedside abortion care to patients, can run and win in rural America. Kellen Squire is an emergency department nurse from Charlottesville, Virginia, running for the Virginia House of Delegates. Donate today, and help flip the bluest district the Virginia GOP still holds! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/20/2150011/-They-finally-attacked-me-for-providing-abortion-care Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/