We're NOT Doomed: Tue Jan 13, 2026
We’re NOT Doomed, because Republicans gave us a gift.
Tomorrow at 10am eastern, the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee will be holding a hearing titled “Protecting Women: Exposing the Dangers of Chemical Abortion Drugs.”
If you can’t figure out what this is going to be about, let me help. Most people who get abortions use mediation. The most used medication is Mifepristone, and Republicans want to make this the year that all abortions become illegal.
Here’s the problem for them. This is not a popular stance. According to a PEW poll in 2024, 63% of all Americans think abortions should be legal in all or most cases. So, our job is to reach them and make sure they know as much as possible about this hearing.
It will be lead by Republicans, Chair Bill Cassidy, a gastroenterologist. Notice how he’s not an OBGYN, but he will do his damnedest to make you think otherwise during this hearing. And on the Dem side, will be Ranking Member, Bernie Sanders, and former Chair, Patty Murray.
Where Cassidy has no real life experience with this subject, Murray has it in spades. She is the former chair of the HELP committee and along with Hillary Clinton, a fellow Senator at the time, was responsible for the FDA approving Plan B in 2006. In November, she led ALL Senate Dems, yes, including Fetterman, in a letter to RFK Jr. and USDA Commissioner, Martin Makary against their Mifeprisone review.
And, as Senator Murray put it in a briefing I was in yesterday about this hearing:
These are people who want to see all abortion banned everywhere for any reason.
And that’s the bottom line, and anything we can do to show that that’s the goal of this hearing will help us and hurt them.
Like, reminding people that a CNN study in 2023 literally found that Mifepristone is safer than Viagra and penicillin. And yet it’s more regulated than almost any other drug on the market. Shockingly, the New York Times put out an incredible piece about how safe it is yesterday, just in time for this hearing.
So, knowing that, here are the arguments we expect them to try to make. They’re probably gonna try “weaponizing water.” Basically, their newest argument is using environmental regulations and saying that medical abortions pollute waterways. I really wish I was joking. Will that be brought up in the hearing? Well…you’ve seen what these Republicans are willing to say, so I’d bet yes.
The other argument will be from a “study” from the Republican think tank EPCC that somehow found that 11% of patients who took Mifepristone had adverse effects, when the actual number is less than 1% by a significant margin.
We have the research to back all this up, and they don’t. The thing is, they’re really good at convincing people of things that aren’t true, and we’re really bad at putting it in plain English why they’re lying. That’s why social media is so important tomorrow.
It’s important to lift up Dr. Nisha Verma, the Dem witness, who is an OBGYN and has testified before Congress before, she also has first hand experience with the effects of these restrictions.
On the other side, Republican witness, Elizabeth Murrill, is the AG in Louisiana, the first state in the nation to classify Mifepristone as a controlled substance, which, according to a New Orleans Health Department report, has made all maternal care more risky.
And they also have Dr. Monique Chireau Wubbenhorst, who is a pro forced-birth OBGYN who has said lies such as “Abortion violates the bodily integrity and the rights of the mother, exposes her to injury and death, and kills the unborn child, with no evidence of benefit.” in previous Congressional testimony.
Finally, they know how unpopular their stance is, so they’re gonna try to convince people watching the hearing that they don’t actually want to get rid of all abortion, and Republican social media is going to try to make it seem like Trump is more moderate than whatever comes out of this hearing.
But aside from the Mifeprisone review, I already mentioned, in late December he banned abortion procedures by the VA. He pushed Republicans to ban abortion coverage by ACA marketplace plans. In March he pardoned 23 people to attacked abortion clinics. He’s been nominating pro forced birth federal Judges. Not to mention defunding Planned Parenthood in September, and some of the first things he did were sign executive orders against reproductive rights. So no, he is not moderate, no matter what people try to get you to believe.
I know this is long, but I promise, I’m almost done. You can watch the hearing on the HELP website, on CSPAN or on the SenateInSession social media accounts. If you can’t watch the hearing that’s okay, there will be dozens and dozens of clips posted throughout the day, when you see one, repost it and if it’s a Dem, make sure to follow them, if they’re good in this hearing, they’ll be good in other ones too, and you don’t wanna miss that.
Bottom line, we have the power to make Republicans look like fools tomorrow, let’s not waste it.
And, if their stupidity isn’t enough, here are some more things to remind you that We’re NOT Doomed.
Clarksville, Tennessee
Mon, Jan 5 - Darren Michael was one of the many people across the country fired for speaking out against Charlie Kirk after his murder. He was an associate professor at Austin Peay State University and Senator Marsha Blackburn got ahold of his very simple social media post that just quoted what Kirk himself said about gun violence.
But he sued and the school settled. He was given back his job at the very end of last month and the school will pay him $500k as a reimbursement for his therapy.
The school also sent a letter to all members of the school community basically apologizing for not following “tenure termination rules.”
WKRN saw a copy of the letter, which says, in part:
APSU agrees to issue a statement acknowledging regret for not following the tenure termination process in connection with the Dispute … The statement will be distributed via email through APSU’s reasonable communication channels to faculty, staff, and students.
I don’t know about you, but this feels like a perfect example of why we’re NOT Doomed. A school did the wrong thing to appease a Republican politician and it didn’t hold water in the judicial system. They’re going to keep trying, that’s a given, but every time they lose it’s more proof that in the end, it will be them that are doomed.
Social Circle, Georgia
Tue, Jan 6 - Social Circle has around 5k residents. It is represented by the disgraced Mike Collins and he won the district by 26 points. Safe to say, you’re not expecting good news from a place like this.
Nevertheless, a week ago, 100 members of the town were at a town hall meeting voicing their objection to an ICE detention center that could hold double the amount of people as live in the community.
People against it include everyone from former school board member, John Callahan, who told Alt Press Collective:
I served on the school board for ten years. Our new (elementary) school is less than a mile, right up the road from this facility. That’s why I’m adamantly opposed.
To real estate agent Jean DuForte:
It now seems like we have allowed a foreign-based developer to dictate . . . who they’re contracting with to bring into our community.
And if that’s confusing, I think I left something out that makes this worse, a Russian-backed commercial real estate firm is the one making the sale.
Yeah.
So, why are we not Doomed? Because this town, this small town in the middle of Trump country is coming together to oppose this detention center. These ICE centers are not popular across the board. This isn’t a poll, this isn’t a study, this is just a real life example of the people you’d least expect fighting back.
These don’t have to be our best friends, we can go back to disagreeing with them about everything later, but, for now, we’re aligned on this, and that’s pretty damn hopeful.
New York City, New York
YESTERDAY - Be honest, do you know why Mayor Zohran Mamdani was getting praised yesterday? He was at a rally with nurses, but do you know what that rally was for? I love that Mamdani was there, as well as other elected officials like Jerry Nadler, but on social media it seemed to be far more about him being there than the actual reason the nurses were even rallying to begin with.
15,000 New York City nurses went on strike from three separate hospital systems. This is the largest nurses strike in New York City history. Today was the second day of the strike and none of the hospitals seem willing to come back to the bargaining table.
As with all nursing strikes, this is about wages, treatment of staff, staffing levels, patient car and their own healthcare.
And hopefully they will, in the end, have the same success as the nurses on Long Island, who were all ready to join this strike when they got a tentative deal from their hospitals.
I will always consider strikes to be a reason we’re not Doomed. Because workers having and using their power is a vital part of Democracy, and it always will be.
And you know what makes us even less doomed? More people joining them. So if you live in NYC, check to see if there is a picket line near you, and show up, stand with them or just bring some food and water or maybe some sunscreen. And if you can’t show up, donate to their strike fund so they can keep doing this till they receive a fair contract.
One hospital said only 20% of their nurses showed up. That means 80% were on the line. That’s a pretty spectacular percentage. As I always say, solidarity forever, union strong!
So I hope these are helpful reminders that We’re NOT Doomed. We are resilient, we are powerful, we are fighters and we WILL win. Never let anyone else convince you otherwise.
Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!