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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds

@larafreidenfelds.bsky.social
966 followers 768 following 20 posts

Historian of Reproduction, Health, and Parenting in America www.larafreidenfelds.com Current research on history of complicated pregnancies book: The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America Regular contributor @ Nursing Clio

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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Under the guise of traditional morality, conservative states are criminalizing women who bury or discard previable fetal remains after a miscarriage. But actually, until very recently, fetal remains were treated with little theological or cultural respect. nursingclio.org/2026/03/03/a...
nursingclio.org
After a Miscarriage, What Happens to the Fetus? The History is Complicated.
This essay is part one of a two-part series on fetal remains and cultural politics. “Abuse of a corpse.” “Abandonment of a dead body.” “Concealment of the death of another.” These are charges that …
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Nursing Clio @nursingclio.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Today for NC @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social reviews the Museum of Art and Design’s exhibit “Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break our Births” nursingclio.org/2026/01/14/t...
nursingclio.org
The Design of Motherhood: MAD’s Exhibition is Personal and Profound
A friend of mine, a Catholic priest, says that everyone cries at weddings, but each for their own reason. Some are thinking of their own happy marriage and feeling nostalgic for their own wedding d…
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Congratulations to Brett Kavanaugh bsky.app/profile/ajco...
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
If you are in the New York area, I highly recommend visiting the Museum of Art and Design's exhibit, "Designing Motherhood." I write about it here: nursingclio.org/2026/01/14/t...
nursingclio.org
The Design of Motherhood: MAD’s Exhibition is Personal and Profound
A friend of mine, a Catholic priest, says that everyone cries at weddings, but each for their own reason. Some are thinking of their own happy marriage and feeling nostalgic for their own wedding d…
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Reposted by Dr. Lara Freidenfelds
Irin Carmon @irincarmon.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
A really special conversation I got to have with @byreginamahone.bsky.social about my book UNBEARABLE in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
thenation.com
Irin Carmon on How the United States Has Made Pregnancy Unbearable
An interview with the author of a new book documenting the brutalities of childbirth in the post-Dobbs era.
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
It's Advent: time to reflect on the quickening of Elizabeth's pregnancy as told in the Gospel of Luke. That moment in the bible means so much more than we moderns, with our pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, generally grasp: sojo.net/articles/opi...
sojo.net
The Other Miraculous Pregnancy of Advent
After having spent 15 years writing a book about miscarriage, it is Elizabeth’s story I find most poignant.
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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 18/11/2025
KEEP SHARING YOUR STORIES about increased ACA premiums due to the disappearance of subsidies. The stories clearly are having an impact, they help people feel less helpless, and they create solidarity that leads to action. Mine went from $395→ $821. What happened for you?
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
It drives me nuts when reporters let Leah Libresco Sargeant call herself a feminist and don't question it. Would you call the Pope a feminist? No? Then neither is Sargeant.
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Mike Geruso @mikegeruso.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
"Spears and Geruso persuasively argue that a big reduction in world population will not actually solve the problems many of us imagine they will solve... Too many commentators are hoping that a shrinking population will naturally put less pressure on the environment."
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Why should conservatives "own" the arguments for bigger families and demographic stability? Here I review After the Spike: Progress, Population, and the Case for People: nursingclio.org/2025/10/08/a... @mikegeruso.bsky.social
nursingclio.org
After the Spike: A Liberal Argument for More Babies
“The Spike” – that is what demographer-economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso call the dramatic rise in the world population in the recent past, and the equally dramatic population decline proje…
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
If the right *truly* believed Charlie Kirk was a defender of free speech and someone who was fine with dissenting opinions, they wouldn't be engaged in a massive campaign to punish anyone who didn't "mourn him properly." They clearly know all of that is bullshit. Only the media was conned.
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Jack El-Hai @jackelhai.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social & @nursingclio.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe nursingclio.org/2025/08/20/m...
nursingclio.org
Miscarriage is a Crime Again
In 1650, a young, single English servant named Anne Greene miscarried into the privy and did not tell anyone. We know her story because she was arrested for infanticide, convicted despite exonerati…
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Nursing Clio @nursingclio.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
This week @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social argues that in a post Roe vs Wade world “Women who lose pregnancies, even before viability, are targeted in ways that strongly resemble early modern infanticide investigations.” nursingclio.org/2025/08/20/m...
nursingclio.org
Miscarriage is a Crime Again
In 1650, a young, single English servant named Anne Greene miscarried into the privy and did not tell anyone. We know her story because she was arrested for infanticide, convicted despite exonerati…
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Nursing Clio @nursingclio.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
We are so excited to have @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social back writing with us! Lara is one of our new writers-in-residence. She will be publishing a series of articles over the next year for NC.
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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Such an important piece. Thank you, @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social.
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Laws and rules about "bereavement" for miscarriages are problematic b/c people have a variety of emotional responses to pregnancy loss. Care for women, but don't force them to call it "bereavement." www.cnn.com/2021/04/07/o...
cnn.com
Opinion: The problem with ‘bereavement’ leave after pregnancy loss | CNN
New Zealand’s designation of paid leave following pregnancy loss is a welcome development for all who care about workers’ well-being and workplace equity, says historian Lara Freidenfelds. But such po...
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
The NIH just cancelled funding for research on how menopause affects the brain and can make it more vulnerable to Alzheimer's. Because Trump's people think it's unfair to study "women's health." Maybe we really do need to be talking about "menstruating people" and "pregnant people," since
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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
"You read books, eh?" A 1949 red scare Herblock cartoon about pressures on teachers that hits hard once again.
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Ryan Hamilton @ryanhamilton.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Working out of the Mobile Studio today. Got a new drummer. She’s young, but she’s solid 🥁😉
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Jimmy Kimmel @jimmykimmel.com · 01/05/2025
I’m proud to join the great Cyndi Lauper in the fight for women’s rights & healthcare. Go to www.bonfire.com/girlswantrights2025 to get a shirt and learn more about the #GirlsJustWantToHaveFundamentalRights Fund. @tidescommunity.bsky.social
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 26/04/2025
The final honor guard for Pope Francis included migrants, prisoners, transgender people, the homeless and others selected by the Vicariate of Rome as a symbol of the late pope’s mission of inclusion and outreach. Read more from the funeral: wapo.st/3YdDGqM
“That they should be the ones to welcome Pope Francis’s coffin in the basilica is because these people are those who represented the focus of his mission,” said Father Giulio Albanese, head of missionary cooperation and communications for the Vicariate of Rome. “They are those who live on the peripheries, geographical and existential peripheries.”
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Ryan Hamilton @ryanhamilton.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
New song. Godspeed? Angels In The Ashes? Feeling a little rusty, but wanted to share.🤘🏻💙
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
"The historian Lara Freidenfelds made a similar argument in her excellent book, The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy... The process of creating new life is fragile, and reversible; it can be heartbreaking to attach so much meaning and hope to something so tenuous." www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Erin Maglaque · Frog-Free: Conception Stories
I can take a home pregnancy test only eight days after ovulation and discover that I have conceived, the wondering...
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Natalia Mehlman Petrzela @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
My NEH grant was terminated in service of a new focus on “patriotic programming,” but as an American and an Americanist, I know that resisting this dangerous decision and the broader movement of which it is a part is my patriotic duty. Wrote abt it @newrepublic.com newrepublic.com/article/1936...
newrepublic.com
Here’s What One of Trump’s Grantee Termination Letters Looks Like
This NEH grantee was told the “immediate termination” of her grant “is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government.” Is this America?
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Holly Anderson 🍇 @hollyanderson.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
You know who’s a really effective messenger? Somebody who’s cleaned up their partner’s miscarriage before. Tell THOSE stories. Bring it home.
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Ryan Hamilton @ryanhamilton.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Yeah? Which parts would you like to hear about? Mopping up the blood that I found her unconscious in, with our bath towels? Or cleaning up the other bodily fluids after she fell off the toilet & almost bled to death? 💔
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Greer Donley @greerdonley.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Thrilled to announced that @dsc250.bsky.social & my latest, "From Medical Exceptions to Reproductive Freedom" was just accepted by Michigan Law Review!! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Thread on the paper below:
papers.ssrn.com
From Medical Exceptions to Reproductive Freedom
The intense focus on pregnancy complications since the Supreme Court overruled <i>Roe v. Wade </i>has created some risks. Highlighting sympathetic abortion stor
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Greer Donley @greerdonley.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Check out the podcast below from my friend, @ryanhamilton.bsky.social, where we talk about how abortion bans are unconscionably vague, leading to significant harms on all aspects of reproductive healthcare, including miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, etc.
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Michael Wong @miquai.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.
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Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Breaking: RFK Jr. has forced out PETER MARKS, the nation’s top vaccine regulator. In his resignation letter, obtained by the Post, Marks said he was willing to work with RFK Jr on his vaccine concerns — but said Kennedy wishes “subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
washingtonpost.com
RFK Jr. forces out Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine scientist
Marks, an architect of Operation Warp Speed, warned that a recent measles outbreak shows how confidence in science and public health is being “undermined.”
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 28/03/2025
NEW: The move — along with the CDC’s explanation — is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines. By @sheinvestigates.bsky.social
propub.li
The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations
The move — along with the CDC’s explanation — is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 28/03/2025
The National Institutes of Health is canceling grants that are seen as conflicting with the Trump administration’s priorities. We want to hear from researchers who have been affected 👇
propublica.org
Did You Work on a Terminated NIH Grant? ProPublica Wants to Hear From You.
The National Institutes of Health is canceling grants that are seen as conflicting with the Trump administration’s priorities. We want to hear from researchers who have been affected.
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Dr Kristin Hay 🔮✨ @kristinwh0.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
✨NEW PUBLICATION✨ @sshmedicine.bsky.social I am over the moon that my new article “unmarried women’s experiences of accessing the pill in Scotland c. 1968-1980” is finally out OPEN ACCESS in SHM. It draws on 31 #oralhistory interviews eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
‘The Doctor Made Clear His Utter Contempt of Me, and I Can Remember It Still’1: Unmarried Women’s Experiences of Accessing the Pill in Scotland c. 1968–1980
Summary. In 1968, the barrier of marital status was removed from oral contraception. This meant that for the first time, unmarried women could legally acce
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Revisiting Porsha Ngumezi's death from an untreated miscarriage under Texas's abortion ban, in the light of the arrest of a Texas midwife for allegedly prescribing abortion medication: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqMC...
youtube.com
Husband blames Texas abortion law for wife's death
YouTube video by CBS Evening News
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Ryan Hamilton @ryanhamilton.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
I know most media outlets are sharing the news, but if you need a source/link, here’s one: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
nbcnews.com
Texas midwife arrested and charged with performing illegal abortions
The arrest appears to be the first time that a healthcare provider in Texas has been criminally charged under the state’s abortion ban, which went into effect in 2022.
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Historian of medicine Elena Conis describes the illnesses for which we now have vaccines: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Opinion | A Reminder of What Pre-Vaccine America Was Like (Gift Article)
The worst manifestations of preventable diseases have faded from public memory.
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Dr. Lara Freidenfelds @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Ryan is right, men need to step up in the fight for reproductive rights. Picture your life partner bleeding out on the bathroom floor because the hospital won't treat her miscarriage. Then vote/live/speak out like abortion bans are the emergency we know they are.
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Ryan Hamilton @ryanhamilton.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
I recently spoke to Lone Star Live about what happens next, especially here in Texas, as we continue the fight for Abortion Rights. ✊🏻💙 ‘Texas tried to kill my wife’: Ryan Hamilton isn’t done advocating for abortion rights Full story: www.lonestarlive.com/news/2025/03...
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Nursing Clio @nursingclio.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
We are thrilled to hear that @kweingarten.bsky.social has published a new book! This is a fantastic resource for scholars and students.
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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Say something to your representatives
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