Editor’s Note: Warning strong language.
A feminist gynecologist and New York Times columnist responded with outrage Tuesday to a Supreme Court decision upholding Indiana’s restrictions on fetal remains – and things quickly got sad and weird.
In a series of tweets, Dr. Jen Gunter shared that the ruling is personal for her because her son died when he was less than 6 months old. She said that requiring fetuses be buried or cremated is “cruel” and imposes financial and emotional costs on the woman.
Gunter – who has made a name for herself with indelicate takes on women’s health issues – added that “fuckers” like Vice President Mike Pence, who signed the Indiana law in question as governor in 2016, don’t really care about the sanctity of fetal remains.
Gunter’s Twitter protest then took a dark turn. First, she confessed to stashing her dead baby’s ashes in the back of a closet.
“Why can’t people send their remains to the same place other specimens go if that is their wish?” she demanded. “My son’s ashes are in the back my closet. How is that ‘respectful?’”
In a follow up tweet, Gunter admitted that she wasn’t even sure the baby’s ashes were in her closet. She may very well have misplaced them when she moved, she said.
“In fact maybe I lost my son’s ashes? Who knows,” Gunter said. “I stashed them in a closet in Colorado. Then packed them when I moved (I hope) and then I *think* I unpacked them and put them out of site again.”
Gunter’s bizarre argument seemed to be that her inability to keep track of her son’s remains was proof of the futility of the Indiana law.
“How is that a respectful treatment of human remains @VP?” she asked, challenging Pence to account for her behavior.
Jennifer Gunter’s dead baby politics
Gunter spoke out amid an escalating national row over abortion. In response to a series of restrictions on the procedure passed by Republican-controlled statehouses, Democrats in blue states have moved to introduce abortion protections.
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[Editor’s Note: This article was written and originally published at the Pluralist. Title changed by P&P.]
