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To my mind, Charlie Kaufman has been responsible for at least three or four perfect movies (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Anomalisa at the top), and at the age of 61, could easily rest on his laurels as one of the greatest screenwriters of all time (not that I’d want him to). Instead, he has a 700-page novel and a 134-minute movie coming out this year: Antkind, from Random House, and I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, which he both wrote and directed, out this week on Netflix.

Knowing that Antkind is about a frustrated film critic named B. Rosenberger Rosenberg (part of the joke is that Rosenberg isn’t Jewish), it feels almost like Kaufman is pre-emptively daring any unfortunate middlebrow hack to become the butt of an enduring Kaufman joke by daring not to understand Kaufman’s latest masterpiece. He may as well have titled his latest “It’s a Trap!”

But fine, here I go into the dunking booth. Honestly, we sound like Ignatius J. Reilly any time we write a negative review anyway, and it’s not as if “film critics” were ever in danger of winning any popularity contests. Charlie Kaufman is probably my favorite filmmaker. I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is as of now my least favorite of his films.

Adapted from Canadian author Iain Reid’s debut novel, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things takes its title from the inner monologue of its protagonist, played by Jessie Buckley, who’s thinking of breaking things off with her new boyfriend, Jake — played by Jesse Plemons — during a road trip to visit Jake’s parents (hey, Jessie & Jesse, how ’bout that). The Ireland-born Buckley, previously of Taboo and Chernobyl, and one of the best young actresses around, plays a character known alternately as Cindy, Lucy, Lucia, or Amy, who is either a poet, painter, physics student, gerontologist, waitress, or veterinary student depending on which version I’m Thinking Of Ending Things‘ constantly-shifting reality you choose to believe.

Charlie Kaufman is one of the most astute relationship chroniclers who has ever lived, giving us the enduring heartbreak of doomed romance in Eternal Sunshine (undoubtedly one of the greatest movies of all time), the narcotic rush of a new lover in Anomalisa, and the petty cruelty of a dying marriage in Being John Malkovich. His movies are about the inherent selfishness of the human condition and the struggle to connect (occasionally with himself as a character, as in Adaptation and Antkind). I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, with a relationship reference right in the title, is clearly attempting to mine some of the same territory, but for the first time, Kaufman seems unable to connect with his own characters. He can’t even name them.

I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is about mortality, relationships, inherited trauma, but more than anything it’s about verbal dexterity. Almost the entire first 30 minutes takes place inside Jake’s early 90s sedan, a two-hander with a single location. To Kaufman’s credit, this isn’t as boring as that sounds. Jake and Cindy/Lucy contemplate and complement, ponder and provoke, discussing Wordsworth, Oklahoma!, and the death drive in the animal kingdom, all culminating in a hilariously bleak poem that Lucy/Cindy/Lucia/Amy recites aloud.

…the sun goes up and down like a tired whore,
the weather immobile like a broken limb while you just keep getting older.
Nothing moves, but the shifting tides of salt in your body.
Your vision blears, you carry your weather with you; the big blue whale;
a skeletal darkness
[…]
you come home with your mutant gifts
to a house of bone
everything you see now
all of it
bone

The poem is the clearest evidence of the old Kaufman wit, and feels a bit self-deprecating, like Kaufman poking fun at his own depressiveness (though for the record I always found him to be at least as idealistic as he is bleak).

Through it all, there are constant tone shifts and brief forays into formalistic experimentation — the implication that Jake can maybe hear what Lucy is thinking, Lucy staring directly into the camera, the extended, certainly-not-intended-literally poems recited by heart. The stylized, hyperarticulate, tone-shifting dialogue, in particular, feels like it was borrowed from Don Delillo or another author whose characters’ dialogue feels more like drowning in the author’s obsessions than listening to separate humans speaking. Is Kaufman doing an art? But why?

This manic invocation of theater, poetry, high culture, horticulture, is the kind of thing I expect from Aaron Sorkin or Noah Baumbach, not Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman’s experimentation has traditionally taken the form of characters doing, not characters saying. Here the main dramatic tension is our expectation that all these references will eventually add up to something.

When Jake and whatsherface finally arrive at Jake’s parents’ isolated farmhouse in the midst of a blizzard, the action gets darker, more provocative. There are scratches on the door to the basement. A border-collie that won’t stop shaking. A pool of blood on the floor of the barn where Jake tells us some pigs got eaten alive by maggots. What’s happening here? Clearly an art of some kind. (Bone, everything you see…)

David Thewlis (voice of the lead in Anomalisa and the yucky-toothed guy in Fargo season 3) plays Jake’s lecherous, belittling father, who goes off on a tangent about how much he dislikes abstract art (didn’t we already see this character, in Sideways, with Thomas Hayden Church’s father-in-law saying he only reads non-fiction?). Toni Collette plays Jake’s high-strung mother. Both parents flash forward and backward in age from scene to scene, sometimes appearing young and vibrant, other times old and decrepit, confirming anew that Kaufman is most definitely doing an art.

Kaufman seems like he’s leaving us breadcrumbs along the way, patterns and memes and callbacks, to Pauline Kael, to David Foster Wallace, to “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (is Kaufman lashing out at being unfairly lumped in with the “sad white guy” artistic milieu?), leaving us wondering whether this will all come together in some Kaiser Soze moment of clarity at the end. He’s turned his characters themselves into yet more ephemera, probably deliberately, but in such a way that makes it hard to care. For all our selfishness, it’s much easier to care about people than about whether a person is doing an art.

The Reid novel from which the film was adapted has been described as a “psychological horror” in the vein of Stephen King, and Kaufman’s movie feels David Lynchian at times, like a series of vignettes in which a horror film is about to break out but never does. It offers, mainly, the vague sense that this is all supposed to be a fresh and intriguing way of telling a story. And this intrigue is meant to be enough for us not to mind that the characters are all ciphers performing a series of illusory bits and homages amidst a frozen wasteland. This dearth of recognizable humanity and situations made me feel, presumably Kaufman-like, trapped inside my own head, both lonely and bored.

Maybe it’s quarantine, but lately I find myself feeling less and less interested in the innovative storytelling techniques and groundbreaking formal experimentation that once inspired me, and which, to some extent, were Kaufman’s bread and butter. These days I kind of just want to meet interesting characters and go to interesting places. Ted Lasso looks like absolute Disney drivel on paper, but had me hooked, thanks to a cast of characters I just wanted to hang out with for a while and a setting that was just enough outside my daily experience as to offer some novelty. Ted Lasso is a decidedly less ambitious thing than I’m Thinking of Ending Things and I judge them through different lenses (and yes, some dull critic invoking a dopey commercial television show in a review of a Charlie Kaufman movie would probably make a great bit for B. Rosenberger Rosenberg). But maybe a polarized world that always feels on the brink of some fresh collapse has made me yearn for simple stories of nice people, interesting places, and low stakes. I don’t know.

Maybe, like Sean Dolittle said of sports recently, Charlie Kaufman movies are a reward for a functioning society. Or maybe this one just wasn’t quite as good.

‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’ streams on Netflix on September 4. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Apparent The Godfather saga isn’t done pulling Francis Ford Coppola back in one more time. According to a report, the conclusion of the trilogy will see a new edition, one that will try to finish the saga the way he originally intended: with a different name and, if possible, a fix to the story his daughter Sofia played out on film that has been widely panned since its release in 1990.

Vanity Fair reported on Thursday that Coppola is, indeed, releasing a re-edit of the third film in The Godfather series, this time giving it the name he and author Mario Puzo originally wanted for the film: The Death of Michael Corleone.

The project, saddled with the lengthy title Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, will debut in theaters (where open and available) in December before hitting digital platforms as well as physical media.

The very different title is a departure from what’s been known as Part III of the saga for decades, and according to a release will conclude the series in a different order as well.

“Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone is an acknowledgment of Mario’s and my preferred title and our original intentions for what became The Godfather: Part III,” Coppola said in a statement according to Vanity Fair. “For this version of the finale, I created a new beginning and ending, and rearranged some scenes, shots, and music cues. With these changes and the restored footage and sound, to me, it is a more appropriate conclusion to The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II and I’m thankful to Jim Gianopulos and Paramount for allowing me to revisit it.”

Vanity Fair’s story about the re-release details the years-long retrospective Coppola has had in the press over what he would do if he were to release a re-edited version of the film, so it’s likely we know what will actually happen in Coda. It’s also a pretty thorough run through of all the issues the film had with production and casting, which seemed to hamper what we originally got on Christmas Day back in 2020. For one, the role his daughter, Sofia, played at just 19 with little acting experience is likely to be very different.

“I want to show Sofia a new version, because she is so beautiful in it and so touching,” he told Deadline. “She wasn’t an actress. But she was the real thing, playing that 19-year-old Italian girl in love with her own cousin [played in the film by Andy Garcia]. Godfather III as The Death of Michael Corleone is doubly painful because at the end he doesn’t die, but he does worse than die. He loses everything he loves—and he lives. There are certain things in life that are worse than death.”

The film will hit theaters in December, where possible, but is also on demand as the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic leaves the moviegoing experience entirely uncertain. For fans who may have been soured on the finale all those years ago, they just might be pulled right back in this winter.

With 0.5 seconds remaining and the season on the line, Toronto Raptors forward OG Anunoby converted a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give his team the win over the Boston Celtics in Game 3. Though the Raptors have a long way to go after digging an 0-2 hole, Anunoby’s well-timed triple makes things exceptionally interesting with regard to the rest of the best-of-seven battle.

Through that lens, here are three takeaways from Game 3, and there is a lot to decipher.

1. The Raptors (finally) made jump shots when they absolutely had to

Even before Anunoby’s game-winner, Toronto came alive and it was badly needed. At halftime of Game 3, the Raptors were a dismal 26-of-102 from three-point range in the series and, with Boston’s defense swarming in the halfcourt, Toronto seemingly had no answers to generate consistent offense. Individually, Fred VanVleet opened the series 11-of-38 from the floor and 5-of-23 from three in the first two games and, with Pascal Siakam badly struggling, the pressure was on for VanVleet, Kyle Lowry and others to pick up the slack.

It should be noted that Siakam also emerged, scoring 14 points in the second half, but VanVleet and Lowry repeatedly delivered.

Lowry was the story in the early going, scoring 10 points in the first five minutes, and VanVleet took the reins late. All told, Lowry finished with 31 points and eight assists, playing almost 47 minutes, and VanVleet added 25 points, including 17 after halftime.

Importantly, Toronto managed to generate some offense before Boston’s defense got set, scoring 14 fast break points in the game. The Raptors led the NBA in transition points during the regular season and, even with this victory, Toronto’s halfcourt offense is something to monitor moving forward. Still, Toronto took repeated haymakers from Boston and lived to fight another day, punctuated by the ultimate display of shotmaking by Anunoby at the buzzer.

2. Kemba Walker was unbelievable on Thursday

Even in defeat, Walker shined for the Celtics. He came out of the gate scalding, scoring 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the first quarter.

From there, Walker settled into a hyper-efficient night, ultimately finishing with 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting, with 4-of-7 from three-point range and 7-of-7 from the free throw line. The All-Star point guard is (rightly) known as a scorer and, without any question, he was incredibly impressive in generating clean looks against one of the NBA’s best defenses. Walker did much more than that, though, in putting together a memorable performance.

Walker isn’t known as an all-world defender and, given his size, he can be targeted in certain matchups. With that said, he executed at a high level throughout the night, playing with physicality and intensity. Then, in crunch time, Walker delivered what was nearly the game-winning pass in perfect fashion.

Jayson Tatum is now the best player on the Celtics, with incredible development as a shooter, playmaker and defender. As such, Walker is in something of a supporting role after starring for years in Charlotte. In this spot, however, Walker certainly put together a star-level effort, and this kind of performance could be crucial in unlocking Boston’s ultimate ceiling.

3. Defense is anything but optional in this series

Sometimes, NBA games with modest point totals are actually dictated by poor offense, rather than exceptional defense. In this series, it is the defense leading the way on both sides.

Toronto (2nd) and Boston (4th) both finished near the top of the league in defensive rating in the regular season, and both teams have strong defensive personnel. The Raptors have virtually no weaknesses defensively and, as noted above, even players with limited physical traits like Walker are buying into the collective for the Celtics.

In addition to the top-tier personnel, the coaching matchup is outstanding. Nick Nurse, fresh off a 2019-20 Coach of the Year award, put on a clinic in Game 3, headlined by the decision to deploy a zone defense in the third quarter. That decision flummoxed the Boston offense and, even with an uptick late in the period, the Celtics shot just 38 percent and scored 23 points in the third. For the Celtics, Brad Stevens is also pressing a lot of the right buttons, coaxing strong contributions from Robert Williams and Grant Williams, with the wherewithal to force the Raptors into difficult decisions.

Of course, this level of defense does create some challenging viewing experiences and, at times, both teams look completely out of sorts on the offensive end. Some of that, especially for Toronto, can be tied to talent but, in truth, defense is simply ruling the day. Both of these teams have the ability to score efficiently in certain situations but, for the defensive die-hards, this is a series that is almost NSFW, with the Raptors living up to the billing and the Celtics reminding observers that they were an excellent defense all season long.

The Raptors were 0.5 seconds away from an 0-3 deficit in their conference semifinals matchup with the Boston Celtics after Kemba Walker made a sensational pass to Daniel Theis to give the Celtics the go-ahead bucket on Boston’s final possession.

That left just half a second for the Raptors to answer and either force overtime or win it with a three, as they had just enough time for a catch-and-shoot opportunity. Nick Nurse dialed up a spectacular play call, running a ton of action towards the inbounder, with OG Anunoby slipping from the near-side corner to the far corner, spotting up for a long pass and got the shot off just before the horn and a hard contest from Jaylen Brown, sinking the three and likely saving the Raptors season.

Instead of facing a 3-0 deficit likely to be insurmountable, Toronto heads to Game 4 feeling like they’ve got some momentum after finding their shooting stroke in the second half of Game 3 and gutting out a win despite the heroic effort of Kemba on the other side. Walker had 29 for Boston, but Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet came alive in Game 3 with 56 combined points and the lid came off the basket for Toronto as they shot 8-for-18 from deep in the second half after a 5-for-22 first half, with the final three capping off an unbelievable game and giving the Raptors life moving forward in this series.

A good amount of 50 Cent’s success in hip-hop can be credited to his work with his G-Unit collective. Following departures from The Game, Lloyd Banks, Kidd Kidd, and Young Buck, only Tony Yayo and 50 Cent himself stand as the remaining members of the collective. While the group has had their trials and tribulations, some fans still hope that some form of content can be shared to honor the heights G-Unit reached in the 2000s.

When asked about the chances of a film or series based on G-Unit in a recent interview with DJ Whoo Kid, 50 Cent quickly shut it down saying, “I don’t care to do that. I’d like to forget the G-Unit.”

DJ Whoo Kid seemed surprised by his answer and attempted to convince the rapper that a film or series would be well-received by fans, but 50 Cent showed no desire to change his mind. “Kendrick doesn’t even let those [TDE] boys come on stage with him,” he argued. “I could have did that! What the fuck I’m bringing thirty n****s on the stage for? I could have did it like Kendrick.”

His thoughts on G-Unit arrive after he explained Eminem’s “random” texting habit and cancel culture’s unfair target of “heterosexual males.”

Watch 50 Cent’s interview with DJ Whoo Kid in the video above. Scroll to the 26:40 mark to see him discuss G-Unit.

In what’s already been a more tumultuous summer than the rapper hoped for, Cordae recently landed new headlines after his former YBN groupmate YBN Nahmir said that he and YBN Jay Almighty departed from the collective. “They left this YBN sh*t in the gutter,” Nahmir said in a tweet. “Remember that. I’ll turn it up myself.” Almost a month after that tweet, the former YBN Cordae, now Cordae, explained his decision to depart the collective in an interview with Tidal’s Elliot Wilson.

“Namir and Jay, those always gonna be my brothers, in real life,” Cordae said. “Like, I think the world of them cats. Sometimes as friends, you grow apart and you have different visions for what you wanna do and that’s OK, there’s no love lost. Like I said, I think the world of them n*ggas. I love my n*gga Jay to death and yeah, that’s just that really.”

Cordae’s explanation arrives after the rapper teamed up with Roddy Ricch for their soulful new single, “Gifted.” In the interview with Wilson, Cordae also explained how his collaboration with Roddy came to life. “Me and Roddy, low-key, that’s one of my closest homies in music. We just always linked. That’s somebody I can call and we just have real life conversations. We did that joint after the Real Street Fest… we was both on that festival and we went to the studio right after and came up with that joint.”

Watch Cordae explain his decision and the “Gifted” collab in the videos above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is just six months removed from his most recent album, Artist 2.0, and yet the Bronx native is already back in action with his latest effort, “Vroom Vroom.” Bringing fellow Highbridge labelmates along for the ride, A Boogie slides through with a new song and video with Don Q and Trap Manny by his side.

In the video, the trio heads out to the tropics to flex with fast cars, bands of money, and women next to them. Trap Manny takes care of the hook on the song while A Boogie croons and harmonizes through his own verse. On the flip side, Don Q brings some smooth bars into the mix to balance out the track.

The video arrives after A Boogie called on Lil Uzi Vert and Don Q to show off their iced-out jewels in their “Flood My Wrist” video. While his own efforts have been dropping with little to no signs of stopping, the Bronx native has also lent his vocals to a few other tracks including DaBaby’s “Drop” off Blame It On Baby and Jessie Reyez’s “Ankles” with Melii and Rico Nasty, a track that appeared on the deluxe edition of her 2020 album, Before Love Came To Kill Us.

For more content from A Boogie, make sure to check out his visual “Paranoid” here.

After months on the shelf thanks to the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Jeopardy! is finally back to taping episodes. The good news is that Alex Trebek is back at the helm of the show, as there was some concern that the legendary host may play it safe as he battles Stage IV pancreatic cancer.

According to reports, Trebek is, indeed, back to hosting the show as its 37th season is set to start on September 14. But one new addition to this year is a much more prominent role for the greatest Jeopardy! player of all time, Ken Jennings. It may seem like it was years ago that the man with the longest Jeopardy! winning streak in show history bested James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter in the GOAT Tournament, but Trebek has been busy in the months since.

He released a board game, for one, and now according to USA Today he will join the new season of Jeopardy!

Champion Ken Jennings, who in January triumphed over James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter in “The Greatest of All Time” tournament, has been recruited as a consulting producer this season. He’ll “present his own special video categories, develop projects, assist with contestant outreach, and serve as a general ambassador for the show, Sony said. (His first video category airs Sept. 15.)

The show’s Twitter account shared the news on Thursday as well, including its customary hype video.

The USA Today piece has some other fun facts about how they brought Jeopardy! back in a world where social distancing is paramount, including a very visual reminder in the fact that contestants will be more spaced out on the set. But the good news is the show is coming back, and so is Trebek. Anything after that, including the Jeopardy! GOAT’s presence on the show, is just a very impressive bonus.

[via USA Today]

I woke this morning but didn’t want to. My back was stiff. My legs were sore. Knots riddled my calves and crept up my thighs, and my head pounded. Too many beers, I thought. Too many drinks. But the real reason I didn’t want to wake up was because I was tired of waking up.

My mind was shattered. My body was exhausted, and I was depressed. Every day I pray I’ll close my eyes for the last and final time.

Of course, I am not alone. Millions of Americans live with depression. It is a common illness. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 7 percent of the US population has—or will experience—depression in any given year.

But there is more to my depression then sadness, sorrow and changes in my sleep. I live with chronic suicidal ideations. I regularly fantasize about death, and my own demise.

Make no mistake: These thoughts aren’t glorified or romanticized. But I think about suicide regularly. Instinctively. The ideations come on like a cough, hiccup or sneeze. I think about suicide constantly. On bad days, on sad days, and even on good days. I consider what would happen if I drove into oncoming traffic or if, on my morning run, I kept going to the end of the island and jumped off the Verrazano bridge.

And while you might assume thinking about suicide means I am suicidal, that is not the case. I am depressed and sad, but these feelings are not fatal. I do not want to die.

Confused? Me too. But that is what it’s like to live in the space between. In the “gray area” of suicide. You are at peace with dying. The thought brings you relief. There is an out—an end to all the hurt and pain. You feel comforted by these thoughts. Suicide soothes your broken soul, but that is because your pain is so great you don’t know how to cope.

It’s a form of escapism. Fixating on death seems easier than fixing yourself.

Kathryn Moore, a psychologist at Providence Saint John’s Child and Family Development Center in Santa Monica, California, tells Upworthy many patients experience similar thoughts, known as passive suicidal thoughts.

“Passive ideation includes thoughts about death and dying that are vague, such as ‘I wish I could go to sleep and never wake up’ or ‘I wonder what it would be like to be dead’… while active suicidal thoughts place a person at moderate to extreme risk of harming themselves because they have both thoughts and a plan.”

“Active suicidal ideation is present in someone who has a plan and/or drive to carry out their plan for attempting suicide,” Haley Neidich, a licensed mental health professional and practicing psychotherapist, says.

That said, while there is a distinct difference, there can also be overlap, i.e. passive suicidal thoughts can become active. For that reason, you should always take these thoughts seriously.

“If you have passive suicidal ideation, you should talk about it with others and/or your therapist to increase… your social support, problem-solving skills, and to create an active treatment plan,” Moore says.

And if someone tells you they are having thoughts of suicide, you should take them seriously.

“Ask what the thoughts are specifically,” Dr. Gail Saltz, an associate professor of psychiatry at the NY Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornell School of Medicine and host of the upcoming Personology podcast on iHeart Media, explains. “Do they wish they weren’t here (passive)? Or do they have an idea of actually killing themselves (active)? If they have an active idea, ask if they have a plan. If they do, do they have the means? If they do, take the means away… like if they have a gun, pills, etc. The point is it’s always better to ask and remove access to a plan than to shy away from the topic.”

Some might worry that asking a person with depression about suicidal thoughts might push them toward it. But that’s not the case.

“You don’t give a suicidal person morbid ideas by talking about suicide,” Help Guide—a mental health nonprofit and wellness website dedicated to empowering those living with mental illness(es), and their loved ones—states. “Bringing up the subject of suicide and discussing it openly is one of the most helpful things you can do.”

That is what I do. I reach out to my psychiatrist and psychologist regularly. I try to be honest with my family and friends, and I say the words “suicide.” I admit when I am struggling and when I am not okay.

Does that mean the thoughts have gone away? No. Because of my mental illness, I live in dark places. I often wade through thick fog and grey spaces. But I keep going. I keep fighting, and I don’t give in—or give up.

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255, visit SuicidePreventionLifeline.org, or text “START” to 741-741 to immediately speak to a trained counselor at Crisis Text Line.

I tend to avoid addressing specific politicians and prefer to stay out of the partisan political fray. But occasionally a politician will say something so silly, absurd, or flat-out wrong in an attempt to support a position that it needs to be called out.

For the record, I consider myself morally anti-abortion and politically pro-choice. I wrote a whole article explaining that stance, which you can read here. But on a basic level, I am sympathetic to the folks who want to stop abortions. I want there to be as few abortions as possible (which is why I support legislation that has actually shown to reduce them, such as easy, affordable access to birth control and universal healthcare).

So when I say that Senator Ted Cruz’s tweet about the abortion pill is a big pile of hooey, understand that I’m not coming from a super pro-abortion stance. I’m coming from the let’s-do-what-makes-the-most-sense stance. And this tweet does not make sense.

Alright, let’s break this down. First of all, no, pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness because it’s not an illness at all. It is, however, a medical condition that can indeed be life-threatening. Most pregnancies are not, of course, but that doesn’t mean it never is.

In fact, the U.S. has the worst maternal mortality rate in the entire developed world, and it’s not even close. We’re also the only nation in the developed world where that death rate is rising.

Officially, more than 650 women die from pregnancy-related causes in the United States in 2018, but experts say that estimate doesn’t even capture all such deaths. And how many don’t die because they are able to terminate a pregnancy that would have killed them? Because yes, sometimes people have to make terrible choices between continuing a pregnancy and saving their own life.

The claim that Mifeprex is dangerous is also not particularly convincing, using Cruz and his colleagues’ own numbers. In their letter to the FDA, they state that this pill has resulted in 24 deaths out of 3.7 million uses. Considering the fact that there approximately 3.8 million babies born every year, with more than 650 maternal deaths, it would appear that statistically speaking pregnancy is far more “dangerous” for women than the abortion pill.

As Dr. Eugene Gu pointed out, serious complications are also more likely for pregnancy than for use of Mifeprex.

Of course, Cruz’s real beef with Mifeprex is that it induces abortion, which in his view is synonymous with murder. So, of course he’s going to make any argument he can against it.

If he wants to make the murder argument, he’s more than welcome to do that and let people debate it. But to represent pregnancy as non-life-threatening while trying to paint an abortion pill as dangerous is either ignorant or dishonest or both.

This is why so many of women don’t think the government—which is still mostly made up of men who are not doctors—has any business making medical decisions for us. Let the FDA make its own determinations based on science and data, without being pushed by what a group of senators believe.