We are announcing a temporary moratorium on posts related to abortion, the Supreme Court and the leaked draft. We will review this before the weekend, and may post a megathread, but our current expectation is that a moratorium outside a megathread will last until the full release of the *Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health* order, or further news or statements from the Court provide a more complete story which will make us reconsider.

This is a historic moment, and we recognize that. There has not been a decision leak from SCOTUS in nearly 40 years, and never in history has a draft been leaked. Discussions about just this relatively apolitical event might have been welcomed.

However, adding in the very contentious issue of abortion, a draft that is months old, and lack of any official news or statements, the comments and posts we have seen so far are not constructive to the purpose of this subreddit.

We must stress that while this is a subreddit about our culture, it is *not* a current events, debate, political news or conspiracy subreddit. People are understandably having very strong responses to this, and looking to vent with like-minded others. We try to keep things civil here, and part of that is waiting until there is more information and people are less reactionary to this shocking event.

27 comments

  4. The head mod here is anti-choice, this seems like they are just shutting down any and all discussion.

  6. Since I can’t do anything else, I will just say that I do not like this. People should be able to discuss what they want. If nothing else, did you seriously have to remove the primary thread from yesterday?

  7. I don’t agree with this. Shutting down discussion of the biggest news story of the year and one of the most important legal/judicial developments of the past fifty because people have had strong emotions?

  8. >We must stress that while this is a subreddit about our culture

    >We try to keep things civil here, and part of that is waiting until there is more information and people are less reactionary to this shocking event

    Isn’t immediate reactions a good look into a culture, especially in response to shocking events? I agree with keeping things civil, but isn’t there a middle ground?

  9. When discussing the matter from this point forward we have to refer to it as a “special operation”.

  10. > However, adding in the very contentious issue of abortion, a draft that is months old, and lack of any official news or statements, the comments and posts we have seen so far are not constructive to the purpose of this subreddit.

    John Roberts has confirmed the authenticity of the leak: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/05/03/supreme-court-says-leaked-abortion-draft-is-authentic-roberts-orders-investigation-into-leak.html

    I think this decision is extremely foolish. I get that it’s been a divisive topic long before I was even born but easily has the chance of being one of the most important political developments in decades, and a sub centered around asking American questions isn’t allowing discussion of it because it isn’t a place for “current events, debates, [or] political news”?

    Some of the most upvoted posts on this sub are of current events, debates, and political news. Out of the 10 top posts in this subreddit are:

    * A post on the Biden-Harris ticket winning the 2020 election (the post itself being posted by a mod): https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/jpu7tu/congratulations_to_president_elect_joe_biden_and/

    * A post on what the sub thought of a proposed high-speed rail system across the US, an inherently political topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/j5qqm1/do_you_support_the_construction_of_a_highspeed/

    * A post on California banning private prisons. Obviously pretty political in nature: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/d3pb0c/california_just_banned_private_prisons_my_fellow/

    * Question on if folks who own guns feel safer. Also political: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/b7go7t/do_you_really_feel_safer_owning_a_gun/

    Not to mention the COUNTLESS posts on this sub that have been allowed relating to the death penalty, political scandals, presidents, guns, 3rd parties, and more.

  11. A quick search shows that most moratoria have been because there’s been enough space for discussion already on a topic, and the moratoria are on new threads beyond already existing ones. This is an unprecedented ban on any discussion at all before it’s even happened.

  12. Thank God.

    We can have this little space away from the incessant babbling. There are infinite sources for melting down or doing a victory lap.

  15. Damn, why do so many of you want to discuss this on this sub? It’s a shitshow, and there’s no point in moderating a shitshow if you know the same shitshow is going to happen again because of how SCOTUS functions.

  16. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many mod comments in one place

  17. Yeah, that’s fair. I had made a post on the original thread but deleted it since I realized arguing with people on Reddit about abortion was pointless. No one has ever had their mind changed on Reddit.

  18. Ok, but couldn’t you have locked the other post instead of retroactively entirely deleting it?

    I come here to quietly read Americans opinions on sometimes contentious topics without interfering. I wanted to revisit that thread to read people’s comments and now it’s all gone!

  19. Does anyone know where I can read about the legal merits of the draft and the relevant parts of Roe? I tried r/law, but even there, it was difficult to find anything like that, and what I did find was too brief and used legal terms I don’t fully understand.

  21. I lean on the pro-choice side, and even I agree on this. There’s so much energy on this, people need a place to go where we can just decompress.

  23. I appreciate this. Certain discussions should be confined to their very relevant subs; that’s the whole point of subs, in the first place. Some should remain free of highly emotional and controversial topics!

  24. I don’t want to be part of a sub that suppresses MUCH needed opinion in such a dire moment in history,. Shame on whichever mods are here that thought of and are in favor of this move. Nothing against the ones who aren’t. I get that it’s hard to moderate the bad apples. But if you have that much to moderate, then you should have enough mods to handle it. That’s your mistake in the first place.

  25. Damn we finally have an opportunity to talk about something meaningful and deep, but I guess it would take away from the thought provoking questions like “best bbq?” or “why no metric?” or “shoes on or off inside?”

    Let’s spice this sub up already, sometimes it borderline feels like Facebook ngl

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