[lilacwine13]

Anarch, I didn't mean to criticize you, I was commenting on how few times you read or hear about people talking about their experiences. Your post did clear up a couple questions I had about the article, though.

That guy's experience with his wife is heart-breaking, and the commenter who said he'd let his wife die before she had an abortion is scary. Pro-life indeed.

[faerietails2]

There was an explosive device found at an Austin, TX clinic today.

"Pro-life." Right.

[mornington]

oh god, that story made me cry.

has everyone seen the wall of protest?

[anarch]

"I start to think about the abortion debate. About pro-lifers, in particular. I think about all those meddling politicians that would want to interject themselves into everything that just happened to me, interject themselves between me, my wife, and her doctors. And then I had a strong, visceral reaction. I wanted the mutherfuckers to die. I wanted to rip off their heads and tear out their hearts, because how DARE they play politics with my wife's life? The baby was fine until the end. I wondered if that would have meant they'd force us to let my wife bleed until almost death before they'd let us abort, because well, if she's not near death, then it is just a 'health' exception, and we can't have that!"

via

One man's wrenching account of being put in a position to choose. Nothing to do with late abortions. Everything to do with why it's immoral for legislators and judges to make blanket rules, shutting down options that only individuals and their doctors should make.

Similar stories are posted in the comments. Also anti-choicers claiming that no pro-lifer would choose to let this guy's wife die...which completely ignores the the guy's point about blanket legislation that allows exceptions for a woman's "life" but not her "health". This commenter makes that point AGAIN and the subsequent anti-choicers STILL ignore it (tho I haven't finished reading the comments yet):
"if abortion law is passed that limits abortions to cases where the mother's life is in danger then women like DDB's wife will die in ER's while waiting to pass the threshold between "normal bleeding" and "life threatening". Who will determine how much risk to take? Once you've entered "life threatening" you've already taken unnecessary risk with the mother's life."


lilacwine, I agree with your last comment. I didn't mean to come across as criticizing that author. I just wanted to clarify, in my own head and in case anyone else was confused like I was.

[lilacwine13]

Even if she did get some of the terminology wrong, I still think it's important for people to hear stories like hers, maybe then more people might realize just how wrong the federal government is on banning this procedure.

[anarch]

Another neural tube defect story.

Though I think she confuses the terminology a bit (no doubt in rushing to write the article to get it published in time) - she refers to her procedure as "intact dilation and evacuation", but the "Partial Death of Abortion Rights" article distinguishes between "dilation and evacuation" (D&E, "requires dismembering the fetus within the uterus, which poses risks of uterine damage or perforation from surgical instruments and sharp remnants of fetal bone"), and "dilation and extraction" (D&X, "dilating the cervix, partially extracting the fetus, puncturing the skull while it remains in the uterus, and removing the brain tissue through suction, thus allowing for easy removal of the otherwise intact fetus through the birth canal").

The Supreme Court has upheld the ban on D&X, claiming that because some (!) doctors think it's never medically necessary, it's never medically necessary. D&E is still legal. So far. (Supposedly less "gruesome", though I suppose the reason they think uteruses punctured by non-viable fetal bone fragments are less gruesome, is that they have penises. For brains.)

Yes, thanks for posting about the National Call-In Day. Glad to be able to do something constructive with this anger. It took me a couple hours to be able to think about anything else yesterday after reading the thing about "psychological damage to husband and parents". Patronizing, infantilizing bullshit.

[faerietails2]

Re: National Call-In Day

Thanks for the heads up. Consider it done.

[crazyoldcatlady]

tomorrow is Freedom of Choice (legislation) National Call in Day

National Call in Day

done and done. i can't take these people anymore.



and btw, did we really need a study to tell us that abortions don't cause breast cancer? NEWSFLASH.
at least we have a hard scientific paper to counteract the haters. not that they believe in SCIENCE anyway.

[culturehandy]

That whole article. Uhhh, I don't even know where to begin. I'm so fucking angry that a bunch of asshole fundamentalist, evangelic prick men seem to think they have the right to tell me when I should and should not carry a child! That a woman should have to die to carry a child? Un-fucking-believable.

[faerietails2]

Gotta love the ignore function.

Word!

anarch, that excerpt you posted is insane! grrrrrrr!

[culturehandy]

Crazyoldcatlady, I know how you feel. Sometimes I wonder what the point of fighting is anymore.

Le Sigh.

[crazyoldcatlady]

re: supreme court decision

*heavy, heavy SIGH*

sometimes i feel like we're all asleep at the wheel.

i wanted to just come in here and SIGH and hope that conveys my dismay/contempt, but i feel a quasi rant coming on.

perhaps later.

[culturehandy]

I guess the damage to a husband and fetus born without a brain is far worse than what happens to a baby factory...oops I mean woman.

Once again, I guess women have to carry a baby even if it means death

Fuck you Supreme Court and Fuck you Bush administration. Never in my life have i wished something so horrible on someone, but in this case, I really do.

[anarch]

Go New England Journal of Medicine !

from the first paragraph of the first one, "The Partial Death of Abortion Rights":
"a physician who knowingly performs an intact dilation and extraction (D&X) is subject to 2 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and monetary damages for psychological injury to the husband or parents of the pregnant woman."

WTF? "monetary damages for psychological injury to the husband or parents of the pregnant woman"? What century is this? If I don't consider myself damaged why TF would my husband or parents be entitled to monetary damages? Oh right we've got no rights compared to even NON-VIABLE fetuses. Right. Fuck you very much, old male judges.

[culturehandy]

Canada has no abortion laws...

[mornington]

yay!

feministing has some great articles in thier weekly reader as well. Tbh, I had to stop reading as I felt rather sick. I really, really hope that the UK doesn't attempt to follow suit as it so often tries to.

[culturehandy]

Anarch, that was a really great editorial.

[erinjane]

Gotta love the ignore function.

[anarch]

Good for the Boston Globe too.

[anarch]

Treehugger, that's fantastic. God knows they need it.

Great NYTimes article. Thanks, nickclick.

culturehandy:Like what happened to the anti-choice woman who's child was born without a brain, wait until it happens to one of these anti-choicers, then we will see...

I mentioned the article "The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion" (I think Doodlebug originally posted it in one of these threads) to a Planned Parenthood doctor recently. She said "Yeah we get a lot of that." I said stupidly "Oh you've read it?" She said "No. I mean, we get a lot of women in the clinic who say 'I don't agree with abortion generally, but my case is different.'" I hadn't made the jump from reading the article and thinking "Wow, all these hypocritical anti-choice women at the clinics in this article" to realizing that lots of anti-choice women must get abortions at EVERY clinic, in every community, including mine. And afterwards most of them keep right on lobbying to restrict other women's right to control their own bodies because hey, their own abortions were the exceptions to the rule.

I wonder if PP keeps records of how many of their clients who have abortions done are anti-choice? That would be really interesting to have the numbers aggregated, to point out to these women that hey, you're NOT one exception.

mornington: i see this as banning an entirely medical procedure

yeah. So many serious medical problems aren't diagnosed until later in the pregnancy. I mean geez, like women would be casually choosing this for fun.

US 2002 abortion stats including later trimesters

1973-2002 chart