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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI just read this and want you all to read it too: "What 'Health of the Mother' Means"
Back when Ryan first babbled about ultrasounds in the VP debate, I was moved to compose a screed about what an ultrasound does and doesn't mean and how that should affect the way we understand reproductive rights. I was surprised, and very humbled, by the stories that appeared in the comments from people who had lost pregnancies, who had broken their hearts making the decision to terminate a pregnancy after discovering that the fetus would not survive birth, people who understood in a much more visceral and tragic way than I did why conception does not guarantee birth.
Here is a piece by a woman who contracted ovarian cancer during her pregnancy about some of the heartbreaking decisions she had to make:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/24/what_health_of_the_mother_means/
Be warned that it will gut you. But here is the most direct and powerful statement I have yet found anywhere of why it is crucial to preserve choice for women in this situation:
"Although I do not know whether it was right to forgo the biopsy or what I would have done if Id learned of my cancer earlier, I do know that both decisions were mine to make. I came to the present tormented and joyful moment in my life with informed consent about the risks I was taking. The full knowledge that both of our lives were in my hands, and that we might not both get out alive, made that consent meaningful. To disregard the impact of my possible sickness and death on my family was, to me, just as problematic as terminating my pregnancy. Had I been a single mother or had my job been a financial necessity for my family, I might well have weighed my choices differently. I might not have been able to take the chances that came along with skipping the biopsy. It is painful to imagine how I would feel, now, if the choice had been out of my handsor if it had been so sharply circumscribed that it was clear that it was mine only in form, not substance."
I would like to round up every uterus-free jerk who has ever pontificated about how this "health of the mother" exception is bullshit and force them to talk to this woman for ten minutes. But that would put a lot of stress on her, and probably have no effect on them.
The Plaid Adder
Iris
(15,670 posts)"We could do a biopsy but since that would cause risk to fetus, we'll just have to see what happens."
Plaid Adder
(5,518 posts)get the red out
(13,468 posts)The Republican Party is intertwined with the religious extremists of this country, people who would find very little wrong with the essence of the quotes below, in that light I am never shocked at their denial of women's rights in any form, even if that denial of rights leads to death, they simply do not care.
St. Augustine of Hippo: What difference is it in a wife or mother? It is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman, I fail to see what use a woman can be to a man if one excludes the function of bearing children.
Martin Luther: If they (women) become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth. That is what they are there for.
St. Tertullian: Do you not know that you are each an Eve? The sentence of god on this sex of your lives in this age, the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway. You are the unsealer of the forbidden tree: You are the first desserter of the divine law. You are she who persueded him whom the devil was not valiant to attack. You destroyed so easily god's image, man. On account of your desert even the son of man had to die.
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/religion-spirituality/717600-outrageous-quotes-christians-about-women-grace.html#ixzz2AFLtCwQY
yends21012
(228 posts)to believe these things. I used to think that we as a culture were sophisticated and civilized, but now it seems we only have the thinnest veneer of civilization and are ready to revert to superstition and fear at the slightest provocation.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,719 posts)How dare these men burden us with the myth of Eve?
Eve the temptress?
We hold up half the sky. We bear the children (if and when we choose). We do the world's work as well as bring up its children, usually without complaint.
Anyone who would deny us our rights in all things is horrifyingly wrong-headed about us.
siligut
(12,272 posts)The way you expressed our undeniable value and strength is beautiful and profound, thank you.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,719 posts)Iris
(15,670 posts)nt
RC
(25,592 posts)my best friend. And she is childless by choice. Best friend is a very good choice in a woman, for a man. The opposite can be true too.
Religion is so interwoven into our society, our very cultures, we can't even see the damage it has done and is doing. It has effected our very evolution as human beings.
Iris
(15,670 posts)somehow involves love. Nothing any of those men said indicates that these religions started out as proponents of love at all.
Melinda
(5,465 posts)Many powerful layers. Sharing. Thank you. You've been missed.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Of making a woman stand in front of tables full of strangers trying to "justify" why she should be "allowed" to end her pregnancy.
condoleeza
(814 posts)The salon article was very emotional to read for me. I'm 63, I feel fortunate that I never have had to face that decision myself, but one of my daughters has.
I also have a workmate whose brother's family is in a similar situation to hers: http://hellojomo.com/uncategorized/438/ In her case it was her delivery experience and the necessary C-Section that exposed her cancer. She's been writing a blog ever since about her journey with this and it is really inspiring to read. She's doing good, we hope she will be able to see her daughter grow up.
Why is abortion always an issue in elections? Seriously, it's mostly men, it's mostly batshit crazy religious whackos and it's every 4 fucking years. I am so tired of women being used this way.