[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
n Nov. 27 last year, a vicious gunman opened fire on health care providers at a Planned Parenthood community clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., killing three people, including a local law enforcement officer. It was later learned that the assailant had been motivated in part by extreme anti-abortion rhetoric related to the false allegations that Planned Parenthood has been profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. In 2009, respected physician Dr. George Tiller was gunned down during a worship service at his church in Wichita, Kan., after he was publicly cited in the media and even on the Floor of the House of Representatives as a practitioner of late-term abortions. Since 1993, there have been 11 murders and 26 attempted murders resulting from extreme anti-abortion violence, not to mention more than 200 arson attacks since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.

Perhaps just as tragic as these crimes is the reality that they might have been prevented had politicians and commentators refrained from crossing a very dangerous line. By combining a relentless barrage of accusatory and dehumanizing rhetoric with the release of specific identification of individuals and organizations, they bear some culpability for creating the conditions that led to these crimes.

Yet, having failed to learn from the very real and very dangerous consequences of extreme rhetoric and the publication of names and personal information of those who provide reproductive care services, House Republicans are now placing other health care practitioners, researchers, patients and first responders in danger — this time in our home state of Maryland.


More )
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
The campaign, masterminded by 26-year-old anti-abortion crusader and “proud millennial” David Daleiden, is meant to let us in on the fact that abortion is disgusting.

When asked, in an interview with the National Review, what one question he would ask Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, Daleiden replied, “I would ask her if she knows abortion the way Planned Parenthood providers know abortion.” Proud millennial David Daleiden wants to make sure that 57-year-old Cecile Richards, who has given birth to three children and publicly discussed her own abortion, really understands what abortion is.

Daleiden is enacting a very old strategy, akin to standing outside a clinic with a sign informing women that their unborn babies have fingerprints at nine weeks’ gestation. This approach has taken on new life in recent years, as improving ultrasound technology has offered an ever-sharper view of fetal development, leading those in both the anti-abortion and the reproductive-rights movements to argue that a public, moral, and rhetorical reckoning with the carnal implications of abortion is necessary.

The videos are likely to have an impact: not on public opinion about abortion, which rarely changes meaningfully, but perhaps on Planned Parenthood’s funding, and almost certainly on laws made by state legislatures in the parts of America where abortion has already become so inaccessible — thanks to elaborate facility requirements, waiting periods, parental-consent-and-notification laws, earlier gestational cutoffs, and a dwindling number of providers — that it might as well be illegal.

But as a broader strategy, the notion that educating women in the grotesqueries of termination will be a game-changer is absurd. As Richards could tell Daleiden if he asked her his question, women already know what abortion is. We know more about blood, innards, fetuses, and the babies they may become — in short, about life in reproductive bodies — than anti-abortion activists seem to understand.


Disclaimer: This is a snippet from the article. It's not the beginning of the article.
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
The family of a pregnant woman who has been in a coma since Sunday is blaming the hospital that they say failed to realize she was experiencing a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and bleeding internally.

Lisa Avila, 36, of Anaheim, California, was 12 weeks pregnant when she woke up on Valentine's Day with severe pain in her abdomen, her aunt, Jessica Jule, said at a news conference Tuesday. Doctors at Anaheim Regional Medical Center's emergency room did an ultrasound, said her baby was fine and sent her away with a prescription for painkillers, Jule said.

Afterward, her husband left her in their car while he went into a pharmacy, and when he returned, Avila was unconscious and not breathing, Jule said. Paramedics rushed her back to the same hospital, where they learned Avila had an ectopic pregnancy, meaning the fetus was developing outside the uterus, Jule said.

The ectopic pregnancy ruptured, causing her to bleed internally, the aunt said.

From later on in the article:
"Ruptured ectopic pregnancy is the number one cause of maternal mortality in the first trimester," Ashton said. "If it ruptures, women can lose liters of blood very quickly."

Signs include pelvic pain on one side, dark red vaginal bleeding and a positive pregnancy test, Ashton said. Because they ultimately lead to life-threatening miscarriages, treatment for ectopic pregnancy is usually surgery or medication to end the pregnancy.


Seriously, I find ectopic pregnancy to be freaking scary....especially when I read articles like these and the comments on the article from women that went through it.
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
Catholics should not feel they have to breed "like rabbits" because of the Church's ban on contraception, Pope Francis said on Monday, suggesting approved natural family planning methods.

I had fun with this part:
He mentioned a woman he recently met who already had seven children by caesarean sections and put her life at risk by becoming pregnant again. He said he chided her for "tempting God" and added: "That was an irresponsibility."
Ooh, where do I start? I love how women are always being blamed for getting pregnant like we can magically make ourselves pregnant. Seriously, if that was the case, we wouldn't need men and sex (well, if you're having sex for procreation reasons that is). We could just say "I would like to be pregnant now" and boom-badda-bing! There's a bun in the oven. That's not the case in reality. So, where the fuck is the blame on the husband who got her pregnant? I mean...maybe it was his idea for her to get pregnant, whether she wanted to or not.

More )
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
Budding atheists wondering whether Richard Dawkins is in need of a little time away from Twitter to reflect on the past few weeks are about to have their (lack of) prayers answered.

The philosopher has managed to go one step further than his controversial comments on ‘date rape versus stranger rape’ to voice his opinions on what it would be ethical for a mother who is informed that her unborn child has Down Syndrome to do.


More )

Ahem, let's go back to this one:
“Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice,” he tweeted back.
Yeah...tell that to women who tried to concieve for a long time before finally getting pregnant, Hawkins. Or women who are infertile that took a lot of IVF or other forms of fertility treatment to get pregnant. Or women who have fucking miscarried. It sucks a lot to tried to concieve for a long time only to get pregnant and lose it, whether to miscarriage or grudgingly resorting to abortion because there's something wrong with the fetus. And then, who knows how long it will take a woman to get pregnant again because despite popular belief...some of us don't get pregnant that easy just from having sex.

More of my comment )

To me, I find it personally immoral to call someone immoral for chosing to carry ANY pregnancy to term just like I do when someone is called immoral for chosing to abort ANY pregnancy.
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
This apparently happened last year, but I just came acrossed it when I was looking up abortion laws in Ireland pertaining to what I read that was related to the last entry.

Remember how I mentioned the death of Savita Halappanavar nearly two years ago on here? Well, that story had sparked a huge debate in Ireland over abortion. I'm happy to say it has lead to this (although I had been confuzzled because I thought abortion was already legal there in the case to save a woman's life if it was threatened until I re-read the the aboriton law of Ireland again and read that health was not involve in that exception).

Abortions under limited circumstances will be allowed in the Republic of Ireland under a new law.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act will allow terminations to be carried out where there is a threat to the life of the mother.

It will also be allowed where there is medical consensus that the expectant mother will take her own life over her pregnancy.

Irish President Michael D Higgins signed the bill into law on Tuesday.

He decided not to refer the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill to the Supreme Court.


More from the article )
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
North Dakota didn't set out to become the abortion debate's new epicenter.

It happened by accident, after a legislative caucus that once vetted abortion bills languished, leaving lawmakers to propose a flurry of measures — some cribbed from Wikipedia — without roadblocks.

Long dismissed as cold and inconsequential, North Dakota is now trying to enact the toughest abortion restrictions in the nation. The newly oil-rich red state may soon find itself in a costly battle over legislation foes describe as blatantly unconstitutional.


More )

Lawmakers on Friday took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House's approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state's constitution in November 2014.
Hopefully, history repeats itself again by voters overturning this like it did in Colorado and Mississippi.

Also, I'm happy to see that there are some republicans that aren't happy about this bill and think it goes too far. They realize that this wouldn't only hinder abortion, but it would hinder IVF and make miscarriage a crime...two things that also affect lifers as much as choicers.

With all of this said and done...it makes me happy I'm not from a state like ND. It also makes me happy that I live in Sweden because I wouldn't have to worry about this stupid shit. I was already lucky to be living here when I miscarried in 2010 because I bleed so much that a blood transfusion was required. If I had been refused a D&C, I probably would've bled to death regardless if I had the blood transfusion because I would've continued to bleed until the fetus (who was already dead) was removed (as I have O negative blood while the fetus had a positive blood type).
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
I got this snippet from the middle of the article. It's very long, but I think it's an interesting article even though some parts make me roll my eyes.

Last summer, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld this expanded interpretation of the chemical-endangerment law, ruling that the dictionary definition of “child” includes “unborn child,” an interpretation that will be challenged when the state’s Supreme Court considers Kimbrough’s case in the coming months. But the implications of that ruling go far beyond Alabama. Critics like Ketteringham argue that Alabama’s chemical-endangerment law offers a back door into what has become known as the “fetal personhood” argument.

Personhood USA, an organization based in Colorado, was founded in 2008 by Keith Mason after he became frustrated by the mainstream anti-abortion movement’s incremental approach of restricting the availability of legal abortion. “From my perspective, I saw a movement that was largely dying or dead and had a lack of enthusiasm from younger people and from people who had been in the fight for so many years,” he told me. “Something had to change. Personhood is that rallying point, because it’s the crux of the issue.” His movement seeks to establish the fetus’s right to live as equal to that of the mother’s.

Personhood advocates regard fetal rights as a civil rights issue, and they often compare themselves to abolitionists. “I think it would be unequal protection to give the woman a pass when anyone else who injects drugs into a child would be prosecuted,” Ben DuPré, director of Personhood Alabama, said. “What it boils down to is, aren’t these little children persons?”

The goal of Personhood USA is to establish that a fully rights-endowed person is created when sperm meets egg. To that end, it has introduced initiatives and measures in legislatures in 22 states. Though none of these measures have become law, some, like Proposition 26 in Mississippi, have made it to a ballot referendum, and other measures have passed legislative chambers in North Dakota, Montana and Oklahoma. The problem with those measures, from a legal perspective, says Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, is that “there is no way to treat fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses as separate constitutional persons without subtracting pregnant women from the community of constitutional persons.”


What is everyone's thoughts on this?
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
I'm sure many of you have heard about this, but just in case....

Republican Georgia state Rep. Terry England says that his experience with cows, pigs and chickens has proven to him that women should be forced to have their babies after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Yes, vid is included if you want to hear for yourselves that he did compare women to livestock.

I wish I was surprised that some people think of women that way, but after all the shitty bills that some of these politicans have drafted in the last two years...I'm not any more. Of course, I am definitely not surprised this man would have such a view of women considering this is the same state where another state senator suggested that miscarriage be criminalized and women be put to death for it.
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
PORTSMOUTH, Virginia (Reuters) - Virginia lawmakers took a step toward outlawing abortion on Tuesday by approving "personhood" legislation that grants individual rights to an embryo from the moment of conception.

The Republican-controlled House of Delegates voted 66-32 in favor of defining the word person under state law to include unborn children "from the moment of conception until birth at every stage of biological development."

The measure now heads to the Senate, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats but with Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling wielding the tie-breaking vote.

Republican Delegate Bob Marshall, an abortion opponent who introduced the legislation, said the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States would not have been rendered if Texas state law had regarded the unborn as a person "in the full sense."

"So this is a first step, a necessary step, but it's not sufficient to directly challenge Roe," Marshall said in a phone interview.

Virginia's approach differs from failed attempts to define a fertilized egg as a legal person in Colorado in 2008 and 2010 and in Mississippi in 2011.

Virginia's effort avoids involving a constitutional amendment like those states, instead seeking changes throughout the legal code, said Elizabeth Nash, public policy associate at the Washington-based Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health issues.

But she said the intent is the same, with the measure ultimately aimed at banning abortion, contraception and infertility treatment.


Pro-choice Virginians...you have my sympathy.

But, I have more! )
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com


I'm not surprised that this would concern people in the pro-life movement. You got a good portion of lifers that support abortion when a woman's life is in danger, that support birth control, and would be punished if the women in the movement had a miscarriage. So, yes...there's a good reason for them to be concerned just as much as people in the pro-choice movement because it will affect them too.

As I said before, I hope history repeats itself and this amendment is rejected once more
[identity profile] lynn82md.livejournal.com
This time, it's in Mississippi. On November 8th, Mississippians will vote on the amendment to give fertilized eggs personhood or not. If this amendment passes, not only will abortion be banned...but so would birth control, IVF, and women that have had a miscarriage would be put under an investigation (because they're not already going through enough as it is with the miscarriage itself *sarcasm*)

Sign this petition to tell the MS General Attorney's Office to stop policing women's bodily autonmy and put a stop to Amendemnt 26

It may be Mississippi right now, but as I've said before...Maryland has had this type of amendment before, but it successfully died when the Maryland General Assembly and Senate adjourned for the year. And the extremist group-Personhood USA-is trying to get this amendment passed in all of the fifty states.

For more info about this amendment in Mississippi, go to Wake up Mississippi!">

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