This is going to be fairly short, because honestly this article has messed me up. However, I don't see it being mentioned on here, and feel like the story warrants wider attention.
Dear fellow Kossians, the next time someone poo-poos the War on Women, or asks why they should think its important, show them this article. This article describes what happens when the decisions regarding a woman's health are left in the hands of morons with Bronze Age attitudes about the women themselves.
Symphysiotomy survivors gather to recount stories of torture
The first word in that link goes to the Wikipedia entry for "Symphysiotomy." The rest of it goes to the article. Excerpt below the squiggle.
This is why women take these things seriously, or at least the wise ones do.
Oh, and if you're in a good mood, don't read this. Wait until you're already upset.
‘I’m going to give you a symphysiotomy’,” Marie Cowly’s doctor told her. “Sure I didn’t know what it was,” she says. “He could have danced a jig at the end of the bed. I’d never heard of it. I still have no explanation.”
The nurses looked sick, some even got physically sick, begins Nora Clarke.
“I saw the hacksaw, I know what hacksaws are. He started cutting my bone and my blood spurted up like a fountain.” She remembers how the doctor looked annoyed that he had gotten her blood on his glasses. Until she spoke to her son Wayne about it many years later, Nora believed she had gone through a C-Section.
“You’ll never get rid of [the pain] until you’re not living anymore,” she says during the film.
The routine practice of performing a symphysiotomy went on until 1984.
1984. Wow. Just... I got no words.
Peace to you all, and keep fighting the good fight.