I read
Moiv's abortion post earlier today. I started writing an email as a response, but hell, it looks like a diary so I'll post it.
So, read it if you want (it'll get your mind off of Fitz for at least 5-10 minutes). Recommend it if you want. I'd love to get this diary some exposure so we could get a discussion going. And doctors and nurses - I've seen you on dKos and met some of you personally. I'd really like your perspective on this.
Moiv -
Your diary spoke of the real people who are affected by abortion legislation (in a HIPAA-compliant sort of way). It is people like you who can move the debate forward in a constructive and meaningful way. In my opinion, your day to day experiences and the women you meet and help should shape the debate far more than words written in Hebrew and Aramaic thousands of years ago.
I work in healthcare IT right now, and I spend a lot of time working in ambulatory clinics of various specialties with the providers, nurses, and other staff there. Since I work with clinical software, it's not uncommon for me to wind up in a room with a naked patient, helping the doctor. I really enjoy working in clinics and getting to know the doctors and nurses and learning what they care about and what their normal work day is like.
I found out last year that my great great grandmother died giving herself an abortion. I'm really fucking sick of the debate going on in America. It makes me mad that when I was 12, I heard the words "pro-life" and "pro-choice" in my 6th grade English class, and when I asked my mom what it meant and decided I was pro-choice, my best friend pointed and screamed "baby killer" at me in the lunchroom the next day. A 12 year old doesn't figure that out herself - it was definitely learned somewhere - either her family or church I'm guessing. Why would someone teach their 12 year old, who has no life experiences and has no idea what it is like to support onesself, let alone a child, to be hateful about something that is none of their business?
Another thing I am sick of is the pro-life Nazi references. I sat next to an AFA lawyer on the plane last week who graphically described to me a "partial birth" abortion and asked if I was for that and compared it to Nazis. (I replied "That's a wedge issue.") I'm sorry but I've seen enough on the job that I'm well aware that you can make almost any medical procedure you want sound like the work of Dr. Mengele if you want to.
Anyhow, the point I'm coming to is that I'm glad to find someone who knows what the situation is like up close - not as an abstract, over-hyped, ridiculous debate. I would love to know more about what you do? What is your day like? What's your clinic like? And what are the women like.
Are most of the providers physicians or do you also have a lot of mid-level providers like NPs and PAs? Do you have residents? Is performing an abortion trained in most med schools? Is the service offered in the major medical institutions of America - the big ones like Kaiser Permanente, or major academic institutions, etc?
I assume the woman signs a consent before having an abortion. I've seen some of the process for counseling a man who was thinking about a vasectomy before. Of course, the man isn't on a short timeline to sign the consent and undergo the procedure like a woman may be. What is the process like? Is there a waiting period between consenting and having the procedure performed? Will insurance ever cover it? What is the cost of the procedure without insurance? How many women does a typical provider see in a session? What are the documentation requirements for providers - are they different from your run of the mill office visit or procedure note?
How many weeks are most of the women at? How invasive is the procedure? Do the women receive general anesthesia? How long does it take a woman to heal after the procedure? How are they emotionally afterwards? Do any of them regret it or is it just a burden taken off of them? Do most women who undergo abortions tend to have one and then get on the right track with family planning or does your clinic have "frequent fliers"? Do the women often have other chronic health problems, like you mentioned before?
I'm just trying to learn about the reality of the issue. How can anyone make judgments about it if they don't know these things - for their own lives - let alone millions of strangers they have never met?
The so-called debate has reached absolute pointlessness if you ask me. My great great grandmother had 4 kids and she was poor. She was married, but very poor. She didn't want a 5th. In my opinion, criminalizing abortion leaves women to my great great grandmother's fate. How is that fair to her - or to her 4 surviving kids? But as a pro-lifer told me once "the slut should've kept her legs shut." Well, I guess that settles it. Off I go to write a letter to Feingold requesting he vote to approve Harriet Miers.
In my mind, abortion is between a woman and her doctor. Maybe she'll want to consult a few other people - her parents, her priest, minister, or rabbi, the father of the baby, etc. But ultimately, it's between her and her doctor.
I spend enough time with doctors to trust their guidance for these women. Remember, they did take a hypocratic oath. They are on the side of life. You want a culture of life? I can show you several in the clinics I've worked at over the past few years. I think physicians and other healthcare providers should be leading the debate. I think that's the best way to return us to sanity.
What do you think?
Jill