20 years ago, after graduating from college, I chose to work as a "healthworker" at the Feminist Women's Health Center in Atlanta, GA. For the first month or so, we enjoyed a relatively quiet existence in a nondescript building in "liberal" Midtown. We offered women a different abortion experience, rather than the "mill" style being offered at the time. We carefully took women through each step of the process, and tried to make the whole procedure as affirming as it could possibly be under the circumstances.
Suddenly, it seems, we were under attack. Police had to be there daily. Protesters would scream and shout at us and the women; they would spit on us and shove us about, one time knocking me and the client and another employee (as we walked, arms locked) over a police barricade.
This particular client/woman was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican; she was anti-abortion and anti-choice. Young, blond, blue, born and bred in the rules and mores of the Republican south. Why was she there? We often would take women whose husbands or boyfriends wanted them to abort and keep them in the clinic for an adequate amount of time (not performing the abortion) and send them home. It was their right to choose. This was not the case with her.
After asking this woman countless times about why she was there, though she was crying so hard and obviously in distress about having to go through the procedure, she finally shared that she had been on on anti-acne drug, "Accutane," and had just found out that it was extremely teratogenic. After researching, we found that the fetus could be horribly deformed and that, in fact, her life could be endangered. She didn't want to have an abortion, but even more, this beautiful young woman and her husband did not want to give birth to "a monster."
From 11/1997:
A UMass Boston professor is one of only two researchers in the nation studying children exposed to isotretinoin, one of the most potent teratogenic (birth defect-causing) drugs on the market.
Dr. Jane Adams, associate professor of psychology, was recently awarded five-year grant of $926,727 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development of the National Institutes of Health. Her current project is titled "Isotretinoin Teratogenicity: Outcome at Age 10."
Isotretinoin, commonly known by its brand name, Accutane, is a powerful, acne-fighting drug prescribed to patients whose severe cystic acne does not improve with other treatments.
Adams and Dr. Edward J. Lammer of Stanford University have followed nearly 50 children nationwide who were exposed to the drug while in the womb.
About 25 percent of babies born to women using isotretinoin during pregnancy have physical abnormalities such as ear and jaw malformations, asymmetric faces and brain abnormalities.
Though physical abnormalities bypass some children, about half suffer from learning disabilities. "Many of the kids that look normal have learning-related problems," Adams said. She has found that many isotretinoin-exposed children struggle with visual perception (such as drawing shapes), spacial processing (such as piecing together a puzzle), and organizing behavior.
www.umb.edu/news/1997news/reporter/ureporter1197/accutane.html - 5k -
and from Wikipedia:
Teratogenicity (Birth Defects)
Isotretinoin is a teratogen and is highly likely to cause birth defects if taken during pregnancy. A few of the more common birth defects that this drug can cause are hearing and visual impairment, missing earlobes, facial dysmorphism, and mental retardation. Isotretinoin is classified as FDA Pregnancy Category X and ADEC Category X, and use is contraindicated in pregnancy.[6]
The manufacturer recommends that pregnancy be excluded in female patients two weeks prior to commencement of isotretinoin, and that they should use effective contraception (sometimes two simultaneous forms are recommended) at least one month prior to commencement, during, and for at least one month following isotretinoin therapy.[15]
In the U.S. more than 2,000 women have become pregnant while taking the drug between 1982 and 2003, with most pregnancies ending in abortion or miscarriage. About 160 babies with birth defects were born. (my emphasis)Consequently, the iPLEDGE program was introduced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on 12 August 2005 in an attempt to ensure that female patients receiving isotretinoin do not become pregnant – as of 1 March 2006, only prescribers registered and activated in iPLEDGE are able to prescribe isotretinoin, and only patients registered and qualified in iPLEDGE will be able to have isotretinoin dispensed.
Hmmm...
The drug company thing is a whole 'nother issue. Who approved such a drug? Obviously this young woman and her husband had not been well-informed.
The woman was to be on 2 forms of birth-control while taking this drug. Yet here she was, in our clinic, the one where we sat in a circle with the women and explained the procedure and the risks, then held their hands throughout, wiping their tears, laughing at the lame jokes, reading the feminist posters on the wall ("If men could get pregnant, abortion would be federally funded and free," "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament"),watching their husbands/boyfriends stare stonily into the room, cry, turn green or get sick and leave; giving them crackers and juice and a heating pad in the "aftercare room," bidding them goodbye after a long talk about birth control options and other health-related issues...then escorting them--again arms locked--through the screaming throngs with their posters and their bloody fetus color photos.
And you just don't want to know about the practices in some of the other clinics around town.
When people discuss the abortion issue, it is probably from an outsider's perspective 90% of the time. As one of those 10% who is acquainted with abortion quite intimately, I can tell you true that there are so many levels to the discussion that never see the light of day. Like the 12 year old incest victim and her grandmother holding hands, crying and praying for the baby's soul during the abortion. Teratogenic drugs. Welfare mothers who teach their daughters to become breeders for a state pittance. Women who just can't bear to have one more child to witness their black eyes and battered and bruised bodies. You just don't know why women choose to have abortions. But it is their choice to make.
We must make the right CHOICE in November.
She and her husband left that day with such heartbreaking sadness. I quit working there shortly after that, more because I had been moved to the lab (don't ask), than because of the protesters. But I will never, ever forget that woman, and the obvious pain and grief she suffered that day, exacerbated by those insane "right-to-lifers" who made a bad situation downright miserable, and much, much worse.
Obama/Biden '08