WHEN IT COMES TO WOMEN’S HEALTH, IT’S OK TO LIE 2023/07/03
An article in Raw Story, by Greg Larose, last week, was about the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, signing a bill allowing tax-deductible credits to “Pregnancy Centers”, places where women go for abortion information, not knowing the intent of the center is to stop her from ending her pregnancy. Those centers present themselves as legitimate medical facilities, when, in fact, they lie, distort, make up stories, and more importantly, give information that is often incorrect, and, in some cases, actively threatens the life of the mother.
An article in Daily Kos by Lucy Clawson, printed the same week, is about a woman who went to one of these pregnancy centers, thinking it was medical clinic. She was given an ultrasound, which was read by a nurse (who was not qualified to read ultrasounds), and told her pregnancy was viable. It wasn’t. The fertilized egg was implanted in the fallopian tube. She ended up in the emergency room, and had to have immediate surgery, because her fallopian tube had ruptured, a serious, life-threatening event. Because of this, she lost one of her fallopian tubes, so the eggs from that ovary cannot now reach the uterus, thereby imperilling her ability to get pregnant again. All the time, she thought she was getting state sanctioned medical care in a licensed facility. And this because politicians, government, people think that saving a fertilized egg is more important than protecting the life of a human being, albeit a female human being
I remember, as a young woman, in the home for unmarried mothers, in Afton in Surrey, England, on the regular Sunday meetings with a local priest, listening to him tell us that saving the baby was more important than saving the woman who carried that baby. At the age of twenty, I was horrified at the callousness of the Catholic faith, and horrified, when it came down to it, of the odd, anti-survival position this priest and his organization held, and ultimately, the woman-hating, or woman ignoring, or woman using part, for after all, what else could it be, to know that if, when pregnant, a woman’s life was less important than an egg, a fetus, less important than any ability, in the future, to have a healthy child, one that is not a threat to health and well-being.
In America, some towns and cities have passed ordinances fining these centers if proved they gave inaccurate information. Others towns are fearful of running afoul of the First Amendment. I find that odd. How, in these facilities, is giving inaccurate information about pregnancy a protected form of speech when hospitals and doctors can be sued for misdiagnosis? Why are these pregnancy centers immune?
For instance, liability insurance for an OB/GYN is one of the highest of any of the medical specialties, and are frequent subjects of malpractice with claims averaging $300,000 a year. So, how come it is okay for these establishments, with their clearly substantiated history of medical misinformation, to sidestep any consequences? How can any group, particularly a religious one, think it okay to deliberately, cold-bloodedly, cynically, give women in need, information that will, and does, injure them? What gives?
I don’t get it. Where is the regulation of these centers? Where does any group get off on, again, deliberately telling women stuff that will hurt them, harm them, kill them. I grew up in the Catholic church, in a convent and was taught not to lie, either by omission or commission. But these are lies, lies of commission, and that is alright by the authorities?
There was a case reported this week, concerning a Christian school, where the young women were required, by school rules, to wear dresses and skirts, because, as the principal said, we have to protect these girls, protect the “fragile vessels” they are. If indeed, he was really concerned about protecting women, why does his faith allow “pregnancy centers” to exist. They do not protect women.
The morality of the whole conversation around abortion and reproductive health care in general is so skewed. For instance, Amy Klobuchar, my Minnesota Senator, last week, said she was conflicted about third trimester abortions. Really? There is only one reason a woman would have a third trimester abortion, and that is because the fetus has a life-threatening condition, where the severe anomalies either threaten the life of the mother, or are inconsistent with survival outside the womb, conditions which only show up in the later stages of pregnancy. Why would Amy Klobuchar want to deprive a woman from being able to take the best of health care at that time. I can only assume she is ignorant, and on this subject, willfully ignorant. The information is out there for any woman to read, and she, a woman, a lawyer, well-educated, should know the facts.
Such is the state of reproductive health care in America, and, in much of the world as well. What a strange conversation, that women, who bear the brunt of furthering the human race, are not considered adequate enough people to make decisions about what is happening in their own bodies.