2 posts tagged “women's health”

My beloved and greatly missed alma mater, the University of Missouri-Columbia, has a rapidly growing and incredibly dynamic Women's and Gender Studies department; some of the most fantastic students I had the pleasure to meet while I was in Columbia were involved with the department, either in classes, or through student organizations.

Anyway--I'm visiting Feministing, my favorite Feminism News, Politics, and Fodder resource this evening (instead of studying the nasty nasty intestines) and I see this!!!!     Stop Traffic Now Fashion Show

I posted this as a comment on Melissa's amazing post about conscience clauses provided for physicians as a "moral safeguard" against performing abortions, if they are opposed to the practice.  You can read it here:  Melissa's Post

You and I are incredibly like-minded on this subject, so you know that I agree with you on the entirety of this post.

I think that the choice NOT to have an abortion is just as valid as the choice to undergo the procedure, and that no one should ever be forced or coerced into either decision.  Millions of women choose NOT to have an abortion every year--I have the utmost respect for those women, their choices, and their commitment to raising the child in question.

However, the women who make the choice to terminate a pregnancy are often doing so to benefit many people OTHER than themselves:  a financially burdened family, several children who are already suffering in a single-parent household, or a loved one who has fallen ill and needs personal care on a daily basis.  These women don't need judgment, especially by all of us other "corrupt" sinning Christians--they need support.  Abortion as birth control is a myth.  Freely-accessible birth control (that isn't abstinence, which isn't actually birth control, but a practice) that is safe for everyone, easy to use, and 100% effective.... is also a myth. 

While I believe that abortion should be available and safe, I also hope that it will become rare, if not completely obsolete.  However, the Victorian attitude that our society has placed upon sex ("Sex is a filthy activity--so save it for someone you love!"), and the unwillingness for select religious/conservative/etc. groups to allow for open, comprehensive dialogue on the subjects of sexuality and sexual expression, birth control, and STI prevention have landed us where we are today.  We have a long way to go before we can prevent all the unwanted and dangerous pregnancies that end in abortion. 

And, yes, I am totally on board to staff the Women's Hospital with you. :)

In all reality, until insurance companies are "required" to cover Ortho Tri-Cyclen AS WELL AS Viagra,  children who are taught sex-ed at school (instead of by their parents) are taught how to use a condom, a pill or a ring, without the insistence that anything other than abstinence guarantees AIDS and death,  and women are given the same status as a human being as the man who impregnates her and takes off... My pro-choice brethren and I will have our work cut out for us.

On the topic of Physician-Assisted Suicide:  I side with the Oregon legislature on this one.  I think it should be available (only to physicians who are recognized by the state board of medicine, and who are not subject to conscience clauses), but should have stringent steps and guidelines that are overseen by several people throughout the process.  You can read the statute here:  Death With Dignity Act  I am a staunch supporter of withdrawal of life-support, when authorized by power of attorney or advanced directives, and informed refusal of treatment, but only by a patient who is competent and voluntarily requests such conditions.  These are extensions of the autonomy that each human being deserves, and should be provided as a patient.  Suicide attempts by "traditional methods" fail all the time, and death from cancer can ravage the human body relentlessly for months.  I walk a fine line on this subject because I believe that suicide, in the majority of the population, is horrendously selfish; a fellow Mizzou student jumped off a dorm balcony about 18 months ago, and I couldn't imagine what could make someone want to die in such circumstances, at such a young age.  Having witnessed the death of my grandfather from stomach/esophageal/liver cancer, and the deterioration of my grandmother's total body muscle mass over the last 15 years, I can imagine how an unrelenting force completely out of one's own control could make a person want to control their own death by deciding how much pain he or she is willing to bear, while death is unquestionably near.  Dying on one's own terms, in comfort and without fear, is something, in my humble opinion, that terminally ill patients should be able to choose.

[Insert concise conclusion here.]

Yeah, I was always the "most heartless person in the room" during my Medical Ethics course.  I don't expect for everyone to agree with me, but I just want my side to be heard, and my reasoning to be understood.