In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

OK, folks, it’s time for a privilege check.

(There isn’t a “brain fog” category here. Consider this your warning.)

We spent Sunday at the in-laws for dadw’s birthday. Spending time with his family is refreshingly easy — shooting the breeze, playing a couple of silly party games (highly recommended!). Still, when everyone settled in front of the tv I grabbed the copy of Consumer Reports on the table to page through.

One of the feature stories detailed the problems Americans have with sleep. We all know that adults in this country are having problems getting enough sleep every night (to say nothing of teenagers). The angle CR chose to take for this article was medication: what sort of meds are out there to help you sleep, and how they totally don’t work. According to CR, one in five Americans takes some sort of medication to get to sleep at night!*

Oh, how awful. People taking medicine.

… wait, what?

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Medical Harassment, It Just Makes You Feel Better

File this one under creepy, inappropriate, and completely unethical*:

In a lawsuit filed yesterday, a Camden County woman accused her orthopedic surgeon of “rubbing a temporary tattoo of a red rose” on her belly while she was under anesthesia.

The patient discovered the tattoo below the panty line the next morning, when her husband was helping her get dressed to go home after the operation for a herniated disc, her attorney, Gregg A. Shivers, said in a phone interview yesterday.

Note that the placement of the tattoo, while of prurient interest, is made that much more curious by the fact that surgery for a herniated disc required the patient to lay on her stomach for the duration of the surgery, meaning that after the surgery, Doc turned his patient over and took the time to apply a temporary tattoo “below the panty line.”

As his laywer puts it, it’s part of her aftercare plan.

The doctor’s attorney, Agre, who had seen neither the board complaint nor the lawsuit, said the doctor had “never been accused of anything.”

“Most of the patients are delighted by Dr. Kirshner’s sense of humor.”

Ha ha ha! Yes! Delightful!

via Chaos Theory
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* I highly suggest that if you click through to read the full article you resist the urge to read the accompanying comments, where the patient is cast as a clear example of a “scumbag” trying to “take advantage of the system.” Can’t a bitch take a joke?

Clinton Fights On

No doubt Clinton’s relatively new vocalization in favor of reproductive health rights has something to do with her massive campaign debt*, but I don’t care. I’ll take it.

Today Clinton made two gutsy press releases via blog in order to take a stand against the Bush administration’s latest attempt** to put common forms of contraception like birth control pills and IUDs in the same category as abortion.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them “abortion.” These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can’t let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women’s health and that’s why I am sounding the alarm.

These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They’ll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.

The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California’s laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of “the problem.” These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.

The only thing abortive about birth control is that it messes with God’s will, God’s will to permanently relieve me from cat litter duty. Because God has nothing better to do.

On the other hand, you, dear reader, with a few flicks of your delicate wrist, can join Sen. Clinton’s call to action here.

And in related reading, Marcella wrote about another offense by the Bush administration earlier this week in which they want special protection for anti-abortion and anti-contraceptive medical providers who refuse treatment to patients. Senators Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray jointly released a statement in protest on this proposal as well.

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* To be fair, Clinton’s record on reproductive rights is as good as, if not better than, Obama’s, but I can’t recall her being this outspoken on the issues in recent history.
** Some of Bush’s recent attempts of wrestling media glory away from Obama and McCain appear to be pretty transparent attempts at reclaiming his legacy. It’s way better for the future of his vainglorious presidential library if he can be remembered as an evangelical, lady-killing rock star by his base, instead of being remembered as the man who wiped his ass on the Constitution, abandoned thousands of citizens in crisis, abused the good faith and young bodies of his troops, and waged an unnecessary war to avenge the name of his father.

Victims Partly To Blame For Nurse’s 20 Year Pattern Of Sexual Abuse?

From the BBC:

David Britten, 54, a former manager at the Peter Dally Clinic in Pimlico, central London, preyed on patients over a 20-year period.

Claims by patients of sexual misconduct emerged after his dismissal from the clinic in 2002 over unrelated issues.

The NHS launched an inquiry in 2006 into how he escaped detection.[…]

The investigators blamed poor management, missed opportunities and the reluctance of his victims to come forward as the reasons for Mr Britten “grooming vulnerable patients”.

The report described Mr Britten as a “manipulative predator who represented a clear danger to women”.

Alison McKenna, who led the inquiry, said: “The effect of David Britten’s abuse of these vulnerable women cannot be overestimated.

What I find striking is the contradiction between the idea that the effect of this man’s abuse cannot be overestimated and how the blame for this man’s serial abuses included the reluctance of his patients to come forward.

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Medical Rape and the Medicalization of Childbirth

On medical rape: This is one of those inter-blogular stories that I inevitably end up misrepresenting because I haven’t followed most of it, but from what I can tell, it’s ugly. Check out that link for the backstory.

Here’s the general run-down: A radical feminist blogger named Debs put up a post about undergoing a gynecological procedure with a new doctor. She consented to the procedure initially, but it became increasingly painful and she repeatedly asked her doctor to stop. She ended up screaming and in tears, and the doctor still wouldn’t quit. She posted about it on her blog, and said that it felt like “medical rape.” The post is now down, but from what I can tell from reading excerpts, her point wasn’t the terminology — it was the need to discuss how the medical establishment treats women, especially in the context of gynecological care, and how doctors imposing their will on you in that setting is a deep and painful violation. Well, Dr. John Crippen, who writes for the NHS weblog, came across her post and promptly decided it was his place to emphasize that she was not “medically raped.” Nevermind that the terminology really wasn’t the point; he takes offense at women (not just this blogger) comparing what he calls “bad obstetric experiences” to rape. And so he rips Debs to shreds — claiming that she doesn’t understand the female anatomy, that she’s hysterical (shocker), that she’s psychologically ill, that she’s obsessed. He wonders how she managed to get pregnant in the first place (because, ya know, she hates having things in her vagina, and an invasive medical procedure is just like sex). He calls her and another feminist activist “coffee-shop feminists” and “disgrace[s] to feminism.”

Apparently the “childbirth can feel like rape” line of argument is occasionally used by home-birth activists — that women want control over their own birthing processes, and that this may be especially true for women who have experienced sexual assault. This is a big issue in both the U.S. and the U.K., as the medical establishment attempts to limit and sometimes even outlaw home births. So the “Medical procedures can be traumatic when women remove their consent or don’t consent in the first place” line isn’t just striking a nerve about the particular procedure that the blogger had; it’s getting to a bigger policy question of who should be in charge of women’s bodies.

In another post, Crippen quotes one woman who he thinks is out of line:

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The (Lack of) Medical Treatment Received by ICE Detainees

Last week, Miss Sarajevo left a comment with a link to this series of articles in The Washington Post, and I’m just finally getting around to writing about it. The series, “Careless Detention,” is about the terrifying, unethical and downright inhumane medical treatment of immigrants imprisoned by ICE, generally while fighting or awaiting deportation for infractions that are usually non-violent and in fact so mild as to verge on the ridiculous. Since 9/11, Bush and his buddies have really stepped up anti-immigrant measures (which were already largely poor and in place), broadened definitions of who could be deported, increased raids and decided that those seeking asylum must do so while behind bars. Our government is imprisoning both documented and undocumented men and women (and though not mentioned in this series, also children), often without due process, and then, quite simply, killing them with medical neglect, or otherwise abusing/torturing them with inappropriate or an outright lack of medical treatment.

If you think that the medical treatment of some immigrants who are not in trouble with ICE is appalling (and it is), be prepared to learn a new definition of the word.

Excerpts from the articles after the jump.

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Update: Iscoa Will Remain in U.S.

Good news, folks: Sonia del Cid Iscoa will not be forcibly (or apparently otherwise) deported to Honduras. Even better, her condition has improved markedly and at an exceptional rate. (Thanks to Lindsay for the update.)

St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center on Tuesday reached agreement with lawyers representing Sonia del Cid Iscoa, ending an international legal drama over whether a legal immigrant could be forcibly transported from the country by a medical facility.

Iscoa, 34, did not have sufficient medical insurance to cover long-term care, St. Joseph’s could not offer it, and there were no apparent programs that could take her.

The hospital planned to fly her to a government hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Iscoa’s family went to Maricopa County Superior Court to get a temporary restraining order, and all parties were scheduled to appear before a judge on Friday.

But Iscoa’s condition has improved so markedly in the past several days that the discussion has changed.

“She has begun to take semisolid food. She is on room air, as opposed to supplemental oxygen. And she’s not had dialysis for a week, which is a huge improvement,” said attorney John Curtain. “Because of this the hospital at present is not contemplating sending her to Honduras.”

Of course, I find it odd that St. Joseph’s is no longer contemplating forced deportation now that Iscoa is seemingly doing well without dialysis, but was more than willing to deport her to a hospital that had no dialysis equipment back when she did need it. There’s some ethics for ya. One almost has to wonder if the decision came out of newfound financial ability, a moral revelation, or just some really shitty publicity that needed to be plugged up.

Though not entirely clear from the article, it does seem like Iscoa’s family is still going to need money to pay off medical bills, and since she’s still in recovery, her struggle is far from over.

The fact that Iscoa’s immediate crisis has been resolved is also no reason to stop discussing the issue and go back to our happy lives like it didn’t happen. Because this isn’t and never was just about one woman — it’s also about the approximately 8 immigrant patients that this one hospital forcibly deports each month, and who knows how many others that are deported by other hospitals across the nation.

Breathe a sigh of relief for Iscoa, but don’t stop talking.

Hospital Attempts Deportation of Woman With Inadequate Insurance

An immigrant woman from Honduras who has very recently awakened from a coma is being threatened with what can effectively be called deportation, because she does not have the insurance needed to cover her medical bills. (Don’t read the comments in these articles unless you want to lose your lunch.) But here is the real kicker: while it would be repulsive and incredibly inhumane to deport an uninsured/under-insured person with a serious medical condition because of their undocumented status, despite the lack of adequate facilities for their care in their nations of citizenship, it isn’t even the case here. Sonia del Cid Iscoa has a current visa and in the U.S. legally. (All emphasis in quoted text is mine.)

A gravely ill woman at risk of being removed from the country for lack of adequate insurance coverage awoke from a coma Tuesday.

The hospital has been seeking to return her to her native Honduras; her family took the hospital to court.

[. . .]

Iscoa, 34, has a valid visa and has lived in the United States for more than 17 years. She has no family in Honduras.

But St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center sought to have her sent to Honduras when she went into a coma April 20 after giving birth to a daughter about 8 weeks premature. Iscoa has an amended version of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System coverage that does not cover long-term care, Curtin said. But her family worried that the move would seriously harm her, or, at the very least, prevent her from ever returning to the United States.

Iscoa’s mother, Joaquina del Cid Plasecea, obtained a temporary restraining order to keep her from being moved. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Carey Hyatt also ordered that the family post a $20,000 bond by Tuesday to cover St. Joseph’s costs of postponing the transfer.

However, Curtin said that the hospital gave the family three more days to come up with the money before a hearing Friday.

If the family can prove that Iscoa would suffer irreparable injury by a move, the bond will be refunded and Iscoa will not be transferred. But if Hyatt determines that Iscoa is not in imminent danger by a move, the family will forfeit the bond.

A stipulation to a court order issued by Hyatt Tuesday evening said that the parties were “actively exploring alternative sources of securing payment for the medical bills of Sonia Iscoa.”

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Women in Medicine

The New York Times has an interesting video up about increasing numbers of med students going into more lifestyle-friendly fields like dermatology. It’s made even more interesting by the woman featured in it, who, in addition to being my college room mate’s older sister, has some good insights into how the male-dominated medical profession has pushed top female students (and male students who put their families first) down certain paths. Check it out, if only because it shows Meena’s two daughters, who are the cutest things ever.