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

Tag: Abortion

Call for Abortion Stories

From an email I got today:

Are you a woman who has had an abortion?

You are not alone and your story is important.

We are editing a book about abortion and we want to hear your story.

BEYOND CHOICE: VOICES OF REAL WOMEN is not a political treatise and we do not have an agenda. We simply want the voices of real women who have had abortions to be heard. Beyond Choice will be published by a major U.S. publisher and will focus on the experience of abortion: what leads women to consider abortion, what it’s like to have one, and how it factors into real, lived lives. We are women united by only one act: we had an abortion. Beyond Choice will include voices of women who vote republican and democrat, women who are young and old, rich and poor, women who are married and single, gay and straight, women who are religious and secular, and women who condemn and are not ashamed of their experiences. You do not have to be a gifted writer to share your story. Send a 2-15 page essay told in your own words, along with your name or a fake name (if you’d prefer to remain anonymous) and an e-mail address to abortionanthology@hotmail.com by November 30, 2005. Everyone who submits an essay will be considered for inclusion in this important book.

It looks like it’ll be a good project. I’ll post more info if I get any.

Scalia’s Abortion Bender

NORFOLK, VA—Saying “Fuck this shit, I’m stopping beating hearts with my bare hands,” Justice Antonin Scalia, overlooked for the vacated position of Supreme Court chief justice, went on a spiteful abortion-performing bender over the weekend. “If I’m not going to be permitted a lasting judicial legacy, to hell with law and order,” said Scalia, the conservative Reagan appointee who has served on the court since 1986. “I worked my ass off for 20 years, and no one cares. So, who gives a shit? Safe, legal abortions for all. Who wants one?” Scalia added that 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore “totally won that election, any idiot knows that.”

Posted in Uncategorized

Katrina Links

What happens when you move people from LGBTQ-friendly New Orleans and into not-so-friendly areas of Texas? You get arrested for taking a shower.

Social analysis of the hurricane: Damn you single black welfare mothers for letting your animalistic sons run loose!

The worst of the worst. Vomit–inducing. Examples:

-only an iron will could keep any normal person from looking at some of the NOLA refugees and saying “get over it, get a job, quit feeling sorry for yourselves.”

-While a lot of the people we saw on TV may be living in poverty, one thing is for sure, they eat well and often.

-The good news is that Hurricane Katrina destroyed five of nine Louisiana abortion mills, although their displaced vermin were scurrying around shelters within 72 hours handing out free morning-after pills and abortions.

Lovely.

Susan Wood, an Interview

The Village Voice has a great interview with Susan Wood, the former director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health, who resigned after a sneaky move to keep the morning-after pill, called Plan B, off pharmacy shelves even after some called it the “safest product they had seen in years.”

Who made the decision to postpone selling Plan B in pharmacies?
I don’t know. It did not appear to me that any of the professional staff were involved. At every level of the review process, we agreed that this was safe, effective, and appropriate for over-the-counter use. The decision was not made in the usual passage.

Opponents call Plan B an “abortion pill.” Is there any logic to this?
The only connection this product has with abortions is that it prevents them. The public debate baffles me. It’s extraordinary. Plan B delays ovulation. No matter when you believe life or pregnancy begins, this product is unlikely to ever involve a fertilized egg.

Italicized emphasis mine.

via Feministing

Fetal Pain Is a Myth

Taking on one of the most highly charged questions in the abortion debate, a team of doctors has concluded that fetuses probably cannot feel pain in the first six months of gestation and therefore do not need anesthesia during abortions.

Their report, being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on a review of several hundred scientific papers, and it says that nerve connections in the brain are unlikely to have developed enough for the fetus to feel pain before 29 weeks.

The finding poses a direct challenge to proposed federal and state laws that would compel doctors to tell women having abortions at 20 weeks or later that their fetuses can feel pain and to offer them anesthesia specifically for the fetus.

UPDATE: And more context for the study.

Culture of Life: Death Be Not Proud

Gerri Santoro was the mother of two daughters, and recently estranged from her abusive husband. For whatever reason, Gerri met another man, Clyde Dixon, and (gasp!) had sex with him. She became pregnant. Fearful of what her husband would do to her if he returned to town and learned she was pregnant by another man, Gerry and Clyde decided that they had to terminate the pregnancy. By any means necessary. Of course, they couldn’t afford to pay off some doctor in a nice hospital to do a purported D&C, as rich women could back then. Or hop on a plane and go to Mexico. Apparently, they couldn’t afford even a back-alley abortionist (what–abortion being illegal didn’t stop people from performing abortions???). No, these people were so poor, and so desperate, that they decided to do what far too many people in like circumstances saw as the only way. They decided to perform the abortion themselves. And they agonized over this decision so long, that Gerri was 6 1/2 months pregnant when they decided to take matters into their own hands.

Dixon acquired a medical book and equipment. They got a motel room, and he attempted to operate on her there. As expected, everything went completely wrong. Very quickly. Realizing he had made a mistake, realizing what could happen to him if he were there when Gerri died, Dixon fled the scene. She tried to stop the hemorraghing, but nothing worked.

Gerri Santoro

Here is how Gerri Santoro’s life ended.

This is a culture of life.

HT: The Heretik

Opinions sought from non-trolls

Flute here, not Lauren. I’ve just been speaking at length with my local MP about his position on abortion as it was reported that he is against government funding for it. He said that although he is personally against abortion, he is against any cuts or changes to the system and supports the right to choose. He is for the gathering of more information on the reasons why women chose abortion and tackling those, such as poor financial situation etc. Any comments?

More than just a woman’s issue

While I’m on this tirade about the abortion “debate” its important to remember that this issue concerns more than purely women’s rights. Let me make this abundantly clear. The cutting of government funding, or restriction in any way of abortions will not stop those with money from undergoing a procedure, that would be beyond the reach of a person with the same need but not the means. You change the system so that is based on your wallet rather than your need. It is a totally abhorrent social divide that you would come to expect from the right of the political spectrum. What is disturbing is that many on the left also hold anti-abortion views and forget that it is an issue of social equity. A woman of means can either fork out to have it done properly, or go to a jurisdiction where the same restrictions do not apply. Those women without the means are either forced to go full term (which causes a whole other bag of problems) or to get it done on the cheap illegally and risk serious complications, even death.

Anyway, I hope I haven’t bored Lauren’s regular readers, I’m usually a bit more lighthearted than this, but the news just came back to the boil today and got me all fired up. Luckily I do have a couple of cats that you’ll see on Friday.

Tomorrow: Look on the bright side, its not just American women that are second class.