How far will this war on women go?
Written in response to this article:
This hits very close to home for me, for very personal reasons. I debated whether to post in detail about why, as I don’t normally expose myself so fully in public, but if no one speaks out then they win, so here’s my tale:
By the summer of 2008, we’d been trying for a second child for almost two and a half years. Everything was fine medically with both of us. I just wasn’t getting pregnant. We’d decided if I wasn’t pregnant by my birthday that year that we would stop trying, for various reasons. But right before my birthday, I found out I was finally pregnant again! Happy dance! I had a bit of a panic about two months in, because I went through a brief period of spotting, but I exhibited no other adverse symptoms, and a checkup with my doctor showed everything to be normal.
So everything was seemingly fine when went in for a routine checkup at the start of my second trimester. I was excited that day because that day I would be able to hear my new baby’s heartbeat for the first time. Except the doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat. An emergency ultrasound was performed, and it didn’t show anything good. From what we could see, it seemed that the fetus had died sometime in the previous couple of weeks, but I hadn’t actually shown any of the signs of miscarriage or fetal demise. To confirm, they took a blood test, and I went in three days later for another test, and the comparison showed my hormone levels were dropping instead of increasing, as they would be if my pregnancy was progressing.
At this point, the doctors referred me to a nearby women’s clinic for a D&C, because if the dead fetal tissue remained in my body, there was the possibility of infection. It should be noted that this was a birthing center in a large hospital, but they had to refer me to this clinic because no one at their facility had the training to perform this procedure.
This legislation, banning training of medical students in abortion procedures, endangers the lives of countless women who will find themselves in my situation, referred to sometimes as a “missed miscarriage”, with the possibility of serious health risks if the fetal tissue is not removed.
If the training of medical personnel in these procedures is outlawed, the implications for women’s health are frightening. Don’t let it happen. Make a gesture. It’s a simple one. Raise one, or both hands, to these legislators, and lower all fingers but the middle ones. Tell them we will not stand idly by and allow them to so negatively impact our physical and mental well-being.
Our bodies, our health, our choice.
Find your senators here.
Find your representatives here.
This hits very close to home for me, for very personal reasons. I debated whether to post in detail about why, as I don’t normally expose myself so fully in public, but if no one speaks out then they win, so here’s my tale:
By the summer of 2008, we’d been trying for a second child for almost two and a half years. Everything was fine medically with both of us. I just wasn’t getting pregnant. We’d decided if I wasn’t pregnant by my birthday that year that we would stop trying, for various reasons. But right before my birthday, I found out I was finally pregnant again! Happy dance! I had a bit of a panic about two months in, because I went through a brief period of spotting, but I exhibited no other adverse symptoms, and a checkup with my doctor showed everything to be normal.
So everything was seemingly fine when went in for a routine checkup at the start of my second trimester. I was excited that day because that day I would be able to hear my new baby’s heartbeat for the first time. Except the doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat. An emergency ultrasound was performed, and it didn’t show anything good. From what we could see, it seemed that the fetus had died sometime in the previous couple of weeks, but I hadn’t actually shown any of the signs of miscarriage or fetal demise. To confirm, they took a blood test, and I went in three days later for another test, and the comparison showed my hormone levels were dropping instead of increasing, as they would be if my pregnancy was progressing.
At this point, the doctors referred me to a nearby women’s clinic for a D&C, because if the dead fetal tissue remained in my body, there was the possibility of infection. It should be noted that this was a birthing center in a large hospital, but they had to refer me to this clinic because no one at their facility had the training to perform this procedure.
This legislation, banning training of medical students in abortion procedures, endangers the lives of countless women who will find themselves in my situation, referred to sometimes as a “missed miscarriage”, with the possibility of serious health risks if the fetal tissue is not removed.
If the training of medical personnel in these procedures is outlawed, the implications for women’s health are frightening. Don’t let it happen. Make a gesture. It’s a simple one. Raise one, or both hands, to these legislators, and lower all fingers but the middle ones. Tell them we will not stand idly by and allow them to so negatively impact our physical and mental well-being.
Our bodies, our health, our choice.
Find your senators here.
Find your representatives here.