Linkety-Linkety, reproductive health, lots of abortion-related resources
I found several good sites today that I hadn't encountered previously; they're linked below the main story, and include online versions of pregnancy options workbooks, a religious/spiritual counseling hotline, and a bunch of other important and good stuff.
Secrecy, Stigma: Roots of Substandard Abortion Care (post triggered by a truly atrocious case)
But when I read media accounts of women coming forward to report terrible experiences with their abortions, I feel sad and scared that these women may have settled for far less than they deserve.
One of the many prices women pay for the stigma attached to abortion is that they don’t realize they have a right to medical skill, kindness, and a clean attractive abortion facility, just as they do with any other health care. If they are keeping secrets, they may not tell even other women about bad experiences-or good experiences. So each woman who is thinking about abortion is on her own. And they may not report substandard care to health authorities because they don’t want to jeopardize their own confidentiality. Or they may not even realize that they deserve better.
As with any kind of service, some abortion facilities are better than others. Ironically the anti-choice movement with its righteous judgment creates an atmosphere of secrecy where a bad clinic could thrive. Sometimes it actually seems as though the angry picketers target the better clinics. If abortion were talked about as the normal, common, experience that it is, bad abortion providers would go out of business the same way bad restaurants do-because people would tell each other not to go there. Abortion is still treated as such a shameful secret that many women don’t even know that their sister or cousin or aunt may have been to a clinic herself, and have information to share. In a room with 10 women, at least three of them have had an abortion-and all of them have known and loved someone who has. What would it be like if we reached out to each other so that this important life decision wasn’t such a lonely one?
Additional resources:
Choosing a Quality Clinic
Considering Abortion?
Overview of resources and information for women making a pregnancy decision.
Pregnancy Options Workbook
A Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Resolution After an Abortion
A number of good books on coping with abortion
Faith Aloud: Families who have dealt with a loss such as miscarriage, abortion, placing a child for adoption, infertility, stillbirth, or a denial of adoption may choose to speak to a trained religious counselor about the confusing emotions of grief, guilt, anger, joy, and relief . No two loss experiences are identical, and yet all share some similar responses. -- Wow, what an awesome resource; I didn't know they existed!
Anytime I'm talking about abortion-related support, I try to publicize Exhale, a wonderful post-abortion counseling line
TV stylist Nicky shunned the NHS for a private home birth - then things went terribly wrong... -- this interests me mostly because of what it shows of proper home birth approaches; her care was excellent, and the intersection of her home care and her access to hospital care allowed for an easy transfer when it became necessary. I'm sorry she ended up having such a rough time, but it's a case that looks very different from what we see in terms of many home birth issues in the US. There's still a lot of mixed legality going on depending on location here, and a lot of cases of hospitals not being willing to work this effectively with trained and licensed midwives even when there aren't direct legality issues.
Secrecy, Stigma: Roots of Substandard Abortion Care (post triggered by a truly atrocious case)
But when I read media accounts of women coming forward to report terrible experiences with their abortions, I feel sad and scared that these women may have settled for far less than they deserve.
One of the many prices women pay for the stigma attached to abortion is that they don’t realize they have a right to medical skill, kindness, and a clean attractive abortion facility, just as they do with any other health care. If they are keeping secrets, they may not tell even other women about bad experiences-or good experiences. So each woman who is thinking about abortion is on her own. And they may not report substandard care to health authorities because they don’t want to jeopardize their own confidentiality. Or they may not even realize that they deserve better.
As with any kind of service, some abortion facilities are better than others. Ironically the anti-choice movement with its righteous judgment creates an atmosphere of secrecy where a bad clinic could thrive. Sometimes it actually seems as though the angry picketers target the better clinics. If abortion were talked about as the normal, common, experience that it is, bad abortion providers would go out of business the same way bad restaurants do-because people would tell each other not to go there. Abortion is still treated as such a shameful secret that many women don’t even know that their sister or cousin or aunt may have been to a clinic herself, and have information to share. In a room with 10 women, at least three of them have had an abortion-and all of them have known and loved someone who has. What would it be like if we reached out to each other so that this important life decision wasn’t such a lonely one?
Additional resources:
Choosing a Quality Clinic
Considering Abortion?
Overview of resources and information for women making a pregnancy decision.
Pregnancy Options Workbook
A Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Resolution After an Abortion
A number of good books on coping with abortion
Faith Aloud: Families who have dealt with a loss such as miscarriage, abortion, placing a child for adoption, infertility, stillbirth, or a denial of adoption may choose to speak to a trained religious counselor about the confusing emotions of grief, guilt, anger, joy, and relief . No two loss experiences are identical, and yet all share some similar responses. -- Wow, what an awesome resource; I didn't know they existed!
Anytime I'm talking about abortion-related support, I try to publicize Exhale, a wonderful post-abortion counseling line
TV stylist Nicky shunned the NHS for a private home birth - then things went terribly wrong... -- this interests me mostly because of what it shows of proper home birth approaches; her care was excellent, and the intersection of her home care and her access to hospital care allowed for an easy transfer when it became necessary. I'm sorry she ended up having such a rough time, but it's a case that looks very different from what we see in terms of many home birth issues in the US. There's still a lot of mixed legality going on depending on location here, and a lot of cases of hospitals not being willing to work this effectively with trained and licensed midwives even when there aren't direct legality issues.