Pregnant, and No Civil Rights

[moonbladem]

WITH the success of Republicans in the midterm elections and the passage of Tennessee’s anti-abortion amendment, we can expect ongoing efforts to ban abortion and advance the “personhood” rights of fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses.

But it is not just those who support abortion rights who have reason to worry. Anti-abortion measures pose a risk

Comments

[thistlerose]

We should be able to work across the spectrum of opinion about abortion to unite in the defense of one basic principle: that at no point in her pregnancy should a woman lose her civil and human rights.

Unfortunately, with some of these anti-choicers, I'm pretty sure that's the goal.

[aenne036]

This is a scary, and adoption is more appealing than ever before.

[bex]

Yaaaay, one of the authors is a friend of mine, and it was her book that inspired my dissertation research. So excited to see this piece linked all over the place!

[doverz]

Stories like this make me not want to be pregnant.

[primeling]

This makes me want to never get pregnant just to spite them.

[yamamanama]

Women should refuse sex until these laws are repealed.

[mickeym]

Reading this made me sick to my stomach, and so very glad I'm not in any position to get pregnant

[qara_isuke]

A friend of mine suffered what was essentially a miscarriage while her husband was in the military. During a check-up, they discovered that the pregnancy was no longer viable, as the fetus had just....stopped developing. It wasn't even really at a stage to be called a fetus at that point, but technically had a heart beat. But it had very clearly gone horribly wrong, and there was zero chance she would give birth to a viable baby.

She was given the option to continue the pregnancy and basically deliver a dead, half-formed....thing.

Or have an abortion. It is listed on her medical records as an abortion. She said she could not imagine going through the next several months with something dying inside her, and give birth to something dead that wasn't even recognizable as a human. The very thought gave her nightmares.

I shudder to think what might have happened to her, in this day and age of increasingly oppressive laws.

[mickeym]

Oh, my god, your poor friend! I'm glad she was given the option to have an abortion, because yeah. God.

One of my cousins went through something very similar, except hers wasn't a matter of development. The umbilical cord got wrapped around the baby's throat and he strangled, essentially. But since she was within a month of her due date, she wasn't given the option to abort, and the doctor refused to do a caesarean. She had to wait until she went into labor, and then deliver a dead baby :( She was pretty messed up about it, for quite awhile. (This was also back in the mid-80's, not any time recently.)

[qara_isuke]

It was pretty rough for her, especially since she was so excited about having a second child. But thankfully, she got the care she needed and has since been able to have a healthy pregnancy. He's such an adorable little troublemaker.

Oh geez! Your poor cousin. That doesn't even make any sense, because it sounds like not delivering would be a greater risk to her health. I cannot even imagine how she suffered, being forced to go through that.