Hard, important, triggery reading

[drwex]

http://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/anatomy-of-an-unsafe-abortion/
In the first posting, Dr Jen Gunter describes in sometimes graphic detail what happened when she was in an emergency room that received a patient who was literally bleeding to death from the aftermath of a botched abortion. I cried when I read this one.

http://drjengunter.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/imagine-if-all-the-money-spent-on-fighting-abortion/
In a follow-up post, Dr Gunter assures us that this woman did survive, and urges the uncommonly sane idea that the best way to deal with abortions is to make it so that all women have the chance and means to control their pregnancies.

My thoughts...
When I read the first piece I wanted to murder the doctor who performed the procedure on the patient. How could he do something he was so obviously, dangerously unqualified to do? How many women had died unknown because they didn't make it to ERs in time to have people like Dr Gunter save them?

Then I stopped to wonder: what was the alternative for a woman who went to this guy (I bet it's a man) and were refused? Would they have gone home and found a coat-hanger? Would they have drunk some dangerous chemical? Would they simply have given up and ended their own lives? This guy is a hack and clearly dangerous, but he's far from the worst or only danger faced by women who can't find, can't afford, or are blocked from seeking safe and legal means to end a pregnancy. Does he do this out of fear that he'll turn some woman away, then read her obituary in tomorrow's paper?

Lately, Planned Parenthood has been in the news because the Komen Foundation foolishly decided to make an issue of giving PP money to perform breast cancer screenings. Lots of folk have talked about the need to make such preventive medicine available to all women regardless of ability to pay and I support that. But along the way I've detected a current in the commentary of "I support PP's breast cancer-prevention work, but not that other stuff" and it's making me uncomfortable.

I support Planned Parenthood. I made my first donation (to their Clinic Defense Fund) over two decades ago. I support Planned Parenthood because they provide abortion services that are as safe, clean, and affordable as possible - and they train doctors to provide those services when medical schools and hospitals won't. I support PP because I want never to have another story like Dr Gunter's written again.

Comments and feedback welcome. You're not required to agree with me, but please keep it civil.

Comments

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I've been involved with pro-choice activity since my teens. Bodily integrity is SO important to me personally, and I saw (and still see) being unwillingly/unhappily pregnant as a major violation of bodily integrity.

Given where I work now (high risk OB practice), I can't say a lot about abortions, or rather I can't leave a record on the internet of what I say. But I come down firmly on the side of choice, no matter what.