We all know that cosmetic surgery is considered elective surgery, right? It is having a chosen surgical procedure which is not lifesaving in most cases. We are clear about ELECTIVE surgery, yet it is not regulated or focused on as an individual right in the way MEDICAL abortions are.
Women's health care has become a hot button topic. Defining what is and is not acceptable health care for women has been put up for public debate without a woman's voice having any more sway than any other voice.
Medical reasons which make it necessary to end a pregnancy are varied and the majority of the public are unaware of these reasons. A woman may be offered a termination for medical reasons (TFMR) if tests show that your baby is not developing as expected. This may be due to a serious genetic or structural condition. A woman may also be offered a TFMR if she has pregnancy complications that risks her life or to the baby’s life.
The feelings a woman has when she needs to end a pregnancy for medical reasons are no less painful or valid than any other type of baby loss. Being told that you or your unborn baby are at risk is a painful and traumatic experience. Parents tell us that the guilt linked to making the decision can make it even harder. It is made even harder when the parents AREN'T allowed to make the decision.
The MOST common situation where a pregnant patient would need a procedure to terminate their pregnancy is a miscarriage. In medical terms, a miscarriage is called a spontaneous abortion, which can be confusing to patients. An estimated 10% to 20% of confirmed pregnancies in the US will end in miscarriage. The majority of these will complete without intervention; but some patients might require medication or surgical intervention, using the same procedure performed during an abortion.
Another key consideration when it comes to pregnancy and pre-existing disease is the use of teratogenic medications, such as medicines for Rheumatoid arthritis. These are medications that can cause birth defects or abnormalities in the embryo or fetus, and they include some of the most effective treatments across medicine. Unintended pregnancies occur even when someone is using highly effective birth control. And when physicians prescribe teratogenic medications to patients with reproductive potential, it is usually with the understanding that in case the patient became pregnant, abortion would be available to them as an option.
For some conditions, like lupus nephritis, there may not be any alternative, non-teratogenic therapies available. A disproportionate number of lupus patients are female, and lupus tends to manifest during childbearing years. And if they develop renal complications of lupus, which about 40% will, carrying a pregnancy to full term would be dangerous. The best evidence-based medications we have for that entity are both teratogenic, which harms the fetus.
With pregnancies indicating a clear need for medical intervention to end the pregnancy, the Republican party has decided that a pregnant woman and her doctor does not have the right to make those decisions.
I know you're saying, "Wanting to have an erection after the biology of a man's body says its over is not equal to the death of a fetus," and you are right. But whether you believe the two are equal or not, what IF someone said WE DON'T CARE! We say no to YOUR medical need/desire/ What if your most FACT-based reasoning proves you, as a man, under a physician's care can still be told, sorry, WE will be making THIS decision for you.
What makes the availability of certain types of health care for men be stamped as fine when LIFE THREATENING medical care is denied for women? Why isn't here an evaluation of ALL medical care to determine which should and should not be determined between a patient and a doctor? Let's put some more health care choices on the ballot.
The thing about health care is it BELONGS to an individual. I doubt any man, as he consults with his doctor, would want me there as he describes his erectile dysfunction, how long it has been a problem, and how he is suffering because of it. If there was another person in the doctor's office with men seeking Viagra, many would not do it. That is why there are so many Viagra commercials saying men can order the medication, without a doctor's prescription and it's mailed without a label so no one will know what they have ordered. Erectile dysfunction is as private as private can be.
It is hard to believe we live in a time of rampant cosmetic surgery just to get more likes online, and erectile dysfunction medication being mail order, and a woman can die or be criminalized for a medical abortion. But women have been here before.
An online magazine reached out to me years ago after reading a blog post I had made. This is that post they later printed in their magazine below.
My MoJo Online Submission in Issue 11
MEMOIR/SOCIAL COMMENTARY:
I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SEE THE DAY
By Dorothy Guyton
I think it was four-no five years ago I went to visit an elderly friend. Oh, that’s not a good description of this lady whose eyes and ears have seen and heard more things than most young minds could contain. She was a lady but was never ashamed of the hard labor she did with her dark palmed hands. These were hands that picked astonishing amounts of cotton and the same hands that slipped bail money in coffins from up North to Mississippi during Jim Crow for those imprisoned under made up charges with high set bail. Now, you get it. Now you know I was visiting a fountain of courage and wisdom who spoke in a paced, low alto, authoritative voice.
“Yes, Dorothy I would have loved to have more children, but I couldn’t. The doctor told me when I was in my thirties, I needed to have a hysterectomy, but my husband told the doctor no.”
Stunned for a moment, knowing I just misunderstood what had just been said; I asked the woman who spoke like spun silk to repeat what she just said. With a smile at my naive youth her skin color perked up and began to flush with undertones of renewed blood flow.
“Oh, yes Door-ah-they (I loved how she purred my name), a woman had to get her husband’s permission to have a hysterectomy back then even if her health was in jeopardy like mine was. It wasn’t until we divorced that I had the surgery. I think I suffer now for waiting so long.”
I left her presence haunted by the thought. I drove home swiftly with a new idea for a book swirling in my head aching to be released and jotted down on paper. I had grand plans for a four-part novelette.
It would begin with a slave woman and progress to the 1950’s, to 2009, and end in the year 2065, all dealing with the same core issue with different women linked to each other one way or another.
(The story would begin) Aunt Addie was used to produce babies for her Master to sell. Her children all went for high prices, and each had an identifiable birthmark on them somewhere that looked like a star. Her prized off springs began to be known as a ‘Star Child’ and every slave owner wanted one. This was fine with Addie until she became pregnant by the love of her life who promised not to sell their love child, the master’s son.
Of course, the child was sold, love was lost, and it turned out she would never have another ‘Star Child.’ Years go by and the new Master (her old love) purchases a beautiful young girl who worked hard and now was the one counted on to birth the money children. When it comes time for the baby to be born old Aunt Addie was the midwife. The young girl pushed and pushed and then Aunt Addie saw it, the birthmark on the inside of the new young girl’s thigh in the shape of a star.
I can’t tell you the entire story, but not to be able to recognize or ever raise one of your children had to hit Old Aunt Addie hard. What had to hit even harder was that more ‘Star’ children were being birthed for market, with no say in the matter. Great little story of a past era we strive to leave in the past and move towards our future.
My, how time flies. The title of the book is going to be I Never Thought I’d See the Day. But I have lived to see the day. I live in a world where there is a debate whether a woman can have contraceptives, safe abortions, a place for breast exams, and procedures in a hospital that would save her life, but not if it endangered the unborn child’s life.
Men are debating women’s issues without even asking for a woman’s advice. What a difference four or five years can make. I did not believe I would see a day, a time like this. My fictitious character, Aunt Addie, did not have any control or choice of her reproduction wishes, her own body. “How far have we come as women—or is the question —where are we headed as women?”
Say what you will, give reasonings as you will, but as long as Viagra is healthcare, so should medical abortions without interference from the public.
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