I think a lot of anti-choice men are really misinformed about the realities of human reproduction. They start from the premise that as soon as a sperm fertilizes an egg you have a new human life that has all the same rights as a 35 year-old white man with no felonies on his record. But the formation of life is a lot more complicated than that. For example, perhaps as many as 50% of all fertilized eggs will not result in a live birth (without accounting for potential abortions). Somewhere between 10% and 20% of fertilized eggs will successfully implant in the uterus only to end in miscarriage (usually in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy). Another 10%-30% of fertilized eggs will never implant successfully, with some getting stuck in the fallopian tube (ectopic pregnancy) and others having too many chromosomal abnormalities to do basic cell division.
Most miscarriages happen so early in pregnancy that there is a good chance the woman will not know (or be certain) that they have occurred. But when the pregnancy is somewhat established before it is lost, women start having to ask questions like: What should I do if my practitioner tells me I’ve lost the pregnancy but I still haven’t passed the tissue? and What is curettage like? And it might surprise to learn that curettage is a lot like having an abortion. It’s not a pretty picture:
For suction curettage, the doctor will pass a hollow plastic tube through your cervix and suction out the tissue from your uterus. For a traditional D&C, she’ll use a spoon-shaped instrument called a curette to gently scrape the tissue from the walls of your uterus. The whole thing may take about 15 to 20 minutes, though the tissue removal itself takes less than ten minutes.
Now, if you were overjoyed to be pregnant one minute and then having your uterus scraped with a spoon-shaped instrument the next, you might be feeling a little traumatized. You might be feeling depressed. You might be feeling all kinds of horrible things that you don’t want to have to discuss with anyone, let alone a police officer who wants to make sure you haven’t just engaged in unauthorized vaginal bleeding. Your husband probably feels the same way. The loss of pregnancy is one of the most difficult and trying things any two people can go through, and treating it as a crime scene is the clearest and cruelest violation of privacy that I can imagine.
But, here’s the thing. According to Republican ideology, any non-menstrual bleeding should be treated as a potential crime scene. A potential murder has taken place, even if the mother doesn’t know it. And why not call the cops? It seems totally consistent to me. If you want to protect the unborn, then you jolly well better protect them damn it.
I wish one of these mofos would step to me talking this bullshyt.
Women in Georgia now required to get Period Permits. State balances budget.
I find this subject icky.
.
If life begins at fertilization, doesn’t that effectively reduce the retirement age by 9 months?
and as i’ve said numerous times, forcing women to bear children they don’t want or can’t afford will not only lead to more women dumping their kids on the state through safe haven laws, but also to higher rates of child abuse.
Unwanted children become unwnated adults, and the state (and therefore taxpayers) will bear the burden of higher unemployment, welfare, mental health, addiction, and incarceration costs.
i don’t know why the GOP’s symbol is the elephant. Republicans don’t remember SHIT and they certainly don’t have foresight.
Big image:
During my child-bearing years, I had six pregnancies and only two of them produced babies after some bleeding, complications, and long periods of strict bed rest.
Two of them ended in what is called “spontaneous abortion.” Being less than three months pregnant, bleeding starts, severe cramping ensues and eventually a large clump of bloody mucus comes out and looks absolutely nothing like a baby. One of these required suction curettage because I did not stop bleeding afterwards.
The other two losses, after three months, were classed as miscarriages. With the first one, the pain and bleeding were so extreme I was rushed to the ER and afterwards got the full D&C whether I actually needed it or not. I cried hysterically from the moment it started and continued to do so for about a month afterwards.
Then, I had my son and tried for one more child.
With the second miscarriage, I just stayed home, suffered thru it and got to see that my “baby” was a mutant mess. This actually helped me to feel more stoic about the loss. I could see than Nature disposes of the nonviable. And I did have my son to hug.
I lived in Georgia during this time and, had this law existed then, I would have endured repeated criminal investigations on top of my grief, trauma and humiliation. Don’t they understand that a woman feels guilty over such a loss–especially when the child is much desired? I thought, What did I do wrong? What’s wrong with me? If a couple of cops had shown up at my door, I might have immediately confessed!
Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, fills me with rage and disgust. I feel like driving 800+ miles to yell at and spit in his face.
I can’t and won’t share my experiences for privacy’s sake, but I can relate.
Anyone who has ever experienced such a loss cannot imagine having to answer inquiries about the circumstances.
And this is the most important part. If abortion is illegal and anyone intends to prosecute it, it will be necessary to make sure the pregnancy was over before the uterus was cleaned up. You can’t devise a system that wouldn’t treat the “innocent” as potential criminals.
No one seems to care about this, but whenever I discuss it with anti-choicers it does seem to make a strong impression that other arguments fail to make.
I suggest that women send their bloodied maxipads to their pro-death theocrat legislator or local Catholic bishop so they can make sure no dead human is being deprived of a proper burial, primitive ritual, and all the trimmings. They would take care of this on their own dime, of course.
Next up- an examination table with stirrups installed in police departments. Just to make SURE women can be arrested. And nah, they on’t need no stinkin’ warrant.
Good God.
I’ll say it again: it’s not about birth, it’s not about life, it’s about power. It’s about the utilization of women as objects — in accordance with the mindset that sees living things of all types as objects, including men. A true knowledge of how these objects function isn’t necessary for their use. You can drive a car without knowing how they actually work, right? Same thing.