This is the
strangest editorial I've read in a long time. It begins thus:
The conservative politics of the Bush administration forced me to have an abortion I didn't want. Well, not literally, but let me explain.
Oh, please do...
My husband and I both work, and like many couples, we're starved for time together. One Thursday evening this past March, we managed to snag some rare couple time and, in a sudden rush of passion, I failed to insert my diaphragm.
Hey, wait a minute. . . I thought that this was going to be the Bush administration's fault. . .
I called my ob/gyn to get a prescription for Plan B, the emergency contraceptive pill that can prevent a pregnancy -- but only if taken within 72 hours of intercourse...
The receptionist, however, informed me that my doctor did not prescribe Plan B. No reason given. Neither did my internist. The midwifery practice I had used could prescribe it, but not over the phone, and there were no more open appointments for the day. The weekend -- and the end of the 72-hour window -- was approaching.
But I needed to meet my kids' school bus and, as I was pretty much out of options -- short of soliciting random Virginia doctors out of the phone book -- I figured I'd take my chances and hope for the best.
You call three people, and you're "out of options?" Sure. Don't overtax yourself, lady. Good point about the phone book--having to use
that would have been such an annoyance. Of course, you wouldn't have had to use the phone book at all if you'd just put in your diaphram, but this is liberal-I-have-no-responsibility-for-myself world, so no need to go there.
Weeks later, the two drugstore pregnancy tests I took told a different story. Positive. I couldn't believe it.
You couldn't believe it? Really? Weeks earlier you thought it enough of a possibility to half-heartedly look for Plan B.
I'm still in good health, but unlike the last time I was pregnant, nearly a decade ago, I'm now taking three medications. One of them, for high cholesterol, is in the Food and Drug Administration's Pregnancy Category X -- meaning it's a drug you shouldn't take if you're expecting or even planning to get pregnant.
So why didn't you use your birth control?!
I worried because the odds of having a high-risk pregnancy or a baby born with serious health issues rise significantly after age 40.
I'm sure the baby would be comforted to know that you killed it to save it from the "serious health issues" you thought it might possibly have.
My husband and I are involved in all aspects of our children's lives, but even so, we feel we don't get enough time to spend with them as it is.
Can't spend enough time with the kids? Off one of them, and have more time for the others. Problem solved!
Who thinks this way?
When I realized the seriousness of my predicament, I became angry. I knew that Plan B, which could have prevented it, was supposed to have been available over the counter by now. But I also remembered hearing that conservative politics have held up its approval.
It was those insidious conservatives. It wasn't that you didn't use your birth control, barely attempted to get a prescription for Plan B, and are willing to kill your child. Nope, it's all the fault of those who think you should have a prescription for birth control pills.
Meanwhile, I hadn't even been able to get Plan B with a prescription that Friday, because in Virginia, health-care practitioners apparently are allowed to refuse to prescribe any drug that goes against their beliefs.
Actually you could have gotten it
with a prescription, but you didn't bother to get the prescription. We'll leave that aside for a moment.
Heaven forbid a man be allowed to do what he thinks is right. He should be forced to do what Dana L, author of this editorial, thinks is right. She shouldn't have to dial the phone
again to find a doctor who shares her perspective. People shouldn't be able to make their own choices, they should follow the directives of Dana L.
Moreover, they aren't even required to tell the patient why they won't provide the drug. Nor do they have to provide a list of alternative sources.
Remember that phone book you mentioned earlier? There's your list.
If information on Plan B was hard to come by, and practitioners were evasive on emergency contraception, trying to get information on how to abort a pregnancy in 2006 is an even more Byzantine experience.
On the Internet, most of what I found was political in nature or otherwise unhelpful: pictures of what your baby looks like in the womb from week one, and so on.
So true. When you're looking for information about how to kill someone, it is really unhelpful for people to tell you not to kill someone. It is so unhelpful for them to show the unwitting that their babies are human beings, when you, a witting and fully integrated personality, are well aware that your baby is a human being and are just looking to make it die.
Calling doctors, I felt like a pariah when I asked whether they provided termination services.
There's a reason for that. It's called conscience. It's that thing you're trying to kick back into the cellar by convincing yourself that conservatives made you abort your child.
Finally, I decided to check the Planned Parenthood Web site to see whether its clinics performed abortions.
You had to check the website? I don't believe that any literate adult could be unaware that Planned Parenthood offers abortions. This calls into question the entire letter. Perhaps it is all a poor fiction to try and convince people that conservatives cause abortions. This is all the more likely given that the writer's last name is not signed and her background cannot be checked.
It was a decision I am sorry I had to make. It was awful, painful, sickening. But I feel that this administration gave me practically no choice but to have an unwanted abortion because the way it has politicized religion made it well-nigh impossible for me to get emergency contraception that would have prevented the pregnancy in the first place.
Nevermind that you had regular contraception and didn't use it. Nevermind that you could have gotten the emergency contraception if you'd made any real effort. Nevermind that abortion is not the natural consequence of pregnancy, and no one forced you to take your child's life. It's all Bush's fault.
I have another idea:
Instead of trying desperately to crush your guilt under the heel of self-justification, try simple repentance. I did something wrong, I know it, I am sorry for it. Repentance is much easier than trying to kill off your conscience and your will.
