[1758] ARE WE MAD?

Don’t want to write a whole lot- just want to post an old ‘post’. This week a couple of states had referendums that fought back at the anti union- pro conservative agenda.

Both Wisconsin and Ohio elected Repub governors the last time around [Walker- Kasich] and they both passed legislation that limited collective bargaining rights for their workers.

So the Dems organized well- the unions spent a lot of money- and they did give the Repubs a loss. I wanted to mention one specific comment that I felt was reprehensible.

The dem strategist- Paul Begala- said that the Dems also fought back against a particular anti abortion measure- they defeated a state law that would have severely limited abortion ‘rights’. In my mind- the law did have some problems- though I am Pro Life.

Begala said that those who are trying to stop abortion- they are trying to deprive women from the right to ‘birth control’. Below I will post a comment from a pro abortion doctor- I read this a few years ago- it just seems strange to call this diabolic procedure- ‘a woman’s right to birth control’.

This is a quote from a doctor who performs abortions, her name is Lisa Harris. She gave this quote during an open discussion on abortion and she does not advocate pro-life views at all.

With my first pass of the forceps, I grasped an extremity and began to pull it down. I could see a small foot hanging from the teeth of my forceps. With a quick tug, I separated the leg. Precisely at that moment, I felt a kick - a fluttery "thump, thump" in my own uterus. It was one of the first times I felt fetal movement. There was a leg and foot in my forceps, and a "thump, thump" in my abdomen. Instantly, tears were streaming from my eyes - without me - meaning my conscious brain - even being aware of what was going on. I felt as if my response had come entirely from my body, bypassing my usual cognitive processing completely. A message seemed to travel from my hand and my uterus to my tear ducts. It was an overwhelming feeling - a brutally visceral response - heartfelt and unmediated by my training or my feminist pro-choice politics. It was one of the more raw moments in my life. Doing second trimester abortions did not get easier after my pregnancy; in fact, dealing with little infant parts of my born baby only made dealing with dismembered fetal parts sadder.

The last patient I saw one day was 23 weeks pregnant. I performed an uncomplicated D&E procedure. Dutifully, I went through the task of reassembling the fetal parts in the metal tray. It is an odd ritual that abortion providers perform - required as a clinical safety measure to ensure that nothing is left behind in the uterus to cause a complication - but it also permits us in an odd way to pay respect to the fetus (feelings of awe are not uncommon when looking at miniature fingers and fingernails, heart, intestines, kidneys, adrenal glands), even as we simultaneously have complete disregard for it. Then I rushed upstairs to take overnight call on labour and delivery. The first patient that came in was prematurely delivering at 23-24 weeks. As her exact gestational age was in question, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team resuscitated the premature newborn and brought it to the NICU. Later, along with the distraught parents, I watched the neonate on the ventilator. I thought to myself how bizarre it was that I could have legally dismembered this fetus-now-newborn if it were inside its mother's uterus - but that the same kind of violence against it now would be illegal, and unspeakable.