Archives for June 2010

I had to assume when I read Dr. Robinson’s letter that she is willfully blind to the studies showing psychological problems after abortion. This letter is, er, to the point in response to her:

Dr. Gail Erlick Robinson neglects to mention that the “relief ” some women experience after abortion all too often takes the form of suicide. While Dr. Robinson rubbishes Dr. David Reardon, whose research has documented substantially increased incidence of suicide post abortion, based on medical records from California, Dr. Reardon merely confirmed what Dr. Mika Gissler and colleagues had reported back in 1996 in the British Medical Journal in another “gold standard” study based entirely on medical records from the Finnish abortion and death registries. Gissler et al. found that women who had had an induced abortion in the prior 12 months were three times as likely to commit suicide compared to women who had not been pregnant during that year, and six times more likely to commit suicide compared to women who had had a live birth in the prior 12 months. Clearly, post-abortion depression is a much more serious problem than postpartum depression. Importantly, not a single study has refuted these inconvenient but rock-solid scientific findings about post-abortion suicide.

Joel Brind, professor of biology and deputy chair, Department of Natural Sciences, Baruch College, City University of New York.

‘Wired for Sex, Lies and Power Trips‘ is the new CBC documentary I watched last night.

Whenever I talk to someone about why abortion is anti-woman, I usually do so arguing that it doesn’t stop or inhibit the violence that leads them to the abortion in the first place, but rather it helps perpetuate a vicious cycle by further demeaning them. So I had this thought in mind while one teenage girl after another reported her own story of assault (ranging from name calling to a ‘dry rape’) on sexually charged school grounds.

You know, you think that okay, then maybe I could grab her ass ’cause the way she dresses, she’s telling me to grab her ass.
Billy, 17

They keep doing it even if you say no or stop ’cause they think you’re joking so it gets kind of difficult to tell them to stop.
Kelsie, 15

They don’t think that the little things they do is sexual harassment. They just think it’s normal.
Pauline, 16

A sort of meandering column on what it means to be a feminist.

I suppose the problem on the anti-abortion versus pro-abortion front is that you can’t have it both ways. And both sides say they are defending women. I know I am: defending a woman’s health, her wholeness, her potential, her acceptance in society with or without children.

The problem is that those who defend abortion say exactly the same thing.

… are leading to older, much older, mothers.

For centuries, being childless in India was a stigma so severe that it drove many women to suicide and gave men grounds to take another wife. […]

…they have increasingly been seeking in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment from thousands of unregulated private clinics that have sprung up across the country.
As a result, the issue now is that women who are old enough to be great grandmothers are risking their health by undergoing fertility treatment so as not to die without a child.

The doctors who provide the treatment, mostly in the conservative northern states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, say they are helping women who feel it is their social and religious obligation to produce an heir.

… and scoot over. Is the tube a microcosm for our culture at large?

Nobody will be surprised to learn, from two separate surveys, that heavily pregnant women have trouble getting a seat on public transport. All pregnant women report this. There are several reasons, I think. One is obviously that the tubes are so crowded in the first place. Another is the  selfishness of passengers on the underground.

Animal Freedom Day is coming up on July 24. Apparently animals are saying: “Don’t eat me!” This is very pressing, especially considering July is the height of BBQ season. So many will gather around steaks, ribs slathered in sauce, peach chicken with a hint of soya, salmon on cedar planks…

Where was I? Right. Animal Freedom Day.

Unfortunately, I will not be around. Hate to get all sanctimonious on these folks, but I’ll be away with World Hope Canada–call ’em Human Freedom Days–at this time. But consider buying a t-shirt to celebrate?

With a name that means ‘all’, the new drug ellaOne is being marketed as just that, an all in one ‘contraceptive’.

Ella works as a contraceptive by blocking progesterone’s activity, which delays the ovaries from producing an egg. RU-486, too, blocks the action of progesterone, which is also needed to prepare the womb to accept a fertilized egg and to nurture a developing embryo. That’s how RU-486 can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting and dislodge growing embryos. Ella’s chemical similarity raises the possibility that it might do the same thing, perhaps if taken at elevated doses. But no one knows for sure because the drug has never been tested that way.

As the National Health Service in the UK recently advised young women to “stockpile” morning after pills, we are setting a dangerous precedent for the new all-in-one pharmaceuticals. What ella does chemically is perhaps not as severe as what it does socially, which is to erase an already blurry line between contraceptive use and routine chemical abortions.

CTV reported that “three Quebec women’s groups” (ahem, those are pro-choice women’s groups) demonstrated Sunday.

…we feel that you cannot discuss women’s maternal health without also offering the possibility for women to terminate an unwanted pregnancy under safe, proper conditions,” said Alexa Conradi of the FFQ.

In Ireland the maternal mortality rate is six, that’s right… 6 a year per 100,000 live births.

I’m using Ireland as an example primarily because, at least for now, abortion is illegal except where the woman’s life is at risk. Whereas in South Africa, where abortion is available on demand up to 14 weeks, the MMR is 170. Somewhere along the way the FFQ must ask themselves what the key difference is between these two examples, since it’s obviously not the legalization of or access to abortion.

I am doubly puzzled by the final quote from this article.

“I’m a nurse by profession. Women’s health and children’s health is one of the great determinants of overall social and medical health, and Harper is going in absolutely the wrong direction. He’s putting families at risk,” said Scott Weinstein, a pro-choice demonstrator.

Forgive my crankiness, but this stuff drives me batty (short trip, I know):

Babies born to couples who had fertility treatment have a greater risk of birth abnormalities and doctors should be prepared to warn potential parents about these risks, French scientists said on Sunday.

Clinical geneticist Geraldine Viot said couples considering undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment should be told that the risk of birth defects is around twice that of babies conceived naturally.

Question: Once you start treating babies like commodities, where do you stop? I mean, if you’re going to spend a lot of time and effort and money to conceive, you don’t really want to hear about defects, right?