People who complain about uneven or poor access to abortion leave me completely cold. This is different:

A 21-year-old Ottawa woman who had been sexually assaulted was refused immediate treatment at the Ottawa Hospital over the weekend, the Sun has learned.

The woman was taken to the Civic hospital early Saturday to have a rape kit completed but Ottawa police were told there were no sexual assault nurses available.

The victim was given three options: Lie in a bed until Monday morning when a nurse would be available — but she wouldn’t be able to shower — or go to either Cornwall or Renfrew hospitals.

She ended up being taken to Renfrew to get treatment.

“This is unacceptable and it’s upsetting to hear,” said Concillia Muonde, spokeswoman for the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Ottawa.

“The message it gives to women in the community is nobody is going to do anything about it.”

[…]

Eight women are sexually assaulted every day on average but only one reports it, according to Ottawa police.

_______________________

Update: Apparently, this problem is widespread.

Child-free, or child-less? I can’t believe there are people with so much time on their hands that they can indulge in such silly linguistic sparring.

Interesting advice:

Woman tries to have an abortion. Abortion fails. Now woman worried half to death her baby will be born handicapped because of her earlier choice. And that’s supposed to be empowering?

The clinic staff were shocked,” she says. “They said there was a high chance the pregnancy would still miscarry. Horrifyingly, if it continued he was likely to be born handicapped.”

Over the next few days Lucy agonised over what to do.

“It was a terrible decision to make,” she says. “I didn’t think I could cope with bringing up a handicapped child. And I also knew if my baby was born disabled I would never forgive myself.

“But then my baby had survived so much. I had to give him a chance.”

Although Lucy spoke to doctors at the clinic and also her GP, she says no one could give her a clear idea about what might happen with the pregnancy.

She says: “As my GP explained, not enough babies have survived the abortion procedure to know what the side-effects of the pill might be on them.

“But the more I thought about it, the more having another abortion felt like murder.”

I’ll let you chew on that last line by yourself. Meanwhile, make sure you read the story to the end – see anything funny right there at the bottom? Yes! An ad for Marie Stopes! Well done, Sun!

This kind of story bugs me. I’m all for children, and children-friendly institutions. But not everyone has to be. If you want your restaurant, or movie theatre, or campground, or what have you, to be an adult-only place, you should be able to do so. (You should also be allowed to operate a smoking restaurant or bar or what have you.) Maybe your business won’t work, and maybe it will. It should be up to you, to business owner, to decide whether the benefits outweighs the costs. Just make the rules clear to everyone, and be nice about it, is all. Sometimes, you pay good money to eat a fancy meal at a fancy restaurant and you want to be able to enjoy that without children running around (that’s why parents hire babysitters every now and then).

Here’s some real handy advice: When it doubt, keep your clothes on. Life is so much simpler that way.

Thanks to Melissa for sending this story:

(CNN) — South African Dr. Sonnet Ehlers was on call one night four decades ago when a devastated rape victim walked in. Her eyes were lifeless; she was like a breathing corpse.

“She looked at me and said, ‘If only I had teeth down there,'” recalled Ehlers, who was a 20-year-old medical researcher at the time. “I promised her I’d do something to help people like her one day.”

Forty years later, Rape-aXe was born.

Ehlers is distributing the female condoms in the various South African cities where the World Cup soccer games are taking place.

The woman inserts the latex condom like a tampon. Jagged rows of teeth-like hooks line its inside and attach on a man’s penis during penetration, Ehlers said.

Once it lodges, only a doctor can remove it — a procedure Ehlers hopes will be done with authorities on standby to make an arrest.

“It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it’s on,” she said. “If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter… however, it doesn’t break the skin, and there’s no danger of fluid exposure.”

OK, so it does not prevent a rape. It also does nothing to make women feel safer. But it would sure help a lot with identifying and punishing rapists. And what the heck, hurt them where it, er, hurts, too.

How classy:

Every child is beautiful (well, not really, but that’s the cliche, right?), and now — thanks to BeautifulPeople.com — you can up the chances of having offspring worthy of a baby modeling career. That’s right, the controversial dating site now has a forum/sperm bank where one may search for genetic material from beautiful people and beautiful people alone.

Back in the winter months, BeautifulPeople.com — a dating website that only allows attractive people to join based on the democratic vote of its members — gained its share of media attention after expelling 5,000 people after they packed on the holiday pounds. Back then, Founder Robert Hintze said, “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

Now, the site is taking further steps in the fight against unattractiveness (at least unattractiveness as gauged by people who dig conventionality) by launching a fertility introduction service that allows both members and non-members to score the stuff that dream babies are made of. According to Managing Director Greg Hodge, “There are no financial benefits for us in doing so — we are simply responding to a demand for attractive donors. Every parent would like their child to be blessed with many fine attributes, attractiveness being one of the most sought after. For a site with members who resemble Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Angelina Jolie you can imagine the demand.”

Yes, but what if it doesn’t work? Or what if your beautiful child misbehaves anyway?

Oh look, what a surprise:

Euthanasia cases in Holland have increased by 13 per cent in the past year, according to new figures.

Last year a total of 2,636 Dutch people were killed by euthanasia, with 80 per cent of cases involving people dying at home after their doctors administered a lethal dose of drugs. This compares with 2,331 reported deaths in 2008.

In 2003, the year after Holland became the first country since the fall of Nazi Germany to legalize the practice, there were 1,815 cases.

Dads matter a great deal. Happy Father’s Day!

(in case you wonder where I got this picture: It’s an ad for a bottle holster… which was, OF COURSE, the *first* thing I noticed about the picture. I swear!)