[Morgentaler] is hailed for not hesitating to “put himself at risk in his determined drive to increase health-care options for Canadian women.” The citation also adds Morgentaler has “heightened awareness of women’s reproductive health issues among medical professionals and the Canadian public.”
“Heightened awareness“? Sure, if they want to call it that. Let me just get my definitions straight. “Choice” means death and “heightened awareness” means no one ever says anything that falls even slightly short of adulation for abortion in the public eye without being persecuted. I guess that’s a form of awareness. Albeit along more fearful, Animal Farm sort of lines.
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Tanya finds that: “reproductive health issues” is NOT a euphemism for abortion. Don’t they have enough sugar-coated words already? I dare say that Morgentaler is not likely a revered expert on things like a satisfying sex-life, enabling women to go safely through a pregnancy, and providing couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant. (These are also all aspects of the WHO’s definition of reproductive health.)
Morgentaler practiced as a general practitioner and eventually became strictly an abortion doctor. He therefore does NOT have a “heightened awareness of women’s reproductive health issues among medical professionals.”
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Rebecca adds: Putting on my healthcare policy analyst hat, there are a lot of aspects of healthcare for Canadian women that need to be improved. We need both increased access to midwifery and also lower C-section and complication rates for women treated by obstetricians; more sophisticated treatment of endometriosis, so that women with this condition can have a higher quality of life without losing their fertility by having a hysterectomy; more research into HRT and other approaches to dealing with menopause; and a better appreciation of how drugs affect women, since most are tested on groups of (middle aged, usually white) men, who metabolize drugs differently and experience different side effects than women do in general.
Blanket access to abortion, at any time, for any reason doesn’t make my healthcare wishlist. But now that Morgentaler’s achieved that, surely he’ll turn his activism to these and other priorities, since he’s so devoted to increasing “healthcare options” for women, right?
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The doublespeak in this article is so obvious. Morgentaler did not “increase health-care options for Canadian women”. That would mean ready access to pre- and post-natal care for all women regardless of geography or demography, breast screening clinics in remote areas and small towns – not just big cities, health education for all stages of a woman’s life – from fertility awareness to nutrition for teens to healthy menopause to whatever really concerns women. He did none of this. The phrase used is so sweeping, and yet really means, in this case, “increased access to abortion”. The guy broke the law – is that how he put himself at risk? Breaking the law by running a red light – now that’s putting yourself at risk. Breaking the law because you don’t agree with it and have a personal agenda – no risk-taking there. It’s selfish cowardice if you ask me.
I want to memorize Rebecca’s comment and quote the whole darn thing when people around me extol the virtues of Morgentaler and his acute sensitivity to women’s needs. Well done.