The Weasel King ([info]theweaselking) wrote,
@ 2006-02-28 19:26:00
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Comment of the day, from Tennessee Guerilla Women:
Newsweek and a host of other mainstream media manage to analyze the morality of abortion without ever touching on the morality of mandating forced motherhood in a nation that flaunts an anti-family, anti-life policy so harsh that it results in 46 million Americans without healthcare and the highest child poverty rate in the developed world.

And the leaders of this nation insist that it is the pro-choice women of America who are morally bankrupt? Hello?

Coming a close second but lacking a finely quotable fragment is We're All Dakotans - pointing out that, at the moment, you can't get an abortion in Minnesota unless you've got a shitload of money to burn.

Also,
The Washington Post on California doctors who refused to participate in the execution of a convicted felon after a judge ruled that they must actively participate, by issuing sedatives and intervening to hasten death if there is evidence of pain. Naturally, it's a compare-and-contrast with pharmacists refusing to dispense birth control.

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[info]missysedai
2006-03-01 02:26 am UTC (link)
Didn't you know? Dispensing medication designed to prevent ovulation is EXACTLY THE SAME as administering a lethal injection.

Giving a woman the choice to tell her ovaries to shut the fuck up and leave her alone is probably even worse than executing someone!

*snarl*

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[info]culfinriel
2006-03-01 04:24 am UTC (link)
Physicians who feel/think/believe that they cannot provide the best care for their patients are allowed to refer their patient to a physician who can. This includes any personal problems they have, which I personally think they should keep to themselves and simply tell the patient that they feel someone else might best be able to care for them under whatever the circumstances are without implying any kind of judgment. It is possible that this would be applicable to the various and sundry pharmacists in question.

I agree that physicians should not be participating in state mandated executions as the executioners. This crosses over a gray line that the historical points given illustrate well. However, it is well within the Hippocratic oath and other references to mitigate pain and suffering. Whether it tacitly supports execution as acceptable is different. Physicians are not necessarily the only medical professionals qualified to do this, but by disallowing physician presence at an execution, you also prevent them from certifying whether or not the individual was in pain, mitigating that pain, and certifying that they are deceased.

I will try to limit my ranting about abortion. Firstly, the Dakotans thing was really well written. Secondly, Roe v Wade is being completely gnawed away at the state level. Details - you can be tried as an adult for murder at 14 but you can't consent to an abortion. Why? Because (based on Piaget?)professionals have judged that a 14 year old gets it enough that they are the same as an adult cognitively when it comes to murder but apparently even people who define abortion as murder don't think 14 year olds get it when it comes to abortion. I have recently learned that North Carolina is the only state in the country where the definition of emancipated minor for consent to medical treatment does not include pregnancy. But even in states where you are an emancipated minor, states have managed to pass all sorts of other laws that effectively prevent you from getting an abortion.

Lastly, the medical specialty that would include pregnancy or its termination is Ob/Gyn. This is one of the medical specialties that is being hardest hit by huge medical liability premiums, to the point where people are moving to other states or quitting medicine. What do you think the insurance companies will do to those premiums in states that ban abortion either by implication or outright? They would be within their rights to refuse to insure a physician who performed any procedure that could be inferred to relate to abortion. There is nowhere in the US that you can practice medicine without insurance.

You might also be interested to know that fewer and fewer Ob/Gyn residencies are training their residents in procedures that could be used to terminate a pregnancy. So even in states where the laws allow an exception for the health of the mother, you may not be able to find a physician who knows how to perform an abortion. Which won't matter if there aren't any hospitals that allow their physicians to perform abortions, anyway, and there are entire health systems that disallow not only abortion but surgical or medical contraception.

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[info]silmaril
2006-03-01 04:19 pm UTC (link)
Somewaht related to [info]culfinriel's comment above, [info]misia posted an entry including a link today. It might be of interest.

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