White people mourning Romney defeat

The party of the War on Women and the war against access to abortion has gone down to a well deserved defeat in spite of all the lies and dirty tricks it could muster.



From the Christian Science Monitor

Deaths in childbirths rise in London

The Lancet has reported that over the last five years, deaths in childbirth have doubled in London, England, while remaining approximately the same in rural areas. There's a death rate of 86 per million outside of London, and a death rate of 200 per million within, partly because more complex cases are handled. Part of the problem seems to be that older women with more complex cases are being treated by inexperienced doctors "The Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) a national body which analyses data on maternal deaths has had its work suspended for just over a year, amid a reorganisation of NHS services." If you don't track statistics, there is no incentive to make them better.

Last year, a report from CMACE revealed that 261 women in Britain died from conditions directly or indirectly related to pregnancy for the three years from 2006 to 2008. Some 107 mothers died of conditions directly related to pregnancy while 154 died of indirect causes, including infections and underlying health problems.

By contrast, legal and early abortion, within twelve weeks of the last menstrual period, carries a 60% risk of causing one woman's death for every million abortions.

Who gets to decide

Susan wrote:

ONLY the woman who is carrying the "child" can determine if it is a "gift" or not.

ONLY the woman whose life is at risk can determine if the risk is worth it for her (and to her family) to continue a pregnancy.

What right does anyone else have to judge her or to choose for her and force her to give birth like some breeding mare to live up to your utopian ideals?

Women are living, viable, fully developed, grown individuals capable of making our own decisions, and we would appreciate it if others who know nothing of our lives and what we face to stay out of our most personal healthcare decisions.

My life was saved by an emergency "D&E"(abortion) when I began to miscarry and almost bled to death. Thank goodness that was before all this nonsense that is going on now, or some zealot might have just let me die needlessly to satisfy their "faith" without any respect for my own. My husband and children are glad they saved the only life they could: mine.

Often they weren't taught how to prevent it

Laura wrote:

Teenagers get pregnant, sometimes because they were careless, but very often because they just weren’t taught how to prevent it. I had a friend who was catholic and she got pregnant at 16. Her parents refused to let her get an abortion, even when the doctors said it was unsafe to carry to term. At 7 months she and the baby died from complications. It’s reasons like that that I think that the choice should be there. I don’t have to think that it’s right, but its not my body that we’re talking about.

Libbye Anne: How I lost faith in the Pro-life movement

Libbye Anne recounts her journey from ardent pro-lifer through her discovery of the inconsistencies and hypocrisy of the "Pro-life" movement: "How I lost faith in the Pro-life movement." First she did discovered that they were against birth control...

As long as we're quoting holy words

Consider these wise precepts from Fallopians.

My scriptures are just as valid as yours.

Remembering Dr. George Tiller: "Losing Laura"

It is now three years since Dr. George Tiller was murdered by a Christian terrorist who was opposed to abortion in all cases.

Here is how one patient remembers Dr. Tiller:

In the wake of the horrific murder of Dr. George Tiller and the unjustified and vicious portrayal of him by some in the media as a monster who relished performing abortions, I just had to tell my own personal story about the kind and compassionate man who helped me several years ago.

Several years ago, I was happily anticipating the birth of my second child, who was very much planned and very much wanted....

I received devastating news. It seemed my baby was suffering from a very rare birth defect of the lungs. This defect resulted in the complete malformation of the left lung. The bubble that the earlier sonogram detected was actually one of the many cystic masses that made up my baby's malformed lungs. Since lungs are the last organ to develop, this could not be detected any earlier and had only just then become apparent. In addition, the right lung was not developing as expected either, although it wasn't affected to the degree of the other one.

The baby's heart was being severely compressed over to the opposite side of where it should have been because of the increasing size and pressure of the cystic masses. I was told that the situation was very grave. Without functioning lungs, there would be no way for the baby to survive post term. There was also a strong indication that the baby could succumb to heart failure prior to term because of the crushing pressure of the cystic masses.

...I was devastated to know that my precious baby was not going to make it and quite possibly suffer in the process, and I was helpless to do anything. I could not imagine continuing to carry a child possibly for several more months to term, all the while knowing that there was no hope for survival and just waiting for the inevitable to happen. I was already going through emotional hell, and it seemed pointless to put both myself and my baby through any more needless suffering....

I was referred to Dr. Tiller's clinic in Wichita. Since I was now past the 24 week cut-off for a termination in my state, I would have to travel there to seek the help that I needed now. Dr. Tiller and his staff were so wonderful to my husband and me. They were more compassionate than any of the doctors at home, who seemed more interested in documenting every aspect of my personal tragic situation for "an interesting case study" and took the attitude of "You can just try again when this is over."

Dr. Tiller let me talk and cry and he listened to my every word through my tears. He held my hand and hugged me when I needed it; and he really cared about the emotional pain I was going through. I kept telling him that my main concern was for my baby to go peacefully, as I was not concerned for my own comfort. He assured me that the process would be painless for the baby, and would very closely mimic a miscarriage.

There was another couple there the same week going through a similar experience and he encouraged us to talk to each other and support each other through our ordeal. His facility was literally lined with hundreds of framed letters from people from all over who had gone through the very same experiences thanking him and his staff for helping them when they needed it most.

I am grateful that there was a man like Dr. Tiller who was there for me when I needed him. I will always remember him as a dedicated physician who truly cared about his patients.