What I wonder is if this opinion is based on how easy/difficult it actually is to end up having an abortion, or based on people's perceptions of how easy/difficult it is to end up having an abortion.
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It's not right, and I'm not going to f***ing stand for it!"Under the South Dakota law, they don't care if you're a thirteen year old girl raped by your father - no abortion. "
Evidently it's better to get vacuumed out so Dad can abuse you some more.
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"New Yorkers Support South Dakotans and Oppose Abortion Bans!"
Um, if you want to support South Dakotans, you'd have to respect the fact that they're just not as enamored of abortion as New Yorkers.
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Here's A Modest Proposal:
1) A man registers with the database. The registration includes notorized identification information (not necessarily an address - biometrics would be fine; the goal is not to make him tracable but accountable) and a statement of intent about what his plans are in the case of an unwanted or unexpected pregnancy.
2) The information, once registered, is encoded into a small charm. This charm's sole purpose in life is to safeguard this data.
3) Commercially available should be a range of devices that can wirelessly read the data on this charm; in addition, any device capable of wireless data interaction should have software written that could read the data. Before a sexual encounter, any potential partner simply uses the reader to read the information on the charm. Fully informed of her partner's intentions in the case of an unwanted pregnancy, the woman can then make an informed decision whether or not to engage in sex. If an unwanted pregnancy occurs, the information in the charm is considered evidence of intent for any legal proceedings that follow.
An interesting proposal. Maybe the woman should be encoded too. Or maybe people should get to know people well enough to know what they'd do in case or pregnancy before having sex. But I'm old-fashioned about that.
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For the women of South Dakota: an abortion manual. Got to give her credit for at least offering training in using sterilized medical instruments rather than "Go grab a coathanger so we'll have a corpse to parade in front of the capital building." Though I'd like more information on the one patient the Jane syndicate killed. I wasn't as focused on abortion mortality when I read Laura Kaplan's book, so I'm not sure if the information is there. Does anybody know?
I also have to credit her with recommending that the budding abortionist learn what a fetus looks like so she/he can be sure that all the "material" has been "extracted". "If doing this sounds too ethically challenging, remember that fetuses do not have the capacity to feel actual pain until the third trimester. You are not "hurting" it, and it has no awareness, nor the capacity for awareness, that you are extracting it." Well, there's a comforting thought to repeat to yourself as you pull out the little arms and legs and head.
Here's a great quote: "When you feel the curettage and removal is complete, make sure you examine the fetal material you have already extracted. If you're missing anything obvious -- for instance, a head -- make sure to find and remove it."
Again, it's nice that she's not playing the "It's just so much tissue" game.
I responded:
You don't have to refer anybody to a book. The Visible Embryo is an online source for excellent illustrations of embryos and fetuses of all ages. There are also some medical illustrations of how procedures are performed available online. Here is how to do a 14-week D&E.
Anti-abortion sites are also a good source of photos of what the complete tissue is supposed to look like when removed. An early "menstrual extraction," for example, should produce this. There are many links here that you could peruse for pictures that show what the entire evacuated contents should look like.
Dr. Warren Hern's book Abortion Practice is useful not only for information on how to set up a safe abortion facility, but for how to assess a facility for safety before referring patients there. This is something that could be done in states where abortion is legal and readily available but not necessarily being practiced safely.
Wonder if the fur will fly because a mean old "antichoicer" butted in. She has to approve comments before they're posted. We shall see.
Personally, I think anything that gets people to look at exactly what an abortion is and how it's done is a good thing. Very few folks can stomach it after looking closely.
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Geographical Thought Trends: "There are other states that have pending abortion ban measures. And to look at it on a map one would realize that all of these states are close to each other geographically. Why is this? "
From the same blog: South Dakota Bans Abortions: "So, if this ban does go into effect, what will the effects be? Will they produce what the supporters of the legislation want?" Probably there'd be fewer pregnancies, since it's been shown that the more readily available abortion is, the sloppier people get with their sexual behavior. But then, SD has both a low number of abortions, and very low abortion rates.
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There's a lot more rambling about the SD abortion ban, but I've wearied of it for today.
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