Control and punishment

It's time we saw the issue of reproductive rights for what it is--an issue of control. The mainstream media and popular myth see it as abortion, a horrible decision that will wreak women forever, or just a lifestyle choice. It isn't. Reproductive rights--and by this, I mean the right to carry a pregnancy to term, the right to an abortion, the right to birth control, access to medical treatment, and the right to make your own medical decisions despite your reproductive status--are human rights.

One would never know this the way so-called prolifers go on and on about feminazi baby killers and wanton selfish sluts. But for all of the scare stories they come up with about wanton baby-killing hussies gone wild and damaged women (versus those irresponsible breeding poor women), they ignore real life.

Or real death, for that matter.

Take the case of Angela Carder. Carder, who struggled with cancer all of her life, got married and got pregnant when she was finally cancer free, only to find that the cancer was now lurking in her lungs. She had made it very clear to all of her doctors before this discovery that she wanted to live, that she would do what it took to beat the cancer, even if it meant the fetus didn't make it to term.

The hospital, afraid of the controversy and pressure from pro-life groups, didn't see it that way. Hospital administrators insisted that only the court could decide what medical treatment a pregnant woman could get if it could hurt the fetus. They took it to court, and the court ordered a Caesarean despite the fact that it would kill Angela.

At the hearing almost no attention was paid to what was clinically best for Angela or to what she would want since, according to the hospital, it was "the apparent desire of the patient and her family" that no intervention be done on behalf of the fetus. Instead, the hearing focused on whether to "rescue" the fetus. Balancing Angela Carder's life expectancy as a cancer-ridden patient against that of the fetus (based on the neonatologist's unduly optimistic guesswork), the court ordered the Caesarean. Despite the court's order, the obstetricians refused to carry it out. The hospital was then in the ironic position of being in contempt of an order that the hospital itself had sought. Reluctantly, a staff obstetrician agreed to perform the surgery.

Although assumed to be near death and unconscious, Angela was lucid and able to communicate when, after the court made its ruling, one of her obstetricians told her about the court's decision. When her doctor explained that she might die as a result of the ordered surgery and that he would not perform the surgery without her consent, she said repeatedly, "I don't want it done." However, this declaration did not sway the hospital to withdraw its petition or the court to amend its order. A three-judge appellate panel upheld the decision during an emergency telephone appeal. Minutes later, having just been told that she probably would not survive the surgery, the woman who had courageously cheated death for fourteen years was rolled into the operating room. The fetus died within two hours. Two days later, Angela Carder died, never having received the cancer treatment she requested.

Your right and your stated wishes to live count, unless you're pregnant.

It's different for Black and brown women, poor women, and addicted women. Pregnant women are pilloried for having babies they can't care for, or for being pregnant and addicted, since we all know it's just that easy to stop taking meth, or shooting heroin, or smoking crack, or drinking. We praise programs like CRACK, which paid addicted women $200 to get permanently sterilized, and get terribly incredulous at the suggestion that maybe treatment should be made more easily available to addicted pregnant women. The scapegoats pregnant women who don't have the money for drug treatment are out of luck in their quest to kick the habit and get prenatal care. Most drug-treatment programs don't admit pregnant women, and the ones that do have long waiting lists and turn many women any away. Fears of prosecution and of having their kids taken from them also keeps women from trying to get treatment, and these fears are justified.

There is overwhelming consensus among medical and health groups that fear of prosecution deters pregnant women from seeking health care, thereby causing-not preventing- harm to the developing fetus. Similarly, fear of loss of custody deters women from seeking care that could help them and their future children. (5) As a result, the women most in need of social and medical services-"those most heavily involved in the drug life"-are most alienated from prenatal care." (6)

Far from protecting children, imprisoning new mothers is "at the very least disruptive and commonly traumatic."(7) Children whose parents are incarcerated are eight times more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system in their lifetime.(6) Research also shows that "the increasing placement of drug-exposed children in foster care is coupled with poor growth outcomes in the physical, mental and emotional development of these children." (8)

In addition, many drug treatment programs refuse to treat pregnant women, and many prenatal care agencies refuse drug using women. Housing, medical and mental health services often demand total abstinence as a requirement for access.(1)(3)(9) In other words, you need to be cured before you can have remedies. Rather than building on the positive impulse women have to seek prenatal care, current policy chooses to override it and create harm where it could have been prevented. The person most likely to assure fetal health-the mother-is singled out as the person least deserving of resources.

Let's just ignore the fact that the crack baby panic was a myth, that not all drug use is equal, and that poverty was more likely to create the problems that were seen in the children of these addicted women. If people truly cared about harm to fetuses and children, they'd be fighting poverty with real solutions instead of so much pap about the benefits of marriage, but then, it's not about the children. It never was about the children. It's about shaming and blaming women for either having abortions, having sex, getting raped, or being pregnant.

Instead of expanding drug-treatment options, working to alleviate and eradicate poverty, create a decent quality of life for all people, and providing truly good education and housing for every child in America, we'll lock up mothers who "endanger" their unborn children and feel superior to them. Then, if they don't get help out of fear of prosecution, we'll yelp about how irresponsible they are.

Our rights to decide about our own care are further imperiled by the proliferation of Catholic hospitals. If you want the Pill, or EC after a rape, or a tubal ligation, forget it. You don't have the right to make such decisions. Or you do, but good luck going through with it if that hospital is the only game in town.

Catholic health care systems are governed by Ethical and Religious Directives that promote prenatal care but prohibit almost all other reproductive health services because of religious doctrine. Contraceptive methods other than ?natural family planning? are prohibited, and other banned services include treatments for infertility, sterilization and abortion ? without exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of the woman.

The growing influence of these systems and their supporters in government has resulted in a proliferation of legislative Refusal Clauses, also known as ?religious exemptions? or ?conscience clauses.? These statutory provisions allow people or entities to opt out of complying with laws and regulations due to religious or moral objections.

Unlike earlier Refusal Clauses which were limited to direct service providers and focused mostly on abortion services, more recent ones allow indirect providers such as HMOs, health insurance plans, pharmacists and entire health care systems the right to deny patients care on the basis of moral or religious beliefs. Additionally, the exemptions have broadened to include all types of reproductive health care services, including contraception, in vitro fertilization, sterilization and emergency contraception.?

The rights of people to refuse women dignity and the urge to punish women go hand-in-hand, with horrific consequences. Women don't have the right to decide what kind of medical care or treatments they will get. Pharmacists can choose if they will "allow" a lowly woman access to birth control or emergency contraception, and medical schools can choose to make dialation and evacuation (D&E) training unavailable, and doctors can choose if they want to learn how to do a D&E. Which is stupid, since those can be necessary if you miscarry or the fetus dies in the womb. Some of this is out of fear--there is a lot of pressure from politicians and right-wing zealots for medical schools and doctors to eschew abortion and learning how to perform them. But instead of providing a a safe treatment to a pregnant woman who's fetus died in utero, we'd rather force her to birthing a corpse--something that is far more traumatic and hazardous than a D&E.

There is justifable outrage when a 19-year-old woman's parents kidnap her and try to force her into having an abortion.

This outrage doesn't apply when women and girls are forced and coerced into having children they don't want. The concern isn't there for women who are forced or pressured into giving their children up for adoption. The concern over so-called "post abortion syndrome" disappears when a woman is traumatized from giving up her child. Having a baby and dealing with the pain of losing your child is a fitting punishment for bad behavior, or for being poor.  Being a woman is a crime, and the punishement is no right to any medical or life decision.

It's not about the babies. It's about slapping down the women.

Comments

[Ealasaid]

Right on. Thank you for this informative post!

I get so angry when people behave as though the anti-abortion crowd are pro-baby or pro-life. They're not, and thank you for putting info showing that up where it can be read.