First they came for third trimester abortion
I thought that's fine women don't really need those right?
Then they came for abortion providers
I didn't pay attention because it wasn't my fight
Then they regulated and regulated abortion care
throwing up hurdle after hurdle
I didn't notice I was busy living my life
Then they came after IVF and birth control
My reaction this can't be so
When they hollered Abortion Free is what we'll be
I realized this issue is much bigger than just me.
It will take us all if we wish to remain free.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Personhood in practice/Why treating Catholic Hospitals different is dangerous and stupid
This will be a short post if you read my other post you know I almost died after being denied abortion care during an incomplete miscarriage (spontaneous abortion). Since I have made my story public I have heard two common themes from anti choicers.
1)I could've just gone to another hospital- um NO the town I lived in had ONE major hospital it was and still is Catholic. This is happening in more and more places as Catholic hospitals buy up non religious institutions. To me that argument would not sound so good if we inserted another religion that doesn't "believe" in some form of medical treatment. Let's go with Jehovah's Witnesses. Not because I don't like them just because they have a controversial belief most people know about. If they suddenly started up hospitals and said well we're not going to do blood transfusions, oh well. People would be up in arms. Surely no one would then blame some gun shot victim if they bled to death for not making sure the hospital gave blood in their time of crisis. Who thinks like that? You don't, you go to the nearest and best hospital when you're dying. You don't stop to think if there might be "people of faith" who will let you die.
2)That it was an individual doctor's mistake that almost killed me, a rare occurrence of bad judgement NOT the fundamental beliefs of a hospital interfering in my standard of care.WRONG! this has been documented and studied. It's policy among Catholic hospitals. Hospitals that take a shit ton of money from the government in grants, medicaid, and medicare. My point here is simply think before you speak, especially when you don't know what you're talking about. Also where would you want your loved one to be in the event of a pregnancy emergency. I have not been the only woman effected by these policies. This is part of why fetal personhood can never work!
1)I could've just gone to another hospital- um NO the town I lived in had ONE major hospital it was and still is Catholic. This is happening in more and more places as Catholic hospitals buy up non religious institutions. To me that argument would not sound so good if we inserted another religion that doesn't "believe" in some form of medical treatment. Let's go with Jehovah's Witnesses. Not because I don't like them just because they have a controversial belief most people know about. If they suddenly started up hospitals and said well we're not going to do blood transfusions, oh well. People would be up in arms. Surely no one would then blame some gun shot victim if they bled to death for not making sure the hospital gave blood in their time of crisis. Who thinks like that? You don't, you go to the nearest and best hospital when you're dying. You don't stop to think if there might be "people of faith" who will let you die.
2)That it was an individual doctor's mistake that almost killed me, a rare occurrence of bad judgement NOT the fundamental beliefs of a hospital interfering in my standard of care.WRONG! this has been documented and studied. It's policy among Catholic hospitals. Hospitals that take a shit ton of money from the government in grants, medicaid, and medicare. My point here is simply think before you speak, especially when you don't know what you're talking about. Also where would you want your loved one to be in the event of a pregnancy emergency. I have not been the only woman effected by these policies. This is part of why fetal personhood can never work!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
YAY MISSISSIPPI YAY!!!
Yesterday the Mississippi senate killed HB488 the Ariziona style anti immigration bill. It's defeat gives me hope (even though one of my favorite GOP house puppets Andy Gipson is trying to revive it). Not really hope in my elected officials, many of them need to go. Since the more time I spend with them I recognize many are sheeple just going doing what someone higher ranking or a national think tank tells them to do. It's not even hope in my state government since they created the bill in the first place. It gives me hope for Mississippi and Mississippians. Never a week goes by that it seems I am in a conversation about how nothing has changed in Mississippi and we are stuck in the same dark place racially as we were forty years ago. Granted I am the first to say we have a long way to go, we have also come long way indeed. What led up to the defeat of this bill shows it.
It took a multi-ethnic multi-generational, socio-economically and religiously diverse community to come together and say NO for this bill to go down and we did that. Mississippi Law enforcement came out against this bill along with business leaders, local politicians, and religious leaders. Who would have ever foretold that happening in this breeding ground of hate and civil liberties violations? Members from the ACLU, NAACP, MIRA, the LGBT, and the feminist community all wrote, called, and showed up at the capitol. It has been very grassroots as well, like the young people recreating James Meredith's Walk Against Fear. This time not only fighting racism, but shining a bright light on immigrants rights too.
So when people tell me nothing has changed in Mississippi I will have to disagree. This month MY Mississippi stood up for the rights of people. A big beautiful rainbow of people got together and fought back. We showed that indeed black, brown, white, and diverse people IN MISSISSIPPI can/will/do stand up for human rights together! From now on when people state that nothing has changed in Mississippi, how backwards we are, and that there is no hope - I can point to this. At least on this issue, in this moment I can say YAY MISSISSIPPI YAY!! There is hope for us yet :)
It took a multi-ethnic multi-generational, socio-economically and religiously diverse community to come together and say NO for this bill to go down and we did that. Mississippi Law enforcement came out against this bill along with business leaders, local politicians, and religious leaders. Who would have ever foretold that happening in this breeding ground of hate and civil liberties violations? Members from the ACLU, NAACP, MIRA, the LGBT, and the feminist community all wrote, called, and showed up at the capitol. It has been very grassroots as well, like the young people recreating James Meredith's Walk Against Fear. This time not only fighting racism, but shining a bright light on immigrants rights too.
So when people tell me nothing has changed in Mississippi I will have to disagree. This month MY Mississippi stood up for the rights of people. A big beautiful rainbow of people got together and fought back. We showed that indeed black, brown, white, and diverse people IN MISSISSIPPI can/will/do stand up for human rights together! From now on when people state that nothing has changed in Mississippi, how backwards we are, and that there is no hope - I can point to this. At least on this issue, in this moment I can say YAY MISSISSIPPI YAY!! There is hope for us yet :)
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