Women to consider themselves 'pre-pregnant'

[samvara]

Forever Pregnant Reactions? Am curious here.

ED: Based on responses; I got this from jupitah.

1 comments, 2 more comments, 3 yet more comments, 4 extra comments and 5 commenty comments and and even more commenty comments.

Best article so far thank you maharetr. "So why did the WaPo misrepresent this report? Hell, they don’t even mention how important birth control is to this entire project except in passing at the bottom of the article. I think it’s because it’s a political hot potato to openly admit that the two most important steps towards reducing the infant mortality rate and improving the health of newborns in general is to get health care to every woman and to empower women with the knowledge and tools they need to get pregnant only when they want to."

Comments

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

I will tell the truth: I saw this earlier, and then I walked into my bathroom and vomited into the sink. I cannot even start to express how scary I find this. This has nothing to do with women's health, and everything to do with controlling women.

What the article fails to mention is this: These standards will do no good, at all. Why? Because most of our infant mortality rate comes from lower-income areas, from minority populations. The 1993 infant mortality rate for whites was 6.8 in 1000. For blacks it's 16.5 in 1000. Why? Because these populations are (statistically) far, far less likely to have access to things like health care -- or even prenatal care -- that they can afford. So right off, you're missing a huge percentage of your target population.

Moreover, this is 'treating' -- if you can call it that -- a symptom, not a disease. The article mentions that 50% of all pregnancies are unplanned, and maybe it's just me, but I think that that's the biggest fucking problem, here. They want everyone to act like they might be impregnated at any minute, and moreover, they're unwilling to give people the knowledge or tools that might allow them to AVOID that.

This policy is, once again, encouraging health care providers to see women as nothing other than an incubator. No mention of their lives, how maybe you should try and keep your asthma in check because it can kill you -- no, no, do it for your hypothetical child! Furthermore, I have yet to hear of a child being hurt because their mother has asthma. Because the child has asthma and they can't afford medication, yes, all the time. But not because their mother had asthmatic complications when she was pregnant.

The worst part is, to me, that it sounds so reasonable. Who doesn't want to lower the infant mortality rate? I live right outside of Cleveland, where a year or two back, we had the same mortality rate as Guatemala. Please reread that: A city in the richest nation in the world had the same infant mortality rate as Guatemala, which is a third world country. Obviously, something needs to be done. But this -- this is not that thing.

I want to be seen as more than the sum of my reproductive system. It's certainly not like we value mothers or children in this country, and I remain very aware of the fact that while I chose to have my child, I have, on a daily basis, to prove to people that I'm more than that. I can't count the number of times that I've been dismissed by people asking to speak to my husband, or 'the child's father', or who have assumed that because I am (reasonably) young and have a child, I'll be unable to understand what they're saying.

For a long time, I got all my health care at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Sometimes it was fantastic, and sometimes it was awful, but I'll always be grateful to them for treating me like I was someone, like I was a person who deserved to be allowed to take care of her own body in the way that she saw fit. Not once was I lecture on the morality (or lack thereof) of sexual activity -- instead, it was stressed over and over again that it should be safe, that it should be consentual. Every time I left I was given handfuls of condoms, pamphlets on STDs, pamphlets on breast exams, information on rape and rape crisis centres, and information on different kinds of birth control, including the morning after pill. Every time. I was fifteen when I started going there, and I'd been having fairly regular sex for a year at that point. The horrifying thing is that had I not gone to Planned Parenthood, I never would have got any of that information -- it was never presented in school, it wasn't talked about at home. And while I did a lot of stupid, stupid things when I was younger, but I can tell you right now that had I not been given that information, I would have done stuff that was even stupider.

The idea that the government is trying to prevent this information from reaching people, the idea that my daughter might, at thirteen, be given information on how to keep her body ready to have a baby but not information on contraception, is absolutely chilling. It also seems to be exactly where this country is headed, and I don't -- I'm not convinced, anymore, that we can stop it.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

[loves you]

Thank you for being passionate, articulate and wonderful.

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

Sorry -- possibly this is a hot button issue for me. *loves*

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I thought your points were well made!

Particularly to do with demographics.

I think the washington post article was sensationalist and a little bizarre.

I didn't realise so many women would take it an attack on personal freedom.

I'm fascinated.

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

Honestly, for me, at least, it's less a personal freedom issue and more one of wanting to be seen as a person first, a uterus second.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Vote 1 Uterine Replicators.

[terrycat.livejournal.com]

Beautifully put.