we need more women on the supreme court
Exhibit A: Today's decision in the joined cases of Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood.
Thanks to Supreme Court Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia, women now have one less option to preserve their health, their fertility, and their very lives.
Justice Kennedy's quip that "The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice" is particularly frustrating. What does Kennedy know about the complex structures that grow, and sometimes mutate horribly, during the course of a pregnancy? When is the last time he saw a woman 20 weeks pregnant and bleeding to death because her placenta grew through her uterus and into her bladder and bowel?
Women are less safe today because doctors now have fewer treatment options. Even if the otherwise banned procedure can be performed to "save the life of the mother," doctors will be afraid that their diagnosis will be second-guessed by prosecutors and judges with no medical training. These doctors will fear not only for their licenses and their malpractice coverage, but for their freedom from criminal prosecution.
The following is from a post I wrote begging for the rejection of John Roberts's nomination for the position of Chief Justice, because I feared decisions such as today's would come to pass:
There was a time, not so many years ago, when I wondered what conditions could possibly exist that would warrant a late term abortion. Couldn't you detect chromosomal problems by 14 weeks or so? And if the problem was with the mother, why not try for a premature delivery?
That was before I got the phone call telling me that me best friend was brain dead. She had started to hemmorhage after delivery, and even a hysterectomy did not stop the bleeding. By the time doctors got the bleeding under control, after giving her 21 units of blood, her brain had gone so long without oxygen that everything that we loved, everything that was Karen, was gone.
I was blissfully ignorant of placenta percreta before Karen died. For unknown reasons, her placenta had not found the nourishment it needed in the lining of her uterus, and had grown through the uterine wall and into her bladder, creating knots of blood vessels and tissue that would be wrenched and torn during the strains of labor.
Placenta percreta has no cure but late term abortion. It develops in mid-pregnancy, and often the symptoms do not arise until the 20th week of gestation. There are alternatives to abortion, sure: awaiting viability (24-26 weeks) to do a premature c-section followed by an immediate hysterectomy. But the risks of this alternative are horrendous: rates of maternal and fetal death are enormously high, and blood loss in this type of procedure is greater than major organ transplant surgery.
Karen did not have the choice of abortion; she was a world-class athlete, and her fitness level masked the symptoms that could have revealed her condition until a few days before her due date. And, if she knew the beautiful baby daughter she would leave behind, I don't know what choice she would have made.
Thanks to Supreme Court Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia, women now have one less option to preserve their health, their fertility, and their very lives.
Justice Kennedy's quip that "The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice" is particularly frustrating. What does Kennedy know about the complex structures that grow, and sometimes mutate horribly, during the course of a pregnancy? When is the last time he saw a woman 20 weeks pregnant and bleeding to death because her placenta grew through her uterus and into her bladder and bowel?
Women are less safe today because doctors now have fewer treatment options. Even if the otherwise banned procedure can be performed to "save the life of the mother," doctors will be afraid that their diagnosis will be second-guessed by prosecutors and judges with no medical training. These doctors will fear not only for their licenses and their malpractice coverage, but for their freedom from criminal prosecution.
The following is from a post I wrote begging for the rejection of John Roberts's nomination for the position of Chief Justice, because I feared decisions such as today's would come to pass:
There was a time, not so many years ago, when I wondered what conditions could possibly exist that would warrant a late term abortion. Couldn't you detect chromosomal problems by 14 weeks or so? And if the problem was with the mother, why not try for a premature delivery?
That was before I got the phone call telling me that me best friend was brain dead. She had started to hemmorhage after delivery, and even a hysterectomy did not stop the bleeding. By the time doctors got the bleeding under control, after giving her 21 units of blood, her brain had gone so long without oxygen that everything that we loved, everything that was Karen, was gone.
I was blissfully ignorant of placenta percreta before Karen died. For unknown reasons, her placenta had not found the nourishment it needed in the lining of her uterus, and had grown through the uterine wall and into her bladder, creating knots of blood vessels and tissue that would be wrenched and torn during the strains of labor.
Placenta percreta has no cure but late term abortion. It develops in mid-pregnancy, and often the symptoms do not arise until the 20th week of gestation. There are alternatives to abortion, sure: awaiting viability (24-26 weeks) to do a premature c-section followed by an immediate hysterectomy. But the risks of this alternative are horrendous: rates of maternal and fetal death are enormously high, and blood loss in this type of procedure is greater than major organ transplant surgery.
Karen did not have the choice of abortion; she was a world-class athlete, and her fitness level masked the symptoms that could have revealed her condition until a few days before her due date. And, if she knew the beautiful baby daughter she would leave behind, I don't know what choice she would have made.
posted by missy at
9:07 AM
2 Comments:
for placenta percreta, late term abortion will not prevent the necessity for difficult (and life threatening untangling) of placental invasion of organs. I am a pregnant registered nurse diagnosed with placenta accreta, possible percreta (going for MRI) at 35 weeks. A c-section has been scheduled for 37 weeks. Percreta is almost always diagnosed in late pregnancy - has no symptoms (other than bleeding which will lead to emergency delivery and surgical mgmt.) You are very misinformed - even with prior knowledge and the best of care - with no thought to fetal outcome - the mortality rates for this diagnoses are high.
By
Anonymous, at 6:42 PM
What I wrote was that the condition has no cure but later term abortion. Delivery by c-section can result in the death of both the mother and the fetus; but to save the mother, early intervention to terminate the pregnancy is the only cure. The condition can be dianosed as early as the 20th week, and is often diagnosed by pain caused by internal bleeding.
By
slim, at 9:29 AM
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