I would NOT submit a pro-choice article just for the hell of it … or, just to piss people off.  I don’t operate that way.  I’m telling you the truth here;  there is a LOT of stuff here that was complete news to me, not kidding.  The authors provide much data and it seems irrefutable. Bottom line:  Being pregnant is VERY DANGEROUS AND PAINFUL!!  You people have no idea … unless you read this piece. I now regret that I subjected my ex-wife to this ordeal … twice.  No wonder she dumped my fat ass.    *** Warning!!  You, also, might become Pro-Choice after reading this. ***

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The harm we do when we force women to carry a child

Now that the Dobbs opinion has come down and Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the Supreme Court, reproductive rights are once again in legislative hands — which means public opinion matters.

For decades, public opinion has consistently supported that abortion should be legal when a mother’s health is seriously endangered. In fact, almost half of those who believe that life begins at conception still support abortion in these circumstances. The Dobbs opinion, however, flies in the face of national agreement on reproductive rights, as do states that criminalize abortion. They are able to do this, in part, because the public has not acknowledged all of the serious health risks associated with pregnancy.

For instance, many rely on exceptions in criminal abortion statutes — which might be reinforced when Health and Human Services acts on President Biden’s executive order — to address the risk of death. But these exceptions do not protect women. The threat of death from pregnancy does not present as a “medical emergency” that can be rectified with an abortion. Instead, death occurs due to hemorrhaging during delivery, sepsis, strokes or due to heart attacks thanks to the strain that pregnancy places on a pregnant woman’s heart.

In fact, 36% of pregnancy-related deaths occur during delivery, and another 33% occur up to a year after delivery. Pre-eclampsia occurs in 2%-8% of pregnancies and is responsible for 16% of maternal deaths. Crises may occur without warning and can result in seizures, stroke and death. “Medical emergency” exceptions do nothing to protect women from these risks, which accumulate silently over time. Meanwhile, maternal mortality rates have steadily increased in the United States for the last thirty years and jumped by nearly 20% from 2019-20 alone. This risk is particularly high for Black women, who experience a maternal mortality rate nearly three times that of white women.

And the threat of death is not the only serious health risk. Morning sickness is a joke in pop culture, but it can be so extreme it can actually lead to hospitalization, and studies suggest it lowers the quality of life to a level roughly comparable to suffering from fibromyalgia or PTSD. Pregnancy can also cause pain so severe it cripples women. Pelvic or lower back pain is experienced by 70-86% of pregnant women, and up to 20% of women experience pain so strong it requires medical assistance, which at its most severe form is described as “excruciating,” “horrific,” and “dominating their existence.”

For women with preeclampsia, pregnancy can mean prolonged hospitalization. Gestational diabetes, which affects 2%-10% of pregnancies, can require blood tests and injections four times per day. It can be associated with excessive fetal growth, which can result in shoulder dystocia; a condition where, in some cases, the shoulders of the fetus can become stuck in the birth canal after delivery of the head, possibly causing serious injury to both mother and fetus. The requirements for monitoring patients with gestational diabetes or preeclampsia lead to absences from work, and possibly loss of income or jobs.

Labor can also last hours or even days. Women may be denied anesthesia, or the anesthesia may not work. In fact, women’s experiences during labor can be so traumatic as to cause symptoms of PTSD in up to 9% of women.

And the risks do not end with delivery. Up to 500,000 American women may experience persistent pain, annually, as a result of giving birth, and 10% of mothers still experience pain six months after delivery. Eight in ten women experience vaginal tears during delivery, which can lead to pain during sex and incontinence even ten years after giving birth.

Anywhere from 6-18% of women who deliver via cesarean section will develop chronic pain at their incision site. More than 50,000 women per year also experience maternal morbidity, such as hemorrhage or hysterectomy, permanently altering a woman’s body and her life. And, more than a third of women who give birth may experience postpartum depression.

This list barely begins to describe what happens to a woman when she carries a child to term. But our legal and public debate ignores these risks. Pages upon pages of legal text have been devoted to arguments that a fetus experiences pain (an argument science rejects). In contrast, the actual pain and risks associated with normal pregnancy, experienced in a majority of normal pregnancies, is never mentioned. Pregnant women have disappeared from this conversation. The Dobbs opinion has continued this trend, entirely ignoring these physical implications in the majority opinion, only barely touching upon them in the dissent.

Now that abortion is returned to legislatures, it is time we make an effort to remember that women are also people, who suffer agonizing pain, and who die during pregnancy, labor and postpartum. Women’s interests in this issue are not capricious, and the public is not interested in consigning women to months or years of crippling pain. It is past time we acknowledged what it is we do to women when we force them to carry children.

SOURCE: NJ SHIT Ledger

THE END

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Author: Stucky

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it. View all posts by Stucky