Dear Anti-Choice Moron—
Yes, you. You know who you are. You're the one who is still sadly taken by the illogical fantasy that by outlawing the termination of unplanned pregnancies you'll actually prevent unplanned pregnancies, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. Though that you hold such a delusion comes as no shock; after all, you almost certainly cling to many other ideas equal to that one on the stupid scale, such as believing that no one should have sex unless it's within the confines of marriage and then only for purposes of procreation and then only in the missionary position with the lights out; or the one that says contraception should be outlawed; or the one that says that by not teaching kids about sex, they'll never actually have sex. That last one is roughly as logical as believing that by not teaching kids about food, they'll never actually eat, or that by not teaching kids about oxygen, they'll never actually breathe. But, hey, to people like you, logic clearly doesn't play much a part in any issue, so why even bring it up now, right?
Anyway, I digress.
On the gurney lay a young woman the color of white marble. The red pool between her legs, ominously free of clots, offered a silent explanation.
That quote, and the others that follow, are from a recent post over at
Dr. Jen Gunter's blog entitled
Anatomy of an unsafe abortion, a title which is so apt, so fitting, so
perfect that I cribbed it verbatim for this diary. I urge you to head on over and read the entire piece when you're done here. Please.
We didn’t wait for an orderly. A terrified medical student and I raced down the hallway with the gurney. The amorphous red pool dripped onto the floor as we rounded the corner to the elevators.
Now, you should know that Gunter isn't just another of the ordinary, everyday, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety heathens upon whom people like you pile your spittle-flecked hatred. No, unfortunately for you, she has real and verifiable credibility where issues of pregnancy and birth are concerned, given that she's, you know, a
doctor.
Yup, Dr. Gunter is pretty much your worst nightmare: 1) a profoundly intelligent, 2) pro-choice, 3) board-certified, 4) highly-trained 5) OB/GYN and 6) published author who 7) is internet-savvy, 8) social media-aware, and 9) a great writer. IOW, Dr. Gunter—MD, FRCS(C), FACOG, DABPM—knows what the fuck she's talking about and she knows how to make sure she's heard.
Oh, yeah: she's also 10) a woman and 11) a mother.
Oh, dear me. I just pressed my ear against my window, and I can swear I hear the howls of rage emanating from the dark and smoky den of hatred and fear and ignorance where you are meeting at this moment and plotting with other anti-choice, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-logic types. Such anger! Such venom! I must have really upset you, no?
I sure the hell hope so.
I opened the vagina and by feel clamped through the holes on either side of the uterus where I knew from experience I would find the uterine arteries, the likely site of the puncture. I didn’t know which side, and at that point it didn’t matter. I just needed to stop the blood flow. It took less than a minute. She would have bled to death if I had opened her belly.
Now, something I haven't shared with you yet: the bloody mess described here wasn't something that happened back in the dark and dreary days of back-alley abortions. No, this wasn't the outcome of some scared teenager stabbing around at her internal ladyparts with a straightened wire coathanger.
This was instead a legal post-Roe V. Wade abortion performed by a licensed physician. But, as Dr. Gunter explains, that physician was not adequately trained to perform that procedure, but because of lack of access to a safer practitioner, the woman was forced to use the services of a cut-rate hack. In other words, the type of thing that happened with amazing regularity back before abortion was legalized in every state. And the type of thing that will happen with even more amazing regularity if and when
Roe v. Wade is overturned.
As the bleeding had stopped, it was up to the anesthesiologist to fix the hematologic tempest. A vascular system so traumatized by sheer blood loss that it had run haywire and lost the ability to clot. Disseminated intravascular coagulation. This is how many young women die when an abortion goes wrong.
It goes without saying that you surely believe that the patient in Dr. Gunter's story "deserved" what she got. After all, you likely reason, the death penalty is warranted; she
should bleed to death in a hospital ER for being an obvious slut who obviously engaged in obvious unprotected sex. In fact, perhaps you're even the paragon of humanity and "Christian" compassion who posted the following comment to Gunter's blog:
"OH I HAVE AN IDEA!! how about she just use some f*cking BIRTH CONTROL IN THE DAMNED FIRST PLACE and THEN maybe she wouldn’t have been in this situation. She knew when she opened her god damned legs how babies were made.OK people?And if she didnt why the hell is she having sex?? Truth is, is that we have been given every tool and opportunity to prevent pregnancy, if you are too irresponsible or plain frigging stupid to protect yourself from it, then my God, i guess its best YOU DON’T HAVE A CHILD"
...an ungrammatical rant that is so chock-full of head-spinning, mind-numbing dumbassery that I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just note that the commenter (you?) tipped his (your?) hand that his (your?) point of view has absolutely nothing to do with medicine or science or being informed or caring for a child as he (you?) would probably claim, and instead has everything to do with this clearly stupid person (you?) trying to force his (your?) personal morals on everyone else by punishing the woman for some "sin".
I looked around. A forest of IV poles, laden with blood instead of fruit. Everyone not directly helping was running back and forth to the pharmacy or blood bank. A nurse and another surgeon started to clean the floor. We were all bonded by this nameless woman whose life we were desperately trying to save. And we were bearing witness, because we knew if she died it was unlikely anyone would read about her in the paper. It was unlikely her family would protest...
Before you and your gaggle of misogynistic miscreants succeed in legislating your 15th century "morality" by overturning
Roe v. Wade, or even in simply making a routine medical procedure more dangerous and more difficult and more expensive, I'd like you to clear your mind of blind hatred for one minute if you possibly can and imagine someone you love—your sister, your cousin, your girlfriend, your wife, your daughter—bleeding out in that ER surrounded by strangers. And then ask yourself this question: do I really want us to go there again?
If your answer is "No", congratulations on displaying real humanity. And "Bravo!" for demonstrating an amazing and honest ability to see the truth beyond your ideology.
And if your answer is "Yes"? Well, then, just crawl back to your cave and do the world a huge favor: don't reproduce. Ever.
—Sincerely,
The Human Race