In The New Republic today, Jonathan Cohn writes (free login required) about the lies of the South Dakota abortion-banners. If you're a regular Feministing reader, Cohn acknowledges (woot!), you already know most of this stuff. But he does add a couple of interesting things. For one, he looks at the claim that "96% of abortions are for birth control":
The figure, 96 percent, comes from survey findings that only 4 percent of abortions are performed because of rape, incest, or concerns over the mother's health. The unstated assumption, then, is that all other abortions are, in the parlance of the right-to-life movement, "abortions of convenience."But who's to say which reasons for an abortion are frivolous and which ones aren't?
Exactly. Cohn also tried to call many of the doctors and ask them if they would prescribe the emergency contraception they're happy to talk up in the ad. Turns out most of them are pediatricians, who likely wouldn't be called on to prescribe EC. But the one doctor he reached said that, if asked, he wouldn't write a scrip for Plan B. He considers it abortion. Of course. These people are maddening.
I disagree, though, with Cohn's assessment that the lying doctors ad is "striking" because it features medical professionals taking an anti-abortion stance. It's true that the medical community is probably pro-choice-leaning overall, as are important associations like ACOG. But anti-choice doctors have more power and prominence right now than ever before. Just look at Bush's appointments to important committees. It's getting increasingly common for anti-abortion-rights groups to use doctors as their mouthpieces.
It's not a new phenomenon. As far back as the 70s, anti-choice doctors led the charge in try to get city councils to declare a "public health emergency" if an abortion-providing clinic was opening in town. Groups like Physicians for Life have been around awhile, and are particularly dangerous because, like the South Dakota liars, they can claim to speak from an expert's perspective on non-medical issues like "when life begins." Reporters covering issues like the Plan B approval process went to them for comments from a "professional perspective." And their testimony has been key not only to passing the SD abortion ban, but to pushing other draconian anti-choice legislation at the state level.
The antis pour a lot of resources into "converting" doctors. And if they can't win them over ideologically, they try to convince them that physicians who provide (and openly support the right to) abortions are ostracized by others in the medical community. Which is sadly true in many parts of the country.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Anti-choice doctors, in South Dakota and beyond.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/4165
Weekly Feministing Newsletter
Feministing RSS Feed
hey guys, ive been noticing alot of articles where you need to login, so if you dont want to register theres sites like bugmenot.com that sometimes work in avoiding registering. just wanted to let ya know.
Hey, Ann, another great post.
Thanks!
I've been reading this blog a lot since I recently stumbled across it about a month ago. I had to comment on the anti-choice ads that have been coming out in South Dakota (as well as elsewhere). Even here in the very blue state of VT, I've come across some very draconian views of women, contraception, and abortion. I had a similar discussion with a relatively open minded acquaintance about abortion that surprised me. She was actually under the impression that most women seek abortions as 'birth control'. I don't know how to fight this misperception that abortion is used as a first line of birth control. I've had one once myself. I was younger, barely able to take care of myself, and on a very fixed income after having just completed school. After much soul searching, I decided the best thing to do was to abort the pregnancy, as I was not in a position to care for a child, be a good mother, or give it any kind of decent life (I didn't expect to recieve any help financially or emotionally from the father. His reaction when I broke the news to him was to question 'Is it mine?'). It is not something I took lightly, nor is it anything I wish to repeat. I consider myself Christian in the try to be nice to people kind of way. I do not regret my decision to abort the pregnancy.
An amazing amount of people have the misconception that women use abortions as a first line of birth control. The same attitude effects emergency contraception. Both of these are 'last line of defense'. I can't imagine any woman having such a casual attitude to abortion that this is her primary form of birth control. The same is true for EC. Not something I'd want to take on a regular basis.
This attitude ignores women's itelligence about their own bodies. Most women see sex as the responibility it is and understand its risks (although abstinance only you're going to hell type education is doing a lot to stop this). They realize the importance of birth control in preventing pregnancy. They also know that they need to protect themselves from STDs.
Somewhere the thought got out there that women are having all kinds of sex because abortions are legal and EC is available. Like that somehow makes us think we don't have to take responsibility for our actions. Show me one woman who uses abortion as her preferred method of birth control. Show me one woman who, when she became accidentally pregnat, thought, 'oh well, I can just have an abortion'.
Those doctors make me sick.
Every woman had the right to decide what is right for her body.
Using abortion for birth control? If that is what you want to call it, it is probably the most expensive and intrusive method. Not my first line of prevention!
Even if a woman IS using abortion as a means of birth control, so what? She's the one who has to endure the procedure, not anyone else, and she's also the one who has to pay out-of-pocket, since abortion is not covered by insurance.
Abortion is uncomfortable, expensive, and riddled with stigma, but I say it's still a helluva lot cheaper than raising a kid on your own.
I'll stop considering abortion a reasonable means of birth control when we actually have a health-care system in this country and day-care is free.
Clarification: Abortion IS covered by approximately two-thirds of private insurance companies. Most state's Medicaid programs do NOT cover abortion. Those women (and women whose private insurances don't cover abortion) have to pay out-of-pocket, typically between $250-500 for a first-trimester abortion and increasing as weeks pass in the second. Although abortion care costs have remained relatively flat over the past couple decades, this amount is still unreachable for many women. And they are either helped by abortion funds or forced to carry to term by default. So, yes, abortion IS a form of birth control: the last, final, most invasive, and most expensive form of birth control. NO woman uses it as lightly as antis claims.
I've never commented before, but as a pediatrician, I feel like I need to point out that is absolutely not true that pediatricians don't presribe EC. In fact, it's an important part of the adolescent visit to talk about sex and about EC, and even give them a script for emergency contraception in case they need it. Maybe it's because I'm in pediatrics, but I feel like it's even more important for teenagers than adults, since teens almost never have easy access to abortion and you can give EC without parental consent in most states.
Abortion IS birth control. 100 percent of the time. It controls - by eliminating - the possibility of birth.
And I have absolutely no problem with that.
I DO have a problem with knobs trying to confuse birth control with contraception. I mean, if you're gonna scream about EC and The Pill preventing blastocysts from attaching to the host's uterine wall, you can't turn around and re-draw the Axis of Evil at full-on abortion.
Actually, go ahead. It makes no difference to me, and it makes you look stupider.
By the way, has anyone been able to complete a full medical-school education fueled purely by white-hot rage?
The more ads and posturing I see, and the more I hear about doctors being too terrified to do abortions, the more I fantasize about going back to school to become an abortion provider myself. It is an important service that's being slowly exterminated by screeching fundies.
I wonder if Planned Parenthood offers scholarships.
I'm getting really, really tired of this notion that the only thing keeping women from screwing every man in sight is the fact that we might end up pregnant if we do.
We are neither that horny nor that stupid.
Most of us prefer to have sex with people we actually like and trust.
Having access to condoms, the pill, EC, and abortion gives us the option to have sex even when we're fertile, and an alternative to having a baby we can't financially support, but it doesn't make us desperate for teh sex OR magically render every man we meet an acceptable partner.
Why is this so f***ing hard to understand?!?
We are neither that horny nor that stupid.
Because women are dumb animals. Obviously.
More whining about abortion? Are you concerned that you might be inconvenienced by not being able to kill your babies whenever you want?
Ann,
Just wanted to point out a mistake in Jonathan Cohn's article.
The figure, 96 percent, comes from survey findings that only 4 percent of abortions are performed because of rape, incest, or concerns over the mother's health.
It's actually 13.4% of abortions performed because of rape, incest, or concerns over the mother's health.
From the South Dakota Department of Health, Office of Data, Statistics, and Vital Records (.pdf) report, in 2004 we have:
-- pregnancy was a result of rape or incest 23.....1.8%
-- mother’s emotional health was at risk 119.....9.3%
-- mother would suffer substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function if the pregnancy continued 29.....2.3%
tfree32,
Focus; the topic is terminating a pregnancy, not infanticide.
Thanks, Ema!
But the link won't work. Would you mind reposting the URL, or emailing it to me at ann@feministing.com?
Sorry, here it is again.