Democrats must defend pregnant women from invasive laws

[Guest guest]

With the expansion of laws defining a fetus as a human being with full

rights, courts are increasingly depriving women and their doctors of the right

to

make reasonable medical decisions. Sometimes, because of court-ordered

surgeries " to protect the fetus, " women die. (I imagine that's perfectly okay

with

some of the right-to-lifers). Sometimes their babies die, sometimes both die.

This is insanity and Democrats must take a stand to put a stop to it and to

all the other GOP assaults on women and families. Remember the forced

childbearing of women in Hitler's Germany? Why is it that oppressive,

dictatorial

regimes believe women's bodies are fair game for the state to control?

 

 

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/02/20/th

e_abortion_diversion?mode=PF

 

The abortion diversion

By Lynn M. Paltrow | February 20, 2005

HOWARD DEAN is not wrong to say that his party ought to make a home for

prolife Democrats. People committed to a country that truly honors women,

mothers,

and families can and will disagree about abortion.

But Democrats must make clear that outlawing abortion and expanding fetal

rights pose significant threats not just to women who want to end their

pregnancies but also to pregnant women and expectant fathers who hope to become

parents. Increasingly, pregnant women who have no intention of ending their

pregnancies face arrest, forced surgery, and punitive child welfare

interventions based

on antiabortion claims of fetal rights.

At 27 years old and 25 weeks pregnant, Angela Carder became critically ill.

She, her family, and her attending physicians all agreed on treatment designed

to keep her alive for as long as possible. Nevertheless, based on

antiabortion, fetal-rights claims, a court ordered Carder to undergo a

C-section, knowing

the surgery could kill her. The surgery was performed. Carder not only lost

her right to informed consent and bodily integrity, she lost her right to life.

The surgery resulted in the death of both Carder and her fetus.

Democrats need to stop talking only about the right to end a pregnancy and

start talking about the right to continue pregnancies without abusive state

interventions disguised as fetal rights. In other words, antiabortion ideology

hurts both those for and against abortion.

Amber and John Marlowe, a deeply religious couple who profoundly oppose

abortion, found this out when Marlowe went into labor with their seventh wanted

child. She did not believe she needed a C-section and did not want to subject

herself or her unborn child to unnecessary surgery. The hospital disagreed with

both mother and father, and using antiabortion arguments developed over the

last 30 years, got a court order giving it custody of the fetus before, during,

and after delivery, and the right to force Marlowe to undergo invasive surgery.

Before the order came down, the Marlowes fled to another hospital. There,

Amber delivered a healthy baby naturally.

In yet another case, Washington, D.C., doctors sought a court order to force

Ayesha Madyun to have a C-section. The doctors asserted that the fetus faced a

50 to 75 percent chance of infection if not delivered surgically. A judge,

relying again on antiabortion fetal rights arguments, said, ''All that stood

between the Madyun fetus and its independent existence, separate from its

mother,

was, put simply, a doctor's scalpel. " The court granted the order. When the

procedure was done, there was no evidence of infection.

Democrats must oppose the proposed antiabortion and fetal rights laws that

undermine fetal health by subjecting pregnant women and unborn children to

unnecessary surgery and deprive pregnant women of the right to informed consent,

bodily integrity, and in some cases life itself.

All women, pro- and anti-choice, living in blue or red states, have more in

common than polls might lead you to think. The overwhelming majority of women

who have abortions also have children whom they will spend a lifetime caring

for. Women are united by the fact that the United States is virtually the only

industrialized nation that does not require any paid maternity leave.

Similarly, millions of pregnant women, especially those who work part-time or

for small

companies, lack legal protection from workplace discrimination based on

pregnancy. Democrats should talk about ending this bias, not ending their

support

for access to safe and legal abortions.

Democrats should expose how the abortion debate has been used to divert

attention from Bush administration assaults on pregnant women, mothers, and

families. While President Bush was signing the Unborn Victims of Violence Act

into

law and declaring his commitment to a culture of life, he was also deregulating

coal burning power plants. These plants release significant amounts of mercury

into the environment, which is especially poisonous to fetuses and children.

The Democrats, instead of talking about how the latest cleverly worded

antiabortion bill threatens a choice, should address the Bush administration's

threat

to the born and unborn through deregulation of polluters.

While President Bush was making it a federal crime to attack the fetus as if

it exits separate from the pregnant woman carrying it, federal funding for the

Violence Against Women Act was being reduced for programs designed to protect

women, including pregnant women, from violence. The leading cause of maternal

death in America is murder of pregnant women. Democrats should be talking

about how fetuses can be protected in a culture that does not value or protect

the women who carry them.

While President Bush was reinterpreting the State's Child Health Insurance

Program to allow states to cover unborn children, 43 million Americans,

including 8.5 million children, were without healthcare coverage and nearly 20

percent

of children were living in poverty. Instead of considering compromising on

abortion, Democrats should be uncompromising in their attacks of new

antiabortion laws that keep us divided and unable to see how many families,

regardless of

their views on abortion, can no longer ensure their children's health and

well-being.

In short, Democrats must start defending pregnant women and families rather

than abortion.

Lynn M. Paltrow is executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant

Women.

 

 

 

 

http://www.blueaction.org

" Better to have one freedom too many than to have one freedom too few. "

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