Posted on 7.09.2012 by Amy
UPDATE: Thursday, July 12 On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan extended his ruling blocking the anti-abortion law in Mississippi from going into effect. That means the clinic stays open -- for now.
Lily wrote a little while back about Mississippi's last remaining abortion clinic and how it's been threatened by a new law aimed at ending abortion.
The law requires all the clinic's doctors to have admitting privileges at hospitals, which is nearly impossible for many providers, in part because they admit so few patients to the hospital. Similar laws have passed in at least nine other states.
The Jackson Women's Health Organization sued. It was their only shot at survival. And on July 1, the day the law was scheduled to take effect, a judge temporarily blocked it. Their fate now rests on a hearing scheduled to take place this week.
A New York Times reporter described the scene at Jackson Women's Health Organization after the law was temporarily blocked:
"The phones buzzed over and over at Mississippi’s only abortion clinic on Monday. Yes, receptionists told the dozens of young women who called, they could still see a doctor about an unwanted pregnancy. But they would need to come soon…The clinic’s three doctors normally perform about 40 abortions a week, but received more than 100 calls in one day last week from women trying to schedule appointments. Two of the doctors live out of state and will fly in to perform abortions this week, said Diane Derzis, the clinic owner."
Take that, antis. The clinic is performing more abortions because you tried to stop them.
Wait, no, seriously, the fact that patients feel pressured to have an abortion immediately is not a victory for anyone. Here's clinic owner Diane Derzis again: “What women are hearing is, You may not be able to have an abortion soon,” she said. “If you’re pregnant and you don’t want to be, you’re thinking, ‘By God, I’ve got to get in there fast.’”
Now as someone who's been on the other end of that phone line talking to people who are pregnant and don't want to be, I'm trying to imagine how these conversations went down.
Patient: "Hi, I want an abortion, and I'm wondering if the state has shut you down yet?"
Counselor: "Not yet, but they might next week."
I've spoken to patients who were so distraught over their unplanned pregnancies they appeared on the verge of suicide. I've spoken to some who were paralyzed by the weight of the decision. I've talked to others who just knew it just was not time for a kid. Ho-no. Nuh-uh. Done. Let's get this over with.
I still can't imagine having to tell any of them to hurry up. That concept is antithetical to quality abortion counseling, which is about supporting patients, helping them feel safe and ensuring they're ready. Unless someone was 21 weeks pregnant and on the verge of hitting the clinic's gestational limit, one of the most reassuring things I could tell patients was, "You have time."
As it turns out, patients in Mississippi may not have time.
Continue Reading →
Add a comment
Posted on 7.04.2012 by Kelly
Although I am not really interested in patriotic celebrations of imperialist United States' “Independence Day,” I do love me some red, white, and blue desserts. Blueberries and strawberries feature prominently in said desserts, and to me berries and whipped cream are a sign of summer. You might be wondering how my love of berries is related to reproductive justice. The connection lies in the pesticides commonly used in the production of these fruits and the people who are exposed to these chemicals through their work or place of residence.
A couple years ago I lived in Maine, the largest producer of wild blueberries in the country, providing around 30% of the total United States supply. The state takes great pride in its blueberry harvest, with many festivals celebrating the tiny fruit occurring during the month of August. Recently I met a woman who formerly lived next to blueberry fields that were sprayed with a pesticide called azinphos-methyl (AZM). AZM is an insecticide which was developed from neurotoxins used during World War II. In humans it “binds up, blocks, or damages, the normal functioning of cholinesterase, an enzyme which is essential to the proper working of the nervous system.” In 2006, due to concern for worker health and ecological impacts of the pesticide, the Environmental Protection Agency decided to phase out AZM for agricultural use. However, it will not be prohibited for use on blueberry fields until September 30 of this year.
Continue Reading →
Add a comment
Posted on 6.29.2012 by Chantal
It seems I've reached an uncomfortable impasse in thinking about my future. Paradoxically, I've never been more sure of my “career path,” yet I'm plagued with more doubts that you can imagine. My mother has been a nurse for over 20 years so I was bit by the medicine bug fairly early. I can remember being maybe 4 or 5 and lining all of my stuffed animals in a row on my bed. My mother would give me Skittles and some small plastic cups and I would dispense to each “patient” a daily dose of medications. If anyone asked, I was doing rounds. Obviously.
For a few years in high school I decided I wanted to be “an obstetrician who doesn't deliver babies because that's gross.” Somehow it didn't occur to me that obstetricians are also gynecologists.
I certainly experimented with other futures. Marine biologist, veterinarian... (Both of which are hilarious if you know me now and are familiar with my utter lack of interest in animals.) I decided at some point in high school that medical school sounded far too daunting and that I should become a poet instead. As if that's somehow an easier career path.
But at the end of the day, I always returned to medicine. In college, I studied social sciences but always with a focus on health. Culture and health. Gender and health. Religion and health. Sexual health. Something inside of me was screaming: YOU WANT TO WORK IN HEALTHCARE! HEALTHCARE! HEALTHCARE! Intentionally or unintentionally, I became very good at ignoring that voice.
Little did I know it, my early high school self was on to something. Flash forward a bunch of years and I'm pretty certain that I want to be an OB/GYN. I've gotten over my childish aversion to birth. In fact, I've become sort of obsessed with it. I feel deep down that it's my calling to serve women. So why become a doctor, you ask? Well, I've been asking myself that same question and it's the primary source of my discomfort. I work with doctors every day and I notice myself physically squirming when they ask that dreaded question, “So what's your plan? Are you going to med school?” “MmmyesI'mplanningoniteventuallymaybe,” I mutter sheepishly.
It's not that I haven't considered other options. I came aboutthisclose to becoming a midwife. In fact, I was accepted to a top program and was supposed to start my nurse midwifery training last year. I chose to hold off for reasons that are much too longwinded to get into here. But I have tremendous respect (and a fair bit of jealousy) for midwives. The truth of the matter is, though, that medicine is a hierarchy. Those two little letters (M and D) bestow power and with power comes freedom (and also responsibility, as I learned from Spiderman). Freedom to work wherever I want in a variety of different settings. Freedom to super duper specialize in some obscure but very important niche that no one's filled yet. Freedom to change my mind somewhere down the line and still have a job to fall back on.
The flip side of course is that I don't believe in hierarchy. I don't believe that doctors are inherently smarter or better at caring for people than nurses. I don't even believe that a person necessarily needs formal medical training to offer quality care. (Fuck yeah, lay midwives!) And above all, I don't believe in a for-profit healthcare system. I don't believe in doctors (or insurance companies!) getting rich off of other people's illness.
And then there are the social aspects of medicine. Being a doctor means being thrust into a position of authority. When doctors speak, people listen. When you put on a white coat, people respect and even fear you.
I'm not trying to say that doctors are bad. That's far from the truth. But they exist and participate in a system that is fatally flawed. The power to heal is a great one. And I believe that doctors individually and as a group owe more to the communities they serve.
How am I supposed to reconcile my passion for medicine, in general, and women's health, in particular, with my anti-authoritian politics? Will a 6 figure salary change my priorities? I can't let that happen. But how to stop it? I don't know. In just about any other circumstance I would argue that it's futile to try to change a system from within. But, honestly, is anyone making any progress in changing the healthcare system from the outside? Just take a look at so-called Obamacare. Sure, more Americans will have access to insurance than before. And hopefully, more people will be able to afford preventative and emergency care when they need it. But at the end of the day, insurance companies are still making the big bucks. And it will always be cheaper for them to deny services than to provide them. This I am sure of.
So what's a lonely anarchist and aspiring physician to do? I'm going to avoid churning out some half-assed answers to satisfy my need to wrap this post up neatly. Because really I have no clue. And I'm more excited and more frightened than ever.
Add a comment
Posted on 6.26.2012 by Lily
So Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is being threatened yet again. Except this time they may actually have to shut their doors. Did I mention it’s the ONLY clinic in the great state of Mississippi? Yeah.
I’m a born ‘n’ raised New Englander, which means I have a vague sense of the rest of the country with Florida below us and California over on the other side and Texas near Mexico, and a whole mess of states in the middle. Growing up in New England means my sense of distance is, well, relative. I have lived and worked in abortion clinics in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, which needless to say, are very small states that can be crossed in a matter of hours. Or less than one hour, in Lil Rhody’s case. My family would periodically go to New York City, which took about 3-4 hours depending on traffic. Sometimes we would take the really dreadfully long drive to Philadelphia - about 6 hours.
The point is, in the Northeast, everything is pretty close.
And New England’s got a few abortion clinics to boot. The situation facing patients seeking abortions in New England is not great - because it’s not exactly great in this country, period - but I'm willing to bet it’s a whole hell of a lot better here than in much of the rest of the country, save California and a handful of other, probably mostly Northeastern states. (Forgive my Northeastern-blinded ignorance of the rest of the country.) I’d like to compare the situation in my beloved New England to the situation facing millions of patients in the rest of the country - especially, as is timely right now, in Mississippi.
Continue Reading →
Add a comment
Posted on 6.21.2012 by Amy
Here’s a reproductive justice issue that came to my attention this week.
Workers at the Louisiana-based crawfish supplier C.J.’s Seafood are accusing their employer of locking them into the plant, forcing them to work 24-hour shifts without overtime pay, and threatening them with beatings to make them work faster. They say their employer threatened violence against their families in Mexico when they contacted authorities.
One worker described the threats:
“If we didn’t finish our production quotas, we were told we couldn’t take breaks and the manager said while blocking the exit that if we didn’t understand that then we would understand ‘with a shovel.’” -Silvia Alfaro, 39
The employees were hired as guest workers under a program that allows U.S. companies to temporarily hire foreign workers if they can show there aren’t enough U.S. workers to fill the jobs. Critics say the H-2B program essentially legalizes low pay and exploitation of migrant workers.
C.J.’s supplies seafood to Wal-Mart. The retail giant has said it’s been “unable to substantiate” workers’ claims. But an activist said no one from the company had bothered to contact the workers who complained.
Wal-Mart is where a lot of women go for birth control, Plan B, infant formula, diapers and a whole range of affordable, reproductive rights-related stuff. It’s also been a site of battles over access to basic health care, with some pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control.
Wal-Mart has also faced accusations of using suppliers that run sweatshops and paying millions of dollars in bribes to Mexican officials for construction permits.
Here’s another fun fact about Wal-Mart: the six heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune have a collective wealth equivalent to the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society.
Have I wandered off the reproductive rights track? Bear with me for a sec.
Continue Reading →
Add a comment
Next Page Previous Page
