00:08 Lana was 17 in 1939, married, and had a baby 10 months later. The baby was very ill, jaundiced. Lana's OB/Gyn told her another pregnancy would kill her. 3 months later she was pregnant again. Fearing death, and therefore leaving her baby with no mother, Lana sought out and found an abortionist.
That was a long time ago, and while Lana's story is indeed terrifying, it wouldn't happen like that today. Perhaps back then it was illegal to do an abortion if the mother's life was imminent danger, but it's not now, and it never will be again. Also, with the advancement in medical technology, Lana may very well not have had the complications she had when she gave birth to her baby. She may even have been able to give her daughter siblings.
00:48 Betty was involved with a boyfriend. They talked about marriage, babies, and what they would name a child. When she told him she was pregnant, everything changed. The relationship ended. Having a baby without a husband was just not done back then. Using the phone directory, she found a Gyn, intentionally passing the OB/Gyn's because she thought the Gyn would be more sympathetic. He was.
Betty had an abortion because of the stigma associated with being an unwed mother. Obviously, this is not an issue today. Where there used to be stigma attached to giving your child life, now there is only stigma attached to killing them, as it should be.
01:25 Rosalie was pregnant, and had to keep it an absolute secret. In her words, it was a "humiliating strange kind of experience". She decided she should have an abortion to make the problem go away.
Much the same as the previous story, Rosalie aborted due to stigma associated with being an unwed mother. But Rosalie's story has a Part 2.
22:30 Rosalie found she was pregnant for a second time, due to being raped by an older man. She opted this time to go to a home for unwed mothers. She was told not to look at or hold the baby when she gave birth, but she did it anyway. "That was a terrible mistake". She stayed on awhile and worked in the nursery to work off her debt (room, board, and medical expenses). "That was a very bad mistake" because she was around babies all the time. "And I wanted to keep the baby and I actually held the baby before they took it" (she breaks down here), "Anybody who would think [adoption] that'd be a great way to solve the problem just..." Then she talks about herself at 17, a child who doesn't know her own mind, and we expect her to carry a baby in her body for 9 months, give birth to it, and then just give it away like it's nothing.
Even pro-lifer's like me, acknowledge how difficult it must be to carry a baby for 9 months, give birth, then hand over your baby to someone you probably don't even know. And Rosalie even said she wanted to keep this baby. I'm sure she didn't have a choice legally when the time came to hand her baby over. Regarding "give it away like it's nothing", pro-life wonders every day how women can abort their babies like they are "nothing".
05:03 Mary, a registered nurse, said they had patients with temps of 105, bleeding, totally infected. Some died from shock because they were afraid to tell the truth about their abortion. She said it was just plain housewives, who felt they couldn't afford another child.
Could this happen today? Absolutely. But with the advancements in antibiotics such as penicillin, it would be rare. And too, it's not even close to mostly housewives getting abortions today. From Guttmacher: "Women who have never married and are not cohabiting account for 45% of all abortions".
12:32 Evelyn talks about walking the streets alone looking for an abortionist, most places denied knowledge of one, or said they had moved. She heard of another place and drove the car there in the evening. They gave her no anesthesia, she didn't know it was supposed to be painful, she was very frightened they were doing something terrible to her. Later in the video (16:52), she tells how she referred women for abortions.
Evelyn, as far as I can tell, just didn't want to be pregnant, for whatever reason. I don't think it was a lack of money, because she mentioned having a car, and never mentioned having to scrape up funds for an abortion. It could very well have been the same stigma that Betty and Rosalie were facing.
Back in those days, women faced issues that women today can't even imagine. Indeed, times have changed. No longer does a woman have to deal with having 12 kids because she "didn't know how not to get pregnant". No longer do young women have to feel pressured to have an abortion, just because of what people might think about them being pregnant. We have something they didn't have, highly effective birth control. There are no excuses for the 1.3 million abortions in the United States each year.
Yet, the same Guttmacher report as linked above states "Fifty-four percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant." 54%. That's a lot of women who had access to birth control, and failed to take advantage of it. Women can do better. YOU can do better. It's your children dying during an abortion, and YOU can prevent it. Hold yourself accountable and do the right thing.
What do you say to a man who fell in love with a woman who assured him that she couldn't conceive because she had an IUD, and would consider removing the IUD later, " When she is ready"? And then the miscarriages came, two of them. Living in a nice rural home, plenty of room for kids to grow in, both working. The contraceptive failed. It was removed. Marriage failed. Wife became a lesbian.
ReplyDeleteMost people, on both sides of the abortion issue, don't have a clue about the hormonal effects birth control has on a woman. Condoms fail, and the more you use them, the more likely you'll get pregnant. IUD's fail, and children are killed by an act of love. Artificial birth control isn't the answer. Education, good education, calling things what they really are, is the answer.
You have said here that artificial birth control is the answer. You are not calling things what they are. Just like we called the IUD something other than what it was, and were told it was something other than what it is. And that lie killed two children.
What do you say to that man?
Hi Doc, thank you for commenting.
ReplyDeleteJust to be clear, I do not believe a woman loading her body with artificial hormones can be healthy. But until there is a better alternative, I support a womans choice to use birth control. Not because I want to give women a way to have unlimited sex with no consequences, but to give women a way to prevent unlimited babies.
Now, about your ex-wife. Is it possible that she lied to you? It sounds like she had the IUD prior to your marriage. Women know what the IUD is, how it works, and the risks of pregnancy with it. The IUD is not a method I support because it can prevent an embryo from implanting. I'm for prevention, not abortion.
Obviously, you think her use of the IUD was responsible for the miscarriages, but what if it wasn't? Maybe she's just prone to miscarry. Some women are.
As for her turning to other women... It's my experience that it can be emotional trauma that pushes women to other women. Not saying that's what it is in this case, or that it was your fault, but only that it could be. If women are emotionally battered by a man, they *may* turn to other women, because other women understand them. Please accept my spology for sounding accusatory.
As for what I would say to you? Try again. I think you picked a woman with completely different values that you have.