Obams on the ‘Abortion Rule’

Article. Does anyone remember when Bush passed legislation that allowed Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists and other health care professionals to refuse providing a medical service because they were morally against it? Do you remember how these following cases started to pop up;

Jo-Ann Thomas who was refused the pill when a Muslim pharmacist refused to give her a morning after pill based on religious grounds.

In November, Karen Romano’s doctor wrote her a prescription after she suffered complications from a miscarriage. But her Los Angeles pharmacist only agreed to give her the medicine after he made sure it was not going to be used to induce an abortion.

Julee Lacey of Forth Worth tried to refill her birth control pills only to be refused because the Pharmacist did not believe in birth control.

ATLANTA – Kroger Co. said Friday it was reiterating its drug policies to all of its pharmacists after a Georgia woman claimed she was denied the so-called “morning after” pill at one of the company’s stores.

That is what happened to Kathleen Pulz and her husband, who panicked when the condom they were using broke. Their fear really spiked when the Walgreens pharmacy down the street from their home in Milwaukee refused to fill an emergency prescription for the morning-after pill.”I couldn’t believe it,” said Pulz, 44, who with her husband had long ago decided they could not afford a fifth child. “How can they make that decision for us? I was outraged. At the same time, I was sad that we had to do this. But I was scared. I didn’t know what we were going to do.”

The list goes on and on. Each story becoming more descriptive, disappointing, and sad. In one case a woman ended up pregnant as a result of the refusal. Fortunately herself and her husband were well off enough to be able to care for a child, but what if it had been a pair of 18 year olds?

What I have issue with is that BC and Plan B are not abortions. Lets completely throw ‘abortion’ out the window. They do not remove an implanted zygote/fetus from the uterine wall. What most of them do is either prevent ovulation, increase mucus around the cervix to prevent sperm from getting in, stop the egg from implanting, or some I’ve heard coat the egg and make it difficult for the sperm to get inside. None of those constitute an abortion and only one constitutes the removal of a fertilized egg and evidently some people believe the moment it’s fertilized is the moment life begins. They’d probably be shocked to find out our body naturally aborts a lot of those suckers.

So when a pharmacist refuses to dispense BC or Plan B based on moral grounds, I think Mr. Blumenthal said it best;

Mr. Blumenthal said the rule “shrouds the term abortion in new and unnecessary ambiguity” and encourages medical providers to define it themselves and deny patients contraception, including emergency contraception for rape victims.

You wouldn’t condone a racist pharmacist of some color refusing to dispense to someone based upon their moral beliefs, yet people are perfectly content with it when a woman’s health and reproductive rights are at risk? That a Pharmacist is refusing to fill a prescription written by a doctor?  Morals are not a good enough reason to deny healthcare. That’s like if a doctor refused to save the life of a serial killer because it stemmed from moral reasons. When you go into the field you know the risks and if it is not infringing on your own rights and your own bodily integrity, then why are they given the power to force that belief on others? I’m not forcing them to take the pill, I’m asking them to give it to me which I’m well within my rights of doing that are supposedly protected.

I’ve bought Plan B three times.  Not to use, but to experiment with how the different Pharmacists react. I spent $150 doing this little project, too. Which I must say sucked since I’m a poor college student, but now I have it in reserves if I should ever need it or a friend needs it. Either way, the first time I bought it was the day after it no longer need a prescription to be bought. The lady had not heard and started to tell me how you needed a prescription when the lady behind her informed her of the approval. She showed signs of having no problem and was like, “That’s convenient!” and handed it right over. The second time was pretty much the same. The third time, however, was way more uncomfortable. She didn’t refuse to distribute it to me, but she made me feel quite judged. She told me it wasn’t a form of birth control and asked me if I had used it before. I told her I had (I wanted to see her reaction) and she looked even more uncomfortable. She asked me what form of birth control I was using ( none of her business ) to which I told her condoms. That’s when the mini-lecture started on safe sex and a reminder, again, that you don’t use Plan B for birth control. I told her I understood and bought it, all under her disapproving gaze. Very awkward.

I’m living in a pretty liberal city though. I’d be anxious to try this experiment in more conservative areas, like back home.

Anyways, back to the Article. I’m excited that this issue is being taken care of. It’s a stride for women and women’s reproductive rights. I can’t even express how happy I am that Bush is out of office. I’ve never felt so discriminated and helpess as a woman as when he was in office, slowly eroding my right to bodily integrity. With Obama recinding a lot of Bush’s unfair, unconstitutional, and downright attack on women’s rights I’m feeling a little bit better about living in the US as a woman. I was thinking I was going to have to move to Europe or Canada for awhile. You know abortions only cost $50 there? They are $400 for a surgical and $500 for a medical here. That’s just ridiculous. I hope Obama starts in on sexual education in school next.

Each day I love Obama a little bit more.

Obama shuts down Guantanamo.

Two days into his role as president and Obama is shutting down Guantanamo Bay. It’s to be shut down in a year and all interrogations are on a 120 day suspension so that more adequate gauging of the captive persons can be done.

Obama said a lot, but my favorite line is the following,

“He said his administration would not “continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals,” an express slap at policies pursued by former President George W. Bush…”

Beautiful. My biggest issue about all that has gone on, actually that’s a lie, but a big issue for me is the fact that they have taken civil liberties in the name of “safety” under the Bush administration. This would make our for fathers roll over in the grave. Which I’m sure they’ve done 10 fold.
I know terrorism is dangerous and after 9-11 I realize the damage that can be done by a few individuals.

However, there is a larger question at hand. Was it worth the 90-98,000 Iraqi Civilians dead? All of these people who had nothing to do with 9-11.  We invaded a country that had no link to 9-11 and took out the government, replaced it, and then have allowed the murder ( “causalities of war” ) of 87-96,000 more than we lost?

Not to mentions the loss of more of our “own”. Or group. Our soldiers. The 4,227 of them that have died. That’s 4,227 families that will never see their son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister again. It’s not regrettable or a necessary sacrifice, it’s a tragedy.

“It is the ‘price to pay’, the ‘sacrifice’ that has to be made as we fight terrorism, the ‘cost’ of this war against evil forces. That is what we say to justify these killings. But those of us who speak of this price to be paid, this sacrifice to be made, do not pay this price, do not make this sacrifice. Our own country is not being destroyed, attacked, occupied. Our own children are not being blown up, our civilians are not becoming homeless by the millions. Those who speak of the necessity of this sacrifice, would they be prepared to pay such a price? In their own country? With the blood of their own families?” – Iraq Body Count

Obama’s actions are a step in the right direction. When we are finally back to the road of saying “We have these ideas” and not contradicting them through torture and the removal of our own rights, I think I can be a little happier with the US, however, the Iraq war and the death of the people there, the innocent people, feels like blood on my own hands. I wonder if that will ever wash away?