What you said about where the moral fault lies (government regs vs. individual woman) reminded me of a situation I heard of somewhere out west. Utah? South Dakota? I forget where. But abortion is so unpopular none of the local docs will do it, and they basically have someone fly in once a week to the capital to do abortions. On top of that, they just instituted a 72-hour waiting period. Which means if you want an abortion there you have to
a) get off work, arrange transportation, etc. to go to the capital city. b) be seen by a doc once, at self-pay cost (no insurance can cover this doc, I'm sure) c) if you are lucky enough to get an appt the next week - which is hard if this doc has anywhere near a schedule as mine - you have to arrange another out-of-town trip and pay for it all out of pocket
So there is at least a week's delay. I am sure this state wants to prevent abortions (if we're being generous and not attributing it all on punishing sluts) but the upshot is you're unnecessarily delaying them. More time in utero ==> more time for the fetus to develop ==> the closer the abortion gets to murder (morally if not legally). That kind of hypocrisy just frustrates me.
I agree, too, on leaving the decision to the doctors rather than the clergymen and politicians. If a woman wants to go to one for guidance, that should be her decision. My cousin did - she had a late-term complication where there was an extremely high chance the baby was already dead but not absolute certainty (in the sense that medicine is never 100% certain), and as she was very religious she went to her priest for moral guidance. But that was one woman's decision of what factors to consider rather than clergymen dictating things in general, and involved a clergymen doing his pastoral duty rather than practicing theology - two very different things.
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branchandroot
Re: Moral consiterations
Date: 2011-06-05 01:33 pm (UTC)a) get off work, arrange transportation, etc. to go to the capital city.
b) be seen by a doc once, at self-pay cost (no insurance can cover this doc, I'm sure)
c) if you are lucky enough to get an appt the next week - which is hard if this doc has anywhere near a schedule as mine - you have to arrange another out-of-town trip and pay for it all out of pocket
So there is at least a week's delay. I am sure this state wants to prevent abortions (if we're being generous and not attributing it all on punishing sluts) but the upshot is you're unnecessarily delaying them. More time in utero ==> more time for the fetus to develop ==> the closer the abortion gets to murder (morally if not legally). That kind of hypocrisy just frustrates me.
I agree, too, on leaving the decision to the doctors rather than the clergymen and politicians. If a woman wants to go to one for guidance, that should be her decision. My cousin did - she had a late-term complication where there was an extremely high chance the baby was already dead but not absolute certainty (in the sense that medicine is never 100% certain), and as she was very religious she went to her priest for moral guidance. But that was one woman's decision of what factors to consider rather than clergymen dictating things in general, and involved a clergymen doing his pastoral duty rather than practicing theology - two very different things.