Itching to write, but tooooo busy (and clitoris)
I have a post brewing about reproductive health care and enlisted women, but right now I am up to my eyeballs in stuff to do.
I am catching up on reviewing the chapters I am assigned for the new Our Bodies, Ourselves. It’s been really exciting. I have been researching the anatomy of the clitoris for the last two days. (Hello, weird search engine hits to my blog). I am having trouble finding a consistent, comprehensive description in one source. I was watching Rachel Maddow interview Ana Marie Cox while reading about the clitoris last night – I feel like I earned an honorary lesbian card. (OK, now I’m asking for the weird search engine hits. But, it’s better than being caught by surprise by even weirder ones. You have no idea.)
My Essential Clinical Anatomy is passable, but not detailed enough. I can’t find my Netter’s, and I feel sorry for whoever has it, because it stank of formaldehyde and had some very questionable stains on some of the pages. I wish my library has access to the Journal of Urology, since it has what appears to be a good article on it. In fact, I am kind of surprised it doesn’t. I did find an interesting article in the Australian Nursing Journal by Helen O’Connell, who is the author of the unavailable J. of Urology article, in which she complains of the, ahem, shortcomings (her word) of the treatment of the clitors in anatomy texts, including Grey’s Anatomy.
Anyway, as usual, my “I’m too busy to post” post has gotten long. Two reviewed chapters, one eggnog Bundt cake, a few batches of spiced nuts and Christmas cookies, and a roasted chicken from now, I hope to be writing about military reproductive health care.
Edited to add: I had no idea the clitoris was so complicated! (Insert joke here). I think I get it. Well, as much as I can when the sources aren’t consistent with their terminology.
Stopping by to say hi
I used to blog here, right?
I had company in town and a lot of social commitments over the Thanksgiving holiday. I have had a few ideas for posts, but no time to write them. In the meantime, in light of the total lack of any contraceptive coverage requirements in either health care bill, and the Stupak amendment, here’s a cartoon:
From In Contempt, hat tip to Alas, a Blog.
Synopsis
I have been really busy lately and overwhelmed with various issues in my real, meat world life.
So, although I don’t have the emotional energy or time to write a full post, I just wanted to say a few things.
Stupak-Pitts Amendment? Makes me furious.
Obama administration’s and other progressive groups’ responses? Disappointed and furious, but not surprised.
What do I think of the chances of the health care (method of payment and abortion) reform bill passing in the Senate? Well, considering the Senate is less liberal than the House, we have “friends” like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, and a pro-life Catholic majority leader in Harry Reid, I am not optimistic.
Oh, by the way, I highly recommend this book: The Healing of America, by T.R. Reid.
My day yesterday
Now that I am done with my 12 hour day at school today, I can actually sit back and write about yesterday.
This is a political post. So, if you’re just here for the birth stuff, you are forewarned.
But, considering all the stuff I have posted about race recently, if you are still sticking around, you must be OK with my ranty side.
Yesterday was a fantastic yet very confrontational day. I can feel a little adrenaline release just thinking about it.
First of all, we had a very successful Medical Students for Choice meeting. I billed it as a “Common Ground” event. We had a wonderful speaker, Rev. Dorothy Chaney, a Baptist preacher and a member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. I met her at a meeting of the Planned Parenthood Interfaith Council. I was so moved about her story about when her aunt almost died from an illegal abortion. She prayed, and told God that if she survived, she would dedicate her life to making sure this didn’t happen to other women.
Well, now she is a preacher who provides counsel at a local abortion clinic, and supports sex education and outreach through her church in a predominantly black and impoverished community in Miami, one that has a high teen pregnancy rate. She also was part of the Institute on Religion and Democracy at Howard University.
Rev. Chaney did a wonderful job. We only gave one day’s notice for the event. We had standing room only. Many people showed up who were not members of Medical Students for Choice, including a few medical students with bibles. Don’t get me wrong, there are members of Medical Students for Choice, at our chapter and that I have met at the national conventions, that take their religious faith very seriously. But, these particular students with bibles were not there to be members.
A few highlights from what I thought was a very successful event. At one point, after she was done speaking, one of the attendees asked her something about “killing babies” and she corrected him and said “Honey, they’re not babies yet. They’re fetuses.” (Which, technically, they’re not, since we were discussing first trimester abortion, which is still the embryonic stage, but anyway….) The medical student said “No, they’re not, they’re BABIES!”
I wanted to freeze frame them and say, “Hold on, which one is the preacher and which one is the medical student?”
At the end of the event, a first year student held up her bible and said “I have something to say..” and Rev. Chaney said “I have the same bible as you!” brightly. The first year student continued “I want you all to to read the bible for yourself and decide what it says.” And I smiled broadly and said “Thanks so SO much. That was exactly the point of our event to find common ground. Thanks for attending and participating so respectfully!”
So, if that wasn’t enough, there was a health care rally at Senator Bill Nelson’s office. I went, and so did the other research fellow. It was…interesting. There were more pro health care reform people than antis, but not by too much.
OK, I’m pretty biased, but the signs and arguments on the anti side were pathetic. Many referred to killing seniors. I can’t believe anyone would hold a sign with the thoroughly debunked death panels lie on it. I find it really offensive, to tell you the truth. A woman with one asked me if I ever heard of the Heritage Foundation. I said “My father worked at the Heritage Foundation. And he had a living will.” End of life counseling is not euthanasia.
There were also a lot of references to the Constitution (these people who love their federally subsidized flood insurance think that the Constitution outlaws federal spending on anything not spelled out in the original document?) and socialism (and many admitted they loved their Medicare. Except for the guy with the socialism sign who said he had no insurance and took his children to the department of health. Seriously).
Some highlights:
The other fellow is doing research on end of life. She had a bunch of surveys with her, and was asking people to fill them out. It is a research study for the medical school. She is collecting opinions and knowledge about hospice and living wills. It is an IRB approved survey, not biased or politically slanted. One older gentleman with a sign saying “Kill the bill, not our seniors” refused to fill one out.
So, you’ll demonstrate with a sign about end of life counseling and options, but you won’t fill out an opinion survey about it? I guess he has his own way of getting his opinion heard.
Oh, and I got called a “racist bigot”. This is seriously how the conversation went:
Him: “I don’t want to pay more taxes. I like my insurance.”
Me: “Well, that’s where we don’t see eye to eye. I care about the general public good, and you care about yourself.”
Him: “That makes you a racist bigot! You think you are more important than everyone else!”
Yeah, and liberals are playing the so called racism card? I recently got called a Holocaust denier by a friend of my brother’s because I said it was OK (and precedented) for the president to address schoolchildren. What is wrong with these people? If lies about killing the elderly and full term babies (oh, yes, they were yelling about infanticide, too) don’t work, then start calling people the worst random insults that spring to mind, even if they are completely unrelated to the conversation.
And, I’ll end this with some photos of misspelled signs! This one said “KILL THE HEALTH CARE BILL, NOT GRANMA” but his arms got tired before I could take a picture of it in its full glory.
And, here’s the woman in the garbage bag with the sign about who works for us. It was raining about an hour before I took this picture. I guess she was afraid the rain might come back, and maybe her clothes were dry clean only. She drove off in a gorgeous new convertible Mercedes. You’d think she’d have a nice raincoat. Or maybe a dictionary. I am sure she earned that Mercedes by merit, intelligence and hard work. Wouldn’t want any giveaways.
Personhood bill in Florida
The radical anti-choice lobby has brought a so-called “Personhood” Bill to Florida. This would try to extend human rights to conceptus “at the beginning of biological development”.
If the physiology of pregnancy (like, there is no biological test for conception, and the vast majority of fertilized eggs do not implant, and no major medical organization defines that as the beginning of life) and the major ethical concerns with this don’t already sway you to sign this petition against the Personhood amendment in Florida, maybe this will:
Comment policy
I don’t have an official policy. I obviously don’t routinely censor anyone who disagrees with me. I am all for constructive conversation.
I do have my comments set that any new commenter has to be cleared by me, and I get notified of every comment. So, just a tip to anyone who wants to post comments calling Med Students for Choice “fucking liars”, that killing an abortion provider is somehow defensible as a “choice” with equal footing as termination of early pregnancy or anything else along those lines, it’s not going to get through. I will use such comments as proof that so called anti-choice activists are unreasonable fringe elements that defend murderers, however, and are not pro-life. So, thanks for the fodder.
I also don’t allow anonymous posting, so I will have your email address. Not that I would want to communicate with someone with that point of view on purpose, I’m just saying, spewing hate with a trail is kind of….stupid. Especially if it’s a work address or you are affiliated with a university.
If you are of the anti-choice persuasion and for some reason enjoy reading my blog, however, please feel free to check out my blog for choice day post from this January and see if you are believing any of these myths and letting them guide your comment attempts.
I have wanted to do a post on common ground for a while, and I may have time to do it soon. I am totally cool with people wanting to support women with unplanned pregnancies and who want to help them keep their pregnancies and raise happy, healthy children. Hell, I carried two unplanned pregnancies to term. Obviously I support that option. However, hateful rhetoric is not welcome here. Exercise your freedom of speech on another site where such filth is welcome. Thanks!
I write letters, activist style
A double hat tip to Shakesville, one tip for the title and another for the story.
CNN has a headline referring to Scott Roeder, the confessed assassin of Dr. Tiller, as an “anti-abortion activist.”
Here is my letter:
I was shocked to see Dr. Tiller’s assassin referred to as an “abortion activist” by your website (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/28/kansas.doctor.killed/index.html ) in a headline.
I am an abortion activist as a member of Medical Students for Choice. This man was many things: an assassin, a murderer, a terrorist, or simply “accused murderer” would have been accurate. He was not an activist.
Many people have complained that the popular media has normalized violent targeting of reproductive health care workers, and have theorized that this euphemization may embolden such “activists”. Please keep this in mind when covering this issue.
Signed,
A future provider of a legal, safe, necessary, common medical procedure who is sick of being maligned while violent nuts on the fringe’s feelings are coddled by the “most trusted name in journalism”.
Here is CNN’s Feedback form if you are so inclined.



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