Author: Jen R

Blog Posts

Buffalo abortion clinic to open birthing center

Jen R

A new birthing center is opening in Buffalo, New York.

It will be only the third free-standing birthing center in New York State when it opens in November, offering nurse-midwifery services for low-risk pregnancies based on natural childbirth.

The birthing center also is likely to be the only one in the United States combined with an abortion clinic, as it is a project of Buffalo Womenservices, 2500 Main St.

I’m not sure what to say about this. I think providers offering prenatal and birth services should consider both mother and child to be patients deserving of the best possible care. It’s hard for me to reconcile that with the practice of elective abortion. I know that’ll piss some people off. It’s not that I subscribe to the idea that abortion providers are, by definition, depraved and callously indifferent to human life. (Though you can make a case for that with people like Kermit Gosnell.) I know that many are just trying to help women. But I just don’t get how the same entity could be a baby, a patient, whose life the clinic will do all they can to preserve, on one side of the building and a mere “product of conception” to be removed (lethally, it must be said) on the other. That kind of dissonance doesn’t seem healthy.

But healthy or not, it isn’t new. It’s not even unusual. Armies have doctors, and sometimes enemies become patients. In fact, military doctors are legally and ethically obligated to treat enemy soldiers. Prisons have doctors, even for inmates on Death Row. And I wouldn’t want them not to. So I guess I come down with Karen Swallow Prior on this one:

“We should welcome any place that cultivates the life-affirming choice of birth. This is about choosing life, and that is positive,” said Karen Swallow Prior, a former Buffalo resident who was involved in anti-abortion activism here.

Mainly, I just hope that Womenservices’ birthing center sees a lot more use than the other side of their operation.

Blog Posts

Illinois governor signs Termination of Parental Rights of Perpetrators of Sexual Assault Act

Jen R

After having been passed unanimously by the Illinois House and Senate, the Termination of Parental Rights of Perpetrators of Sexual Assault Act is now law in Illinois. The new law, which takes effect on January 1, 2014, “[p]rovides that a person is not entitled to custody of or visitation with a child without the consent of the child’s mother or guardian if the person is found by clear and convincing evidence to have committed an act of non-consensual sexual penetration for his conduct in fathering that child and provides that the child’s mother or guardian may decline support and maintenance obligations from such a father.”

After all these months of failure to deal with pension reform, it’s nice to know that my state government can actually do something right.

Blog Posts

#LifeMatters blog/social media carnival, August 23-26

Jen R

In response to the Feminist Majority Foundation’s #AbortionMatters blog carnival, Life Matters Journal is sponsoring a #LifeMatters tweetfest/blogfest.

HOW: Make your profile picture one of the #LifeMatters tweetfest/blogfest images we share, to stand in solidarity for life! Then post early and often with the #LifeMatters hashtag on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, your blogs — however you can spread the message! We want the media to know that our message is one based in human rights, sound science, and solid ethics. That only by laying a foundation based on the respect for life and dignity of each and every human being can we ever hope for a future peace.

All Our Lives will be participating, and we’d like to encourage our supporters to do so as well. In particular, it would be great to see posts/tweets/etc that really engage with the reasons that people give as to why abortion matters to them.

Bodily integrity matters. The ability to plan childbearing matters. Mothers’ health matters. Having enough resources to care for one’s kids matters. How can we best honor those values while maintaining a commitment to sustaining everyone’s life, before and after birth?

Blog Posts, Current Actions

Rape Survivor Child Custody Act

Jen R

Last week, U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Tom Marino (R-PA), Patrick Meehan (R-PA), David Joyce (R-OH), Gwen Moore (D-WI), and Marcia Fudge (D-OH) introduced the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act (H. R. 2772). According to Wasserman Schultz’s office:

This bipartisan legislation encourages states to pass laws that allow women to petition for the termination of parental rights based on clear and convincing evidence that a child was conceived through rape. The bill would provide incentives to states with protective statutes through a grant program that provides additional federal funding through two programs authorized in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) – the STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant and the Sexual Assault Services Program.

One important aspect of the bill is that it calls upon states to allow mothers to petition for termination of rapists’ parental rights if they can show “clear and convincing evidence” that they were raped. Most states that allow termination of rapists’ parental rights require a conviction, but of course most rapes do not result in conviction. In fact, rapists have been known to pressure their victims into not pressing charges by threatening to sue for custody if they do.

All Our Lives supports this legislation and calls upon all pro-life organizations to do the same.

Blog Posts

I’ll have my OB-GYN start a tab. Er, wait.

Jen R

Imagine that you worked for somebody whose religion forbids drinking alcohol. Now, that doesn’t mean you couldn’t get a beer. The way it would work is that your boss would tell the bank where your checks are deposited that she’s anti-beer. You’d get your salary minus the amount you spend on beer, and then when you buy beer, you’d have to tell the store or bar to bill your bank. Then the bank would keep track of how much they’d spent on paying for your beer, and submit that information to the government to be reimbursed.

Imagine that around half the country supported this system — or thought even this Rube Goldberg arrangement wasn’t good enough, and still amounted to your employer being forced to buy you beer — and said if you didn’t want your boss deciding how you could spend your pay, you should just find a different job. You know, in an economy where unemployment has been above 7.5% for almost five years.

Sound reasonable? No? Well, that’s basically the situation that now exists with another form of employee compensation: the employee’s health insurance policy.

If it would be ridiculous for beer, why is it OK for family planning?

[I’d bookmarked the HHS announcement but hadn’t started drafting this post yet when two stories came out about workers who are forced to get their pay in the form of prepaid debit cards and get screwed by the cards’ high fees. A friend of mine pointed out that soon, it could become technologically feasible for companies to pay their employees with debit cards that can’t be used to buy certain things. And won’t that be a paradise of religious freedom?]

Blog Posts, Past Actions

A brave girl and her cowardly attackers

Jen R

From the Indianapolis Star comes a story of repulsive but sadly unsurprising behavior aimed at a 14-year-old girl who is due to give birth in early July after becoming pregnant as the result of rape:

 A former self-proclaimed “social bug” — she was a cheerleader and athlete — the young victim has become reclusive since learning she was pregnant.

“I can’t walk out the door without someone calling me a whore or slut,” the girl said. “I used to have a lot of friends, or people I thought were my friends, but as soon as this happened I just isolated myself.”

The repeated vandalism incidents at the family’s home — including the words “whore” and “slut” scrawled on the garage doors — were reported to police. But Green said no charges were filed because there were no witnesses to the acts.

Her daughter also has been the target of mean-spirited rumors and speculation that her pregnancy is the result of promiscuous behavior.

— Tim Evans, “An Elwood girl became pregnant in a sexual assault at 13, her case illustrates a growing problem in Indiana”

The girl and her mother discussed abortion, but “‘I just looked at my mom,’ the girl recalled, ‘and told her I wanted to keep the baby.'”

It’s hard for me to fathom the bravery this girl has shown in choosing to carry her pregnancy to term. And it’s not hard to understand why so many other people in her situation wouldn’t.

Much has been made of the fact that she’s being shamed even though she was raped, and I want to say one thing loud and clear: Even if she had not been raped, it would still be wrong to treat her this way. A woman or girl’s value does not depend on whether or not she has had sex. Everyone is entitled to be treated with respect and decency whether or not they have had sex. Even if they’re young. Even if they’re not married. Even if they have sex with half the people in town. People who have had sex or been raped are not chewed-up gum or ruined presents. They are living human beings, and if you say you respect life, respect them.

If you want to help:

  • A Facebook group, “Stop Slut-Shaming!!” has been started to support the Elwood girl and others who have been raped. Her mother, who was named in the Indianapolis Star article, is a member of the group.
  • The girl (I hate to just keep calling her that, but neither a name nor a pseudonym was used in the article) may not be protected if her rapist were to choose to seek visitation rights or custody of her child. Indiana law only provides for the termination of a rapists’ parental rights if the rape victim is both a minor and the adoptive child or step-child of the rapist. An attempt was made last year to amend the Indiana Code to terminate convicted rapists’ parental rights, but in the end the Child Custody and Support Advisory Committee declined to recommend any change to existing law. Indiana residents, please contact your representatives and ask them to guarantee this protection for rape victims and their children.
Blog Posts

Teen moms need support, not shaming

Jen R

I wanted to share this awesome series of tweets from Gretchen Sisson (@gsisson), fighting back against efforts to prevent teen pregnancy using shame and fear tactics.

Teen pregnancy is so often portrayed as a life-ruiner, but in fact it’s the conditions that lead to high rates of teen pregnancy that really hurt teen mothers’ life chances. And those same conditions are at least as devastating for their peers who don’t get pregnant.

That doesn’t mean teens should be encouraged to get pregnant! If a teen, especially a younger teen, is in a position where pregnancy seems like her best option, that’s a good sign that she’s lacking adequate opportunity in her life and needs a lot of social support. But it does mean that we shouldn’t accept the narrative that says a girl’s life is over if she does get pregnant and have a baby.

Blog Posts, Past Actions

Beatriz and her baby

Jen R

Doctors in El Salvador have petitioned the Supreme Court to allow them to perform an abortion that they argue is necessary to save their patient’s life. The penal code of El Salvador bans abortion under all circumstances, with no exception to save the life of the mother. (Such an exception was previously part of the code, but was removed in 1998.)

The patient in question, a 22-year-old woman named Beatriz, has lupus and kidney disease. Her doctors argue that these conditions are worsened by her pregnancy and that her life is in danger. Recent reports say that Beatriz has now entered early stage renal failure.

Obviously, if care is available that will preserve both her life and her child’s, it should be pursued. But that isn’t always possible. All Our Lives has always held that a woman has a right to the medical care she needs to preserve her life, even if that care will result in the death of the child she carries. Neither she nor her doctors should have to worry about facing jail as a result.

I do want to say that I’m troubled by the way the case has been framed in many media outlets. They’ve emphasized that Beatriz’s baby is anencephalic and has a low chance of survival outside the womb. The implication is that the child’s severe disability makes this a more clear-cut case. That the child is anencephalic makes it far less likely that both could be saved, so it’s relevant in that sense. But Beatriz is entitled to life-saving care regardless of the health status of her child. And while the child’s death may be unavoidable, it’s still a death, and no less so for having been likely to happen soon anyway.

If you want to send a message to the El Salvador Supreme Court, they have a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account. Ask them to remember Beatriz’s constitutional right to life, and to allow her to receive whatever care she might need to preserve it. Letting her die would not be pro-life.

Blog Posts, Past Actions

Colorado could pass bill to protect women who bear children after rape

Jen R

The Colorado House is currently considering Senate Bill 13-227, “Protect Rape Victim From Contact With Father.” The new law would allow a women who bear children conceived as the result of sexual assault to petition to terminate the parental rights of the rapist and prevent any contact with him. This would put an end to the situation in which a convicted rapist can file for custody or visitation rights to the child conceived as the result of his crime.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously and is currently on its second reading in the Colorado House. The legislative session is over in just a few days, so this would be a good time for Colorado residents to contact their House members.