November 3rd, 2024
The grandfatherly-looking man leans towards a woman just outside the view of the camera and soothingly says, “I’d rather talk to you ten times than wish I’d talk to you the once.”
Encouraging the scared woman to call if she has any questions or concerns the moment she has them and not to wait. His demeanor and voice are the supportive tone you would want to hear from a father to a child. In this situation, it’s a doctor, Dr. LeRoy Carhart, to a patient while prepping her for an abortion. It’s the opening scene from a documentary, “After Tiller”, that discusses the repercussions of the murder committed against Dr. George Tiller and the pressures that the handful of doctors that he trained in supporting women with third-trimester abortions face in their daily lives as they try to serve women all across the country.
“After Tiller is a deeply humanizing and probing portrait of the only four doctors in the United States still openly performing third-trimester abortions in the wake of the 2009 assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas — and in the face of intense protest from abortion opponents. It is also an examination of the desperate reasons women seek late abortions. Rather than offering solutions, After Tiller presents the complexities of these women’s difficult decisions and the compassion and ethical dilemmas of the doctors and staff who fear for their own lives as they treat their patients.” – https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/aftertiller/
I have spoken before about having an abortion, more than once, due to the viability of the fetus in each occurrence. This was during the infertility struggles I faced in my thirties but I would have made the same decisions whether I was eighteen or forty-nine. These weren’t impulsive or easy decisions to make and they required battling with insurance to have the procedures performed even with living in a state like Oregon that protects a woman’s right and access to healthcare.
We had been trying for a baby for two years and I was finally pregnant. I went in for a routine ultrasound for my second trimester. The technician and I were joking around when she suddenly became quiet. I asked her why I wasn’t hearing the heartbeat. She left the room saying that I could get dressed and the radiologist would be in touch.
I made it to my car before I broke down in tears. My doctor called me by the time I was home and prepared me for what would come next and the medication I would need to take for the fetus to miscarry but the miscarriage dragged out for a week and they became worried about my health and booked me for an in-office termination. That is until insurance stepped in and decided they didn’t approve of my doctor’s diagnosis.
The woman on the phone with our insurance carrier felt comfortable telling me that I needed to wait and spontaneously miscarry versus having a D&C. They wanted me to carry the fetus until I spontaneously miscarried, delivered a stillborn fetus, at some unknown date, or waited until I developed an infection due to the fetus no longer developing in my womb before receiving any medical intervention. I refused, battled, collected letters and support from my doctors, and finally had the medical procedure I needed to protect my health. Despite the heartache and grief, I ended the pregnancy to protect my own health and future fertility. If I hadn’t done so, the consequences of an infection or complication could have led to my now two children not existing.
All of us deserve the right to decide what happens to our bodies and to plan our families without the fear of the government stepping in to decide that for us. I plead with everyone to vote with their conscience, and our inherent goodness, for the health of the many and the safety of us all.
Beyond the obvious reasons of not wanting to vote for a self-professed sex offender and a convicted felon, something that would keep him from getting a job at a McDonald’s, I voted to ensure the safety and freedom of everyone in the choices around their bodies. The opposition’s platform, the so-called 2025 plan, has made it very clear that they will continue to remove access to birth control as well as a woman’s options for protecting her health and the well-being of her family.
To those who are opposed to voting for a woman, or someone who isn’t caucasian, or possibly just because she’s a Democrat; I ask you to consider the following:
Are you willing to risk the lives of countless women because you’re not comfortable with a woman running the country?
If a woman that you loved was pregnant and her health was in jeopardy, would you expect her to die rather than receive a medical termination of her fetus?
If your pet was in a life-threatening situation and the choice was between their litter or their life, which would you pick?
If life is so precious to you that abortion offends you, are you willing to adopt or foster an unwanted child that had no choice in being born?
If you view yourself as pro-life, what about the people that exist currently? Are their lives less precious than a fetus? Do they not deserve the solace and comfort of being cared for as much as the babies that you want to protect? Is a woman’s right to pursue happiness and liberty less important than an unborn, unformed human?
If your daughter was attacked, sick, or facing a health crisis; would you choose a fetus over her mortality? Are women second-class citizens or equal citizens as the Constitution dictates? Why then are our rights to access medical care up for debate but not a man’s?
If men were not allowed to have vasectomies or access to birth control, would that not be a violation of their human rights to plan their families?
Our country is based on the laws and amendments of The Constitution and women are equal citizens, currently, according to those words. If you disagree with this reality, then I understand why you’re voting for Trump, but please be honest with yourself about why you’re doing so. It’s not because you support what it means to be an American. It’s because you want our country to return to subjugating and discriminating against women, immigrants, and children so that you can avoid voting for a woman who isn’t white.
I don’t think that Kamala Harris can fix all that is inefficient or corrupt about our country but I do think she can continue the work that gets us closer to the progress that we hope for as opposed to befriending our foreign adversaries for personal gain. Like many of you, I’ll be waiting for the voting results with anxiety and a stash of snacks to stress eat like a rabid squirrel; because, what keeps me up at night, is that any woman might have to go through what I’ve endured but has to find solace through illegal means to save herself. That our children are facing a future of gambling with their health and can’t find the simple kindness of a doctor like those in “After Tiller” leaves me with a deep dread that I hope future generations will not face and shouldn’t have to.
Politely Defiant 