"Heartbeat: My Involuntary Miscarriage and 'Voluntary Abortion' in Ohio"

[uppityperson]

This reminds me of a couple I helped many years ago who simply wanted to be pregnant. Note, this is NOT about me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tamara-mann/heartbeat-involuntary-miscarriage-and-voluntary-abortion-in-ohio_b_2050888.html

On June 19, the state of Ohio declared that I had a voluntary abortion. My rabbi and my doctors disagreed. I simply wanted to be pregnant.

The ordeal began two weeks earlier; I was in stirrups. The sonogram technician needed more images. When she got them she looked ashen. "You should see a doctor today," she emphasized as she handed me the printed image of my 13-week-old baby or fetus, I still don't know what word to use. "But there is a heartbeat. Thank god there is a heartbeat," I mumbled. I had been here before. But last time, during my first pregnancy, there was no heartbeat.

I waited. I overheard the technician as she looked at the screen with the doctor, "this is bad, this is really bad." He wasn't my doctor, but he had a soft voice with a southern kick that I liked. He saw me, gestured for me to come to his office, and referred to the ailing life in my belly as a baby. "This isn't good," he whispered. "It's really not. Let me show you." He was kind but clear. "The organs are not inside the baby's body. The hands and feet are curled, actually one limb seems to be stunted or missing. The neck isn't right. This really doesn't look good." I looked at the expanded sonogram on his desk. I saw the hands turned in, the area that he referred to as the organs, the dead space where there should be a limb. Minutes ago, I had looked at this same image and smiled. "I don't understand," I replied. "What do I do now?" "Why don't you wait a week," he offered. "I don't understand," I repeated, "can the baby survive? Can these problems be solved? I don't understand exactly what you are telling me." "No, I don't think so," he said finally, "but there are always miracles."

I was withered, but functional. I knew this could happen and knew that I could recover. I had been blessed with a healthy child in between and felt, in my Nana's words, "Why should this be easy?" I decided to wait out the week. Looking pregnant, I returned to work, still hoping that maybe with more quiet time, with more love, next week the baby would be better. As I sat down at my desk, my own doctor called. To him, it was a fetus. "Tamara, I have looked at the scans and I have shown the scans to doctors in my office. I want to tell you that we all agree that this fetus is not compatible with life. It will not survive the pregnancy. You should get it removed immediately. The longer you wait the more risks are involved." I hung up the phone. (more)

[libodem]

1. So sad

I had a ruptured tubal pregnancy. I had a six month old at home and a two year old. It was an unexpected pregnancy. A mistake, I was relieved, a little. But the doctor was so solicitous at the bedside over the loss, I felt some grief.

I've heard of others, who were trying to get pregnant, find this kind of zygote death unbearable. We all have different circumstances and reactions.

We grieve in different ways. None is more correct than another.

[MountainLaurel]

2. All of the fetus fetishists should read this

And tell this woman the fetus matters more than her life.

[libodem]

3. I think Republicans use this wedge issue

Because it is emotional and heart wrenching. It is not pretty. It's a private, personal, and none of their business.
Republicans go straight to legislating, what they see as, morality when they have no other ideas on how to govern.

[anonymous123]

4. Information

Reproductve choices are a delicate subject, to most Americans. Their opinions are shaped by the Medical community, the Legal community, the Clergy, Politicians, and others. I'd like to zero in on the medical community. A lot of us old geezers, remember when the book Little Black Sambo was banned in this country because it offended some Americans along racial lines. And they felt it was a racial slur.

That's the way I feel about the medical community's delivering information to the American public. I think the medical term Abortion should turn into the phase "reproductive choice" or words to that effect. I believe that before the medical community releases information, that it must consider the emotional welfare of the woman involved. To further that I don't believe any woman would consent to the release of any infomation contained in her medical records in that regard to anyone. And that must be considered heavily by the medical community when it delivers it's renderings to the public.

Most of the information out there portrays reproductive choices as murder, morally wrong, and that the woman who make those choices, do that because she is too stupid, too lazy, too ignorant, and sorely lacking in self esteem - self worth, to take the most basic steps to avoid pregnancy.

I believe it's time the women that made reproductive choices, stand up and file with their respective Civil Rights office, and seek relief.

I hope the outcome will be that the medical community is restricted in how it presents information to the public.

I know that the American public is entitled to form an opinion, and certainly with medical information.but the content of it's delivery should be temperate, and considerate to women that have made reproductive choices.

[uppityperson]

5. Who is talking about releasing information to the public about who gets abortions? I am confused.

This topic is about one woman's abortion, not about releasing medical records the the public.

Also, what do you mean here?

Most of the information out there portrays reproductive choices as murder, morally wrong, and that the woman who make those choices, do that because she is too stupid, too lazy, too ignorant, and sorely lacking in self esteem - self worth, to take the most basic steps to avoid pregnancy.

The medical community is very limited by what medical records it can release for any procedure or any care.

Please clarify what you mean here. Thank you and welcome to DU.

[Brettongarcia]

6. New laws require doctors in some states, to describe fetus to woman before abortion

Although they can't quite pass state laws to outright outlaw abortion, many states are tying to do that incrementally, in small steps. Making abortion harder and harder for women.

In one state (Mississippi?), they are closing down clinics for technical reasons; and are currently down to one or two clinics for the whole state.

In more states - like Texas - there are now laws that require a physician to give a forced ultrasound. And read a description of the fetus, to the pregnant woman. These descriptions usually concentrate on noting the "heartbeat"; to invoke some sentiment, the "heart," and to imply that that fetus is a viable "person."