For our third post this War on Contraception Friday we get serious: For a growing population in this country once the baby is conceived, the rights of the mother are no longer valid. Update!

Courtesy of Salon:

I was taking an afternoon nap when the hemorrhaging started while my toddler napped in his room when I woke up to find blood gushing upward from my body. Though I didn’t know it at the time, I was experiencing a placental abruption, a complication my doctor had told me was a possibility. My husband was at work, so I had to do my best to take care of me and my toddler on my own. I managed to get to the phone and make arrangements for both of my children before going to a Chicago hospital. 

Everyone knew the pregnancy wasn’t viable, that it couldn’t be viable given the amount of blood I was losing, but it still took hours for anyone at the hospital to do anything. The doctor on call didn’t do abortions. At all. Ever. In fact, no one on call that night did. Meanwhile, an ignorant batch of medical students had gathered to study me — one actually showed me the ultrasound of our dying child while asking me if it was a planned pregnancy. Several wanted to examine me while I lay there bleeding and in pain. No one gave me anything for the pain or even respected my request to close the door even though I was on the labor and delivery floor listening to other women have healthy babies as the baby I had been trying to save died in my womb. 

Finally another doctor was located, the abortion was performed, and the mother's life was saved.

Later I found out that the doctor had taken my husband aside as they brought me into surgery. She promised him she would do her best to save me, but she warned him there was a distinct possibility that she would fail. The doctor who didn’t do abortions was supposed to have contacted her (or someone else who would perform the procedure) immediately. He didn’t. Neither did his students. Supposedly there was a communication breakdown and they thought she had been notified, but I doubt it. I don’t know if his objections were religious or not; all I know is that when a bleeding woman was brought to him for treatment he refused to do the only thing that could stop the bleeding. Because he didn’t do abortions. Ever. 

My two kids at home almost lost their mother because someone decided that my life was worth less than that of a fetus that was going to die anyway. My husband had told them exactly what my regular doctor said, and the ER doctor had already warned us what would have to happen. Yet none of this mattered when confronted by the idea that no one needs an abortion. You shouldn’t need to know the details of why a woman aborts to trust her to make the best decision for herself. I don’t regret my abortion, but I would also never use my situation to suggest that the only time another woman should have the procedure is when her life is at stake. After my family found out I’d had an abortion, I got a phone call from a cousin who felt the need to tell me I was wrong to have interfered with God’s plan. And in that moment I understood exactly what kind of people judge a woman’s reproductive choices.

What a completely terrifying story! I cannot imagine how angry I would have been if I had been this woman's husband!

This is why inserting religion into our politics, our health care, and our public school systems can be so incredibly dangerous.  When people place the desire to honor their faith before the requirement to help their fellow man, bad things can happen. Even fatal things can happen.

This woman was surrounded by medical professionals and yet NONE would help her, deeming the life of an unborn, nonviable, life more worthy of protection than the life of a wife and mother of two.

You would think that in the year 2012 that would be a no-brainer. That people would be more than sophisticated enough to make a decision like this.  But sadly, rather than becoming MORE rational, we are becoming less rational as it pertains to reproduction.

And that is made crystal clear by the fact that Oklahoma might very soon become the first state to pass the so-called "Personhood" bill:   

The Republican-controlled state Senate voted 34-8 to pass the "Personhood Act" which defines the word person under state law to include unborn children from the moment of conception. 

The measure now goes to the state House where pro-life Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than a 2-1 margin.

So today in some sections of America, sections which are increasing in size mind you, women's reproductive rights are under attack yet again. Not only is the fetus suddenly placed in a dominate position once conceived, but in fact access to methods in which to prevent that pregnancy are also fending off attacks.

And these attacks are not inspired by alternative scientific theory or medical advice.  These attacks are purely the result of faith in a religious point of view.  Women all over the country may soon find themselves relegated to nothing more than breeding stock, because male dominated religious organizations have deemed that to be God's will.

Welcome to the reproductive dark ages in America folks.

Update: Just to better illustrate this attack on reproductive rights, let me add that Virginia just passed a law where women seeking termination of their pregnancy are first medically traumatized in an obvious attempt to change their decision:

Abortion; informed consent. Requires that, as a component of informed consent to an abortion, to determine gestation age, every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging and be given an opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus prior to the abortion. The medical professional performing the ultrasound must obtain written certification from the woman that the opportunity was offered and whether the woman availed herself of the opportunity to see the ultrasound image or hear the fetal heartbeat. A copy of the ultrasound and the written certification shall be maintained in the woman's medical records at the facility where the abortion is to be performed.

I guess the slogan "Virginia is for lovers" no longer applies. Unless of course those lovers are same sex lovers or otherwise unable to conceive.