One Thousand Words

I don’t talk about this a whole lot, but I have a history of miscarriage. Most of them were really early, well within the first trimester, but one more recent one was in the beginning of the second trimester. I have PCOS, which often makes it difficult to both become and remain pregnant, and I also have endometriosis and uterine fibroids. Which means I feel incredibly lucky that I have a child at all, because the deck is really stacked against me, reproductive wise.

I went to the ER for my later miscarriage, although in retrospect I would have been much more comfortable and ultimately mentally healthy had I just gone home and waited it out. I hoped against hope that there was something they could do to prevent the miscarriage, but since I was cooling my heels in the ER waiting room for 8 hours before any actual doctor actually saw me, and I completed the miscarriage on my own before ever being examined… yeah. Since I delivered into a toilet before being checked out, there was concern over whether or not the “products of conception” were fully expelled or not… and whether or not it was an ectopic pregnancy. It turns out my body’s super efficient at ridding itself of uterine bits, but not everybody’s so lucky.

Even though later exams showed that I was empty of anything that could cause infection, I was still given medication to control bleeding (women can hemorrhage and bleed to death after a miscarriage or a birth), and a pretty strong antibiotic. You see, an incomplete miscarriage– a miscarriage where not all of the fetus/placenta/bits are expelled and some remain in the uterus– is a nasty thing. It can lead to really terrible infections, sepsis, loss of fertility and death. So people who experience incomplete miscarriages, even though there is no viable fetus involved, have a D&C, which is also an abortion procedure (which is incredibly rarely used). Oh, and it’s also used to remove a build up of uterine lining in women with medical conditions like the ones I have, where the lining isn’t shed by itself and just continues piling up. And it’s used to remove any lingering post partum tissues. And it’s used to remove molar pregnancies. It’s a life and fertility saving medical technique, and federal funds will no longer be permitted to support teaching it. How many medical procedures that are the exclusive domain of cisgender men are restricted from receiving federal funds? How many life saving medical procedures are denied to cisgender men solely because they might harm potential babies?

So, because it’s (rarely) used in abortions, including in the abortions of ultimately non-viable fetuses, a medical procedure that is used to prevent sepsis and remove cancer will not be taught to doctors who rely on federal funding for their educations. Because oh no, abortion! Won’t somebody please think of the children? And then, when you’re done thinking of the children (who, by the way, are totally being boned by the Republicans who are pillaging safety networks providing education, housing, and food assistance to them), think about the potential parents (and former parents, and almost parents) who want children but are facing down possible infections, loss of fertility, and death because a really common and useful medical procedure is essentially being outlawed, because hypothetical babies are more important than existing people. Think about how much it sucks to lose a child, then possibly lose your life, because bits of organic matter are hanging out in your uterus, rotting. Think about how awful, how evil, it is that women will literally die because of this.

Or just, you know, keep banging the anti-abortion drum and stripping medical services away from women. Whatever.

Mirrored from Now Showing!.