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The anti-choice crowd, is once again basing arguments and drawing conclusions on faulty data. Unsurprisingly though, we’ll still be seeing the talking points based on said data for quite awhile. The Guttmacher Institute reports the following:
“Studies claiming to find a relationship between abortion and subsequent mental health problems often suffer from serious methodological limitations that invalidate their conclusions.”
Whoops! Evidence based medicine has never been a particularly strong point with the anti-choice crowd.
“In a new analysis, Julia Steinberg, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Lawrence Finer, of the Guttmacher Institute show that the findings of a 2009 study by Priscilla Coleman et al—which claimed that women who had reported an abortion were at an increased risk of several anxiety, mood and substance use disorders, compared with women who had never had an abortion—are not replicable.”
What a surprise, the “post-abortion syndrome” meme is most likely just another tactic to bully and scare women into not exercising their bodily autonomy.
“We were unable to reproduce the most basic tabulations of Coleman and colleagues,” says Steinberg, postdoctoral fellow at UCSF. “Moreover, their findings were logically inconsistent with other published research—for example, they found higher rates of depression in the last month than other studies found during respondents’ entire lifetimes. This suggests that their results are substantially inflated.”
“Antiabortion activists have relied on questionable science in their efforts to push inclusion of the concept of ‘post-abortion syndrome’ in both clinical practice and law,” says Finer, director of domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute. “Our inability to replicate the findings of the Coleman study makes it clear that research claiming to find relationships between abortion and poor mental health indicators should be subjected to close scrutiny.”
It is important to combat the canards the anti-choicers lob towards women. Poor science and the conclusions drawn from it must be debunked and brought to heel quickly as destructive memes such as “post-abortion syndrome” while being patently false, can do much to impinge upon the reproductive freedom of women as a whole.
See here for the study mentioned above and here for more information about the supporting evidence.
Canada's own high representative of batshite-crazy misogyny.
The catholic church really needs to go. They are doing a fairly good job at self immolation as is, but the process itself is taking too long. The cloistered catholic church wankers, from their deslutory anti-rational palace of fuckwittery, make another bold statement:
“Ouellet apparently had no intention of wading into a public policy debate when called abortion a “moral crime” as serious as murder and said it is never justified — even in cases of rape.”
Not surprisingly, given Canada’s proclivity toward rationality, this little gem of religiously approved anti-woman twaddle did not go over well. Now Ouellet is doing PR backflips in order to correct the ‘spin’ he claims the media has put on his words.
“He’s not calling for re-criminalization. He was talking [about] a moral thing. This is a moral issue. He was not bringing this to the judicial level.”
Ah, right. The RCC is certainly not about limiting women’s access to reproductive services. They are not about buggering alter boys either.
At least the politicians in the Quebec know how to deal with the bullshite that oozes from the church’s direction.
“Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois, speaking at a weekend party policy conference, said she was “absolutely outraged” by the remarks and that Ouellet was trying to undo rights won decades ago.
“These remarks … take us back to [the] Middle Ages,” said Alexa Conradi, president of the Quebec Women’s Federation.
“At the same time, my concern really is at the federal level. There is movement of right wing Catholic groups to find different ways to re-criminalize abortion.”
Conradi said that since the Conservatives came to power, there have been a number of — failed — attempts to get private member’s bills passed that threaten Canadian women’s legal rights to an abortion”
This Ouelleut is a real peach. He concurs with the Steven Harper’s G8 initiative that gives a hearty thumbs up to sentencing women to die because it dovetails nicely with his sickeningly inane religious beliefs:
“Ouellet applauded the Harper government for its stance against funding abortions in the developing world.”
Your church sponsored douchery has a place. Firmly in the past. Condemning women to die and denying them their autonomy is reprehensible and has no place in the 21st century.
The RCC. Always open, always deluded and always anti-woman.
The Catholic Church is mired in yet another anti-woman scandal.
via NBC – “PHOENIX – A nun and administrator at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix has been reassigned and rebuked by the local bishop for agreeing that a severely ill woman needed an abortion to survive.
Sister Margaret McBride was on an ethics committee that included doctors that consulted with a young woman who was 11 weeks pregnant late last year, The Arizona Republic newspaper reported on its website Saturday. The woman was suffering from a life-threatening condition that likely would have caused her death if she hadn’t had the abortion at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.”
Wow, do we need another reason to shit-can the mystical bullshit that pervades our society? Yet another case of backward, unhinged, delusional thinking attempting to corrupt and trump reality in the 21st century. The Nun in question, followed her own personal ethics, as opposed to the rancid 2000 year old wisdom of burning bushes and talking snakes. She made the correct evidence based decision. Her commitment to reason is to be commended, and of course free thinking in the musty halls of religion gets you punished:
“Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, head of the Phoenix Diocese, indicated in a statement that the Roman Catholic involved was “automatically excommunicated” because of the action. The Catholic Church allows the termination of a pregnancy only as a secondary effect of other treatments, such as radiation of a cancerous uterus.”
“I am gravely concerned by the fact that an abortion was performed several months ago in a Catholic hospital in this diocese,” Olmsted said in a statement sent to The Arizona Republic. “I am further concerned by the hospital’s statement that the termination of a human life was necessary to treat the mother’s underlying medical condition.”
Ah yes, because of your funny hat and the rotten sepulchre of a religion that supports your fantasy based point of view enables you to punish people for saving lives. The Bishop of Bullshit continues:
“An unborn child is not a disease. While medical professionals should certainly try to save a pregnant mother’s life, the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child. The end does not justify the means.”
Huh, well if then this is not a pillar for Catholic women to frakking rally around then let us distill it down a bit further to ‘clarify the message’.
“If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her die from bearing, she is there to do it.” –Martin Luther.
Now this is a quote that women can get behind. All aboard the train straight back into the shitz and giggles known as the Dark Ages! We need to get back to a time where Bishop Frothing in the Mouth Crazy has some real power. The malodorous drivel oozing from this rectal polyp of human being is matched only by the unctuous waves of support for his position wafting through the spinelessly uncritical anti-choice wankosphere . Okay okay, I digress. Back to the real world where evidence does matter…
“The patient, who hasn’t been identified, was seriously ill with pulmonary hypertension. The condition limits the ability of the heart and lungs to function and is made worse, possibly even fatal, by pregnancy.
“This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee, of which Sr. Margaret McBride is a member,” the hospital said in a statement issued Friday.”
Thank you medical science, thank you rationality, for showing us the correct solution in this case. We need to banish the fucking voodoo magical crap that masquerades in our society as religion. This case finely illustrates how morally bankrupt the RCC is and how out to lunch religion is in general.
H/T to Pharyngula.
I don't do "women's rights".
Steven Harper does not believe in female autonomy. If his mendacious crew of ethically challenged social conservatives ever took power women across the country would have to mobilize and shut this country down to protect our reproductive freedoms. Evidence of the Conservative disregard for women is writ large as the Conservative government has decided, as a part of its’ G8 platform on women’s issues, not to fund abortions as a part of maternal reproductive care in the third world.
You would think that outright crazy crank-batshittery would take a holiday at least once in awhile. Unfortunately for us Canadians we are still given the pleasure of living under the yoke of religious-inspired delusional conservative ‘morals’ . Rule one in their insipid handbook of perfidious ass-hattery is this: If ye be woman, ye shall not have rights – especially when the holy fetus is involved. Let us examine what the Canadian government stance is, from the CBC report on our G8 position:
“International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said the government would consider funding family planning measures such as contraception, but not abortion under any circumstances.
“We’re saying that we’re using the definition in our discussions of family planning, which does not include abortion,” Oda told reporters on Monday in Halifax, where she was meeting with her G8 counterparts.
“We’re not debating abortion; we’re clarifying family planning.”
Which is akin to making a garden salad without any allowing the use of any lettuce. Thank you Bev Oda for your wonderfully refreshing anti-woman stance. It is always hearting to see government policy based on fatuous religious beliefs, because the the frak needs evidence?
The Lancet has called the Canadian Conservative Government on its mendacity:
Canada’s position against funding abortions abroad is ‘hypocritical and unjust,’ a medical journal editorial says (via the CBC).
“The Canadian Government does not deprive women living in Canada from access to safe abortions; it is therefore hypocritical and unjust that it tries to do so abroad,” the Lancet says in an editorial Saturday.
The conservatives hypocritical? Not this bunch, the very same that want to abolish the gun registry despite the fact that police forces across the nation are strongly in favour of the gun registry. This is the same group of politicians who gleefully brought down the Martin minority government on charges of corruption that are now currently wallowing in the Jafer/Afghan Detainee accountability scandals of their own (not to mention the unwarranted prorogation of parliament). I digress. The Lancet editorial brings us back on track though:
“Although the country’s decision only affects a small number of developing countries where abortion is legal, bans on the procedure, which are detrimental to public health, should be challenged by the G8, not tacitly supported. Canada and the other G8 nations could show real leadership with a final maternal health plan that is based on sound scientific evidence and not prejudice.”
Decisions based on evidence? What is this crazy talk about ‘evidence’ you leftard crypto-fascist Lancet editors?!
“The Lancet said the plan’s omission of improved access to safe abortion services “is no accident, but a conscious decision by Canada’s Conservative Government not to support groups that undertake abortions in developing countries.”
“This stance must change,” the editorial said, noting 70,000 women die from unsafe abortions worldwide each year.”
Ah, but it is only 70,000 women who die per year. Come on they are just people women after all.
Rona Ambrose, who I would not trust to successfully rub two dimes together, spouts the following tom foolery as a ‘reply’:
Rona Ambrose, the status of women minister, defended Canada’s G8 initiative, citing a statement by World Vision Canada that the abortion debate was clouding the issue while 8.8 million children die every year from causes that would cost pennies to prevent. World Vision, one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations, opposes abortion as a family planning method.
Ah, yes those damn womenz and their bodies. They just need to shut the f*ck up and die quietly.
Ambrose said the government wants to save the lives of women and children, Ambrose said.
“We ask the opposition to stop playing politics with this issue.”
Ah, yes I am guessing ‘Playing politics’ actually means: Stop debating our irrational faith based position with real world evidence and fact. You are just not playing fair; being all evidence based and supported by fact and what not. Let us leave reason firmly outside the political playpen.
Playing politics indeed. The buffoonery that passes for reasonable arguments from conservatives is shocking. How many clown cars need to be called in before Canada squares its position on abortion with reality?
I’m guessing not until the Conservatives are out of power and once again bidden to the background, where they belong.
Women having rights to their own bodies, radical I know.
It is nice to see that women are being treated more like human beings in Ethiopia. Reproductive freedom is a cornerstone of womens rights and needs to be fostered and protected wherever possible. The Guttmacher Institute has just publicized a study done in Ethiopia. It is still not a completley rosy picture over there however:
“Only 14% of Ethiopian women of reproductive age use contraceptives. The low level of contraceptive use leads to high levels of unintended pregnancy, the root cause of abortion: Some 42% of all pregnancies are unintended. The study also found that the majority of women seeking treatment for complications of unsafe abortion—81%—were married. By contrast, only 46% of women seeking induced abortions were married. The vast majority of both groups—92% of women seeking postabortion care and 79% of women who had abortions—were mothers. The average age among both groups was 28.”
Funny how facts actually dispel the tripe anti-choice activists like to throw around. Darn irresponsible women (already mothers) just doing it because they can.
“The study estimates that, in 2008, 382,500 abortions were performed in Ethiopia, for an annual rate of 23 per 1,000 women aged 15–44. Despite women’s expanded legal access to abortion, only 27% of these—103,000—were legal and safe procedures performed in health facilities.
The study also found that, in 2008, 58,600 women were treated for abortion-related complications, primarily resulting from unsafe procedures. Among these, 100 women died from their complications, and many more suffered from related injuries or illnesses. Four out of 10 women showed signs of infection or invasive injuries when they arrived at health facilities for postabortion care. Many women with complications never reach health care facilities, because they live too far from services, they avoid seeking help because of fear and stigma, or they die before reaching a facility.”
The negative consequences of not having access to reproductive health services is quite clear. So when you hear the fetus fetishists go on about how women are ‘just fine’ once stripped of their reproductive rights, you know it is pure bull-cookery.
“Global data show that expanding legal abortion access reduces death and illness from unsafe abortion. For example, South Africa saw abortion-related maternal mortality decline by more than 50% after expanding access in 1997. Many stakeholders throughout the region are looking to Ethiopia as a model for addressing a crisis in maternal mortality. The current study will serve as a baseline for assessing the country’s progress in reducing maternal deaths as the government continues to expand services.”
A big thanks to the Guttmacher Institute for reporting on such important issues.
I had the intention of making this a post about how to diffuse some of the arguments anti-choice people make. The quoted bits are good examples that take down some of the toxic memes that have formed around the debate. I swear though, if I hear what about the baaaaaaaby one more time I will blow a lobe because that is not arguing, but rather, a complete denial of the woman in the whole process of reproduction. Women are not mere vessels meant only for reproduction, but fully autonomous beings that have the right to determine what goes on in their body.
I am surprised how often comes up in the blogsphere. What I am also surprised at is the inconsistency of the anti-choice position when it comes to war and capital punishment. The fetus fetishists fall over themselves decrying the evils of abortion and how women must be prevented from exercising their rights to bodily autonomy while all the while the politicians they support go to war, enact egregious foreign policy and support predatory capitalism/globalism.
How about this? Let’s not go to war and kill thousands of innocent people for the lofty notions of ‘fighting terrorism’ or ‘energy security'(those damn arabs having the nerve to live on top of *our* oil. Or, let us donate the full .07 of our GNP so the thousands of children that die every day from lack of clean water/starvation can be saved. Or the thousands of children who die from malaria that could be saved by inexpensive mosquito netting?
Nah.
That would conflict with the accepted foreign policy goals. Debate on those topics is verboten. What is on the table though saving lives via denuding women of their bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom. We can debate that until the cows come home.
Utter horse-pucky.
Twisty, from the blog I Blame the Patriarchy opines on the recent passage of the healthcare bill in the US with the Stupack amendment:
“What I’m getting at is this: my lack of surprise at this Stupak shit proceeds from irrefutable evidence that state ownership of women is among the most beloved of our violent culture’s violent traditions. Social conservatives appear to believe that God made patriarchy in his own image, and that he will withdraw his complimentary concierge services and cancel Christmas, NASCAR, and life everlasting if the state stops oppressing women for even one second. So-called progressives just want uninterrupted access to pussy.”
I lack the the colourful verbiage that Twisty uses, but in this quote she deftly describes the atrocious nature of this particular amendment.
Abortion is not a crime in Canada. Abortion is under siege by anti-choice zealots, par for the course, but a good portion Canadian women have access to reproductive health services.
A woman’s right to make reproductive decisions is foundational in women being recognized as autonomous beings. It is paramount that we keep abortion, safe, legal, and accessible in Canada.
As far as I am concerned the Stupak Amendment is one compromise too far.
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