Two little stories about being female--

Pregnant Iowa Woman Arrested for Falling Down

Life can't get much worse for Christine Taylor. Last month, after an upsetting phone conversation with her estranged husband, Ms. Taylor became light-headed and fell down a flight of stairs in her home. Paramedics rushed to the scene and ultimately declared her healthy. However, since she was pregnant with her third child at the time, Taylor thought it would be best to be seen at the local ER to make sure her fetus was unharmed.

That's when things got really bad and really crazy. Alone, distraught, and frightened, Taylor confided in the nurse treating her that she hadn't always been sure she'd wanted this baby, now that she was single and unemployed. She'd considered both adoption and abortion before ultimately deciding to keep the child. The nurse then summoned a doctor, who questioned her further about her thoughts on ending the pregnancy. Next thing Taylor knew, she was being arrested for attempted feticide. Apparently the nurse and doctor thought that Taylor threw herself down the stairs on purpose.

According to Iowa state law, attempted feticide is an trying "to intentionally terminate a human pregnancy, with the knowledge and voluntary consent of the pregnant person, after the end of the second trimester of the pregnancy." At least 37 states have similar laws. Taylor spent two days in jail before being released. That's right, a pregnant woman was jailed for admitting to thinking about an abortion at some point early in her pregnancy and then having the audacity to fall down some stairs a couple of months later. Please tell me you find this as horrifying as I do.

I just want to point out that they thought this woman who came to the hospital to look after herself and her unborn baby, was suspected of hurling herself down the stairs to try and abort. Which makes no sense. She said she thought about it in the past tense. The hospital didn't respect the dignity of their patient to actually listen to what she was saying, nor did they respect her confidentiality. Also, given that she had her falling spell after an argument with her ex, they assumed she was "emotional"--that's what I see as context. And you know emotional females, deciding to risk life and limb by hurling themselves down the stairs to kill their babies--um, no.

Only in a world where anti-choice people have so poisoned the well against the very thought of abortion, could this happen. Because if abortions were outlawed, only pregnant women could be that kind of outlaw. Even--not to stress this enough--at the possible risk of their own lives. So, in the interest of her unborn child--um, they caused considerable unnecessary and possibly damaging stress to the woman who was carrying it--

Way to be patriarchal, Iowa!

And here's another--

Kansas Lawmaker Compares Rape to Auto-Theft

Kansas lawmakers are currently considering a law that would bar insurance providers from covering elective abortions — unless a woman pays extra for a special plan. The problem with such coverage, however, is that it forces women to “plan for a completely unexpected event.” The bill “wouldn’t apply to abortions performed to save the life of a woman, or to pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.” However, in the latter case, women would first be forced to file a police report:

The bill would require a police report to be filed if the woman wants an abortion to be covered by her insurance under the incest or rape exemptions. [...]

“You’d have to have a report that someone stole your car,” said Rep. Steve Brunk, a Bel Aire Republican. “This is kind of the same thing"

“Rape is a deeply traumatic event,” Sandy Barnett, director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, explained. “Often (victims) are afraid of law enforcement and the criminal justice system itself.” Requiring women to purchase a special abortion “rider” is discriminatory, since there is no comparable extra coverage that men need to purchase. As Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has asked, would men who support an abortion rider also support a rider for Viagra?

Many women who are raped are raped by men whom they know and who they come across and for social reasons, might prefer not to file a complaint against--and that could be wrong, but for their own security, they make the choice to be silent. In order to salvage their future, they choose to terminate the pregnancy from that rape--but they do not need to be reburdened by entangling themselves with their rapist (after all, the accused has a right to face their accuser). It's onerous, and insensitive.

A woman can't always account for her condition--or maybe she could, but it's between herself and her partner--or between herself and her conscience. The idea that abortion should not be elective means "proving" things that shouldn't ever have to be proven, just understood. This Kansas proposal is a dumb law that has nothing to do with women at all, except to punish them for getting pregnant in the first place, which biologically, can't always be helped. And then penalize them for not being able to demonstrate that they were victimized--nice placement of the burden.

Both these stories boil down to an assumption that women can physically bear children, but just not be responsible for, you know, being autonomous creatures that sometimes bear children. This irked me, so I present them to you.