And we are ready to begin the first of many installments of my new sub-blog webisodes-titled "Are you Freaking KIDDING Me?"The purpose of these entries will be to highlight some of the more outrageous violations of common sense and decency in these United States and eventually, abroad. I hoping to keep it to weekly, but we shall see, this is one crazy country!
So today's installment was pilfered from my friend Dan via facebook, and put there from Fox News.com, feel free to check out the original article "New Oklahoma Abortion Law"
The long and short of the issue is that Oklahoma state law is now requiring doctors and abortion clinics to list statstical information regarding each abortion they provide to be listed on a public access website. This information includes:
The paitent's age
Town
Income level
Race
Marital Status
Number of Live births
Number of previous abortions
and propably even more than that.
Now, i don't know how many of you have had abortions, how you feel about them, or what your politics/religious convictions dictate, but not taking that into consideration, leaving it completely out of the picture, we can admit the following about this mandatory reporting initiative:
1) This is blatantly against the Health Insurance Privitazation and Portability Act stature set forth in 1996. Paitent's have the right to say no, i do not want my private medical and statsitcal information set forth on the internet.
2) This list may be able to provide important statistical data that could be used for education and birth control and family planning resource allocation, and thats super, but lets face it, for every smidge of grant money that might be allocated (we'll see if that even happens) there will be some right wing nut job group hunting down people that have had abortions and looking for some way to make their lives miserable. Leaving this information open to the public puts the doctors, clinics, and paitents at risk. Abortion is still a volitale issue in the United States. As recently as May of 2009 Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed in his church in Wichita, Kansas for providing abortions according to Pro-Choic.org this along with a number of arson attempts, bomb threats, anthrax threats and a disturbing bout of Butyric Acid attacks throughout 1998. These instances are obviously the extreme, the relatively innocuous protesters outside the Planned Parenthood in my town annoy passer by and inspire shame and fear in potential paitents, but they don't neccessarily perpetuate acts of violence. But the fact remains, the violence is still alive and well, and the intimidation and hate that many anti-abortion (I will NOT refer to them as pro-lifers for so many reasons) have is strong and prominent and listing the information of women who have had abortions, and clinics and doctors that perform them on the internet for any kook to see is a terrible idea.
I just don't understand how anyone, whether they believe in the practice of abortion or no, would agree that it is okay to post private, potentially damaging, personal information, in a world as volatile as this, with people who are as unstable as we Americans can be.
And so I ask again, Are you Freaking KIDDING ME?
4 comments:
You know, lol, all the crazy shit those anti-abortion people do makes me have no interest in their views. I'm glad you don't call them pro-lifers. I consider myself pro-life. I consider all life sacred. I personally don't agree with abortion as a method of contraception. That being said I also don't agree that I have any room to make choices for other people nor do I agree that the government should assume to make those choices for people either. Not to mention that I'm a guy and I never have to face this choice.
I think one problem with the situation as it exists is that abortion providers as essentially specialists. You have to go to a separate predefined office to receive treatment. If abortion services were provided through regular clinics or maybe outpatient facilities it would be a lot harder for anti-abortion people to make such a fuss.
I can already hear the arguments, "Amy if these women are choosing to have an abortion why are they ashamed to have their personal information collected." I agree with you in that this whole situation is really an invasion of patient rights. I think we should get a group together and protest the anti-abortion leaders the next time they go have their hemorrhoids burnt off (or whatever they do to hemorrhoids). We are going to take bring signs with graphic images of anuses and hemorrhoids. I think it's fucked up for anyone to protest medial buildings and funerals. I suppose this identifies one of the biggest issues I have with the religious right. Who the hell decided they get to decide the morality for the country. I think they need to go home and worry about their own morals and let the rest of us be heathens as we please. Homos have been around since the dawn of time, clearly we're not going anywhere. Abortions aren't new, they have been practiced for centuries, and it is ridiculous to assume that the majority of woman who walk through the doors of an abortion clinic have callously decided to end a life they've created. I can only imagine the emotional turmoil those woman must face.
Outrageous! They are treating women who have abortions like criminals, in particular, child molesters come to mind. They also have their names posted online but probably with not as much detail as the Oklahoma law allows.
The Religious Right are the biggest hypocrites when it comes to their pro life stance. While they are so concerned about the sanctity of life when it concerns another woman's private decision to abort a child (for whatever reason), they are not as passionate about that same life if after the child is born, he or she is abandoned and then winds up in foster care. A worse case scenario, the child is born and abused by teenage or drug addicted parents not able to handle an infant. They seem to wash their hands of a life, as soon as a child is born.
I love living in this country because of the diversity of cultures, ideas, and beliefs. However, when one segment of the population appoints themselves God and starts imposing their beliefs on the rest of the country, that goes against the very beliefs and principles upon which the founding fathers built this nation.
Amen sister!!
Wow this is absolutely insane! I am shocked that would even be considered part way legal in any state! That makes me cringe and want to throw up to be honest. I too, for myself, do not think I would have an abortion, but I am not one to make choices for others nor do I ever condone making public information that would allow a group of people focused on judgement to hone in on thier targets. This is shameful!
Okay BTW pls say you are nont going to try and keep up this level of "real" post for this whole challenge. The stress level would kill me! xoxo
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