Letters to the Editor
Buckethead Wendy
Published Letters: 43 Editor's Choice: 14
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pardon me just one more moment here
[Read the article: Coercing women in "crisis"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Speaking of ultrasounds, why do abortion clinics, supposedly the "safe" medical alternative, never use them? Because once the woman sees what's actually inside her, she almost always chooses life.
Actually, every abortion clinic I've ever heard of does ultrasounds. You have to verify that there's even a pregnancy, or if there are fibroids or anything else that would complicate the abortion or the pregnancy. You also need to measure the gestational age so you can know if an abortion can even be performed, and if so, which procedure is most appropriate. I've performed quite a few ultrasounds. Every patient had one. And this wasn't a big fancy clinic or anything. As far as I know it's pretty much standard.
And I'm sure this doesn't matter to most people who would put "safe" in quotes like that, but abortion is in fact many many times safer than childbirth. I understand arguing the moral aspect, but you want to stay away from the "dangerous/safe" area of discussion when we're talking about pregnancy and childbirth.
Women don't have abortions cause they think it's fun or because they don't know what a fetus looks like. They have them because the condom broke or they missed a pill and they believe that having a child in their current situation would be harmful or neglectful to themselves or to their future children. Many women have been drinking alcohol or taking any number of other recreational or prescribed drugs before they found out about the pregnancy. Many are primarily concerned with taking care of the actual living breathing children they already have at home. Raising a child properly is very expensive, and the fact is that some women have to make these decisions in order to care for their children. I understand that the line between person and potential person is very fuzzy and that's where all the vitriol comes from, but I can tell you that the women I counseled were looking to the future, weighing out these things and deciding based on what's best for everyone, including their children, their future children, and themselves.
Many people who are anti-abortion are also anti-welfare and pro-war. If anyone could explain to me in simple terms why a 7 week fetus is more important to protect than an actual living breathing child, American or Iraqi or otherwise, I would genuinely appreciate hearing it.
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I ain't stoopit!
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In short, stupid people watch TV and become stupider listening to cultural lies that whitewash the fact of the rule of the rich and powerful and the consequences of that rule for all the farm animals under their control.
As opposed to the internet, which is carefully, strictly policed for validity and general "smartness." Oh, and sanctimonious bullshit.
I mean honestly. Of course there are people who can't or don't think for themselves and let television do it for them. There are also people who like to learn about supervolcanoes on the Discovery Channel and think "Veronica Mars" is smarter than 80% of the films they've seen in the past year. We can't all run out to nice progressive fundraisers every night, but that doesn't make us drooling idiots. It doesn't rule it out either, but one could maybe allow for the possibility that there are intelligent, book-reading, nerdy, fartsy types who are also capable of making the distinction between the real world and "The Real World."
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Here, at least, they're underpaid and overworked.
[Read the article: In England, Big Brother will be watching moms and dads]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know what the system is like in the UK, but here, these workers need help, in the form of a decent wage and more investigators to spread out the workload, so that each worker can devote the appropriate amount of attention to each case.
I'm in Louisiana, which is like #2 in everything bad and #49 in everything good (thanks, Mississippi!), so I'm sure this doesn't apply everywhere. But when you actually look at what these social workers are asked to do - the sheer volume of cases they have to take on, the truly traumatic things they deal with regularly (autopsy on an 18-month old, anyone? interviewing a 6 year old about being raped by his/her dad?), the huge responsibility they have to make fair assessments of whether or not abuse has occured and what to do about it if it has - take that and weigh it against, say, my mother's salary at retirement, after 30 years of this, which was around $40k. That's for the most experienced investigator in the office.
The point is, yes, the answer is probably in fixing the system that's supposed to protect these kids. And there are grossly incompetent workers out there. But, just like with teachers, there are good ones who either get overloaded, can't handle the low pay, and/or burn out after 2 or 3 years.
I would love to see our Family Values™ government learn a lesson from this drastic move in the UK, rather than imitate it - stop wasting time and money on gay people and abortion, and maybe help some actual living children for once.