Letters to the Editor
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The actual suggestions, not your extreme "what's next?" exaggerations, are not a very big deal
Don't smoke, stay away from cat shit, and take your vitamins.
Although to many of our cat-loving, smoking spinsters, that might be tough. But they don't have kids anyway.
It must be very tiring to have to find something to be outraged about every day.
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pregnancy training
When I was a pre-teen, I wore a training bra. Now that I'm pre-pregnant, do I have to wear a training nursing bra?
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WHAT????
This can't be true. I'm reeling from shock. So, I'm going to forget it, and check back later. If I can't find anything, I'll know it was just a bizarre nightmare - because any sane person would see the horror of treating women like this, and expecting them to adjust their lives around some potential fetus for 30 years.
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Amen Sister
The idea that all women are now (still?) to be treated as ovens for potential buns is not only rediculous, but patronizing, condesending, and just plain STUPID. It reinforces things like the fact that "feminine items" - a nice euphimism used by drug stores for maxi pads, tampons, and vagisl - are not tax-free or counted as 'essentaials', which in essance tells women that if you are not pregnant you must pay taxes so as not to bleed all over your jeans, and all the other ways that our worth as people is equated to popping out the next little piece of nationalist propaganda. But don't get fat or anything - our women are also suposed to be cute and stylish while all knocked-up. Like I said - STUPID. Not to mention so offensive I do not think there is yet a word that can fully encompase my rage at reading this. Also, shouldn't the CDC be worrying about diseases, like the real ones tht are happening now, not potential ones that may or may not strike people who may or may not be possibly thinking about being mommies? Kinda makes ya wanna scream huh? Yeah, me too.
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No cats for you....
Before I go - I'm curious. Since women are supposed to avoid cat feces, does that mean that women shouldn't have cats as pets? Isn't that the inescapable conclusion? How else does one clean the litterbox? Tell hubby he has to do it for the next 35 years for your future maybebaby's health? Will they recommend investing in an automatic litterbox cleaner for a few hundred bucks for silly, fetus-hating women who unwisely refuse to give up cats as pets?
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After the hysteria has passed ...
This really doesn't seem too unreasonable. "Be aware of your fertility. Don't take risks. If you don't want to conceive, use contraception. If you think you'll ever want a child, don't do anything now that would be counter-reproductive. With that in mind, here are the guidelines."
I'm not quite convinced that pretending we can't find a solution to a relatively simple cat-litter issue is really a feminist virtue. ;)
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Not-So-Modest Proposal
About 15 years ago I gave a "Modest Proposal" speech at an abortion rights meeting. In the speech I "recommended" that all women of childbearing age be severely restricted in their behavior, under penalty of law, because, after all, they might be harming their zygotes.
Now the CDC is recommending that health care professionals treat all women of childbearing age as pre-pregnant. While I fully support education on the possible ramifications of our lifestyle choices on our fertility and possible pregnancies, I confess that this directive scares the shit out of me.
If a woman can be arrested for "prenatal child abuse" and/or can be forced to have a caesarian delivery against her will (and these things are already happening in the US), where will it stop? Will women who fail to comply with "pre-pregnancy" directives find themselves under scrutiny?
Suddenly that tubal ligation looks much, much more attractive to me.
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"Pre-pregnant"
I think it's the word that I find so offensive. Apparently, I'm defined by the baby I might have, not by the life I do. My doctor wasn't supposed to counsel me to exercise, eat right, take my vitamins, quit smoking, and control my asthma for my own sake, but now is supposed to because someday I might have a baby? Really? I'm supposed to take care of my body, not so I could be healthy, but in case I get pregnant?
Here's a news flash: I'm not pre-pregnant. I'm just not pregnant. I'm not just a fertile uterus. I'm an adult woman, and I would like to be treated as such.
The real kicker is that women who have access to decent health care already get this advice from their doctors--my doctor certainly counseled me about nutrition, exercise, smoking, and asthma, albeit not in the context of my baby-making capacity. The real reason for our poor infant mortality rates is that many women don't have access to decent health care or pre-natal care, let alone pre-conception care. And the same government that wants our doctors to treat us like we're all baby-making machines won't help those women to see a doctor in the first place.
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At least I'll look good in the red breeder robe
But if 50% of pregnancies are unplanned wouldn't it be better (and easier)to increase access to birth control instead of acting like the lifestyle police to the majority of women?
Oh wait, I forgot that we are only as good as our baby producing capabilities. I wonder if they are gonna make us pee on a stick before entering a bar.
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argh
This makes me want to scream. I used to dream of working at the CDC, because of all its good public health work. But it's clear that the wingnuts have taken over.
The first doctor who says anything about this to me is going to get an earful about government propaganda -- followed by a reminder that (a) my tubes are tied, and (b) because of medical issues, in the very unlikely event that I did get pregnant, I'd have an abortion, no questions asked.
Of course, I do have a friend who's a doctor, who works mostly with poor, Catholic women, who insists that any patient who could get pregnant and refuses to use contraception start taking prenatal vitamins. She does this because there is about a 50% probability that such a woman will be pregnant at her next appointment. This is something my friend does *with this particular population of women* because the risk of unplanned pregnancy is so high.