electrify my life

love it love it love it love it love it.


♥

rights and lefts

THE VERDICT

The Abortion Wars Get Technical

Women have few rights at all when doctors can legally misinform them or deny service entirely.

By Dahlia Lithwick | NEWSWEEK

Published Dec 6, 2008

From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008

Manoocher Deghati / AFP-Getty Images

Under a new regulation poised to become law any day now, any health-care worker may refuse to perform procedures, offer advice or dispense prescriptions--like the morning after pills pictured here--if doing so would offend their 'religious beliefs or moral convictions'

What does it tell us about the state of the abortion wars, that battles once waged over the dignity and autonomy of pregnant women have morphed into disputes over the dignity and autonomy of their health-care providers? Two of the most pitched battles over reproductive rights in America today turn on whether health workers can be forced to provide medical services or information to which they ethically object. But as we learn from these fights, our solicitude for the beliefs of medical workers is selective: abortion opponents will soon enjoy broader legal protections than ever. Those willing to provide abortions, on the other hand, will enjoy far fewer. And women seeking reproductive services will be more caught up than ever in the tangle between the two.

The first dispute concerns a new rule purporting to protect the "right of conscience" of American health-care workers. Under a new midnight regulation crammed through by the Bush Department of Health and Human Services and poised to become law any day now, any health-care worker may refuse to perform procedures, offer advice or dispense prescriptions, if doing so would offend their "religious beliefs or moral convictions." Congress has protected the right of physicians to opt out of providing abortions for decades. This new rule, which President-elect Obama can overturn (although it may take months), is far broader. It allows one's access to birth control, emergency contraception and even artificial insemination to turn on the moral preferences of a pharmacist, nurse or ambulance driver.

The second dispute involves a South Dakota law that went into effect last summer after an appeals court lifted a preliminary injunction. The law requires physicians providing abortions to read from a state-mandated script advising the patient that she is about to "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being" with whom she has an "existing relationship." The doctor must have her patient sign each page of a form indicating that she has been warned of the "statistically significant" risks of the procedure, including "increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide." These "risks" are almost completely unsupported by the scientific literature. A new comprehensive study released by Johns Hopkins found "no significant differences in long-term mental health between women in the United States who choose to terminate a pregnancy and those who do not." The disparity between the empirical data and the mandatory script thus forces physicians into a Hobson's choice between providing patients with accurate medical information, and possible license suspension and misdemeanor charges.

Reading the new HHS regulations together with the mandatory South Dakota "script," one can only conclude that those same health providers who cannot be compelled to perform an abortion may nevertheless be compelled to deliver misinformation about it. The freedom and autonomy of doctors who oppose abortion are protected by law. But those willing to provide abortions can be forced to deliver a state message with which they completely disagree. Both the HHS's right-of-conscience rules and the South Dakota script purport to clarify the complex legal relationship between health provider and patient, but each instead confuses and obfuscates settled law. The HHS rule, as written, is so ambiguous that nobody can say for certain which health-care workers or medical procedures are covered, beyond establishing that both categories are broadly expanded beyond those protected by existing right-of-conscience laws. The rule even fails to define abortion, leaving open the possibility that anyone who thinks birth control is abortion may decline to dispense it, turning every visit to the ER or the pharmacy into a spin of the constitutional roulette wheel.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine similarly blasts the South Dakota script for introducing novel and confusing legal language about "human beings," "constitutional rights" and "relationships" into a medical conversation between doctor and patient, concluding that these words are there "to intimidate pregnant women with vaguely described and legal-sounding consequences."

Almost completely missing from this fascinating legislative discussion of what health workers might be forced to do and say with respect to reproductive rights are the reproductive rights themselves. Whether we like it or not, the right to birth control, emergency contraception and—under most circumstances—abortion is still constitutionally protected. But these are not services a woman can provide for herself, which leaves her with few rights at all when her doctors are empowered by law to misinform her, withhold advice or deny services altogether. Even beyond the problem of subordinating a woman's rights to her doctor, however, there looms a larger question for health-care workers themselves: if they are indeed seeing their rights and freedoms either hugely expanded or severely restricted based solely on which side they've chosen in the culture wars, they might properly wonder whether any of them are truly free at all.

Lithwick is a NEWSWEEK contributing editor and a senior writer for Slate. A version of this column also appears on Slate.com.

© 2008 Newsweek

and it's ironic too

if i could live within any one song/video,
it would be this one:



another by Jem:



a better version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kHNXpj54Jo

i'm not sure why they keep making videos for '24' with footage from 'ultraviolet'
i guess her song was on the soundtrack

whatever, i'm hooked

the book of love

amazing.

jambo absinthedisco!

i'm kind of obsessed with my photostream



but more importantly, with kate's

my pictures aren't that good, i'm aware
but i really like some of them
especially from the Berlin set
i kind of think i should've brought my shitty point 'n' shoot to China
oh well

opportunity is not a lengthy visitor

so my mother informs me that i've been offered a position to teach English at Suzhou University (which they've spelled "Soochow," ew) for a year starting next summer.

...

um

!!!!!!


obviously, i haven't poured over the pros and cons and what have you, but at this point, i'm pretty sure i'm going to take it. especially considering that it's no walk in the park for recent grads to land decent jobs.

then again, not that i've been trying...

beautiful dirty rich

none of which actually describe me. which is fine.

i am enjoying Lady Gaga's debut album, "The Fame", even though it's totes not anywhere near "my type" of music. but then i tried to think what my type was and couldn't come up with anything. if you would like to synthesize some sort of folksy singer-songwritery gypsy-punk-cabarety dancy spanishy...yeah i'm just gonna leave it at that. the album is good. catchy pop for sure, but with a little extra pizzazz, i guess? i suck at writing about music, but here's a video to make up for it:


love this bish.

i just realized that i've been taking hayley duff and ashley tisdale to be the same person. whatever; i think their faces look similar enough, as do their careers-ish? dun care.

this guy is hilarious:


so i've been in china for a week. it's been nice...mainly just chillin' at my uncle's house, sitting at my computer 24/7. haha, so worth the 98148923-mile trip. but no, honestly, i'm enjoying spending time with family that i only get to see every couple of years. i think it's pretty unanimously agreed upon that i should visit more often, and i would like that myself. maybe i'll bring a coupla friends with me next summer or winter for christmas break. of course, then i'd have to go out and do touristy stuff. urgh.

Communist Bloc(k) Party

Ummm so am currently in the biggest Red State in the world. They've blocked Live Journal (haha, yes, I am still an emo middle schooler), and so I've had to resort to Blogger...um, no offense, I guess?

Well whatever. 'Tis my first foray into the colourful landscape of censorship. A strange sensation, but hell if they'll keep me from having fun :D

Hodge Podge Is Better:

- couldn't get wireless on the flight after all (Delta only offers wireless on domestic flights...starting in 2009), sooo have been spending the past few torturous days in the dark regarding international matches (well ok I know the England match result, but Corrine made me promise not to look up anything else...and i won't; i don't wanna be spoiled)

- lady across the aisle from us gets the Worst Parent To Ever Set Foot On An Aircraft award: two whiny, crying children whom she alternately neglected throughout the flight, and whose stinky diapers she insisted on changing right in their seats. yup. right there in the cabin. delicious.

- watched three movies: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, In Bruges, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. in a row. plus a few tv shows. yay inflight entertainment!

- got my first ever facial, which was cool, i guess. except some of the um cleansing moisturizing exfoliating minty fresh drippy magic elixir leaked into my eye, which was definitely NOT cool. but whatevs, my face feels better. oh, and the lady shaved my eyebrows. um, wtf?! ugh, i thought she would use wax or tweezers. but also, not a disaster (thank god).

- at the beauty parlour, they set my mum's eyes on fire. well ok, on top of a towel and another uhh pretty strong layer of something, obvi, but it was an eye treatment for her undereye bags. hee, it was actually pretty cool; wish i'd brought my camera.

- GOT AN ENGLAND SHIRT!!! :D :D :D umm, not sure where exactly it fits in the catalogue, since their home shirt is white and away is red. *shrug* who cares, it's awesome, i love it, i'm wearing it now, i love it i love it and did i mention i love it??!

- my uncle totes denied the whole scandal about that gymnast being underage at the lolympics. heh heh. well i don't even know the whole deal, but i'm pretty sure it was true. i really don't give a shit about the lolympics, but they sure made alotta merchandise!

- my cousin has class six days a week!! D: she had a test this morning (Saturday). and she said some of the more competitive schools make their students go a full seven days. unbelievable. hay remember when college was always 3-day weekends? that was the life.

- mosquitoes are eating me alive

Ok so I've actually found a way around the LJ block, but I thought it would be nice to post on here, since I rarely ever do anymore. "Rarely ever do anymore"? Does that sound right to you?

Interesting

More at ljsecret

unsuspecting idol

i secretly fangirl this blogger, who was in my painting class a coupla years ago and who is an infinitely sharper wit and more talented writer than yours truly. not that that's really saying much. plus, she was an english major.

i wish i had the guts to just up and move to alaska for awhile.


but i'm not a can-can dancer.
i'm just mopey.