I had a strange day last Wednesday.
I had been rostered on for Antenatal Clinic (my favorite!) - where I get to scan pregnant tums and marvel at the miracle growing within.
And somewhere in the middle of my clinic was a woman who had booked an appointment in my clinic to discuss the various options of how to go about aborting her 6 week old miracle.
I stared at her in shock. My mouth dried up.
"But this is the antenatal clinic" I said, "we don't plan abortions here!"
And then she began to cry.
I didn't know what to say and had to excuse myself from the room. I didn't want any part in plotting the death of this baby, but I felt like my hands were tied - I had an obligation to help this woman.
I had been rostered on for Antenatal Clinic (my favorite!) - where I get to scan pregnant tums and marvel at the miracle growing within.
And somewhere in the middle of my clinic was a woman who had booked an appointment in my clinic to discuss the various options of how to go about aborting her 6 week old miracle.
I stared at her in shock. My mouth dried up.
"But this is the antenatal clinic" I said, "we don't plan abortions here!"
And then she began to cry.
I didn't know what to say and had to excuse myself from the room. I didn't want any part in plotting the death of this baby, but I felt like my hands were tied - I had an obligation to help this woman.
Fortunately, my boss walked by at this moment and I was able to defer to her.
I have just looked at abortion stats for Australia which showed an overal number of abortions exeeding 71000 in 2006, the vast majority (28000) were women between the ages of 25-34, ie the age group that probably are working, educated, even in stable relationships... so, not the group of women that have no other option. It seems abortion has become so accepted that it no longer is the choice of the "last resort"....
*sigh
10 comments:
i feel sorry for her, but i feel more sorry for her baby. at least she's going to walk away alive.
Antenatal clinic or no, that was far from the best thing to say. What was going through your head when you decided to pass judgement like that? Whether or not that was your intention, it's safe to assume it was perceived as such.
As for your statistics, a majority within an age range of 25-34 doesn't correlate to success in education/work/partner status. As skewed as your interpretation of the statistics may be, I'm curious as to what your definition of "no other option" is and who it applies to. As far as I'm concerned, there is always an option to choose.
Women are no longer expected to follow through with unplanned pregnancies. It's not a matter of side stepping accountability and the consequences of one's actions, it's about restoring some semblance of equality between the sexes. Call me an old school feminist.
Dear M,
What was going through my head was exactly what I said - "This is the Antenatal Clinic", as in the place where we discuss how to stay pregnant, how to ensure that both you and your baby remain healthy... not the "Termination Clinic", "Family Planning Clinic" or "Abortion Clinic" - so yes, perhaps I did judge the patient to choose the MOST inappropriate place to ask for an abortion.
And yes, there is always an option to choose - to choose to use contraception, to choose to abstain, to choose to bless an infertile couple with a child to love...
M, this has nothing to do with equality between the sexes and everything to do with taking an innocent life. So you're a feminist - it's interesting to me that special interest groups always think their special interests are more important than anyone elses - in this case the child's. So that woman's "rights" are more important to you than that baby's rights. I too refuse to help patients to murder their babies. Fortunately the law protects me in this.
That is strange...I would have thought that if she had gone through her GP that they would have sent her to a termination clinic.
I wonder if the law will protect our right as doctors to refuse treatment that we disagree with (for medical/ethical/musical reasons) in the future.
Isn't it inspiring how the Creator of life will create "accidental" meetings such as this to plant the seed of doubt in the mind of a woman so swayed by the world that she would be party to the termination of a miracle. A crime made worse in a country that values and supports the birth of every child.
Its inspiring to see that there are people like u ahead of us(young ones, in faith, age, occupation etc ) standing firm im their faith and beliefs. This is always a challenging topic, esp as a student requiring signatures for logbooks. I imagine knowing what u believe and y u believe what u believe makes it easier.
Hey Amanzi,
I have created a forum for doctors and nurses wanting work overseas over at http://www.medworkworld.com/forumfolder/index.php , sorry i would have emailed you but I couldn't work out where to, I'm not spamming!. Anyways, you are an actual overseas Dr working in Aus, so if you want to have a look or post feel free, otherwise it would be great if you let your readers know about the forum. Cheers!teve
Such a sad story.. but sometimes women have no choice but to abort their babies. Having a bay is a great miracle... but when bad things happen... I don;t know what to think
here I want to share about Tubal Reversals is a surgical procedure that restores fertility to women after a tubal ligation.
and you can move science and technology
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