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May. 16th, 2006 08:10 pmOkay, it's been all over LJ - I heard about it from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
persephoneflame - but, wow. Just... wow.
With a side of OMG WTF BBQ.
New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.
Words fail me. I just - I cannot fathom how this is considered acceptable. I mean, I understand the desire to decrease the infant mortality rate. But you do not do it by acting like the possibility that a woman might, one of these days, get pregnant is more important than her preferences and intentions are - regardless of whether she is sexually active, lesbian, or celibate; regardless of whether or not she is actively trying to avoid getting pregnant.
I am willing to accept that there is some room to argue the well-being of an unborn child over the preferences of the mother - to a point - but when you start acting like potential children not even conceived are more important than a woman's free will and control over her own life, that is going way too far. The message here may be well-meant, but it still reads "the most important thing about you is your ability to bear children." And alongside that message is the onepersephoneflame stated more clearly than I can, involving blaming women for the infant mortality rate instead of looking at other factors of the damn healthcare system.
I am not a baby factory. I have no intentions of having children; I am not maternal. I am damn well celibate, and while it is distantly possible that God's gift to women might appear out of nowhere one of these days and sweep me off my feet and into a torrid affair, the most likely chance of me getting pregnant at this point in my life would be if I were raped - which I also go out of my way to avoid, thanks - and if that were to happen, I would have bigger goddamn problems.
I am fucking well not pre-pregnant.
Damn, but this is the angriest I have been in a while now. Attitudes like this make me consider sterilization. Except that I probably wouldn't be allowed. Maybe I'll just punch someone instead.
persephoneflame - but, wow. Just... wow.With a side of OMG WTF BBQ.
New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.
Words fail me. I just - I cannot fathom how this is considered acceptable. I mean, I understand the desire to decrease the infant mortality rate. But you do not do it by acting like the possibility that a woman might, one of these days, get pregnant is more important than her preferences and intentions are - regardless of whether she is sexually active, lesbian, or celibate; regardless of whether or not she is actively trying to avoid getting pregnant.
I am willing to accept that there is some room to argue the well-being of an unborn child over the preferences of the mother - to a point - but when you start acting like potential children not even conceived are more important than a woman's free will and control over her own life, that is going way too far. The message here may be well-meant, but it still reads "the most important thing about you is your ability to bear children." And alongside that message is the one
persephoneflame stated more clearly than I can, involving blaming women for the infant mortality rate instead of looking at other factors of the damn healthcare system.I am not a baby factory. I have no intentions of having children; I am not maternal. I am damn well celibate, and while it is distantly possible that God's gift to women might appear out of nowhere one of these days and sweep me off my feet and into a torrid affair, the most likely chance of me getting pregnant at this point in my life would be if I were raped - which I also go out of my way to avoid, thanks - and if that were to happen, I would have bigger goddamn problems.
I am fucking well not pre-pregnant.
Damn, but this is the angriest I have been in a while now. Attitudes like this make me consider sterilization. Except that I probably wouldn't be allowed. Maybe I'll just punch someone instead.
