Having been through infertility treatment myself, and seen via ultrasound a fertilized egg inside my own body that was lacking a heartbeat (it was already DEAD, get it?) this story hit home for me:
Nicole Mone on Facebook tells of her horrific experience, only made worse by a male pharmacist making a moral judgment against her:
I hadn’t planned on telling anyone outside our immediate family but two months we were surprised to find out I was pregnant. After a previous miscarriage the doctor had been monitoring me weekly. Unfortunately on Tuesday we found out the baby’s development had stopped and I ultimately will have a miscarriage. Dr gave me two options D&C or prescription medication. I opted for prescription. Last night I went to pick up my medication at my local Walgreens only to be denied the prescription I need. I stood at the mercy of this pharmacist explaining my situation in front of my 7 year old, and five customers standing behind only to be denied because of his ethical beliefs. I get it we all have our beliefs. But what he failed to understand is this isn’t the situation I had hoped for, this isn’t something I wanted. This is something I have zero control over. He has no idea what its like to want nothing more than to carry a child to full term and be unable to do so. If you have gone thru a miscarriage you know the pain and emotional roller it can be. I left Walgreens in tears, ashamed and feeling humiliated by a man who knows nothing of my struggles but feels it is his right to deny medication prescribed to me by my doctor. I am unsure where Walgreens draws the lines with their pharmacist but does this mean he denies women the right to birth control and morning after pill, and what’s the stance with fertility drugs. I share this story because I wish no other women have to go thru something like this at time when you are vulnerable and already suffering. I am in left in disbelief on how this can happen? How is this okay? I can’t be the only one who has gone thru this.
It's time for a massive, nationwide, crash course media blitz in gynecology for everyone. Ads during the World Series, so average Joes and Josephines can understand that this is not about "babies," this is about women and their health. If this poor woman had not received treatment to remove the CORPSE from her uterus, it could have prevented her from conceiving another pregnancy. Not very pro-family, there, wingnut.
Many on Twitter want to punish Walgreens, and while I'm all about being anti-corporation, the fact is the pharmacist was protected by Arizona state law. (Anti-woman pharmacists are "protected" in six other states.) However, he disobeyed state law by not handing her prescription to another pharmacist at the same location, and he should have been fired immediately for violating company policy by shaming her out loud in a franchised store.
This kind of baloney isn't limited to pharmacists. Anti-abortion fascist snowflakes are reaching into medical schools, too, as I noted in 2011:
A question for the anti-abortionists: What if the baby is already dead?
These people have lost their minds, because apparently if the baby inside you is already dead, that is NO EXCUSE.
Pro-Life Wisconsin is attacking the state funding of University of Wisconsin Medical School for teaching to medical students, procedures that are necessary in the case of what is called "fetal demise," where an unborn infant has died in utero.
Robin Marty (Warning: the author of this article has a uterus.)
When I had my miscarriage, I had to go in to have a D&C performed in order to remove the fetus, which had died weeks earlier. Many women find themselves in the same situation either due to missed miscarriages, or incomplete miscarriages where they have retained bits of the products of conception.
If doctors no longer learn how to perform a D&C, what exactly are women in that situation to do?
Well, nothing, if Pro-Life Wisconsin has its way. They are currently filing a lawsuit demanding that the University of Wisconsin's medical department stop teaching its med students how to perform "abortions," claiming it violates a funding ban on state dollars going to abortion. The school currently sends students on a rotation through the local Planned Parenthood in order to not be accused of performing abortions on site.
Their problem is, if you know how to remove an ALREADY DEAD fetus from a woman's body, you also know how to perform an abortion. Better to blindfold every gynecologist in Wisconsin to the procedure rather than allow them the knowledge that, gasp, MIGHT lead to an abortion. Nevermind that it might also lead to maternal death.
By the way, I had several "D&C"s as part of my attempt to GET pregnant. It is a common procedure in infertility treatment. God forbid taxpayer dollars should be spent HELPING a woman carry a baby to term, save her own life, or simply teaching an obstetrician how to do his or her JOB.
The Cap Times (Madison, WI):
“There are medically indicated pregnancy terminations, and physicians need to have skills to do that,” says [Doctor] Broekhuizen. He notes that even physicians who do not work in abortion clinics may well need to perform an abortion.
“There are situations where patients have fetal death in utero at 16 to 18 weeks of gestation,” he says. “The mode of delivery in the case of a dead fetus is exactly the same procedure as an abortion procedure. So learning these techniques is an essential part of what an ob/gyn needs to know in order to provide comprehensive care to women, regardless of where they choose to practice.”
And this is why, he says, the accreditation organization for ob/gyn programs requires that training in abortion services be offered.
The hatred of women in the anti-abortion ranks is once again unmasked.
