Right to Life or Pro-Choice: Is it now a crime to have a miscarriage?

Thank you, thank you so much.
Amanda
http://toddlywinks.blogspot.com
http://lifewithbriar.blogspot.com

I can totally understand what you are going through, and I have great compassion for you.

Seventeen years ago, after having had many miscarriages, I was pregnant again. And once again, a few weeks into my pregnancy, I began to have severe pain and bleeding. Of course, I thought I was having another miscarriage.

But this time when I went to the hospital they told me I "MAY" be having another miscarriage, but they couldn't be completely sure with the ultrasound. I was sent home on complete bed rest (I could only get up to go to the bathroom and be driven to doctors appointments). Every week I was getting blood work and ultrasounds, and each time they told me that my HCG levels were not high enough to sustain a pregnancy...And they wouldn't give me a picture when I got my ultrasounds because they said the pregnancy wasn't viable.

Finally, just before my third month my blood work was normal, and they told me the fetus was viable. I was still considered a high-risk pregnancy, but I didn't have to stay on bed rest. At that time, I didn't concern myself with why I had what appeared to be a miscarriage, but I was still pregnant...I was just thanking God that I was still pregnant.

I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

At my first post-pregnancy OB/GYN visit, it finally occurred to me to ask why. Why they "thought" I was having a miscarriage, and I had all the symptoms of a miscarriage...but I ended up having a beautiful healthy baby boy?

The doctor told me...I was most likely pregnant with twins at the beginning of my pregnancy, and for some reason my body "aborted" one pregnancy but not the other. At that point it was obviously much easier to focus on the blessings of my new baby, rather than on the loss of one. But, it is something I wonder about from time to time...even now.

I imagine it must be so much more difficult to get news like this while you are still pregnant. My personal advice to you would be...Don't let the feelings of this loss stop you from being able to enjoy your pregnancy.

I wish you all the best.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com ( http://www.catherineblogs.com/ ) and The Political Voices of Women ( http://politicsanew.com/ )

I recently had an ob visit at 10 weeks. After a disconcerting ultrasound proces I was unceremoniously informed that they had discovered a second sac, as I processed the significance of this news, the woman told me blandly that it was little more than a blood clot.

Then there was some hazy advice about potential bleeding etc and a quick fare thee well. I left feeling as if I shouldn't be upset, a vanishing twin...nothing more than a bloodclot, but the impact of the potential of two lives hit me with the force of a locomotive.

After this experience, I realize it makes little difference what they call what is inside of us, or at what stage we lose it, the pain is clearly something the medical community and society are deeply ill equipped to address compassionately. My heart aches for this woman as it does for my baby that might have been, and the baby I still carry, worrying at each turn that something might go awry.

Thank you for this post.

Amanda
http://lifewithbriar.blogspot.com
http://toddlywinks.blogspot.com

I'm so sorry to hear about your miscarriage. Even though it's been over seventeen years since my last miscarriage, I can still remember the pain and despair I felt like it was yesterday.

I wish there were words that I could say that would minimize the pain you are feeling right now...But, I know there are none.

Thank you for sharing your feelings and experience, I know that must have been very hard for you.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com ( http://www.catherineblogs.com/ ) and The Political Voices of Women ( http://politicsanew.com/ )

I miscarried last week. The pregnancy was 10 weeks along, the baby died at 9 weeks.
I was so delirious and confused, and in hospital when it happened.
Not a single ONE of the medical staff would even refer to what came out of me as a fetus, let alone a baby.
The name some clever so and so thought of to use is 'products of conception'
I was really upset and angry they would not tell me what the 'evacuated products' contained, I just wanted to know I had miscarried the baby as that is what I really did not want to do at home.

Miscarriage is so common yet it seems to be the last taboo. How many of our forbears had to go through this awful event with no one to talk to. But things do not seem to be much better now, either here in the UK or in the USA.

Can it be that they just don't "get it"? Maybe the police department needs some medical advice on how women can have miscarriages on the toilet? Sorry to be so graphic but yes I'm angry.

I've had three miscarriages and it is so hard to deal with even today. I don't know if that is why I'm that upset. But I doubt it. How can there be such ignorance in this day and age?

Connie
Brain Foggles ( http://www.shawnsbidness.com/blog )
My Chronic Life ( http://www.mychroniclife.com )

Looks like some more people are confused -- A Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel, not a manual.

Stylefool ( http://www.stylefool.com )

I had never heard of anything like this before yesterday, and I am just shocked that this is, or ever was a legal issue. I just don't get it.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope ( http://women4hope.wordpress.com/ ) and Informed Voters ( http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/ )

A couple of years ago, there was a law in Virginia (proposed, not passed, I think) that required the death of a fetus to be reported to law enforcement. As I recall, there was no "exception" for miscarriages - simply a statement from the legislator who had proposed the law that the law obviously wasn't intended to encompass such situations. (And yes, having had two miscarriages myself, I do understand that the wounds are still there. I'm very sorry for your losses.)

I know what you mean, it's a scary thought. What ever happened to a woman's right to privacy?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope ( http://women4hope.wordpress.com/ ) and Informed Voters ( http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/ )

Thanks for sharing your feelings about this story. For the sake of the woman involved in this, I hope they never find her.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope ( http://women4hope.wordpress.com/ ) and Informed Voters ( http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/ )

The RU-486 aspect of this issue is also troubling...What if they hunt this poor woman down and find she had used RU-486? Even if they don't charge her with a crime (which I don't see how they could)...Can you imagine what would happen to this woman's life if her name was made public?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope ( http://women4hope.wordpress.com/ ) and Informed Voters ( http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/ )

I agree...Ugh, Ugh, Ughhhhhh!

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope ( http://women4hope.wordpress.com/ ) and Informed Voters ( http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/ )

Catherine, thank you for linking to my post. The idea of police soliciting tips from the public and calling hospitals to track down any woman who might have sought care in order to find what is probably some poor, devastated woman who miscarried really frightens me. Is this where we are now? Women can't suffer a private tragedy without fearing the police knocking on their doors?

I don't think that you are oversensitive. I;ve never had a miscarriage, but find this whole incident repulsive and shameful. Why would anyone waste the resources and time to autopsy this? And what will they do with the answers? You are right that this is a dangerous and extremely sick slippery slope. Under no definition has a crime been committed here, and yet the reaction is such that you think once they figure out where this fetus came from, they'll haul the woman in for questioning. Whether she spontaneously miscarried or used RU-486, what's the difference? Nothing illegal has happened.

We live in a society that is extremely demented when it comes to "valuing" life. This dead fetus is being given more medical attention than many poor children receive. If we really value life, we'd direct our resources towards living kids.

Suzanne ( http://www.blogher.com/member/suzanne ), BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/feminism-gender )
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants ( http://cussandotherrants.com/ )

As a mother who has experienced the emotional fallout of a miscarriage, I can't even read and/or watch this story without crying. I just simply cannot. I hope that mother has an amazing support team on her side right now. Something like that? Could be enough to push a grieving mother over the edge.

Family Living; Hatfield Style ( http://www.thejhatfields.org/blog ) - Our Family Blog.
Birth/First Parent Blog ( http://birthparents.adoptionblogs.com )
The Chronicles of Munchkin Land ( http://www.thechroniclesofmunchkinland.com )

Ugh, ugh, ughh.

Pregnancy is such a tenuous process. This is the fundamental problem with the whole 'life begins at conception' argument... so many things have to go "right" in order to go from "egg meets sperm" to "healthy delivered baby". At any time, particularly in the first trimester, anything so minute, so minor can go awry and the whole thing is over. It's just the way it is, and even the medical profession is aware of this... if a woman is miscarrying before 13 weeks and presents herself to an emerg, the best most docs will be able to do for her is compassion and pain management while the process reaches its unhappy conclusion. Does the law and society dictate that this process must now be monitored and scrutinized from conception? Should a woman be penalized if her uterus ends up being inhosptable? What if the miscarriage results from a genetic issue contributed from the father, will he be held accountable too?

Ugh again. The thought that once I get pregnant, my body is now not only no longer my own, but anything my body does is potentially subject to public scrutiny, makes me want to hide any pregnancy I may have until 36 weeks' gestation so as to avoid any possible liability, judgement, or recrimination.

ThreeSeven ( http://www.threeseven.ca )... attention deficits at work.