Sherry Chandler

So glad to be post-menopausal

The other day I was writing some web copy for an ob-gyn group. The title of the page I was writing was something like “So you’re thinking of getting pregnant.” What followed was a bulleted list of recommendations from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology for women who were trying to conceive.

Note that phrase – for women who were trying to conceive. The recommendations included taking folic acid, giving up smoking, alcohol, recreational drugs, getting weight under control, having your vaccinations, and getting treatment for any pre-existing conditions. Fairly standard stuff really. I didn’t think much about it.

Then this little item, Forever Pregnant, came out in the Washington Post:

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.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

Suddenly my dull little job looked considerably more sinister. Especially since it contained language a lot like this:

…experts say it’s important that women follow this advice throughout their reproductive lives, because about half of pregnancies are unplanned and so much damage can be done to a fetus between conception and the time the pregnancy is confirmed.

So why are all these pregnancies unplanned? Can’t possibly have anything to do with our current reliance on abstinence-only programs that just don’t work. Remember this little item, also from the Washington Post, that I posted about two weeks ago?

In 1994, the study found, 87 women of every 1,000 living below the poverty line had unintended pregnancies. In 2001, that number had risen to 112 of 1,000 women.

…

Asked what was driving the trends, the authors noted that some state and federal reproductive health programs have been cut or made more restrictive in recent years. State and federal programs have increasingly focused on abstinence rather than contraception, and some analysts have argued that the shift is leading to less use of contraceptives and more unintended pregnancies.

Unplanned pregnancies don’t tend to happen to affluent women who have free access to birth control and abortion. So now we don’t teach young women how to avoid unexpected pregnancy. Instead, young women must live all their lives preparing to have an unexpected baby while being denied birth control.

And it is true that the federal recommendations are mostly just good health care. Still there is this Contra-Contraception thing going on in the country.

…since, as they see it, the wanton era of the 1960’s culminated in the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 — American social conservatives have been on an unyielding campaign against abortion. But recently, as the conservative tide has continued to swell, this campaign has taken on a broader scope. Its true beginning point may not be Roe but Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 case that had the effect of legalizing contraception.

Listen women. Don’t take this stuff lying down. And yes, it’s a bad pun. But these people want to control what goes on in your bedroom. I can get into all kinds of paranoid fantasies about cannon fodder and a cheap labor force but the bottom line is this: It’s time to stop being complaisant about all this stuff. Make some noise.

And vote, vote, vote, vote, vote.

[Thanks to Have Coffee, Will Write for the challenge. Read also I See Invisible People on the subject.]

1. Birth rates
2. Remind me not to move to Ohio
3. Abortion Rates
4. Forever Pre-pregnant
5. Not About the Children

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