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In reply to the discussion: I opened the bathroom door and found my roommate's girlfriend in a pool of blood [View all]The_REAL_Ecumenist
(715 posts)She was in high school & her best friend fell pregnant. There was NO WAY she could even begin to think about telling her family, let alone carrying it to term, giving birth to a child AND keeping it? HELL NAW!!! This was in a conservative African American middle class community in Tulsa & that JUST WAS NOT DONE! So, somehow, she found someone who would "help" her. So, one weekend, she bade her family goodbye in the morning, giving them a plausible explanation for why she would be out all day. She came back home and went to bed, after a bath & a bowl of soup due to the "menstrual cramps" she was having. She dealt with those cramps, while bleeding like a champ.
Somehow, she was able to get up that following Monday, get dressed, & set ut for school. Why am I telling you this story? Well, she went home after spending about 20 minutes, PICKING UP THE COUNTLESS BLOOD CLOTS SHE WAS PASSING!! She was driven to the local JIM CROW hospital, where her life AND her fecundity was saved, though she did have to have a little help when she was ready to conceive.
She was LUCKY because SO many others barely survived only to go onto childless lives, outside of adoption. Mama heard about but didn't personally know women who died after a back alley abortion. She worked in the medical field, first in Pathology & then as a top notch transcriptionist, (she typed over 140 wpm) for the rest of the time. She would always tell me how when abortion was illegal, the rich & connected, (read: WHITE!) could COUNT ON a SAFE, ANTISEPTIC MEDICAL THERAPEUTIC ABORTION in a hospital, after being admitted for "EXHAUSTION" or for "BEING RUN DOWN" or any of the myriad euphemisms the media and/or hospitals would use to give any other reason as far removed from "being an unwed mother" as possible.
If they were concerned about maintaining anonymity, they'd fly to the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, etc. If Abortion were EVER to return to being illegal, the average Suzi Q, Megan, Tracy, Alicia & Beata will be the ones putting their lives on the line, in their quest to terminate their pregnancies. The wealthy? They'll only be a WEE bit inconvenienced but they'll NEVER have to worry about dying of massive bleeding or infection. They want to take that away from middle & lower class access to safe abortion, period.