CDC to Women: Prepare to Give Birth!!!!

[im10ashus]

By Sunsara Taylor

Editor’s note: In this column, Truthdig contributor Sunsara Taylor comments on a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control that recommends classifying all women as pre-pregnant--whether they intend to conceive or not. Taylor calls it an audacious leap along the logical fault line that values women as mere fetal incubators.

Not planning on getting pregnant? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t care. As far as it is concerned, if you are one of the 62 million U.S. women of childbearing age, you are pre-pregnant--a vessel. You are a future fetal incubator.

In April, the CDC issued a http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5506a1.htm">report detailing measures to be taken to intervene in the life, healthcare and behavior of all women, “from menarche to menopause … even if they do not intend to conceive.”

The CDC report calls for a radical shift in medical care so that at every point of interaction, women’s doctors are to stage “interventions” to make sure they are healthy and prepared to give birth. Want to take your newborn in for a checkup or your 8-year-old in for a high fever? Expect an “intervention” into your eating habits, weight and behavioral risk factors.

Got diabetes or epilepsy and looking for the care that is best for you? Wrong approach, says the CDC: “Separating childbearing from the management of chronic health problems and infectious diseases places women, their future pregnancies, and their future children at unnecessary risk.”

cont'd...

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060606_sunsara_taylor_preconception/

[Ilsa]

1. But, I'm probably too old now! Does that mean I don't get any priority

for healthcare? Good food and vitamins? Or does it just mean I can drink like a sailor at a new port of call?

[im10ashus]

2. I am sure they will find some aspect of your life to control.

Misogyny is such an ugly thing.

[MindPilot]

4. If you can't birth some nice healthy white christian babies

you are no longer of any use to the state. :sarcasm:

Actually it's hyperbole, but we don't have an icon for that.

[jobycom]

7. Nah, they're done with you. You are somewhere between a breeder

and wormfood. They don't really care what you do in the meantime.

[tanyev]

19. Now you have to wear brown suits and supervise the

younger Handmaids, Aunt Ilsa.

[MindPilot]

3. OK. this goes beyond women's rights.

This is straight out of the Nazi playbook.

We have got to get away from being such a child-centered culture. Reproduction is not the be all and end all of human existence and we have to quit rewarding and praising people for continuing to overpopulate the planet.

On edit: We are probably not too far from another report on how health care providers will be conducting "interventions" on men to maintain the health of their sperm.

[The Deacon]

8. Well, According To Evolutionary Theory

Reproduction IS the be all and end all of human existence (or any living thing's existence.) So, the next time a bunch of Re-borners block a clinic entrance we need to publicly thank them for their brillant defence of Charles Darwin, the Theory of Natural Selection and Evolution. We need to do so publicly and often.
Think that might slow the protests?

[LeftyMom]

12. This isn't a child-centered culture at all

We're expected to have children and shower them with stuff, but very little of our culture is dedicated to providing children with the time, love and attention they need. American kids are a marketing opportunity, not valued beings. That's why our mothers get less maternity leave time than any others in the first world, why our rates for breastfeeding initiation and long-term breastfeeding are abysmal, why our child and maternal mortality rates are shameful (especially in minority communities,) why our education system is a laughingstock, our kids (especially boys) are medicated for typical behavior, physical punishment is legal and culturally accepted and our kids are sick from a fucked up enviornment and lack of adequate health care.

Parts of Europe are child-centred- Sweden is a great example. Japanese culture has some child-centric aspects (though the school system is scary.) American culture is not nurturant at all.

[Pithlet]

15. Absolutely.

I have nothing more to add to that, you said it well.

[im10ashus]

18. Well said, LeftyMom!!!

Just because they are "pro life" doesn't mean they are pro-child. As soon as that kid is born, they stop caring. It's unforgiving.

[midnight armadillo]

21. I'm going to guess you don't have kids

Please don't take offense, but if you think the US has a child-centered culture, you are out of your mind.

[El Fuego]

5. Don't be healthy for your own sake-- it's all about the fetus.

Women are just breeding stock. :mad:

What next, will they try to raise the drinking age for women to 55?? :mad:

On edit because I'm still fuming about this:

Does this mean that they will recommend that health care for women after menopause be suspended because there is no longer a need for them to be healthy? Will insurance no longer cover women after childbearing years? If they only need to be healthy to bear children, why do they need to be healthy when they are too old to conceive?

That is the logical progression for this way of thinking. :grr:

[MamaBear]

6. And once we're past menopause?

Will they just burn us at the stake when our usefulness has expired? Geez.

[MuseRider]

10. I guess I should stop

praying for it then? At 52 I am ready to end it but not to be burned at the stake! Yikes.

[MamaBear]

16. I must admit I was so glad when it was over.

The process was a bit uncomfortable for me, and then less so, and one day I was free. Then I could get on with my life, which I have with some enjoyment.

Menopause ia a freeing thing, or was for me. Glad the flashes are done, though. I'm pretty pale, and the blush was obvious.

Traded my cramps for kidney stones, but nothing's perfect. :D

[jobycom]

9. Working, jogging, and wearing shoes in the kitchen are probably bad

for the little tike, too. So let's get all you breeders into the kitchen and barefoot. And while you're there, get me a beer.

I've been saying for years that there is no progress in history. Everything we all think we've gained we can lose in a heartbeat. Civil rights, equal rights, human rights. Even slavery under slightly modified conditions is hardly out of the question. It's a constant battle to defeat the monsters in our society.

[lyonn]

17. Speaking of beer

It is so ridiculous at my age to be ID when buying beer so I often kid the clerk that what really concerns me is one day they will say I'm too old to buy beer. That has got to be next.

[AX10]

11. The CDC is a government agency under the influence of Bush and..

Company. This sounds more like a scheme to supress Women's rights.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. If I get pregnant, it'd be fucking immaculate conception.

Behold the Messiah! Christ has a lesbian mom!

[Mandate My Ass]

14. MMA to CDC "go fuck yourself"

If my doctor ever does an "intervention" like the one they describe I'll sue his fucking ass and the CDC for discrimination.

[hpot]

20. What else would one expect...

from the American Taliban?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Taliban

[im10ashus]

22. LOL!

Hey, welcome to DU!!

:hi: