Kansas to pass anti-abortion bill that ENDANGERS WOMEN'S LIVES

Just when you thought you'd heard it all, the Kansas legislature has passed an anti-abortion bill that extremist Governor Brownback is expected to sign. This bill allows doctors to withhold medical information from pregnant women if the doc thinks the information may make the woman more likely to have an abortion. Any 'doctor' that does this will be protected from a malpractice lawsuit. So, if a woman's pregnancy may cause her life-threatening harm, a doctor in Kansas can decide not to share such information with the woman.
Kansas

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This has to be not only incredibly unethical but also unconstitutional.

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I've been reading this book called "The Winter Rose" be Jennifer Donnelly and it's actually frightening me how much it reminds me of today's political climate.

It takes place roughly twelve years after the Jack the Ripper murders. One of the main characters is India Selwyn-Jones - a young woman who left her affulent family to study medicine. At the point I am in the novel she's about a month or so out of school and has taken a job at Dr. Gifford's practice.

Dr. Gifford is a very old-fashioned man. He serves the people of Whitechapel - one of the poorer neighborhoods of London. He refuses to dispense birth control and will not allow India or his nurse, Ella, to do so either. He consistantly lies to his female patients about their health. He tells India that they cannot be saved so why tell them the truth. One woman had a tumor but he led her to believe she was pregnant. Women are dying of diseases caused by the fact that he does not wash his hands between patients. In the bit I read last night he lost a patient to a preventable disease and simply handed her widower the bill and walked away.

The parallells are rather scary.


The Winter Rose

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Updated On: 3/2/12 at 01:04 PM