Sitting on a perch

Now that we have some background on politics in the US, abortion procedures, female genitalia, and pregnancy, it’s time to get down to the business of discussing Jill Stanek. This is the first of four planned posts:

On June 3, Stanek wrote something on her eponymous titled blog that would appear to leave her liable to claims of medical malpractice. She does this through her wonkery of claims that third trimester abortions are never medically necessary. Perhaps she was not taught in nursing school about placental abruption, ante partum hemorrhage, or death of a fetus with unknown etiology, to name but a few. I, on the other hand spent my day discussing these sorts of medical issues with a certain team of licensed medical physicians.

Fact #1: Third trimester abortions are medically necessary from time to time. See sampling of medical events above that pose a threat to the woman and may require an abortion.

Stanek goes on to claim that 90% of healthy babies are able to survive labor and beyond, post 28 weeks. Sure, healthy babies generally survive because um, well, they are healthy. Not a novel concept here. She also boasts to claim that it is ‘just as easy, if not easier and safe to deliver a late-term’ fetus. You’ll note she refers to them as “babies”, a derisive vehicle in the vilification of women who have abortions and abortions themselves. And yet, they are fetuses until they are out of the womb. While she can refer to them however she so desires, for the purposes of our intellectual and medically correct debate, they are fetuses.

Fact #2: The March of Dimes reports that approximately 96% of babies born post 28 weeks survive. If propaganda is going to be peddled here, I will correctly exert the effort to persecute others.

Fact #3: AGI reports that less than1% of women report complications from a medically safe abortion. The US average for complications from labor and delivery births is approximately 20%. Through said evidence, abortion is most certainly safer than childbirth.

Stanek goes on to show pictures of a clinic where former George Tiller’s medical colleague, LeRoy Carhart, practices. Apparently showing photos of someone’s workplace presents some sort of fun for her. Especially since she cares so deeply about woman and preserving our health, right?

Fact # 4: There is as much about Stanek on the internet like her home address, complete with a Google map to show her McMansion, her nursing license number, and her daughter's postings on YouTube. The difference is that I am not hostile or angry enough to post pictures of someone's workplace or intimate details in a vain attempt to feel good about myself. I get that at Ikea. I have to put it together myself, but it's less expensive.

Fact #5: Direct from the Stanek writings: “...the third trimester of pregnancy begins at 28 weeks.” Yet, at this point in her writing, she starts talking about abortions post 21 weeks as though they meet the criteria for third trimester. I am left wondering if we are talking about second trimester or third trimester abortions because week 21 is in the middle of the second.

Now that she has changed the rules of game, she claims it is unknown how many abortions are performed in the third trimester. She quotes Carhart, without any background or cited reference, as claiming to personally conduct 75-100 late-term abortions a year. Again, we need to define exactly how many weeks post last menstrual period that he is supposedly claiming to have conducted them. Since I have not personally spoken with Carhart or have reference to this quote, I am not going to spend time on it. Hearsay is neither academic or merit worthy in this argument.

Fact #6: AGI estimates that approximately 21,000 abortions in the US are performed during the third trimester. 1% of the total number of abortions performed annually. Given that the majority of third trimester abortions are medically necessary to the life of the pregnant woman, they are mainly performed in hospitals. As such, are there 100 women every year that travel to Kansas just to have an abortion that could be conducted closer to home in a hospital? It is possible that many women are unable to gain access to abortion services for reasons on their saving their own lives, but to surmise about this without speaking to Carhart is futile.

Stanek cites that while the number of physicians who are willing to perform an abortion post 28 weeks is dwindling, by stating that “no self respecting” physician would do so, she makes no reference to whose these individuals are. Another unfounded claim that suggests Tiller, Carhart, and others do not respect themselves. Without personal statements from every physician who performs abortion, she’s got little to hang her hat on.

She bleats about Carnhart in an LA Times article. Given that the LA Times is not Carhart's personal blog where I am assured what he did or did not say, we are not going to take this to SCOTUS or hold him on the hook for the Times. She doesn't miss a beat by then knocking him down over an arson fire at his home and takes offense that he claims it was apparently set to blaze by anti-abortion individuals.

Fact #7: A letter was received at the Omaha clinic where he practiced suggesting that there was a link between his medical activities and the deeds of arsons at his home in 1992. Thus, apparent seems apropos given the letter. (From my understanding, Carhart was made aware that this book would be published and has been given ample time to reply to any fallacies contained within. This is rarely how popular press operates or books published by Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Beck.)

Stanek ends her poorly constructed series of paragraphs with an incredible display of insensitivity to the Tiller family and friends by asking her readers to get out their violins. She tops it off with a quote by Amie Newman of Reality Check on the loss of Tiller and precedes to makes accusations that pro-lifers love children and women. But pro-aborts can’t.

Fact #8: My mother taught me two things in life: if I have nothing nice to say that I should learn to say it out of her earshot and no matter how much I dislike someone, taking shots at the deceased is heinous and an indication of your lack of self worth.

Fact #9: There is no such thing as a pro-lifer and pro-abort. Either you are pro-abortion or anti-abortion. Life has nothing to do with the issue. It has to do with a woman’s right to control her own fertility and a physician’s right to practice medicine in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath and his or her training.

Fact #10: If the anti-abortion crowd cared about women AND fetuses, it would not have Stanek front lining for them. I make this claim because from where I sit, she speaks out of incorrect or lack of education, self-hate of her own genitals, and a mouth piece for the religious right, wherein the patriarchy reigns unfettered. more...