{"id":30213,"date":"2022-05-09T14:38:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T19:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30213"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:48:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:48:09","slug":"the-roe-vs-wade-debacle-and-my-decades-dealing-with-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/09\/the-roe-vs-wade-debacle-and-my-decades-dealing-with-abortion","title":{"rendered":"The Roe Vs Wade Debacle And My Decades Dealing With Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The opinions on abortion are mine and not necessarily those of the staff at WholeHealth Chicago. For Health Tip<\/a> readers who have commented that I should not voice political opinions and stick to my work as a doctor, I suggest you glance at any of the websites aimed at physicians themselves. Fully one third of the articles are politically themed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerning this Supreme Court leak planning to overturn the fifty year old right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy, American Medical Association (of which I am a member) came out clearly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The American Medical Association is deeply concerned by the contents and implications of the draft Supreme Court opinion for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that became public this week,” said Dr. Gerald Harmon, president of the AMA. “This opinion would lead to government interference in the patient-physician relationship, dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine and potentially criminalizing care.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“With deliberations underway, we strongly urge the court to reject the premise of the draft opinion and affirm precedent that allows patients to receive the critical reproductive health care that they need,” Harmon said. “Allowing the lawmakers of Mississippi or any other state to substitute their own views for a physician’s expert medical judgment puts patients at risk and is antithetical to public health and sound medical practice.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe what anyone does with her body is her own business. You don\u2019t want to take statins? That\u2019s your business. A Japanese Yakuza cutting off his finger? His choice, not mine. Goth teen wants a Vermeer tattooed on her back? Not my concern. A woman who wants to terminate a pregnancy should be able to make that decision and have a safe, legal, affordable abortion. It\u2019s not the business of attorneys, elected or appointed in the White House, Congress, or Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical Perspective<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the history of abortion over the past two centuries, you begin to see it\u2019s all about power and control. Whether it\u2019s men, government, or religion, abortion opposition is an issue of dominance. Surveys have shown that Americans favor access to abortion by a ratio of 2:1, not so much that they \u201clove abortions\u201d (most don\u2019t) but that they dislike being victims of control related language. \u201cOld men in black robes <Alito is 72, Thomas 72> just don\u2019t have the right to tell me that I can\u2019t continue a pregnancy. That choice should be mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in this unusually long Health Tip, let me share with you some of my own experiences with pregnancy termination, starting at such a young age and degree of naivety that to me, a \u2018period\u2019 was simply a punctuation mark. Menstruation? Late period? I was clueless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgive me, but I was about ten years old, helping out in my father\u2019s south side (a\/k\/a \u2018Bronzeville\u2019) drugstore, a decrepit place built sometime just after the Chicago Fire. Even though I was quite young, years later I realized that being white gave me some medical authority. Young women, or their mothers, would ask for something to bring on their periods. Dad hastily explained the physiology which I only vaguely understood, and the products we had to sell. One, a homeopathic, is still available<\/a> , the other called Bitter Apple Compound, I have not seen in years. Mifepristone, the early abortion pill, would not be available until the year 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing now the contents of these drugstore products, I\u2019m pretty certain not only that no one was ever hurt, but also that no successful terminations ever occurred. In all this, I was as emotionally involved as if I were selling Alka-Seltzer. (Today, some anti-abortion enthusiast would probably take steps to have my father arrested for child abuse.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years later when one of my high school friends was convinced he\u2019d gotten his girlfriend \u201cin trouble\u201d, I stuffed one box each of Bitter Apple and Humphrey\u2019s into my jacket and suggested she try them. Outcome unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Roe v. Wade, abortions were illegal, but like much else in the US, safe abortions were readily available if your family had money. Abortions, everybody knew, were readily available in New York City. A pregnant young lady would disappear for a few days and return not only having seen Mary Martin in \u201cThe Sound of Music\u201d live on Broadway, but with what was jokingly called the Jewish two-fer, an abortion and a nose-job, the latter a frequent rite of passage that also completely legitimized her absence from school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pregnant girls without family money had one of three choices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n