As MPs bobbed up and down for yeas and nays, my head was spinning and my gut was clenched. I quickly lost track of the count, but it was crystal clear that this was no crushing defeat.
There were waaaay too many yeas.
I felt I was going to throw up.
My reaction surprised me. It was visceral and emotional and not too rational.
When the count was final, I was dazed. Then I saw this tweet from JJ*.
Relieved but still feel like puking. That was like waiting for a decision from a Therapeutic Abortion Committee*: remember those? #M312
— JJ (@jjhippie) September 26, 2012
She nailed it.
.@fernhilldammit Total strangers making my most personal decisions, all over again. I'm *very* relieved, but also very teary-eyed #M312
— JJ (@jjhippie) September 26, 2012
And people wonder why women worry our purty little heads about this 'trivial' stuff?
Later, @juicexlx offered a 'group hug'.
* Therapeutic Abortion Committee.
8 comments:
Free abortions to Conservatives, sorry, I mean Harper’s Reform Party.
Let's try to increase the average intelligence of the gene pool.
http://www.ekospolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/full_report_april_11.pdf
I think the vote on M312, with 10 cabinet ministers including the Status of Women of women minister Ambrose and the possible future party leader of the Cons voting in favour, shows that we are just a heartbeat away from anti-choice legislation becoming a reality. Harper is the only one standing in the way of it happening. Notice how no one in his party clapped when he voted, which they annoyingly did on the previous two bills they voted on? I think the whole thing, the applause/no applause, the cabinet yeas, Rona Ambrose etc, was carefully orchestrated and will likely energize the antis to press on with more ludicrous, legislative initiatives. And if Harper were to resign or drop dead, who would we be left with? Jason Kenney? Oy.
I can still see the guy who had to approve my procedure. I was pretty young and thought the law meant I could move smoothly through the process. Instead, I found myself sitting in a tiny room with a doctor looming over me with a big smirk as he filled out his paperwork.
One of the official questions was something like: When did conception take place?
This guy used his own version, and I quote: "So when did the blessed event take place? Or do you remember?"
All I can see is my daughter having to go through this one day, and yes, I'm puking too.
I had to go through a Therapeutic Abortion Committee and it was horrible. It was my first hospital stay (day only thankfully) but I felt like I was treated like a second-class citizen. I felt like I was punished for being there. I was made to feel that what ever horrible adverse effects I had on the anaesthesia used should be dismissed by the fact that I was alive. This was the norm back then. It was REPUGNANT. It felt like they were only one iota close to recommending forced sterilization when I questioned them about other alternatives than the pill. (Let's just say that I knew enough to know that the pill was not my best option.) The whole experience was demeaning and degrading.
I'm going to look. I wonder if anyone has compiled stories of Therapeutic Abortion Committee patients. Have they ever been told?
It's become a bit of a blur for me, fern. But I do remember that somewhere in the process (and they did drag it along), I and my boyfriend attended a group session (some where accompanied by their mothers instead of their partners) where we were lectured to. Honestly, I can't remember what the content of the lecture was (the abortion process? recommendations on better birth control?) but I just remember it being very humiliating. In retrospect, I am aghast at the total lack of respect for patient-doctor confidentiality.
I haven't rerad it for a while, so I don't remember if people shared TAC stories, but the narratives in No Choice: Canadian Women Tell Their Stories of Illegal Abortion relate the ways in which women accessed abortion, including experiences with their personal physicians and doctors who helped (or didn't) them.
I find that kind of book very hard to read. So infuriating. So sad.
But maybe I should try.
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