Access
“Oh…the tone of this book? For those people who like to be warned about such things? Well…it’s…It gets kind of intense, actually. There. Now you’re warned. So… Let’s get deep.” -Peter David
As you may or may not be aware I have an honours degree in Political Science (this is background info not me tooting my own horn because believe me I’d be the first to say the degree has done almost nothing for me) and despite extensive instruction and study within the multidisciplinary field of PoliSci there are 2 topics I almost never discuss: abortion and euthanasia.
The reason being that there seems to be no clear answer on either subject and any opinions on these issues are so personally subjective and often intensely emotional I find logical discussion of them often difficult if not impossible. I’m about to bend the restriction on one of those topics in what follows.
There, after those 2 ominous preambles I think I should be reasonably safe to continue.
It seems to me the hallmark of disagreement, the foundation of discord if you will, on the subject of abortion has been at what point does life begin. Interesting theories have been held on this subject for centuries, if not millennia. I’ve heard everything from the moment a sperm and/or egg is created to sentience (the formation of memories, self awareness, and the beginnings of an independent personality). Personally I lean towards the moment of birth but I am not confident of my leanings nor is that the subject of today’s inquiry.
Enter our protagonist. A responsible and moral female friend of mine who some time ago found herself in a bit of a bind. To her life begins earlier, sometime after conception but well before the end of the first trimester. To her abortion is immoral and not an option, however the morning after pill as it is commonly known is perfectly acceptable. I respect, understand, and accept her position, I do not claim to know any better.
As stated she found herself in a bit of a bind. Due to no fault of her own, as she is very responsible in such matters, she required one such pill. The result of, well, let’s call it the ultimate wardrobe malfunction. This was the second such occurrence which is understandable given the odds over the course of one’s lifetime. The first time the issue came up she went to a clinic, got a prescription, and $11 later had medication in hand the side effects of which are not in any way pleasant.
This second incident did not go so well. Going to the same clinic she happened upon a different doctor who denied her the prescription not on medical but rather alleged ethical grounds. I’ve heard of doctors refusing to perform abortions for ethical reasons which makes a certain degree of sense but this situation was heretofore unheard of to me. I mean I had read about such things but mostly in the US but the situation is different here in Canada.
For example, one such morning after pill (a misnomer as many of these pills are effective 72 hours to as late as 5 days after the fact) called Plan B was made available without a prescription in this province in 2000 and nation-wide last year. So this doctor taking an allegedy moral stance wasn’t stopping anything, merely providing a roadblock to medication. For Plan B costs $50, $25 for the medicine and $25 for a consultation. The idea behind the consultation is to provide the services of the clinic where she received the prescription the first time: namely informing the person of the side effects and making sure there would be no complications due to ongoing conditions or other medication.
This doctor told her that given her specific circumstances the likelihood of her needing the medication was somewhat low. Since abortion is not an option for her she wanted to be absolutely sure rather than either have an unwanted pregnancy or be forced to commit what would be to her tantamount to a mortal sin. He told her she would have to take her chances.
As I mentioned the side effects are not pleasant so I cannot imagine someone abusing this medicine, it makes you very ill and interferes with your life so I doubt this doctor thought she was abusing the option. And it’s not as if he was taking a moral stance because he didn’t want to be part of ending a life - apparently this doctor has issued this prescription before for similar situations. He simply and somewhat arbitrarily set up roadblocks for my friend.
So she was left with few choices. Money was tight so the $50 expenditure would have been unreasonable so she had to go to another clinic to find another doctor. But what if this doctor decided to arbitrarily deny her request as well? This left one real option: Lying.
What have we come to as a nation that we force the responsible ones to be treated this way? How can we accept a visit to the doctor being like playing roulette? Why have we given doctors this power? Yes, Plan B is available but if anything that makes the doctor’s stance all the more pointless and petty. Who is he to judge someone else? It wasn’t a medical or even an ethical position he was taking, he just randomly decided that she had to take her chances. Need I throw in a quote about power corrupting?
So where does behaviour like this leave us? Well either one can, as my friend was forced to, lie to medical practitioners and in doing so possibly risk their own health for the truth may contain some important detail critical to their survival or if they can’t shell out the cash for Plan B carry to term. Let’s think about this, those young girls who can’t afford $50 for Plan B sure as hell can’t afford to raise a child! Thus whether through adoption, orphanage, or handouts the social safety net paid for by all of us is given extra strain. And I don’t want to get on a high horse here but what kind of quality of life will these children receive? It’s not guaranteed to be poor but I think you’d be hard pressed not to agree that the odds would be more against them than a planned pregnancy.
I realize we’re technologically and medically advanced to have these options available at all and we’re quite enlightened to have Plan B as an option but I believe in constantly striving for something better and this example brings a murky problem into specific relief. I just hope that her experience is unique and not as common as I fear. She took moral responsibility not just for her own actions but for the actions of her partner in a way that sets a positive example for us all and she is looked down upon for no reason. She’s made to face artificial barriers, jump through hoops, and go through an emotional upheaval and frankly she wasn’t doing it for herself, she wants to have kids one day, she was doing it for us. She was doing it for her partner, for the child she may one day have, and I daresay for society as a whole. It was a selfless act that should be championed, praised, and made easier not looked down upon. She went through this hell for us. If more people took the kind of responsibility she did, and made appropriate and personally moral uses of the options so many have fought for in the past I genuinely believe the world would be a better place and on this point, as far as I am concerned, there can be no equivocation.
