Pregnant Women During COVID-19 Outbreak

[blackforest]

How do you think a Culture of Life support pregnant women during the outbreak?

I’d love to hear ideas. But from here on out, I’ll use this post to show what not to do.

Watch how pregnant women are portrayed as heartless and inhumane if they carry to term during the pandemic. Abortion care is more essential during a pandemic, not less.

Forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, women will also need prenatal care, which will compel them to risk exposure to COVID-19—and risk exposing others—to make several visits to doctor’s offices staffed by overworked practitioners. If they miscarry or develop certain pregnancy complications, they may have to take up valuable surgical supplies and hospital space during what will long be a dangerous time to inhabit a hospital bed.

Um, we accommodate women. We don’t force women to accommodate others by sacrificing their offspring. Hopefully hospitals are scrambling to find a way to make childbirth safer for women.

When they go into labor, in some hospitals, they’ll have to endure childbirth alone, without a partner, doula, or family member by their side.

Well, that’s the problem of the hospitals, isn’t it? They could pass out masks and gloves to partners and doulas. But women shouldn’t have to get abortions in order to accommodate their policies.

(Ironically, I was chided for having my “unsafe” homebirths. From a COVID-19 perspective, homebirth actually sounds like a great option for low-risk women right now!)

Their infants’ first days of life may be spent in a virus-rich environment without proper supplies, staffing, or standards of care.

So again, women are supposed to get kill their unborn offspring in order to accommodate what we’re supposed to call “the best health care system in the world?”

I realize that pregnant women are in a tight spot. But framing abortion as the Right Thing to Do during the COVID-19 outbreak is not just heartless, but misogynistic.

 

[adamhovey1988]

Your problem is using slate, it’s never going to be a credible source

 

[blackforest]

I realize it’s a bad article. That’s what my post is about. I’m criticizing it. Do you have an answer to the first question I asked?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I think if we want to support pregnant women, we should ask them what kind of support they need and provide it.
They might just be scared and need encouragement that everything will be okay. (One of the sessions of Archdiocese of Philly Virtual Lenten Retreat told a story about a pregnant woman who needed this.)
They might need help with food or necessities, especially if they’re out of work like so many are.
They might just need friends to chat with, maybe virtually, so they don’t feel so isolated at home.
Or practical help getting to the doctor or other places, so they don’t have to take public transportation and be more exposed to the virus.

I would imagine different women would need different things, since pregnant women aren’t a monolith.

 

[blackforest]

I think if we want to support pregnant women, we should ask them what kind of support they need and provide it.

The existence of a charitable endeavor doesn’t preclude thinking that the recipients are a monolith. Soup kitchens know that homeless people aren’t monolith. But all homeless people need to eat, just as all child-bearing women need safe options for prenatal care and delivery during a pandemic. The steps that can be taken in this particular arena for the most part aren’t a matter of personal preference. The Slate article addressed specific hazards that COVID-19 could pose to pregnant women, and that abortion is (somehow) the solution to addressing them.

For example, I’d give birth in the ER waiting room or even the parking lot before letting them bar my husband and doula from accompanying me to the delivery room. Some policies may need revisiting. But I certainly wouldn’t get an abortion in order to accommodate my objection to the policy. That’s where the article is absurd.