Gosnell: A Look into The Future

                                             Yes, We All Agree Gosnell Is a Horrible Person.
Pro-Choice and Anti-Choicers both agree you don’t kill a post birth fetus, because post-birth is what we call a baby, and that is the point a unique person who is able to live independently.  This person can obtain oxygen and food without the use of another person’s body. Some cultures maintain that a child isn’t a person until around 18 months. In western society were we have a low infant mortality rate compared to many 3^rod world countries.  We typically bond with infants after birth and feel comfortable allowing ourselves to think of infants as people who will outlive us and remain a permanent part of our lives.

Now, let us also realize that all the information we have is not necessarily accurate; that is why he is having a trial not an execution.  Before we say words like "Monster," we need to be sure that, Gosnell is a monster.  I reserve judgment until after the trial personally, but you are free to do as you would like.

When I read about the case, I feel as though I am glancing into the future.  Closing abortion providers with impeccable safety records will not end abortion.  Someone will always be willing to provide one.  If you close safe clinics, you are opening the door for illegal providers.  Currently abortion providers are heroes.  They are people who are passionate about women’s healthcare and the status of women in the United States.  They are people who believe that all people deserve to decide what is best for them and how to care for their bodies.

The West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa AL is a place that not only provides safe abortion procedures, but also has a staff willing to fight to ensure that their patients do receive the best care available.  Patients walk in to a doctor's office full of people who genuinely care for them.  From the person who makes the appointment to the recovery room staff, the goal is not to do a lot of abortions; it is to do what is best for the patient.

Some of the staff members know why this is so important from personal experience.  Dr. Payne began practicing gynecology prior to 1973.  In a statement he sent to the Alabama House of Representatives, he spoke of a time when he worked at a hospital and half the female patients were there due to complications from botched abortions.  He saw women die from these complications.  During that time he began his fight for choice.  He became one of the first abortion doctors in the state because he didn’t want to continue to watch women die.  Now after years of providing access to safe legal abortions, HB57 may close his practice. 

Here is the truth about that:  Dr.Payne can retire. He isn’t obnoxiously wealthy, but after more than 20 years of practicing gynecology and having admitting privileges at the local hospital, he is in a financially stable position.  He doesn’t have to work.  He continues to practice because in Alabama there are few abortion providers, and he is the only doctor that works more than 2 days a week in Alabama to provide reproductive health care.  Gloria Gray, the clinic owner, also is financially stable and does not have to work at the clinic in order to survive.  They are there for me.  They are there for the women in Alabama and east Mississippi who may endanger their lives if this practice closes.

The antis portray them as evil, murderous people, but the truth is that they are kind, compassionate people who are sacrificing:  time with their families, time they could be working on their hobbies, time that they could use any way they want, in order to ensure the safety of women.  They go to the state house.  They write their senators.  They have spent years fighting to ensure that women are treated with respect and given the option to control their destiny.  They work to make sure they have the best trained staff.  They have the best medical equipment.  They provide the best patient care possible, and they do so at a price that most women are able to come up with.  For women who aren’t able to meet the financial cost, they help them find funds. 

I am so grateful that places like this are available to me and to my friends and my family.  I know where we will be safe if we need to terminate a pregnancy.  I know where we will be respected; I know where we won’t be judged.   If this and the other clinics in the state close, I don’t know where any of us will go. I have a feeling it may be to some shady person, probably worse than Gosnell.  It will probably be some untrained person working in a hotel room.  The thing about choice is:  you can’t take it away; you can’t only make it difficult to obtain.  I don’t know...  We may risk a do-it-yourself procedure.   

If a woman is not going to continue a pregnancy, she’s not going to regardless of if safe legal procedures are available.  Gosnell is nothing compared to the consequences of forcing safe legal abortion providers to close...