Doctors can lie to women about medical tests?

This story wasn't in the suggested list of topics, but I just read on CNN about the new legislation Oklahoma just passed protecting doctors from being sued if they lie to a mother about potential defects they may have found during fetal testing. I'm going to write about it anyway, because I feel it touches on some very controversial, but important issues somewhat related to abortion and a woman's right to choose, which I will relate to Mission 6:Empowering Women.

Before reading any further, I want to say this blog may not be appropriate for everyone. However, I learned about these issues when I was in High School, and I don't think there is anything wrong about discussing it because I think it's important to get the information so you can make an informed decision, because these things DO effect young people, whether we want to admit it or not.

That being said, I will now go on. I find this legislation appalling! If you read the article, the reasoning being given is that they don't want to give the mother a reason to have an abortion. Whoa! So not only are they taking the test results away, they are TRYING to take away their right to choose by allowing the doctor to make the judgment based on whether they think the woman will have an abortion.

And while researching what the laws were in Oklahoma about abortion, I found this article. It describes a law which makes sure that the person giving the patient the mandatory sonogram (to determine where they are in pregnancy) reads fetal dimensions such as number of fingers and toes and heart activity to her. I understand that they want to be sure that the woman understands what choice they are making, but they are making no exceptions for rape or abuse victims, and it seems to me that a woman going to make an appointment and go through the initial exams has had a lot of time to think about their decision already. It seems to me like they are very interested in slanting this decision making process.

Ok, so I'm going to go ahead and bring up the subject now...Should women have the right to choose? And I'm going to ask the question from a specific perceptive. Do you think it matters that most societies are dominated by men? For instance, if men carried the babies, do you think the issues would be looked at in the same way? I wonder for instance if it would make a difference that if an accidental pregnancy occured, the life that was altered was that of a man. I also wonder if the reason men are typically dominant in societies is because the women have the babies, and in most cultures they take care of them when they are young as well. This might make it difficult to continue their learning or if you think more modernly, their careers.

Ok, I've gotten a bit off topic, but I'm going to mention the reason I think I have gotten a bit off topic. I think this mission was positioned very oddly. It seems like a much more appropriate mission would have been to talk about EQUALITY in general. Why target one group?

Finally, I was proofing my blog and almost deleted it because I thought it seemed a bit political. However, given the subject that Evoke has asked us to write about, I think that's difficult to avoid, especially if you are really trying to understand and make changes. Human rights is very much a political issue, so I will stand behind my blog as a part of my learning about Empowering Women, as I think it would be useful to understand the struggles of the group of people we are trying to empower, and perhaps the reason they need to be empowered .