Extreme morning sickness causes abortion (Fascinating video)

[mudesi]

CNN had this story posted on their website a couple of weeks ago and I've been waiting for it to be put up on YouTube since you can't link to a video from CNN (They have it pop up in a java applet of some kind...).

This woman had an abortion because she had an extreme form of morning sickness called Hyperemesis gravidarum. The doctors at the time didn't diagnose her properly and she had no idea that her condition was treatable. She regrets having the abortion, yet I can only imagine what would've happened had she been unable to get one. (I suppose if she didn't opt for a coat hanger, either she would've died from complications, or she would have eventually been correctly diagnosed and treated).

This story is a beautiful example of how complex and nuanced the abortion issue truly is. Both the "pro-life" and the "pro-choice" camps can claim negative or positive bias in this report. On the one hand, her choice to have the abortion likely saved her life. On the other hand, she actually wanted to have a child, and had she been properly diagnosed and treated, she could have avoided having an abortion.

Watch the video here

[Warpy]

1. Sounds like a case to sue an incompetent OB-Gyn

Hell, I learned about it in a 3 month OB rotation in nursing school, there is no reason a med school grad who later specialized in womens' heath wouldn't have heard about it! I sympathize with this woman for feeling forced to terminate a wanted pregnancy, but the problem lies with an incompetent doctor, nowhere else.

Why this video focused on the availability of abortion and not the incompetence of that doctor is beyond me.

I sincerely hope that callous and witless boob is no longer malpracticing medicine. I suspect this woman isn't the only patient his ignorance harmed.

[uppityperson]

4. Indeed, that is what this shows.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This kind of story needs to be told...

If only to prove that the abortion issue is not clear-cut.

I wish she could get away from blaming herself; her abortion is not her fault.

Thank you for posting this.

K&R

[uppityperson]

3. I knew a woman who got a legal abortion while extrememly wanting to have baby instead also

She chose the abortion though. She was pregnant with twins and miscarried 1. Rather than waiting for the other to be expelled, as her OBGYN said was happening, she decided she'd get an abortion, get it over with, heal and try again. After talking with her doctor more, she decided she could wait another couple days "just in case", then started bleeding and came back for the abortion.

I know another woman who really wanted another child, but was 50 and wouldn't risk having a Downs Syndrome child that would end up in a home in 20 yrs when she got too old to care for him/her. She was sad too.

There are lots of reasons, but having the option of a legal rather than illegal abortion is a very important thing.

[Der Blaue Engel]

5. And just because a woman gets an abortion doesn't mean she can't mourn what might have been

And just because a woman mourns what might have been doesn't mean abortion is murder or that abortion is "too available."

[uppityperson]

6. It means being able to chose a legal safe abortion rather than an illegal back alley one.