Moral Beliefs Vs Women's Health

"When you see a doctor, you presume you're getting all the information you need to make a decision," notes Jill Morrison, senior counsel for health and reproductive rights at the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C. "Especially in a crisis situation, like a rape, you often don't think to question your care. But unfortunately, now we can't even trust doctors to tell us what we need to know."

In a recent msnbc article titled "Doctor's Beliefs Hinder Patient Care" , the above quote was used to back up the claim that doctor's refusing to or even mentioning the option of the morning after pill to a rape victim based on their own beliefs is harmful to women.

I find it interesting that with the issue of abortion itself that is exactly what happens. We have doctors and clinics such as Planned Parenthood, who's own "beliefs" about women's health regard abortion as the one of the best options for women who discover they are pregnant due to circumstances they had complete control over. Are these doctors giving women options other than abortion? Are they fully explaining all of the possible consequences of abortion and are they giving other options such as counseling and adoption just as much weight and fairness? The Planned Parenthood site offers several detailed links regarding abortion, yet only one fague page representing adoption options. They are also quick to deny any claims made about the long term emotional and physical consequences of abortion as well as the so-called fact that unborn fetuses cannot feel pain!

The term "Women's Health" is thrown around like it is something beneficial to the women, when in reality most of the issues referred to as women's health have far greater adverse affects on a woman's health than alternatives such as abstinence and adoption. Our so called "right to privacy" has put us at more risk in the past 30 years than in the past 3000! The worst part is we now have a better understanding of the risks involved in premarital sex, multiple partners, long term use of birth control and other factors, yet we have legislation pushing for more of it!