More ammo for the right wing
Of course she did. :sigh:"...Khamis, who already has three daughters, took fertility drugs in an effort to have a son."
The full article is here.
I know the story isn't so new, but I'm a little slow on the draw these days. The first frustrating thing is the use of fertility drugs and having septuplets. That one's just fuel for the fire for the folks who are all against reproductive assistance.
Then, she took fertility drugs so she could have a boy. Well, now she's got boys. Four of 'em. All at once.
Thennnn, there's discovering she was carrying multiples and not wanting to have an "abortion." It's called selective reduction, people. Sure you could make an argument that it's a form of abortion. But medically, it's not. There is nothing easy about selective reduction, and I certainly don't mean to make it sound like it's just like cleaning out your closet. Thank G-d, her choice (or lack thereof) resulted in stable babies. G-d willing, they should all grow to be healthy and strong. Yes, there are odds for a reason - someone has to be that one in 800,000*.
This whole story got my dander up (could ya tell?), because situations like these do nothing to help the cause of ART. Multiple births contribute to the difficulties in getting ART funded by health care ("why should MY tax dollars pay for all those babies?"). Multiple births in countries that are seen as third world, but really aren't, just perpetuates an attitude of "backwards" people. Not to mention making people with religious convictions look like fanatics because they wouldn't reduce a dangerous pregnancy. So anyone with religious convictions is painted with the same brush. And stories like this cause some women who could benefit from fertility drugs to shy away from using them out of fear of multiples.
Eh, you get my point. I'm done. I'm going to go off and stew in my coffee for a while.
*Note: not an actually statistic. I made something up that sounds very rare to make a point, not to support a research paper.
Labels: crankiness, infertility
posted by projgen @ 11:23
4 Comments:
Oh, sheesh - I forgot the whole rant about using fertility for gender selection. Yep, really off my game.
I clicked away from that news story. Sigh.
Probably use of fertility drugs without appropriate monitoring, no?
So much ignorance, so little time.
Bea
The thing that kills me is that now they are saying that they can't afford all of these babies they just had. They are expected people to just support them. Wonder if that contributed to the desire to not reduce? Sigh.
She is fortunate that things turned out well so far, and I do have to admit that the babies are huge considering how many she carried. Still. You are right. It doesn't help stop all of the misinformation out there when these stories pop up.
Have I said that I am glad you are back to blogging yet? I am. I read when you update but haven't commented much. Sorry. I'll try to be better about that.
Stacie
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