Entry tags:

feminism

Are we just baby-making machines?
New health recommendations for "pre-pregnant" women.

"New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control."

Are they also addressing the health of males of the fertilizing age?

The article mentions that half of all pregnancies are unintended. No surprise there -- we do live in a country that was founded by puritans. The guys in charge think that abstinence only programs work and are striving to make choice obsolete. Many insurance compaines don't cover contraceptives for women so women are stuck paying for birth control out of pocket. We could greatly reduce unintended pregnancies with good education and easily aquired birth control. But instead we're supposed to keeping our bodies in perpetual prime baby-making condition for 30 plus years.

A couple of years ago in Utah there was the case of Melissa Rowland. Are these federal guidelines a set up to eventually prosecute women who don't deliver healthy babies?

It's frightening to see how fast all the progress that women have made in the last 40 years are being stripped away.
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Related Scary Stuff:

The Christian Right's war on contraception
Should the CDC be a political tool?
The Handmaid's Tale

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Some musings on this from the Blogosphere:

On the other hand, it's hard not to see this as yet another harmless-seeming but nevertheless sinister step toward government domination of women's wombs. This is an administration that sees no difference between religious dogma and public health: Catholic hospitals don't need to offer contraceptives to rape victims; Christian pharmacists don't need to fill birth control prescriptions even if the Rx is for irregular menses; a fundamentalist Christian OB/Gyn who routinely drugged and paid his wife for anal sex (and claimed he only engaged in the sin of sodomy because he couldn't tell the difference between an anus and a vagina) singlehandedly blocked over-the-counter sale of Plan B. . . .After enough instances of that kind, it's hard not to suspect that at least some of those responsible for unveiling this initiative (after 20 years of discussion) are doing so, not solely because it's healthy for women and children, but because it helps establish government dominion of every woman's womb as a potential temple of Life.
. -Vichy Democrats (emphasis mine)

Pre-pregnant? Sorry, I’m too busy preparing for pre-dead. I’m also sort of pre-cancer and I'm a little pre-sleepy. Pre-pregnant is one of the craziest terms our insane government has ever come up with. -Suicide Girls

At least now I can't ever clean the cat litter again, right?
Gilead jokes aside, I don't know what to say. Literally, how are people not understanding why this is offensive to women. This isn't about health care, or making people healthy (because we'd have socialized medicine if that were the case) this is about reducing women to what society still sees as our most beneficial asset: not our minds, not our skills, not our compassion. This is about my uterus, and it's power. And because that power is scary and I obviously can't be trusted with it well then 'the mens' better intervene. -Laura, My Space Blog

Hi. My name is Jenny. I'll be your handmaiden, walking-incubator, live-baby-farm, uterus for the day. Would you like to impregnate me now? Oh, wait, excuse me, I have to go take my folic acid supplements and spend an hour in the gym first, to make sure I can carry the baby to full term. Once impregnated, I will not be able to carry another baby for nine months, but I should be able to keep carrying babies for the next 20 to 30 years, at which point I will stop existing in the medical system and the popular culture. Thank you. -Jenny, My Space Blog

I'm so GLAD he told me I'm overreacting because I sure wouldn't want to be an OVEREMOTIONAL WOMAN.  I'm sure the CDC just has women's best interests in mind, and it is unfair of me to put this all in context with other attacks on women going on right now, like the several states which are banning all abortions, or the pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control, or the continuing refusal of male-dominated courts and law enforcement to jail or convict rapists, or the "men's rights" movement pushing for men to have the right not to support the children they engender, and welfare reform, which along with the new CDC guidelines prettty much makes for a smooth continuum of oppression which puts all women at risk of becoming pregnant at all times, without recourse to any support from either government or impregnator, and to then be blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong. -amananta

So, is this all a coincidence, or are government-funded agencies that are supposed to provide scientifically grounded and dispassionate recommendations for public policy being remolded into reinforcers of a conservative world-view, including the idea that womens’ primary function is to bear children, and that goal should be the prime determinant of their health choices? -ChezLark

Tell me to be healthy FOR ME, because I am important. Don't tell me to be healthy simply because I am a womb. -summer_smile

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UPDATE: The WaPo has an agenda and it's different from the CDC's

Clever rewording (found here) for guys who don't get why women are so insulted by this:

New federal guidelines ask all males capable of ejaculation to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as active studs, regardless of whether they plan to impregnate a female or donate sperm in the near future.

Among other things, this means all men after their first ejaculation should refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight, keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control, avoid known mutagens such as caffeine, and keep their scrotum from extremes of temperature.

Ejaculating men are also urged to avoid participating in sports with fast moving projectiles or other objects which might injure their testicles and cause their sperm to mutate.