:: The S.I.C.L.E. Cell ::

:: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 ::

Going to the Capitol tomorrow to testify for the Women's Health and Safety Act. I am certain that I'm going to have a tale to tell when I return.

They've tweaked my testimony a bit:

"My name is Ashli ******, and exactly eight years ago my husband and I lost our first child in a second-trimester abortion at Orlando Women’s Center due to a severe debilitating pregnancy-related maternal illness.

At 4 months pregnant, my HMO and physicians deserted me leaving me to deal with a slew of medical problems, among them: liver dysfunction and serious metabolic disturbance. Treatment options existed, but they were not divulged and so were not available to me. I finally gave up and traveled to a second trimester abortion facility where everyone called me “sweetie” before lying to me about fetal development and killing my child. To their credit, I signed papers that told me I might suffer emotionally, that abortion has been linked to breast cancer, and that I might die. These papers even called me a mother, but this kind of keen accuracy was not extended to the record, which omitted the hemorrhage I experienced afterwards. My record also doesn’t list the name of the hospital I was sent to because we were instructed to go to a hotel until it was clear that I was out of danger. We complied and went to the hotel to see if I would live through the night or bleed to death in the tub.

When I later received a copy of my records from the abortion facility, I was shocked to discover that they did not accurately reflect the events of that evening. The people at the facility recorded that immediately following a second trimester abortion my bleeding was “scant” and then “none”. I bled for months. My record also states the abortion was “without complication”.

A year later I was told that I had an incompetent cervix. This resulted in 24 related weeks of strict bedrest with my son and as many weeks with my daughter. I did not have an incompetent cervix in my first pregnancy; it was sustained in the second-trimester D&E. I believe medical records should reflect a true account of what occurs in a procedure, because such information may prove vital in an individual’s medical future and because it’s the truth. I believe women who are hemorrhaging bad enough to refrain from returning to their home should not be told to go to a hotel and wait it out.

I filed a complaint (#200009135) with the AHCA, but they didn’t want anything to do with it. In one conversation Ms. Sandy Condo could not even bring herself to say the word “abortion”. The experts admitted that heavy bleeding is not at all uncommon in a second trimester abortion but said it was my word against the abortionist’s and they closed the case review. I had it reopened, but to date have had no satisfying response or action.

Since my ordeal, I have reviewed statutes and codes and I am shocked that abortion clinics have virtually no health and safety regulations. It is a well-known fact that the danger related to abortion grows as a pregnancy advances. I am incredulous that reaching deep into a woman’s body and pulling out organs (which the placenta is) is not considered surgery and thus, such a procedure does not warrant the same high standard of health care as an ambulatory surgery center. Finally, I am disgusted that a veterinarian’s office is more regulated than an abortion facility. That a dog would receive better health care than a woman is as abhorrent as me having to stand here and argue that very point.

Abortion may be legal, but without more stringent health regulations it will never be safe."

People are already thanking me profusely for something I would pay to do (but DO NOT at all want to do). And accolaids are really weird (and hard to take) when you're standing there confessing to the world that you slaughtered your child in the second trimester.

Ugh.

Here we go again.

:: ashli 9:11 PM # ::
...