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I'm seven years older than my sister. In between us, when I was five, my mother had an ectopic pregnancy.  Ultrasound wasn't common back then, if it even existed--1971ish.  The first we knew was my mother waking up late at night screaming in obvious agony, pause for a few moments, scream again.  I heard a door slam, then movement, then the door again.  I think I remember my father coming through to tell me things were okay and something about a doctor.

When I woke up, our neighbor Mrs Seton was in the house, told me my mother was in the hospital, made sure I got fed, kept me occupied--it was school break.  I remember my father coming home, and cooking breakfast the next morning, but he didn't say more than three words.  I remember liking his breakfast better than my mother's, and feeling a bit guilty. Then he was gone again. This lasted several days.

Then my mother came home and had daily visits from the nurse.

So, what had happened was the ectopic pregnancy burst the fallopian tube, destroyed an ovary, and left her dead on the table for almost four minutes before being revived.  Part of it was some cultural legal BS at the time that the doctor wouldn't do what he had to without the husband's permission. Part of it was they didn't know what it was and didn't want to start cutting until they did.

Then they screwed up and used non-dissolving sutures internally, leading to abcesses, hence the home nurse visits. On the one hand, the NHS made those visits possible. On the other hand, their screwup made them necessary. This wasn't our first run-in with the incompetence of state-run medicine, either, but that's for elsewhere.

Jumping forward, on Thanksgiving Day this year my wife started complaining of some pressure and pain on her left side, lots of discomfort, and feared a possible miscarriage. She arranged a blood test for Friday morning, which showed things mostly normal.  "Mostly."

The following Tuesday was previously scheduled ultrasound appointment.

And of course, the universe has to kick things around.

Our four year old daughter woke up gagging and threw up, mostly bile. She was fine until she got on the bus for preschool, then threw up again, then again at school.  So we had to pick her up and take her with us to the appointment.

The clinic and doctor are absolutely first rate. They obviously didn't want a four year old, especially sick, in the clinic area, so the clinic manager herself came out to watch her in the waiting room, since they knew Jess needed me along for support.

The senior tech did the probing, and the doctor was present himself.  I knew that wasn't a good sign, after three previous kids.

And yes, that fuzzy sonar image looked wrong. Too small, too stringy.

The doctor was very gentle and diplomatic, but the end result was that it was an ectopic pregnancy, and at 7 weeks along had to be terminated NOW, before I got to see the other side of a woman screaming in agony as her body rips chunks of itself apart.

The process is chemical:

Methotrexate and vaginal misoprostol. Methotrexate (Otrexup, Rasuvo, others) is rarely used for elective, unwanted pregnancies, although it's still used for pregnancies outside of the uterus (ectopic pregnancies). This type of medical abortion must be done within seven weeks of the first day of your last period, and it can take up to a month for methotrexate to complete the abortion. Methotrexate is given as a shot or vaginally and the misoprostol is later used at home.

~~~

Get that?  The medical treatment for an ectopic pregnancy that might kill the mother is a chemically induced abortion. It's not "because she's lazy" or "because she couldn't keep her legs together."  It's because she might die.

So, in the currently civilized US, the discussion was basically,

Doctor: "We have to do this. Very sorry."

Mother:  "This is terrible, but yes."

Doctor: "Come in first thing tomorrow and we'll get the procedure started."

~~~

Now, in quite a few countries with more restrictive laws than the US--much of Europe, some of South America, Canada before abortion was legalized in the late 1980s--the process is much the same, except the doctor has to file an official note as to what and why.

And in quite a few other nations, they have to wait for the screaming agony, and then do more tests, and then surgical work, and a lot of women die.

This related case is a textbook example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Savita_Halappanavar

THAT is what happens in nations where they obsess over "The life of the unborn." The mother is legally an incubator with no rights.

And as I've referenced here before http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=433 we live in a nation where the Dept of Education has a fucking SWAT TEAM to collect on arrears student loans.  So I'm not taking a bet that if a law here said that "only if the mother's life is in danger," there'd be too few, or too procedural, or too assholish of bureaucrats, and we'd have to wait for my wife to scream in agony and start hemorrhaging before anything was done.

This is one of many reasons I support absolutely unlimited abortion access, discussed between doctor and patient (and pretty much no doctor will perform the largely mythical just-before-birth abortion unless the mother really IS going to die, because doing so is very dangerous and worse than delivery, if delivery is an option at all, and there's no fucking time to have a bureaucrat sign papers).

Because today a late stage embryo, barely a fetus, dies before any brain to speak of exists, and my very much alive little girl will still have a mother, and my very much alive wife will stay that way, and have a lot of emotional anguish, because we really wanted another child and we're both reaching age limits.

And not to put too fine a point on it, it's also one of the many reasons I support the 2nd Amendment, because if it comes down to my wife's life vs dead bureaucrats and politicians, you get one guess how I vote.

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I'm an immigrant, and I'm an anarcho-capitalist, so even most Libertarians are too statist for me, and I'm rather outside of American socio-political groups.

But you know what I'd like to see?

Just once, I'd like a "liberal" to explain what Trump has actually done to hurt them.

It goes like this:

Me: Trump's made some bad choices, like Sessions, but on the whole, he's been no worse than anyone else. What are you so bent out of shape about your need to riot or endorse rioting?

Liberal: RUSSIAN COLLUSION!

Me: No evidence exists of that. Mueller's spent two years and found nothing.  All the leaks were from Hillary's end. What has Trump done to hurt you?

Liberal: RACIST IMMIGRATION POLICIES!

Me: 0bama had a higher deportation rate than Trump.  And you're not an illegal immigrant. What has he done to hurt you?

Liberal: VOTER SUPPRESSION!

Me: Those are state level laws, and have near unanimous SCOTUS endorsement, therefore they're Constitutional.  They started under 0bama.  What has Trump done to hurt you?

NPC: NAZI!

Me: He's the first president to recognize Israel's capital, has 14 Jewish cabinet heads, a Jewish daughter and son in law, and Jewish grandkids.  He is not any kind of socialist. Therefore, he cannot possibly be a Nazi, and has done nothing remotely resembling what the Nazis did.  WHAT HAS HE DONE TO HURT YOU?

NPC: HE'S DESTROYING THE GOVERNMENT!

Me: He's cut back red tape that meant more generic prescription medications became available, cheaper, and your pharmacist is allowed to tell you about those options. Even Sessions is backing off on opposing state level "medical marijuana" statutes.

This is the same government you claim is murdering minorities, and has a SWAT team to collect on arrears student loans.

It's the same government that was trying to demand CDLs for taxi drivers and couriers, threatening your precious gig economy. How has him reducing its scope hurt you?

NPC: BOOOOOOOSH!

Me: You got off script there, dumbass.

NPC: RRRAAAAAACCIIIISSST!

Me: Against whom?

NPC: MUSLIM BAN!

Me: The list of 6 nations with restricted immigration does not include the 6 most populous Muslim nations. It does not include 210 nations Muslims live in. It does not allow anyone--even atheists and Christians--from those 6 nations to enter the US, without additional scrutiny on a case by case basis. It's based on the fact those 6 nations cannot even confirm their own passports are real.  SCOTUS upheld the authority unanimously.  Muslims enter this nation every day, and live here unmolested, even when they make vile anti-semitic comments and file civil cases to be allowed to butcher their female children's genitalia.  And you're not Muslim. Name a single thing Trump has done to hurt you.

NPC: MIGRANT CONVOY!

Me: It's in Mexico.  Further, as you admit, they're migrants, not "refugees" under the definition created by your precious UN. Therefore, they can't even reasonably ask for asylum, and Mexico is under no obligation to take them. Nor are we. Nor is Canada.  By the way, BOTH of those nations have stricter laws of entry than the US. Under what strange logical chain are Central American migrants in Mexico a Trump issue, unless and until they get here, where they will be treated according to the same established laws 0bama treated them according to? WHAT THE FUCK HAS TRUMP ACTUALLY DONE TO HURT YOU?

NPC: RESISSSSSSST!

Comments below. Can a single one of you Demorrhoid NPCs name a single thing Donald Trump has done that hurts you?

(This early referenced "George W. Trump" as a satirical reference to that senile hag Pelosi, who can't seem to remember what his name is.)

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The man wasn't American, he was a Saud.

He was killed by Sauds or Turks.

He supported OBL and eulogized the man.

He supported ISIS.

He supported the Muslim Brotherhood.

He was a massive anti-Semite and anti-Israel.

And I'm honestly surprised to find liberals aren't aware of the facts above, since they're inherently better educated and more rational than conservatives.  At least, according to liberals.

But it's not really a surprise that the terrorist arm of the DNC, which is all of it, is lined up to suck his rigor mortis cock.

Meanwhile, no memory of our ambassador being raped and murdered with the ridiculous claim that a massive, multi-national uprising spontaneously took place over a shitty youtube video...which claim doesn't credit Muslims with much intellect or self control.

The Demorrhoids were elitist white supremacists when they started the US Civil War to keep their slaves, and they're elitist white supremacists now, with anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic traits to boot.

Some asshole is claiming that the GOP is "begging for something to wipe this off the front page," when the fact is that Demorrhoid NPCs are the only reason it's on the front page, hoping against hope it will make a point difference at the polls in three weeks.

 

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Apparently, some group or other has put together a blacklist for some reason unknown to some event unknown of people involved with Comicsgate, and I'm on the list.

I'm flattered.  Seriously.  Most authors have a fan club. I actually have a hate club, who spend a lot of mental capital hating me, instead of finding something else to do.  So in actuality, they're a fan club composed of passive-aggressive failures.  But hey, it's still attention. So this is either an expansion of the hate club or a SECOND hate club!  That's pretty fucking cool.

I guess I'd be more flattered if I knew what "Comicsgate" is, and what association I have with it.  I mean, I can mostly guess whether a superhero is Marvel or DC from the movie ads I occasionally see on Fecesbook.  I'm aware there are stores that sell comics.  I'm aware there are collectible comics.  I know who the Justice League are from kid's TV. I know the guy who builds the officially licensed Batmobiles.

That's about it.

I don't read comics, write comics, write about comics, collect comics or notice comics. So it's a bit of a surprise to find out I apparently have a political opinion about comics that is unpopular enough and visible enough to get me pre-banned from something or other comic related, which I'm still not aware of any details about.

As far as attending whatever event this is, the rules would be the same as for any other event.  There's Category A, which are a handful of cons I pay to go to, and have since the 1980s, when I have the time, to hang out with friends and do nothing, though I'm happy to sign books if people ask me to.  Then there's Section 2, which means you're either letting me show up as a vendor, and have a market I can derive income from thereby, or you're paying my gas/airfare, hotel and per diem, to cover the loss of professional writing time I'm losing for those 3-5 days. As the famous advice says, "Fuck You, Pay Me."

Oh, and there's Division c: DragonCon, which I pay to attend as guest and vendor because it's a huge fucking orgy of profit, Scotch tasting, cosplaying, paneling, and evenings with my wife and our girlfriend.

So banning me from whatever you think you're banning me from is about like telling me I'm not welcome at the Live Agenda Studies Poetry Night at the Local Liberal Arts College Coffee Shop In Seattle. (I live in Indiana.)

Bitch, I'll be fine.

One favor, though, please: Let me know ahead of time that you're blacklisting me so I can share it, because that's marketing fucking gold to the people who are actually capable of, and actually do, read my BOOKS. Not comics.

Not that I have anything against comics, you understand.  I just don't move in that circle.

  1. WECSOG!
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