http://www.newsweek.com/id/212117I've covered abortion for NEWSWEEK for two years. The issue has put me in touch with a young activist in rural Colorado, an embattled clinic just outside St. Louis, and chanting crowds in Washington, D.C. Whether I'm covering abortion's staunchest guardians or its most adamant opponents, there's always the same passion: both sides feel abortion is an issue worth waging war over.Writing these stories, I'd become well-versed in abortion policy, the pro-choice and pro-life arguments, the latest legislation. But I'd never actually seen an abortion; I'd never watched the procedure that activists vehemently defend or deplore. And, when I flew to Omaha to spend four days at LeRoy Carhart's abortion clinic for a profile in this week's magazine, I wasn't sure I would. I confess I was hesitant to step into Carhart's operating room. I knew that I'd most likely be watching a first-trimester procedure; while Carhart does offer late-term abortions, the majority of his patients, and the majority of abortion patients nationwide, are early in pregnancy. I learned how long the procedure would take (10 to 15 minutes), what equipment would be used (a long plastic tube connected to a suction device), and what the patients would feel (slight pressure and possibly cramping). Yet I still felt uneasy.Why was I reluctant to watch? To be fair, I'd never observed a surgery and knew myself to frequently flinch at Grey's Anatomy. But abortion isn't like the complex, bloody operations you see on television: medically speaking, it's a simple and common procedure. About 1.2 million were performed in 2005, the same, numberwise, as outpatient cancer surgeries. I was nervous, I think, to watch something so controversial; no one protests outside cancer clinics. I didn't know how I'd react. Would I find the surgery repulsive? Encounter women whose choices troubled me? Whom I disagreed with? I was uneasy about coming in such close contact with such substantial decisions.
*W1nTry beats woody with a rotting piece of elephant trunk*What is it with the controversial topics meng?
Quote from: W1nTry on August 16, 2009, 09:25:02 PM*W1nTry beats woody with a rotting piece of elephant trunk*What is it with the controversial topics meng?I just post stuff I find interesting, will try to stay away from the more controversial stuff moving forward.
