Comments on: A nice thought, but what I could really have used was a DentistMobile

By: kate

kate — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:43:08 +0000

What a wonderful way to reduce the number of women successfully finishing college than to guilt them into keeping their pregnancies to term. This assault on reason, truth and women’s reproductive rights shouldn’t be allowed to go unchecked.

If I had the funds, I’d fight them myself, but I don’t as I had a pregnancy long ago that kept me out of school and I succumbed to the right’s guilt parade and married the jack-ass father. But the wingnuts weren’t there when the prick wouldn’t pay child support for his own children to keep them out of poverty.

I’d really like to pummel these people hard. I wish to hell someone would.

Their entire agenda is to ruin women’s lives and put them back fifty years or more forever.

By: delagar

delagar — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:16:41 +0000

O.T., I tried to talk the kid into buying an Oscar Meyer Weiner car — “Don’t you think it would be cool?” “We could totally drive it around everywhere!” “I’d let you sit up front!” — but she wouldn’t go for it. She thinks it’s, and I’m quoting, the “stupidest car ever.”

Hmpf.

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:57:54 +0000

Yeah, I meant that, if you read the phrase literally, “at the time of conception, the unborn baby is actually considered two weeks old” doesn’t quite make sense to me. I knew that they date pregnancies according to the last period, at least early on (I think they can get a bit more accurate after the first ultrasound, but that’s just based on vague recollections of friends’ pregnancies). There’s a difference, theoretically speaking, of two weeks between menstruation and ovulation, so I see where they’re getting the idea of two weeks between the actual conception and what doctors might call the conception date. I guess I get bogged down in thinking of all the variances in women’s menstrual cycles, and the fact that it’s possible to get pregnant at any point during one’s cycle (profoundly unlikely at some points, but still possible) — in short, the reasons for which, I suspect, doctors base the conception date on the last period in the first place. (Er, in other words, what N1Nj4G1r1 said.)

So, in short, yeah, I think Andrew’s right, too, and I think it might also be an attempt to cast doubt on how much of a handle “liberal” medicine really has on the whole process.

By: Kyso Kisaen

Kyso Kisaen — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:06:53 +0000

Probably the site is using this technicality to imply what Andrew said. They’re not very clear on it, but that’s what I think they’re trying, lamely, to hint.

By: N1Nj4G1rl

N1Nj4G1rl — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:04:52 +0000

Damn, it didn’t do the quotes the way I wanted! Stupid self with lack of posting skills.

By: N1Nj4G1rl

N1Nj4G1rl — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:02:42 +0000

Maybe it’s part of that whole “life starts before implantation” thing they’re always going on about?
Or in this case, life starts before the sex even happens!

I would imagine they do it that way because asking women what the last day of their last period is more accurate than asking them to estimate their ovulation.
That is what my midwife said. Most women don’t track their ovulation so it’s easier to use the first day of the last period.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:29:37 +0000

Maybe it’s part of that whole “life starts before implantation” thing they’re always going on about?

By: Kyso Kisaen

Kyso Kisaen — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:57:01 +0000

What, the convention of dating a pregnancy to the last date of your last period, or that this is somehow an “important fact” about your pregnancy? I would imagine they do it that way because asking women what the last day of their last period is more accurate than asking them to estimate their ovulation.

In math, we’d call that an “additive constant” and they frequently don’t matter a whit. If that’s the convention doctors and nurses use, then clearly it works out all right for them. It’s built into the formula they use to estimate your due date, and whether they date it from your last menstrual cycle or the wednesday after the first full moon before your last menstrual cycle doesn’t matter as long as each estimate spits out the same date.

Why this is important I don’t know.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:45:27 +0000

Important fact: the medical community uses the mother’s last menstrual period to determine length of pregnancy. This means that, at the time of conception, the unborn baby is actually considered two weeks old.

Okay, is there anyone here in The Real World ™ who can explain that logic to me? The more I try to make sense out of it, the more my brain tries to explode. And there ain’t no RV coming to town to help me with that.

Also, indeed, Sabrina, it’s only the “pre-born” children that really seem to matter to these types, and kxo, right on re: using up their resources, having men try to get ultrasounds, etc.

By: kxo

kxo — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:54:35 +0000

Man, if that thing showed up to my school, I’d be there every day, using up their resources. “I know I’ve been here everyday for the last two weeks, but maybe this time I’m really pregnant!” I’d also make my boyfriend get in line for an ultrasound just to see the shit hit the fan.

Another thing: I work in a clinic that does abortions up to 13.9 weeks, and I think those pictures are a bit misleading. Let’s just say that none of them accurately reflect what I’m used to seeing.