Shortwoman.com

Thought One: Not Exactly Kitchen Stadium

I watch both Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen. I’m new to Hell’s Kitchen this year, although I have watched Top Chef for several seasons now (and hello? was there some concerted effort to not have anybody from Las Vegas this season?). In case you are unfamiliar with the concept, these are cooking game shows. The prize in one is a position as Executive Chef at a Gordon Ramsay owned restaurant. The prize in the other is everything you need in an industrial kitchen, and a bunch of good press to get your new restaurant off the ground.

Now then, when you start with 14 contestants and end up with one winner, it is obvious that everyone else will not win. This part, everyone gets. The part that seems to elude some is that the losers will be looking for a job at the end of the season. Most of the Top Chef crew gets this. Only a couple contenders over at Hell’s Kitchen — including the one I expect to win handily — have the faintest clue.

This is not rocket science. Someday, a prospective employer will have watched this show, and in all likelihood will have already decided whether or not to hire these chefs. That decision will have a little to do with their kitchen performance, and a lot to do with the way they handled themselves on-camera but out of the kitchen. These shows are a multi-week job interview, but some people aren’t treating it that way.

Thought Two: Got Dead Body?

If I am ever so unfortunate as to be closely enough associated with a high-profile criminal case such that the Hollywood types think it’s a good idea to make an episode of a TV show about it, I sincerely hope that it’s CSI instead of Law and Order. Law and Order tends way too much towards “Internet Bad! Doctors Greedy! Non-Missionary Position Sex Bad!”

I also hope they can get Amy Poehler to play me.

She’s 5’2″, so she would have to wear flats.

In closing: here’s what John Edwards has been doing; Fafblog! is back, and with great stuff like this “interview” with Senator Clinton; What’s good for the gosling is good for the goose, so why aren’t faculty members lining up to pee in the cup?; Expert Ezra on Tom Daschle; Maybe Jim Crow oughta watch his back; look over there! it’s a gay, married red herring!; and sorry I’m not touching the “appeasers!” scandal, because Jill said what needed saying (and don’t forget Chris Mathews asking if his guest even knows what “appeasement” is).

Have a great weekend!

Welcome to my entry in the Mothers Day Blogswarm for Maternal Death. This event is a counter-protest against those who feel that abortion is nothing more than killing babies. The sad fact of the matter is that sometimes and in some parts of the world women die because they cannot get a pregnancy terminated.

And that brings me to my own chosen niche in this vast realm. I will be discussing ectopic pregnancy. Those of you in the audience who are medical professionals may protest that terminating an ectopic pregnancy is not an abortion (for reasons I will discuss below), but the fact is that in some nations, it is considered an abortion — an illegal abortion.

An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the fertilized egg does not make it all the way to the uterus — which is designed to accommodate a rapidly growing embryo as it turns ino a fetus and finally a baby. Instead, it implants elsewhere, usually in the Fallopian tubes. This structure is not designed to stretch and carry a pregnancy. This results in symptoms such as sharp, stabbing pain and vaginal bleeding. If left untreated, the Fallopian tube will eventually rupture, causing massive internal bleeding.

This always results in the death of the fetus, and can often cause the death of the mother as well. “Before the 19th century, the mortality rate (the death rate) from ectopic pregnancies exceeded 50%. By the end of the 19th century, the mortality rate dropped to five percent because of surgical intervention. With current advances in early detection, the mortality rate has improved to less than five in 10,000.” Here in the United States, where we have state-of-the-art medical treatment and emergency rooms that treat everyone who comes in the door regardless of their ability to pay, ectopic pregnancy kills roughly 40-50 women each year and is a leading cause of maternal death in the first trimester.

The bottom line is that in the 1 in 40-100 pregnancies that this occurs, “Ectopic pregnancies cannot continue to birth (term). The developing cells must be removed to save the mother’s life.” Nevertheless, should you be unfortunate enough to experience an ectopic pregnancy in places like El Salvadore, Nicaragua, or other nations with very strict prohibitions on abortion, you are likely to die. There are frankly no assurances from the so-called Pro-Life movement that their goals do not include such draconian laws. Frankly these are people who can rationalize that a fertilized ovum that has not yet implanted is somehow a baby.

Now then, to the “It’s a baby!” crowd, it is not. It will not become a baby. Before it can possibly do so, its growth will destroy the very structure which attaches it to its mother. In this process, it will die. There is no way to move it, to attach it elsewhere, no way for it to survive long enough to be viable. It has absolutely zero chance of becoming living, breathing human being.

There is another element of the so-called Pro-Life movement who will shrug and say “Well, she knew that sex had consequences” — that’s a soft version of “Let the slut die.” The problem is that this doesn’t just happen to “sluts”: this also happens to devoted wives, and to moms who have born, living children at home that they love very much. So much for being actually for living beings.

I leave you this morning with abortion laws in all 50 states, BitchPhD’s Mother’s Day Round-Up, a classic post from Maya’s Granny, and a couple more stops on the Blogswarm with The Crone Speaks and The 3 Rs.

Happy Mothers Day. Go hug a mom; she can always use another hug.

Remember, the Mothers Day Blogswarm for Maternal Death is this Sunday. We’ve gotten some coverage in places like BlogHer, TMV, and Healthy Concerns, and we expect a good turnout.

As some food for thought before the event itself, please consider some of these stories:

First stop is Kansas, where prosecutors are going on a fishing expedition through confidential patient records to see if — if — a crime has even been committed. More to the point, they are trying to harass a doctor out of doing a procedure that is regrettably sometimes necessary. Oh, and a judge has called them on it.

In Missouri, lawmakers want women to submit to extensive *ahem* informational counseling and questioning before allowing an abortion. The question of whether a woman psychologically unfit to have an abortion should really be raising a child is left to your imagination. Thanks to Bitch PhD for this tidbit. Who the heck are these women who are allegedly being “forced” to have abortions against their wills? Are we talking about minors whose parents have made a valid medical decision on the behalf of their child?

A law currently on the Governor’s desk in Oklahoma would force women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion. I bet the patient has to pay for this procedure too, raising the cost substantially. No word on whether this requirement could or would be waived in a medical emergency.

Don’t forget South Dakota.

Some within the so-called Pro-Life community — and I will continue to say so-called until they denounce the internal faction that believes it is acceptable to enforce their opinions with violence, vandalism, and murder — even want to limit access to birth control, falsely claiming it can “cause” an abortion. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the term “pregnancy” and shows their true colors as not pro-babies, but anti-sex.

Here’s a summary of abortion laws around the world.

Wikipedia’s article on Abortion in the United States points out that 2.8% are due to risks to maternal health, and another 3.3% are due to risks to fetal health. Also, 59.3% of abortions are in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy.

And then there are our sisters in Africa. Rape is a weapon of war there and elsewhere.

Speaking of war, there are our sisters in uniform, one in three of whom will be raped by fellow soldiers while serving our country. Sometimes the *ahem* alleged rapist even allegedly murders their pregnant victim rather than let her testify.

And then we have teenage girls that are pregnant and deathly afraid of what will happen when their parents find out. Sometimes it turns out ok. Sometimes it does not. Seven out of ten are already being abused by their boyfriends. Of those, some of them were deliberately impregnated as a form of control. What a lovely way to bring new life into the world.

And I haven’t even mentioned what I will be writing about.

As much as I hate to agree with Hillary Clinton on anything, in an ideal world abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. You prevent abortions not by making it hard to get one, but by preventing the unwanted pregnancy in the first place.

In closing: Ezra on retirement; an interesting observation about Guantánamo Bay; Hillary is 404; follow-up on Kelo; and the finalists for Bruce Schneier’s annual movie plot threat contest.