Read the week's best commentary from bloggers at The Conversation/Salon, Vogue and more.
ZIKA:
"I'm an OB-GYN treating women with Zika: This is what it's like," Christine Curry, The Conversation/Salon: Curry, an OB-GYN who practices in Miami, shares her experience caring for pregnant women infected with Zika, a virus that can have "very serious consequences" for the fetus. She explains how she evaluates all her pregnant patients for the virus and has conversations with any infected patients in the first or second trimester "about staying pregnant or having an abortion." Such "conversations are difficult, because there is still so much we don't know about Zika," Curry writes, noting that research has found "wide ranges in outcomes" in cases of Zika during pregnancy. "If a woman is in her third trimester and has been infected with Zika, at each visit we focus on planning for birth, monitoring the [fetus] by ultrasound and reviewing the latest research together," Curry writes. However, she notes that "ultrasounds can't detect every problem, ... and microcephaly isn't the only problem Zika can cause." She writes, "Even with planning, there are still many questions we can't answer for our patients," highlighting, for example, that "if a baby is born with microcephaly, we don't know the exact issues that the baby might have." Curry states, "Physicians like me are learning about Zika along with our patients. This takes a dose of humility on our part and an understanding from our patients that we learn something new every single day" (Curry, The Conversation/Salon, 8/11).
ABORTION IN THE MEDIA:
"A new documentary puts women's voices at the center of the abortion debate," Julia Felsenthal, Vogue: Felsenthal interviews Tracy Droz Tragos, the filmmaker behind "Abortion: Stories Women Tell," a documentary hitting theatres Friday that presents "a collection of stories from a number of women who live in Missouri, and a few who live in the neighboring state of Illinois." Felsenthal writes that Droz Tragos, a Missouri native, chose the state as the focus for her documentary because it is "often overlooked by the national media" despite having "just one abortion facility" and "some of the country's most stringent laws restricting abortion access." When asked about a recent Supreme Court decision striking down targeted regulations of abortion providers (TRAP) provisions in a Texas law (HB 2), Droz Tragos says though she is "'really comforted and relieved'" that the abortion-rights restrictions did not stand, "it's going to take a while for that to have a ripple effect, especially in places like Missouri that still have one abortion provider, still have the ... 72-hour [mandatory delay].'" Nonetheless, she hopes that the ruling against TRAP laws, which are linked to clinic closures, will enable more clinics to open in Missouri. Discussing the importance of women sharing their abortion experiences, Droz Tragos notes, "[T]here's power in just having a voice, and in shifting the conversation away from politicians, particularly male politicians, who I think should be more silent on the matter" (Felsenthal, Vogue, 8/11).
CRIMINALIZING PREGNANCY:
"Progress for Purvi Patel, but targeting of women of color continues," Nimra Chowdhry/Stephanie Zhou, American Constitution Society for Law and Policy's "ACS blog": "Women, specifically women of color, in the United States are being criminalized for their abortions," Chowdhry and Zhou write, citing a case in which an Indiana resident -- Purvi Patel, a South Asian American woman -- was convicted of feticide. The authors write that while an appeals court overturned Patel's "feticide conviction and downgrad[ed] her neglect of a dependent conviction from a class A felony to a class D felony," her "prosecution is not only a demonstration of anti-abortion animus leading to negative health outcomes for women across the country, but it is also an example of stereotyping of women of color, specifically the reproductive decision-making of Asian American women." For example, Chowdhry and Zhou explain that "the only two women in Indiana who have been prosecuted for feticide ... [are] Asian American," and state lawmakers have "twice debated and passed a certain type of ban [HEA 1337] on abortion care for Indiana women based on stereotypes about [Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)] women." Noting that these racist and sexist efforts "coincid[e] with a national anti-Asian bill similarly targeting AAPI women [HR 4924]," Chowdhry and Zhou conclude, "Rather than dedicating our scarce resources to the policing of women's pregnancies, lawmakers should expand access to quality, affordable and culturally competent healthcare" (Chowdhry/Zhou, "ACS blog," American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, 8/11).
