Inspired by Stavvers

Inspired by Stavvers (https://stavvers.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/dear-nadine-dorries/), here is my own letter to Nadine Dorries:

Dear Nadine,

By now I hope you have read a few of the letters people have been writing to you about their uteruses.  The ones I have seen have been by people generally happy with, if a little disinterested in their wombs, so I though I might liven up your day by telling you about mine; my uterus and I are currently in the midst of a long standing argument.

You see, I would love to have children.  Not some day in the future, right now.  But for the last two and a half years that I have been trying to conceive, my uterus has been refusing to cooperate.  It ovulates (maybe my ovaries are on my side), it mensturates with reasonable regularity (although we are aruging about that too), and it has even managed to become pregnant twice!  Unfortunately both pregnancies have ended in miscarriage.  Not that my uterus told me!  That's right, I continued along being pregnant, even though the embryo/fetus was no longer viable.

That is how I ended up in day surgery having a procedure that is remarkably similar to an early abortion (the primary difference being that there was no possibility of my pregnancy resulting in a live birth).  I remember lying in my bed, waiting for the surgeon, and thinking "at least I can access this service with the minumum of fuss.  How terrible it must be to be trying to access the same procedure for an abortion, and having all the bureaucracy against you".

During the process of losing my much wanted pregnancies, I never lost my conviction about a woman's right to choose, nor in our ability to make such decisions for ourselves.  I really don't understand why you think we can't.

My experiences have been quite traumatic.  There are a selection of counselling services that were available to me (NHS and private), however I have decided for myself not to use them.  I would hate to have had them forced upon me.  There is nothing fundamemtal about me (not even that I am a woman) that renders me unable to make rational decisions about my own physical and mental health.  I am sure that this is equally true of women seeking abortions.

Abortion is not easy.  Pregnancy is not easy.  Once women find themselves in the difficult situation of being pregnant in an unplanned manner, why would you want to make things harder for them by increasing the red tape?  If you were really concerned about women, shouldn't your focus be on providing better access to sex education and contraceptives, thereby reducing the likelilhood of women ending up unexpectedly pregnant in the first place?

While you ponder that, I'm going back to arguing with my uterus; it has just decided to menstruate again!

Your sincerly,
Emelyn

2/9/11 ETA : In response to Quiet Riot Girl's letter I have added another post.  My use of woman in this letter was not meant to be exclusive.  Please don't take it that way.