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18 February 2012

Requiring Transvaginal Ultrasound Exams

The war against women has reached new lows. Men are deciding our medical and reproductive fates in all-male enclaves prohibiting our voices while inviting religious extremists to the table. I identify these men as religious extremists because they are insisting on imposing their religious views denying women access to health care on those of us who do not share their beliefs.

Some have mandated that women be vaginally penetrated before they can obtain a still-legal abortion. This requirement, for unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound examinations is medical rape, forcing medical technicians to punish women for choosing abortions with the humiliating, invasive and sometimes excruciatingly painful procedure.
The men who design and market this equipment seem to count on the ability of women's vaginas to expand to accept objects of any shape. Some are wider at the point of insertion than at the base, with squared tops. There is no reason the transducer could not be designed to be tampon-shaped. They seem to be designed to inflict pain, at a time when women are anxious and have great difficulty relaxing their abdominal muscles. It takes more than a little lube to put a square peg in a round hole.
The relationship between design and production of medical equipment and legislation mandating its deployment in the bodies of unwilling women crosses the fictional line of Margaret Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale."
It is beyond absurd that the same Islamophobic politicians who see Talibani sharia law under ever rock and leaf are racing to impose a heretical christo-talibani sharia law on the citizens of the United States of America.
Voting democratic is not nearly enough to combat this threat. We need to claim the inherent dignity and value of women as human persons in every space at every time. I am a black woman and I am created in the image of God. You cannot see me without seeing Her. And if you do not see Her when you see me then you are a blasphemer and a heretic.

1 comment:

  1. I grew up in Virginia, and this story makes me feel ill and angry.

    ReplyDelete