OK, so I figured I ask around here and see if you guys had any ideas about an issue I've become recently aware of, and have more recently started to think it might actually be something that would be useful to gain attention for if I had any way to.
Here is my understanding of this: In the U.S., abortion is legal, at least partially under the premise that it's a woman's body and her right to choose. Further, teen abortions are legal, although some states require parental permission. OK, fine. I do believe abortions should be legally available.
Here's the thing that blows my mind. Apparently, while some doctors are totally OK with performing abortions on almost any woman, any age, a lot of doctors will not perform tubal ligations on women unless they have already had several children and/or are a certain (advanced) age. A friend of a friend learned about this the hard way.
The woman in question is a heavy drug user, and cannot remember to take the pill. Further, she dates assholes who do not use condoms and who would not be good for her children. The girl in question is, herself, too messed up to raise kids. She has had at least three children at this point, to my knowledge. She is too morally opposed to abortion to actually have one. Now, this woman (she's close to my age, perhaps five years older, if that) has gone to the doctor repeatedly and said ALL OF THIS, and asked to have her tubes tied. She actually said "I am a bad mother. I should not have children." The response: "Have another kid. Go on welfare."
Apparently this is not uncommon for doctors to do- to deny an adult woman a typically reversable medical procedure which would give her control over her own reproduction. Either that or the friend I know of the woman who has had three or more children through is also getting hosed. My friend has poor health, a less-than-perfect reproductive system, and does not want children. She is twenty-four years old. No doctor that she has contacted yet will perform a tubal ligation on her. Luckily the friend is on the pill and she's good with it, but the pill does kind of mess up her already fragile health.
Having said all this- does anyone know exactly what the deal with this is, in the U.S. and/or in Massachusetts? If this is some actual official policy, how would I go about trying to get awareness for it? If it's not an official policy, how would I go about getting awareness that it is not? To me, it seems like if abortion is legal, then a tubal ligation should be legal for an adult woman, seeing as, with the tubal ligation, there is really NO QUESTION that it is her body.
