Topic: Abortion
Quote: Even if they are women.\nTime and time again I am disgusted with the callousness in which so-called "pro-life" persons seek to ignore the plight of women around the world who have suffered enormous health consequences from pregnancy.\nIt is time for another update on the plight of these women, even if those callous-hearted persons do not care:
Response: After a Devastating Birth Injury, Hope\nBy DENISE GRADY\nDODOMA, Tanzania \xe2\x80\x94 Lying side by side on a narrow bed, talking and giggling and poking each other with skinny elbows, they looked like any pair of teenage girls trading jokes and secrets.\nBut the bed was in a crowded hospital ward, and between the moments of laughter, Sarah Jonas, 18, and Mwanaidi Swalehe, 17, had an inescapable air of sadness. Pregnant at 16, both had given birth in 2007 after labor that lasted for days. Their babies had died, and the prolonged labor had inflicted a dreadful injury on the mothers: an internal wound called a fistula, which left them incontinent and soaked in urine....\nObstructed labor can kill the mother, too, or crush her bladder, uterus and vagina between her pelvic bones and the baby\xe2\x80\x99s skull. The injured tissue dies, leaving a fistula: a hole that lets urine stream out constantly through the vagina. In some cases, the rectum is damaged and stool leaks out. Some women also have nerve damage in the legs.\nOne of the most striking things about the women in Ward 2 was how small they were. Many stood barely five feet tall, with slight frames and narrow hips, which may have contributed to their problems. Girls not fully grown, or women stunted by malnutrition, often have small pelvises that make them prone to obstructed labor.\nhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/he...4hospital.html\n
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