[ASSESTYTEAH]

This story is getting international coverage.

Pregnant teen dies after abortion ban delays her chemo treatment for leukemia - CNN.com

[Npbfamgt]

I'm looking forward to RD's arrival to the 21st century.

[Cabinanteerip]

The constitution needs to be changed.Abortion should be allowed in life threatening situations.
I hope that with this international coverage,something will be done about it.

My heart goes out to the mother.

[Npbfamgt]

The constitution needs to be changed.Abortion should be allowed in life threatening situations.
I hope that with this international coverage,something will be done about it.

My heart goes out to the mother.

Bans on abortion don't prevent abortion. They just make it more dangerous.

[yqpY4iw6]

After listening and reading the article it is doubtful that the slight delay caused her death. Lack of birth Control seems to be as big an issue as an abortion ban. The life of the mother should be paramount.

[M1zdL0hh]

13 weeks? she could have done it herself, like thousands of other dominican women: a handful of cytotec and it's over.
but yeah, what a law. the one it protected died anyways taking far more valuable life with it. sad.

[TeapseTic]

This story is getting international coverage.

Pregnant teen dies after abortion ban delays her chemo treatment for leukemia - CNN.com

I can't tell you how many hundreds of hours i've spent arguing this issue with a Canadian pastor/minister frome Cabarete, but who preaches in Sosua on sundays. Despite countless hours, and countless arguments of trying to talk some reason into this pastor, the argument is lost, in vain, and a complete waste of precious energy, time, and oxygen.

I've tried telling this pastor numerous times, in vain, that my cousin in Bonao is a well known gynecologist, he's one of the most respected doctor's in Bonao and Cibao area. He sees not dozens, but hundreds of cases a year of women trying to self-induce abortions and then ending up with a torn uterus's, life-threatening infections, shock induced by heavy blood loss, etc. Several times a week women come into his office, completely desperate, and seeking advice on how to terminate an unwanted preganancy--sometimes by a relative, but he cannot do anything about it because his hands are tied by the law.

Many women end up in the emergency room because of botched abortions; but a lot of women will take home-made concotions that their neighbor or friend has reccomended or told her about, only to end up with a severe infection or death. People in the DR, and other poor countries, are extrememly vulnerable to heresay and voodoo medicine and techniques that have been reccomended by someone who knows someone who heard it from someone else. They'll try anything, only to end up in the emergency room--where my cousin or other gynecologists wil be callled in the middle of the night to come and try and save them. it's a screwed up, terrible, barbaric, medievil situation that has been going on far, far too long, and it will continue to go on for the for seeable future with no way of stopping it. Nothing will change in the DR becuase the catholic church has way, way too much power and influence over the legislature.

Frank
My uncle and aunt were doctors in Santo Domingo for 40 years and they had to deal with similar botched abortion deaths and issues, their kids are now doctors and have to deal with botched abortion issues and death, and the next generation of doctors will have the misfortune to have to deal with it as well. when will the insanity stop?

Not in any of our life times.

[KJnbceja]

13 weeks? she could have done it herself, like thousands of other dominican women: a handful of cytotec and it's over.
but yeah, what a law. the one it protected died anyways taking far more valuable life with it. sad.

You know more than me on this issue but I have heard that one of the issues is that many women take only half of the components of the RU487 Mifepristone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and they take it on their own without doctor's supervision.... and that evidently has caused a number of deaths. But it is just hearsay

[BUMbaronos]

Bans on abortion don't prevent abortion. They just make it more dangerous.

The ban apparently prevented this one until it was too late!

[Npbfamgt]

The ban apparently prevented this one until it was too late!

I appreciate the correction. I should have been more precise in my wording. Thank you.

[Andoror]

According to this article from CNN on 7-25 Dominican Republic abortion ban stops treatment for pregnant teen with cancer - CNN.com the girl was prevented from having chemotherapy but according to this article in the Diario Libre on 7-25 the girl was already receiving chemo Médicos inician quimioterapia a joven embarazada - DiarioLibre.com . In fact from this article Joven con leucemia recibe quimioterapia - DiarioLibre.com the girl had been receiving chemo since 7-20, 5 days before the CNN article.

Furthermore, the vicar of the Catholic Youth Ministry in the DR recommended the girl receive chemo in this article on 7-24, one day before the CNN article. Padre Luis Rosario dice es necesario tratamiento médico a joven embarazada - DiarioLibre.com

Furthermore again, the Diario Libre articles clearly state that the doctors were awaiting the biopsy results that were sent to the States in order to know how to treat the cancer.

What we have here is selective reporting from CNN in order to paint the DR and the Catholic Church as backwards as possible because the US press is intent on indoctrinating not only the US but the rest of the world with it's own version of morality.

Ironically, the support or convenience abortions are never mentioned while they account for 94% of all abortions while medical abortions account for less than one percent. In other words if there were 2 million abortions in 2011 1,840,000 children were killed to save 40,000.

[ViaplyVuple]

In more ADVANCED countries,"A Woman's Right To Choose" is respected!
In the DR, women have very few rights, to Choose ANYTHING!
SAD!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

[Sensbachtal]

Chip, can you post a link to those statistics?

BelgianK

[EliteFranceska]

I can't tell you how many hundreds of hours i've spent arguing this issue with a Canadian pastor/minister frome Cabarete, but who preaches in Sosua on sundays. Despite countless hours, and countless arguments of trying to talk some reason into this pastor, the argument is lost, in vain, and a complete waste of precious energy, time, and oxygen.

I've tried telling this pastor numerous times, in vain, that my cousin in Bonao is a well known gynecologist, he's one of the most respected doctor's in Bonao and Cibao area. He sees not dozens, but hundreds of cases a year of women trying to self-induce abortions and then ending up with a torn uterus's, life-threatening infections, shock induced by heavy blood loss, etc. Several times a week women come into his office, completely desperate, and seeking advice on how to terminate an unwanted preganancy--sometimes by a relative, but he cannot do anything about it because his hands are tied by the law.

Many women end up in the emergency room because of botched abortions; but a lot of women will take home-made concotions that their neighbor or friend has reccomended or told her about, only to end up with a severe infection or death. People in the DR, and other poor countries, are extrememly vulnerable to heresay and voodoo medicine and techniques that have been reccomended by someone who knows someone who heard it from someone else. They'll try anything, only to end up in the emergency room--where my cousin or other gynecologists wil be callled in the middle of the night to come and try and save them. it's a screwed up, terrible, barbaric, medievil situation that has been going on far, far too long, and it will continue to go on for the for seeable future with no way of stopping it. Nothing will change in the DR becuase the catholic church has way, way too much power and influence over the legislature.

Frank
My uncle and aunt were doctors in Santo Domingo for 40 years and they had to deal with similar botched abortion deaths and issues, their kids are now doctors and have to deal with botched abortion issues and death, and the next generation of doctors will have the misfortune to have to deal with it as well. when will the insanity stop?

Not in any of our life times.

Then please explain to me why the victim of the unwanted pregnancy has to be the unborn child. (besides the case of this topic, I don't know the details, so I won't comment).

Friends of us in Holland had to make a decision when the lady of the couple got pregnant but according to a condition she has the chance she would die during giving birth was high. She decided to go on with the pregnancy (and everything went well).

Basically I would say that when the life of a mother is in danger it should be up to the mother to decide what to do, not to any church or government.

In ALL other cases abortion is murder.

[TeapseTic]

Then please explain to me why the victim of the unwanted pregnancy has to be the unborn child. (besides the case of this topic, I don't know the details, so I won't comment).

Friends of us in Holland had to make a decision when the lady of the couple got pregnant but according to a condition she has the chance she would die during giving birth was high. She decided to go on with the pregnancy (and everything went well).

Basically I would say that when the life of a mother is in danger it should be up to the mother to decide what to do, not to any church or government.

In ALL other cases abortion is murder.

I'm sorry, Mauricio, i can't answer your question since i am not one of the pregnant mothers with a torn uterus, severe infections, and shock--due to heavy blood loss, etc. i can only tell you what my cousin sees on a weekly basis as a gynecologist: he see's women drinking crazy home-made cocktails of some kind of herbs and roots, trying to terminate a pregnancy for a myriad of reasons, some of which include, but are not limited to--having 6 or more children already, a daughter pregnant by her uncle, step-brother, sanky neighbor; a daughter who is only 13 years old (sometimes younger), a girl who accidently got pregnant while drunk, a mother who already has more than enough mouths to feed but no money for birth control or food, etc.

In a country where the average wage is $1 an hour, who can afford birth control?

Whether abortion is murder or not, i'm not qualified to comment, but the fact that unwanted pregnancies will continue to happen on an hourly basis--no matter what the law is or is not--this will make women (often times already mothers) go to extraordinary lengths to induce an abortion and put her own life at risk. This means that these mother's can no longer help provide, nor raise their existing children.

I cannot understand how anyone, if given the power (almost exclusively men for some bizarre reason) would take both the right, as well as the choice away from a woman.

Also, since my cousin Miguel is a Gynecologist in Bonao and has to try to save these women's lives and cure some of their horrendous uterus infections, i would think he is more qualified to make a decision since, after all, its him that the pregnant woman are running to for help, and he cannot provide the help.

I told this to the pastor/minister from Cabarete, but who preaches in Sosua every sunday: Why is it almost exclusivly "Men" who are making the choices over women's bodies, and why is it almost exclusively "Religious" men who are passing the laws, influencing the legislation, and wielding all the the power over women's lives and future?

FRank

[GaryBulguihb]

In ALL other cases abortion is murder.

WOW that brush of yours has a very broad stroke. I disagree. Abortion is not murder in every occasion beside that endangering the mother's life. Do you consider the bastard child product of a violent or vicious rape a wanted pregnancy? Do you think an abortion under these conditions murder? Is abortion murder when incest rape occurs?

Abortion isn't the fix all for unwanted pregnancies, birth control and proper anti-contraceptive education should take care of most unwanted pregnancies. Abortion does, however, have a place in society and should not be stigmatized and criminalized to the point of hindering, or in some cases exterminating, those citizens society is seeking to protect.

The issue at hand here is the two most basic of human rights: the right to life and the right to choose. Perhaps the best way to look at this is to only look at the right to choose of the mother, at least it would be the more practical of approaches.


NotLurking

[skydaypat]

On this abortion thing, I would like to know how many women's opinions were asked prior to passing this law? I don't agree with abortion either, but it's not my choice to make. It's the mother's choice. Many of us would like to inject religion, church and any other reasons we can come up with. But no one's hands are clean in this because we are all sinners if you follow the religious route. On the religious route, we all have to answer to the Big Man for our sins that's one of my reasons for agreeing that it is the mother's choice and not mine nor the government's.

[ASSESTYTEAH]

On this abortion thing, I would like to know how many women's opinions were asked prior to passing this law? I don't agree with abortion either, but it's not my choice to make. It's the mother's choice. Many of us would like to inject religion, church and any other reasons we can come up with. But no one's hands are clean in this because we are all sinners if you follow the religious route. On the religious route, we all have to answer to the Big Man for our sins that's one of my reasons for agreeing that it is the mother's choice and not mine nor the government's.

This is not a law, it is in the Constitution. Woman were not consulted. It is the Catholic Church's position; the Catholic Church has a strong voice in this country on matters of this sort.

[zoolissentesy]

Unfortunately human nature does not alow us to be logical. We are forced to abide to illogical restrictions because laws are impossible to enforce, human rights are impossible to provide for all.
There will always be casualties, is this bad? Yes. Is it significant in the grand scale of what we have to deal with? No!
Sad, but not significant.

[yqpY4iw6]

WOW that brush of yours has a very broad stroke. I disagree. Abortion is not murder in every occasion beside that endangering the mother's life. Do you consider the bastard child product of a violent or vicious rape a wanted pregnancy? Do you think an abortion under these conditions murder? Is abortion murder when incest rape occurs?

Abortion isn't the fix all for unwanted pregnancies, birth control and proper anti-contraceptive education should take care of most unwanted pregnancies. Abortion does, however, have a place in society and should not be stigmatized and criminalized to the point of hindering, or in some cases exterminating, those citizens society is seeking to protect.

The issue at hand here is the two most basic of human rights: the right to life and the right to choose. Perhaps the best way to look at this is to only look at the right to choose of the mother, at least it would be the more practical of approaches.


NotLurking

The right to life and the right to choose are somewhat opposing views. As the almost a father of an unborn child(35 years ago) that I would have gladly raised I have mixed feeling on a womans right to chose. My girlfriend at the time made the decision that she thought was right for her at the time, but 35 years later she wishes she would have made the opposite choice (but it's not one you can take back). As a man I would have had no choice in paying child support if she had made the other choice ( to give life, and not terminate).