It feels like our health ministry is run by the Keystone cops

Deb Matthews backs down on reducing C-sections to save money

Backing off any plan to curb caesarean sections to save money, Health Minister Deb Matthews says new birthing centres outside hospitals may be a better way to accomplish the same goal.

...

Matthews hinted the government is open to funding birthing centres where women could have their babies through vaginal births assisted by midwives, dramatically cutting costs.

Why do women have c-sections?

Is is because women request them?

Not really, says one research group.

Women have c-sections because they either have a medical reason, or they have had a previous c-section, which is often an indication to have another one, because, as my OBGYN explained, there is a 50-50 chance of ending up in the operating room once again.

I suspect that OBGYN's like C-sections because they are relatively predictable. You don't always make it to your scheduled date, but you know how you will end up giving birth.

Now the suggestion is to encourage women to give birth in "birthing centres".

These birthing centres have to be built. That's going to cost money.

And the number of midwives has to be sufficient.

And are women willing to give birth in a birthing centre?

There's a reason birth has been medicalized. And it's not some big conspiracy on the part of men. Labour hurts. Complications can be life-threatening. You're safer in a hospital than a birthing centre.

If you want to save money, just de-list. Get insurance plans to cover it. Allow for more private health care. I would have loved to have had more options on how my c-section took place. If there had been a "deluxe" option in a private centre, with a guaranteed private room and immediate attention from nurses, and other perks, I definitely would have considered it.

However, it just seems like a cheap shot to suggest de-listing c-sections, but not abortions. Or sex change operations. Or a host of other elective operations. I think many people understand that choices have to be made, and something will have to be cut. It just seems that interventions dealing with the conditions that are the least life-threatening should be the ones that are on the chopping block. C-sections save lives. Abortions kill.

Vellacott’s exposé of CTV’s so-called “investigation” of crisis pregnancy centres

January 26, 2012, Ottawa – A Member of Parliament and founding board member of a crisis pregnancy centre in Saskatoon is concerned that CTV’s ‘investigative reporting’[1] on crisis pregnancy centres in BC may be in violation of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Code of Ethics, to the ultimate detriment of vulnerable pregnant women.

Here's an interesting question raised:

“Did Dr. Wendy Norman share with CTV’s reporter the informed consent form she gets her patients to sign and whatever other information she gives her patients before they undergo an abortion? If so, the information was not shared with the viewers. And how are women counselled and supported before and after the abortion?

Yeah, what kind of information do providers offer women about to abort? I would like to poll women to find out if they want info on fetal develpoment.

There are no possible comparisons between the Holocaust and Abortion what-so-ever

Nazi extermination of thousands of disabled children featured in new Berlin museum exhibit

And if you see one, it's an illusion. You're guilty of false consciousness.

“Through 1945, over 10,000 [children] fell victim to the various programs which were designed to exterminate ‘life unworthy of living,’” the museum states. “More than 5,000 children and teenagers were tortured and murdered in the Nazi ‘children’s departments’ alone, institutions which were specially created for the purpose of extermination.”

...

“The notion of ‘life unworthy of life’ is eerily familiar to today’s slogan, ‘quality of life,’” Stephanie Gray told LifeSiteNews. “The philosophy which guided the Nazis is a philosophy which guides many today - that the value of one’s life is to be determined by one’s features or abilities. It is this frightening mentality which leads to human rights violations.”

And the Nazis made it sound like you were doing the kid a favour if you killed him.

But are there any parallels with abortion? Naaaaaaah.

If these children had lived, they would have experienced a lot of medical advances as adults that would have greatly helped them.

And about graphic images:

“Isn’t it interesting that people will pay money to go to a museum to see disturbing images of the mistreatment of children, yet many criticize the display of abortion images. Perhaps it’s because it’s easier to face historic injustices which we didn’t commit; it’s much more difficult to face present-day injustices which we do permit,” she said.

I've never heard a Catholic bishop protest against showing images from the Nazi Holocaust. Ever.

Campaign Life Coalition urges Deb Matthews to delist abortion from OHIP

Toronto, Jan. 27, 2012 – Campaign Life Coalition is urging Deb Matthews, the Minister of Health and Long Term Care, to delist elective abortions as part of Ontario’s action plan on health funding that will be announced on Monday January 30th, 2012.

Talking about C-section births, Matthews recently told reporters that “procedures must improve patients’ health outcomes or they won’t be covered,” adding that OHIP coverage applies when a procedure is deemed medically necessary.

“We agree with Deb Matthews that medically unnecessary procedures should be delisted,” said Mary Ellen Douglas, Ontario President for Campaign Life Coalition. “A procedure that kills a child in the womb is never medically necessary and therefore we call on the Liberal government to stop funding this elective surgery with our tax dollars,” added Douglas.

“Abortions are performed for convenience rather than for medical necessity,” said Alissa Golob, Youth Coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition. “If the McGuinty government is prepared to delist services that reflect a lifestyle choice, abortion should be the first one to go.”

A recent poll shows that more than six in ten Ontarians oppose the status quo of tax dollars paying for abortion on demand.

Campaign Life Coalition has already gathered more than 15,000 signatures for a petition to defund abortion, and is urging supporters to contact their MPP and tell them that abortion is a financial drain on our health care system and should be delisted from OHIP.

About Campaign Life Coalition

Campaign Life Coalition is a national, non-profit organization involved in political action and advocacy for legal and cultural change in Canada with respect to protecting human life and the family. It is non-partisan and encourages voting based on principles, not party. For more information visit www.campaignlifecoalition.com.

Media Contacts:
Alissa Golob, Campaign Life Coalition Youth Coordinator 416-204-9749
Mary Ellen Douglas, Campaign Life Coalition Ontario President 613-389-4472

Is is morally wrong to take a life? Not really, say two bioethicists

The culture of death rides on.

“[T]he dead donor rule is routinely violated in the contemporary practice of vital organ donation. Consistency with traditional medical ethics would entail that this kind of vital organ donation must cease immediately. This outcome would, however, be extremely harmful and unreasonable from an ethical point of view [because patients who could be saved will die]. Luckily, it is easily obviated by abandoning the norm against killing.”

...

“Then killing her cannot disrespect her autonomy, because she has no autonomy left. It also cannot be unfair to kill her if it does her no harm.”

Could this be incitement to hatred and violence? I'm serious.

More hospitalization for drug and alcohol overdose

From a study abstract:

RESULTS:

Hospitalization rates for alcohol overdoses alone increased 25% from 1999 to 2008, reaching 29,412 cases in 2008 at a cost of $266 million. Hospitalization rates for drug overdoses alone increased 55%, totaling 113,907 cases in 2008 at a cost of $737 million. Hospitalization rates for combined alcohol and drug overdoses increased 76%, with 29,202 cases in 2008 at a cost of $198 million.

It would be interesting to know which drugs are most responsible for hospitalization. And how many of these patients died.


Source:
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2011 Sep;72(5):774-86.
Hospitalizations for alcohol and drug overdoses in young adults ages 18-24 in the United States, 1999-2008: results from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.
White AM, Hingson RW, Pan IJ, Yi HY.
Source
Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9304, USA. whitea4@mail.nih.gov

Brazil seeks to register all pregnant women

Please tell me feminists are against this.

I can't believe people who are supposedly pro-choice are for this.

Social Justice Tribunals of Ontario

As I was doing some research on special education, I learned that the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal is now a member of Ontario's Social Justice Tribunals.

The Social Justice Tribunals Ontario is the second cluster of adjudicative tribunals (Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario was first) created under the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance, and Appointments Act, 2009. The Act permits the government to create a cluster through regulation when it believes the tribunals can “operate more effectively and efficiently as part of a cluster than alone.” The regulation for the social justice tribunals cluster was passed on January 25, 2011; the tribunals brought together in this cluster are listed below.

Child and Family Services Review Board

Custody Review Board

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

Landlord and Tenant Board

Ontario Special Education (English) Tribunal

Ontario Special Education (French) Tribunal

Social Benefits Tribunal

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has this to say about this "clustering":

The clustering initiative promotes the best use of resources through cross-agency cooperation and coordination of operations and administration. It will also enhance consistency in tribunal practices, procedures and decision making.

So the government wants to become more efficient at screwing you over.

My Review of The Iron Lady

Today, Mr. Big Blue Wave and I went to see The Iron Lady, the biopic about Margaret Thatcher, starring Meryl Streep, who was brilliant in the lead role.

I liked the movie. I didn’t love it, but I liked it. It was the first movie I’d seen in a movie theatre in years. Finally something to pique my interest.  It’s been even longer since I actually liked a movie I saw in a theatre.

I did not like the flashback approach to telling the story.  It made the movie into a series of vignettes. These vignettes were delightful, but they remained somewhat superficial. I would have liked more drama about the Falklands’ war, or the IRA bombings, or the political back-biting in her party. I only got segments. The segments themselves were very well-written and well-acted.   Just too short.

There was a lot of controversy about portraying Margaret Thatcher as old and senile.  Mr. Big Blue Wave, like many other movie reviewers, believed that this depiction of her was a leftist attempt to cut her down. I don’t see what the fuss is about. I thought showing her as a senile old woman made her more human and sympathetic.  Her character incarnated the old phrase “she puts her pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us.” I enjoyed the exploration of the woman behind the political figure, especially in her capacity as wife and mother. She hallucinates about talking to her dead husband concerning events  that happened to her during her term. Some people see that as pathetic. I thought it was just a tool to get her  to show the action. Mr. Big Blue Wave would have preferred a conventional “life and times” type movie that featured the salient historical events.

Because of the focus on feelings and relationships rather than action, it is something of a “chick flick”.  Male conservatives who go to see this movie probably want to see her in her full Tory splendour—and you do get some of that.  But it’s intertwined with scenes about relationships.  Women who see this movie, whatever their political stripe, would appreciate the personal aspects of her tenure.

One theme that I drew from the movie is that she gave her life to politics and public life, but her failure to properly develop her family and amicable relationships meant that she ended up basically alone except for the company of her daughter Carol. She has a secretary and an assistant and a security detail, but they are not close confidants. The only confidants she had was her husband, which is why letting go was so difficult for her. It makes a statement about political ambition. You can love politics, but politics will not love you back.

Because those TRAP laws are just so damned inconvenient!

Two women injured in Alabama: run-down abortion clinic has no gurney access

Pro-Life blogger Jill Stanek posted dramatic photos taken at the scene that showed that EMT with gurneys were forced to navigate through an alley filled with trash and debris to reach a door that prevented gurney access. The condition of the two women is currently unknown.

VIDEO: Poor-choicers crash pro-life gathering

Not happy to take over public parks and squares in several North American Cities, members of the Occupy crowd crash a pro-life event in Washington D.C.

Because shouting a bunch of slogans and disrupting a meeting accomplishes SO MUCH.




H/T: Verum Serum

Engineers Develop Robot Baby

CNET:

The silently mewling babe is a collection of whirring servomotors and flailing claw-arms, seemingly powered by unseen mechanisms beneath its blanket.

Its movements are perfectly lifelike, and yet its appearance is so alien-death machine-like that I get an overwhelming urge to cast it far into the Uncanny Valley from whence it came.

Imagine if we made a fetus like this robot, and we covered it in a lifelike skin. Then we show the world what an abortion is like.

How to get money from CIDA; and how not to

Says Patricia Maloney of Run with Life:

The best way involves telling CIDA you’ll give out lots and lots and lots of condoms to third world countries. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) did this, along with promising all kinds of other contraception methods/abortifacients including emergency contraception and IUDs.

And the worst way? DON'T promise to hand out condoms. Promise to actually deal with maternal mortality:

...

In their 2004 refusal from CIDA, MaterCare were told that one of the reasons their funding request was refused was because—are you ready for this? Because their project [West African regional Birth Trauma Centre in Ghana] was:


“aimed at curing the problem rather than preventing it from taking place”.

MaterCare was trying to cure a problem of maternal child mortality. Oh my goodness, what were they thinking?

I wish someone would pay her a living wage to do this research full time. I'm sure she would, too :)

Ovulating women use sexier gaits and walk slowly ahead of men.

I'm posting this for fun. From a journal called Gait Posture:

Previous research has demonstrated that women's physical appearance or sexual interest is different across the menstrual cycle. However, the nonverbal behavior of women toward men according to their menstrual cycle has not been previously explored. In this study, the gait of women walking ahead a male confederate was recorded with the help of a spy-camera. The amount of time that women spent walking was the first dependent variable whereas the extent to which the women were perceived to be sexually attractive by two judges was the second dependent variable. Comparisons were performed according to the women's ovulation phase measured with an LH salivary test. Near ovulation, it was found that women walked slower and their gait was subjectively rated as sexier. Such behaviors were interpreted as unconscious desires of women near ovulation to reinforce their attractiveness in order to attract more men and to increase their choice of a partner.

This is such a bogus study. Two judges?

And even if you have a number of judges...what purpose could this information serve?

Source:
Gait Posture. 2012 Jan 13. [Epub ahead of print]
Gait and menstrual cycle: Ovulating women use sexier gaits and walk slowly ahead of men.
Guéguen N.
Université de Bretagne-Sud, UFR LSHS, 4, rue Jean Zay, BP 92116, 56321 Lorient Cedex, France.

Priest evangelizes in the mall

I think this is brilliant.

It does take a special kind of priest to do this, though.