A Twitter Conversation with an Abortion Supporter

It started with this tweet, as seen on the website Moronic Pro-Choice Quotes:



I found the irony of an (alleged) doctor claiming that a surgery was not, in fact, a surgery, too difficult to resist and decided to reply.



[For anyone unaware, I had a D&C in 2006 for a missed miscarriage. At the time of the diagnosis I was twelve weeks along, but the baby was only measuring 7w6d.]


She replied:




 Apparently she's under the impression that a D&C is only classified as a surgery so insurance companies will pay for it. Does that make zero sense to anyone else? There are plenty of necessary non-surgical procedures for which insurance pays. Classifying a D&C as a surgery if it's not one shouldn't make a difference.

I questioned her further:






Now she changes her mind again. Apparently it's the instruments involved that make something a surgery.



I guess if I stab someone to death with a scalpel, that's a surgery too? 



Oh, so now "operative D&Cs" are in fact surgeries, but ones done "in-office" with a curette (what happened to the cannula she spoke of above?) is not.  I press her again:



But of course she finds reasons to nitpick that definition:


Sadly, I have to explain to this "doctor" that she's mistaken:


And throw in some more actual facts:


Note that the previous link provided to her is from a website called "The Surgery Encyclopedia."


She never tweeted me again after that, nor did she ever own up to her lying.

Moral of the story? Usually when abortion advocates claim that pro-lifers are lying, the exact opposite is true, and it's not very difficult to catch them at it. None of them will ever admit that they're wrong, of course; the MO is to ignore you, block you, or call a posse of their friends to start spamming your Twitter feed with idiotic insults -- all of which only further serve to illustrate that their side is losing. We have science, logic, and reason on our side, and they don't. 

7 Quick Takes Saturday - July 27, 2013


--- 1 ---

Let me reiterate how much I hate scorpions. We found two more Wednesday night (one of which I nearly stepped on). The first was in the doorway of our laundry room and the second was on the floor of our master bath. We had the exterminator out again, and last night Collin found another one on the downstairs bathroom floor. Good news is that it was already dead.

I'm so paranoid now that I'm having trouble sleeping; I keep imagining scorpions crawling on me. Last night a fly landed on my foot and I screamed because my first thought was, "Scorpion!"

--- 2 ---

Last Wednesday was just plain awful. The kids were at each other's throats all evening, we had the adventures with scorpions, Collin got off work 45 minutes late, and then later that night he ended up going to the ER for ANOTHER kidney stone. He's seeing a urologist now and they're going to do some tests to see if they can narrow down the type of stones being passed so he can better tailor his preventative strategies.

--- 3 ---

I was supposed to meet up with Leila for coffee on Thursday but had to cancel due to Collin's ER visit. Sigh. We've already had to reschedule once. Maybe we'll actually manage to meet up before the summer is over.

--- 4 ---

Gabriel was 20 months old yesterday! Lately he keeps moving until he literally stops in his tracks and falls asleep. Exhibit A: one minute he's playing with the toy, the next he's sound asleep on the kitchen floor:



--- 5 ---

In pregnancy news, I passed my gestational diabetes test. Yay! I wasn't really concerned as I've never had GD, but, you know, one less thing to worry about. Tiebreaker has been quite the little gymnast lately as well. We've graduated from little flutters to full-on kicks, and often it feels as if s/he is using my cervix or bladder as a trampoline (ow).

--- 6 ---

I was also thrilled to learn at my last appointment that my OB is hiring midwives! (One more reason I love him.) One has already started and I'm having my next appointment with her. She's a fully-certified CNM so she can deliver babies at the hospital as well.

--- 7 ---

One thing I was not pleased to learn was that my paid maternity leave is half as long as I thought it'd be. I only get six weeks paid for a vaginal birth (eight weeks for a C-section), not twelve as I thought. Granted, it's wonderful that I get paid leave at all, but still... I was really excited at the prospect of having a longer leave this time around without the accompanying financial stress.

I can take an additional six weeks unpaid, but who can afford to do that when you're dependent on both incomes?? So, lately, I've been very stressed about it. Six weeks is just way too short. I'd hoped the baby would be completely out of casts and well into the brace by the time I went back to work; now s/he might still be in the casts when I go back, and I'll probably have to take off additional unpaid days after I return for casting appointments as I'm almost out of PTO the way it is. If we can swing it financially I may try and take an additional two weeks unpaid at least, but we'll have to see if we can work it out.


Sorry these quick takes are such a downer this week. For more cheerful Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

NFP Awareness Week!



See my post at Catholic Stand: 

Check out iusenfp.com for NFP information, graphics, etc.

You can also find a link-up of NFP posts for this week at Katie's blog, NFP and Me.

7 Quick Takes Friday - July 12, 2013 - Close Encounters with Scorpions Edition


WARNING: DO NOT READ THESE QUICK TAKES IF YOU HAVE A PHOBIA OR MORTAL FEAR OF SCORPIONS.

--- 1 ---

One of my worst fears was realized this morning. One of my kids was stung by an Arizona Bark Scorpion (a.k.a., the most venomous scorpion in North America).

--- 2 ---

Poor William was the unfortunate victim. The scorpion was hiding in his shoe (!!). While we try to remember to shake out our shoes in the morning, we often forget in the rush to get out the door. So, William put on his shoes as usual this morning, and just as we were heading out the door he started screaming that something was poking his foot.

My heart filled with dread as I guessed what was happening. I ripped the shoe off his foot and shook it out over the floor, and, sure enough, a scorpion fell out. It was still alive, and he and I both screamed. I yelled at the other kids to stay in the garage (they had already gone out), and used William's shoe to pound on the disgusting thing as hard as I could. We were in the laundry room, adjacent to the garage, and I was terrified it would escape.

--- 3 ---

Once I was sure the scorpion was either dead or injured enough so it wouldn't move, I carried William to the couch and then raced up the stairs.

Collin was still asleep. It's his day off, and since I worked from home today, I'd offered to take the kids to daycare so he could sleep in. I yanked open the bedroom door and shrieked at the top of my lungs that William had been stung by a scorpion, which made him wake instantly and leap into action. He told me to call Poison Control as he ran down the stairs, and at that point I was so thankful I already had their number programmed in my iPhone so I didn't have to look it up. (I've since put it on my speed-dial list, just in case.)


The other kids actually came back inside the house while I was upstairs getting Collin, and I was not pleased. Elanor apparently opened the garage door (which she is not supposed to do unless an adult is in the garage with her) and Gabriel, of course, tried to run out into the street. Thankfully, Elanor grabbed him before he could, but she also brought him back inside. I don't think she realized what was going on or why I'd told them to stay in the garage, so I guess I can't really blame her for doing what she thought was best, but I just about died when I saw Gabriel standing in the laundry room right next to the freaking scorpion. I herded them all into the living room with strict instructions to STAY THERE AND NOT MOVE. Thankfully, they listened this time.

--- 4 ---


I called Poison Control, pressed "2" for bites and stings, and blurted out the situation once they answered. A very nice lady named Jennifer talked me out of my hysteria and told me that William would be okay, and that it wasn't necessary to rush him to the ER unless he seemed to be having a bad reaction to the venom, which he wasn't. She instructed me to keep cool compresses on his foot (no ice), give him ibuprofen or acetaminophen for pain, and gave me a list of worrisome symptoms to watch for (full-body muscle twitches, like shivering or shaking; excessive drooling; vomiting; vision changes).

While I was talking to Poison Control, Collin used Raid Scorpion Killer to ensure the scorpion's demise and then put it in a plastic bag just in case we did have to go to the ER (we wanted to be able to show the doctors exactly what had stung him, if needed).

--- 5 ---

We were still freaked out so we called both our insurance's Ask-A-Nurse line and William's doctor. All the research we read online said to take someone to the ER immediately for a scorpion sting, so Poison Control's instructions confused us. While Ask-A-Nurse confirmed that they had the same information re: the ER, they recommended calling our local doctor first as he might have more experience with scorpion stings, especially in children.

William's doctor seconded the recommendation of Poison Control, which relieved us. He said to watch for the same symptoms Poison Control had described, and, if they appeared, take him immediately to Banner Thunderbird ER (they're the nearest facility with access to bark scorpion antivenin). 

--- 6 ---

However, it's been more than 6 hours since the sting and William is fine other than a sore foot, so we're past the danger zone for a potential reaction (again, according to Poison Control - they've called me back several times today to check on him). He's spent the day laying on the couch, watching whatever he wants to on TV, and basically getting waited on hand and foot and pampered shamelessly.

I have learned my lesson, though - I'm going to set up a shoe rack by the front door (one of these, where you place the shoes upside-down over tines) so no more scorpions will be tempted to crawl into them. We're going to get an exterminator out here ASAP, and we're also seriously considering getting another cat as a deterrent. That might not happen until after the baby's born, but I think it's a strong possibility.

AND I'm going to declutter as much as I can this weekend so the little b******* don't have as many places to hide.

--- 7 ---

Anyway. I'll use the last Quick Take to post some pictures from our vacation to Mexico, which is what I was originally going to write about.

That's Collin in the pool with Elly & William. I took the picture from the balcony of our condo.

The view from our balcony.

Old Port in Rocky Point by night (taken from balcony of a restaurant called The Lighthouse).


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

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