Recently, North Dakota tried to ban telemed abortions—the practice of administering an abortion pill to a pregnant woman under the long-distance video supervision of a doctor. But a temporary restraining order was put on the law, and so the practice will continue for the time being.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is delighted with the restraining order, saying,
This law has nothing to do with protecting women’s health—it defies reason, science and medical expertise in a clandestine attempt to limit women’s access to abortion.
They say, “Medication abortion is a safe and common use of FDA-approved drugs to induce first-trimester abortions.”
In charity, I’m going to assume they’re speaking in ignorance, and not in malice. After all, there was almost no news coverage of the FDA’s recent findings that the abortion drug is far from safe. According to LifeSiteNews:
The FDA, with no fanfare, has released a new report, dated April 30, 2011.The report indicates 14 women in the United States alone have died from using the mifepristone abortion drug and 2,207 women have been injured by it.
Of the women experiencing medical and physical problems resulting from the abortion drug, 612 women required hospitalizations, 339 experienced blood loss significant enough to require a transfusion, 256 experienced infections and 48 women experienced what the FDA labeled as “severe infections.”
Fourteen dead women, and 2,207 injured—but the Center for Reproductive Rights says:
This law [banning telemed abortions] has nothing to do with protecting women’s health—it defies reason, science and medical expertise in a clandestine attempt to limit women’s access to abortion.
Well, most of the readers of the Register are already thoroughly convinced that abortion is wrong, and thoroughly horrified at the deception and cruelty practiced by its advocates. I don’t need to remind you of any of this.
But telemed abortions somehow bring a fresh horror to the story. That phrase—“distance abortions”—doesn’t that give your heart pause? Distance. That is what the world wants: to introduce space, some sense of remove, into every human interaction. That is what evil does: it makes spaces where there should be no spaces.
In The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis describes the vastness of Hell, a dingy, insubstantial place of perpetual twilight, where one only has to think of a house to make it appear. But most of the houses are empty—deserted by people who cannot stand to be close to one another. Hell should be interesting, bristling with historical characters—but one man says that only after a search of fifteen thousand years did they find Napoleon: “We’ve picked out the house by now. Just a little pin prick of light and nothing else near it for millions of miles.” (The Great Divorce, 11)
The Church, every time, demands closeness. It insists that babies be conceived in their mother’s womb, with the father as close as a man can be—not prodded into existence with a needle in a petri dish. Sex should be enjoyed without physical barriers, or the barren dead ends of vasectomies or tubal ligations. Even confession, like all the sacraments, must be in person, and not done by distance, over the phone or internet. The Church concerns herself with the most intimate things, because this is how we are made: with hands and skin, with voices and breath, and with blood.
I understand that abortion advocates believe so firmly in the justness of what they want that long-distance abortions seem like nothing more than a practical advance, a compassionate use of technology. And abortion is abortion, whether it’s administered through a pill and observed remotely, or done hands-on, in a horrible parody of intimacy, with the surgeon up to his elbows in blood. It’s the same thing, and I don’t expect pro-aborts to be horrified by either.
But look at your life. All of us, look at our lives. What are we working for in everything that we do? Does it bring us closer to each other, and closer to God? Or does it make more distance? This is what I struggle with as a mother: I hear myself saying, “Not now! Go away! Don’t touch me! Leave me alone!” This is no way to serve.
Evil always wants distance. But the Incarnate God did not come to us remotely, observing and supervising our salvation from on high. Instead, He came to us. He feeds us, He breathes on us, He makes a mixture of spit and mud and daubs it on our eyes so that we can see.
God always wants closeness. Not the false intimacy of sentimentality and pornography, not the shallow closeness of gratified desires—but the dogged intimacy that does not allow me to turn my face away when I am done.
God wants closeness. I do not say that closeness brings comfort: the closeness that love demands often leads to pain. Christ showed us the beauty of love when He became a man, and then the pain of love when He accepted the intimacy of nails through his hands. This is how we are made.
This is what closeness brings: intimacy, pain . . . and then salvation.
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I have been practicing medicine for about 7 years now, and I can honestly say that I have never prescribed a medicine “long-distance.” As a general rule (with very few exceptions), most medical offices do not provide treatment for an illness without actually seeing the patient. Why? Because it is *not* good medical practice (and, might I add, the liability is huge). There have been so many times when someone has called in thinking they have one illness and end up having another. Doing a physical exam lends so much information that any medical provider would be foolish to forego it (again, with very few exceptions) for the sake of convenience. But equally as important as touching a patient is looking them in the eye while getting their medical history. There is a level of honesty that cannot be masked when sitting down with another person and talking to them, gauging their verbal (and non-verbal) responses. (For example, I’ll never forget the woman who came to see me thinking she had a sinus infection and left with a diagnosis of depression). There is simply no substitute for the closeness of personal interaction.
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Incidentally, the only other area that I’m aware of telemedicine being commonly put into practice is in the arena of providing medical marijuana cards to people with a supposed “need.” (Truly, the vast majority do not qualify for a medical need—it has been heavily abused here in my state.)
I’ve been a rn for 15 years. We routinely use tele medicine for psychiatric patients…AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN MEDICALLY CLEARED BY A PHYSICIAN AT BEDSIDE. Also we use tele med to evaluate the need for high level stroke care and transfer _ again, after medical clearance. I am concerned about the idea many hold….that abortion “care” doesn’t need to meet basiv medical standards of care….frightening.
WOW. Simcha… I love this. I mean, I love how the development of a new aspect of “women’s rights” leads to this incredible reflection on man’s innermost purpose. This is beautiful and SO TRUE. Thank you!
Excellent post, Simcha!! That was beautiful!!
Simcha: I love the part about how the Church demands closeness. And “It insists that babies be conceived in their mother’s womb, with the father as close as a man can be—not prodded into existence with a needle in a petri dish. Sex should be enjoyed without physical barriers, or the barren dead ends of vasectomies or tubal ligations.”
Exhibit # 15645 of why Simcha is my favorite blogger. Wow.
While I often try to keep a “John Wayne” exterior, I quite often shed tears at thing I find truly beautiful…...I need a tissue.
There is often an ache I get in reaction to the bare beauty of your words when your reflections ring true for me. Great job!
I actually did some serious digging using the numbers provided. Even if 14 people died as a result of medical abortions, that would still put the death rate from abortion lower than the death rate from childbirth.
Numbers! They’re big and scary.
Personal Failure a person dies in every abortion. The death rate from abort is 100% plus the mothers who die as the result of the abortion.
Great post, Simcha, and beautifully written. I particularly love the line about the Church requiring true intimacy: I’d never realized that aspect so clearly before.
@Personal Failure: 1. Your comment is beside the point. Simcha’s post opened by noting the discrepancy between medical abortion dangers and other medical situations. Other medications with such detrimental results would be under intense scrutiny, not routinely passed over by the abortion-friendly media.
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2. You’ll have to give more numbers to make your point valid. Pithy comments convince noone and only serve to make the poster (and those who agree with him/her) feel self-righteous. What sources did you use? What were the exact numbers? Because I’ve seen comprehensive reports that encompass everything from death to depression, and abortion has always come out the loser when it comes to impact on the mother. Even worse when you factor in impact on the father. And definitely the worst when it comes to impact on the child(ren).
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Without being pithy, the numbers are big and scary indeed.
Well done.
Beautiful. Insightful. Thank you.
So very, very true, Simcha. Christ continues to call all things to himself - a drawing together, the “closeness” that you describe, while Satan has been cast out. All sin, when you look at it, is a distancing - a selfish and self-centered pulling away from others and into one’s self. I appreciate the reflections you’ve made here.
Thank you for this, Simcha.
Dear Simcha great article on the importance of closeness. Any perceived
inconveinence that a child would cause in one’s life would be wiped away by the mutual love that is experienced when two souls touch. The Devil
uses fear, pride and lies to keep souls away from one another to divide.
After reading your article I realize how important closeness is with
family no matter how much I disagree with their actions. Distance is
not the answer but unity united with prayerful love is. Let us all pray
for the victims of abortion. Mothers, Fathers and the children. God Bless.
Okay, Sim, you made me cry again…this is just too beautiful. It makes me ache. So thank you again. I think.
This is one reason why social networking and, worse, “hooking up” has become so popular in the current generation. It puts a “safe” distance between parties with no strings attached.
@Personal Failure - those 14 deaths were only from this particular method of abortion. Do you believe it is actually reasonable to believe that only 14 women have died from all methods of abortion? If so, in what time frame would you believe that to be true?
A beautiful, thought-provoking post.
Thank you for the meditation.
TeaPot562
@Sabine in response to Personal Failure- That’s what I was thinking as well. This was only one kind of pill from a specific method (chemical) Thanks for pointing that out.
Simcha, I really, really liked that line about the church demanding closeness. There was a lot you touched on in that article, but that was something that really struck me, and by the comments, a lot of other people. I would love if you took that thought and expounded upon it. I don’t think I’ve ever heard “sacramentality” put that way. Another post, please? ;)
You made me cry too and I’m a 76 year old G-Pa
beautiful. scary and beautiful. Thanks again Simcha for your wonderful writing!
I tried to write “Beautiful.” as my post right after this post came out. I’m just now getting around to doing it and it seems I’m not the only one with this sentiment!
Beautiful.
Thank you Simcha. Amazingly poignant, lovely, and entirely truth.
Thank you Simcha.
I wrote a post, inspired by this one. Thanks! http://lettersto.us/archives/167
A wonderful post!
What good is a doctor who can see if something goes wrong, but can’t do anything better about it than call the local hospital?
I would like to tell these CRR people, please just stop the rhetoric. We know it’s a load of horse manure. Your opposition to anything that even remotely attempts to protect women is extremely telling.
Tagged: http://rustbeltphilosophy.blogspot.com/2011/12/some-words-from-introverted-skeptic.html
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