Pro-choicer: Telling women of abortion risks is “mansplaining”
by Kelli
If House Bill 124 passes, women in Missouri must watch a documentary created by the state health department with information about abortion 72 hours before they can access the procedure.
The new proposal, sponsored by Desloge Republican representative Linda Black, would add a third method of mansplaining abortion methods and risks to patients. Physicians are already required by Missouri law to explain abortion procedures verbally and in writing.
… [T]he video would come in “a narrative documentary form” to help women who are illiterate or have difficulty with understanding written or spoken information. The proposal gained initial support Tuesday from a House committee, which voted 9-3 to send the bill to the House floor….
“Women already have to wait three days after a first consultation to get their procedure done,” said Rep. Stacey Newman to KOMU (Channel 8). “This is just another barrier between a woman and her ability to receive a legal medical procedure. It’s unnecessary and does nothing to help women and women’s health.”
~ Lindsay Toler, Riverfront Times, February 4
Note: “Mansplaining” is defined as “to explain something to someone, typically a man to woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing” but also refers to the idea that a man is trying to explain something a woman already knows more about than he does.
[Photo via thinkprogress.org]

Perish the thought that a woman be informed of what they’re going to do to her in the procedure. Every surgery or any health thing I get done is explained to me by my doctor (or, in the case of oral health, by my dentist or oral surgeon). Even my OB/GYN explains everything he’s going to do for every time I visit him during my pregnancy. Why should abortion be any different?
Rep. Stacey Newman unabashedly panders to the abortion lobby in the Children & Families committee hearings.
Tell me how it is “mansplaining” when Missouri’s director of Health and Senior Services is Gail Vasterling, a political appointee of Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat who either lets pro-life bills become law without his signature or outright vetoes them? Word is that she is more sympathetic to the abortion cause than the pro-life cause anyway. No one said that the video has to be condescending, patronizing, or even narrated by a man.
Informing patients about a medical / surgical procedure they are about to undergo is hardly “shaming” anyone. (Rep. Newman is fond of using the “shaming” meme.) It is called informed consent. I watched a video about carpal tunnel surgery that I elected to have. No big deal. My son and his wife just went through childbirth classes where they were shown videos. Again, it is an education process. Does Rep. Newman want women to remain ignorant about a life changing decision?
Funny, I’ve never met a man named Linda.
“It’s unnecessary and does nothing to help women and women’s health.” –
You just described ABORTION. Ms. Newman…
The IRONY !
Women aren’t supposed to worry their pretty little heads about the third class health care brought to them by crazy fem-bots and the leftist politicians with whom they are entangled.
And they would NEVER manipulate women into getting am abortion when the women show hesitation, now would they? Oh no, never (sarcasm).
What a bunch of hypocrites.
If we could trust the abortion industry to help women make informed choices, adequately explaining the dangers and risks of abortions to women, then we would not need this intervention.
But the abortion industry has failed our trust. That is why voters are anxious to make sure that a woman are given all the information and respect that she needs before making such a difficult and permanent choice concerning the life and death of her child.
Three days, an ultrasound, a real consultation with a real doctor, a third-party video (to make sure that no one is lying to her), occasional inspections of the operating facility — these are bare and minimal regulations to protect a woman who is under distress and vulnerable to abuse.
Until we can protect the child, we should do more to protect the woman. We should insist that the woman must first visit a pregnancy center, to learn about all of the free help that is available. In England, a woman is required to speak to a neutral counsellor, for answers to any questions about abortion and life-affirming aid, before she can procure an abortion.
If abortion is health care, why aren’t abortion pics and videos shown in high school health classes like live birth pics and videos are?
Show abortion to the teenyboppers (before lunch would probably be best).
Heck, since our generation didn’t get to see an abortion video in health class, hold all school assemblies and show the abortion video to all the teachers and staff as well.
Then let the teens ask the educators, “Who supports legal abortion? Raise your hands, please.”
“Funny, I’ve never met a man named Linda.”
Me neither. I did once hear of a boy named Sue, so I guess that’s kind of similar.
“Mansplaining”….. refers to the idea that a man is trying to explain something a woman already knows more about than he does.
It is a mark of chivalry that men never invented a similar word to describe such talk from women.
No need to Del, women don’t suffer that failing :-)
I wish someone had “mansplained” it to me before I went through with it.
Women deserve the truth. Women deserve better than abortion.
“It is a mark of chivalry that men never invented a similar word to describe such talk from women.”
B!tching was already taken.
Enough with “mansplaining” and “manspreading” and every other “man____ing” to describe something men and women both do, but somehow is annoying only when a man does it…