Impudent Sisyphus

transstingray:

stfuconservatives:

bubonickitten:

As a follow-up to this post about induced abortion, here’s one about safety and abortion.

So, how safe is abortion?

It’s much safer to have an abortion than it is to carry a pregnancy to term.
The only type of abortion that is more risky than giving birth is abortion done after 21 weeks (which is only ~1% of abortions).

The following chart is deaths per 10,000.

The data on the left refers to abortion by gestational week.
As for the last two columns on the right, “All abs.” = all abortions; births = all pregnancies carried to term.
[Sources:
Abortion by gestation: Bartlett et al., 2004 (1988–1997 data);
All births and abortions: Grimes DA, 2006]

Long-term safety:

Abortions performed in the first trimester do not increase the risk of infertility, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, birth defects, preterm or low birth weight delivery, breast cancer, or mental health issues in the future.

More sources on the safety of abortion:

Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

Safety of Abortion
http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/facts/safety_of_abortion.html

Debunking popular anti-choice myths
http://abortiongang.org/2010/08/debunking-popular-anti-choice-myths/

APA Task Force Finds Single Abortion Not a Threat to Women’s Mental Health
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2008/08/single-abortion.aspx
(As usual, I’d replace “women” with “people who can get pregnant”.)

Do abortions cause depression?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/09/do_abortions_cause_depression.html?hpid=news-col-blog

Abortion Doesn’t Increase Mental Health Risk, But Having A Baby Does
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/26/abortion-mental-health_n_814582.html

Rock those abortion truth bombs, BK.

“Exhaustive reviews by panels convened by the U.S. and British governments have concluded that there is no association between abortion and breast cancer. There is also no indication that abortion is a risk factor for other cancers.”

via “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html” above

redefiningbodyimage:

submitted by absolutelyarsenic:

We’ve all heard it before.

“Being overweight or obese isn’t healthy.”

“This is a medical issue.”

“I’m just concerned for your health.”

For the most part, if a serious medical issue is being discussed, people offer half-hearted advice, which is good, considering most of them aren’t doctors. But once weight comes into play, suddenly everybody is an expert on everyone else’s body, and they won’t hesitate to tell you that if you are overweight/obese, you are undeniably unhealthy and you are going to die young and ill. And if you try to counter it, or tell them that such a statement is out of line, you are often met with something along the lines of, “I’m just concerned about you.”

That’s where the problem begins.

Fat-shamers tend to present this argument as though the fat person in question needs this advice, that this is something that they’ve never heard before. If someone doesn’t tell them that they’re unhealthy, they’ll never know, right?

I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that, as a whole, overweight people know the health risks that come with their weight [1]. We’ve all heard the argument a thousand times, whether it’s directed at us or not. By telling me that my weight is unhealthy, you are implying that I need to hear this from you, that what you’re saying will bring my health issues to my attention and prompt me to fix them.

My health issues are already at my attention. Fat people, for the most part, know they’re fat. If a person has a health condition and you don’t, chances are they’re more informed about the condition than you are. If they’re not trying to lose weight, then either they accept their weight and the health risks that come with it, or it is not possible for them to lose the weight to make them “healthy”.

Many overweight and obese people simply CAN NOT lose weight, often for medical reasons. I, for example, am on multiple antidepressants that give me low heat tolerance, low blood pressure and low blood sugar. Those side effects make it dangerous to overexert myself. If I work out, I pass out. I’ve gained weight since I started the medication, but I’d rather be fat than be stuck in the living hell that is severe mental illness. I may die from heart disease eventually, but seeing as the alternative is being suicidal, I’ll gladly accept the weight.

Or perhaps the person in question is like my mother. She is overweight. Not only does she have Crohn’s disease, she is severely allergic to all gluten, nuts, fruit, and soy. This limits her diet greatly. The healthy recipes we see in the magazines would kill her. She also has brittle bones from her Crohn’s medication, so exercise is out of the question.

But I digress. The points I’m trying to make are that

One, the “fat is unhealthy” argument is an insult to the intelligence of fat people. 

Two, many people can not get “healthy”, or their weight is simply the lesser of two health issues.

And three, it’s none of anybody’s goddamn business why we weigh as much as we do.

If someone asked an underweight person why they were thin, and the person had anorexia or was severely ill, the person asking the question would feel a bit embarrassed, maybe even ashamed. But if a fat person’s weight is connected to a medical issue, it’s apparently still okay to make rude remarks to them about their weight.

It is never okay to assume things about a person’s health based solely on their weight. And I think everybody needs to accept that.

——

[1] I would just like to ammend this statement a little bit - “overweight people know the perceived health risks that come with their weight” - In my time studying Health at Every Size, I have learned that correlation does not imply causation. “Just because a disease is correlated with obesity does not mean that it is caused by obesity.” (x) Just wanted to clarify. This is a brilliant submission, I think it says a lot of things about fat health that are often unsaid or not understood. Thank you so much. - Haley

fuckyeahsexeducation:

re-cover-ed:

“Fat acceptance” blogs urging overweight people to shed negative feelings about their body image can lead to healthier diet and exercise choices, a study has found.

The fat acceptance movement, which seeks to foster a support network among overweight people, has inspired a plethora of blogs and web forums such as Corpulent, Fat Heffalump and The Rotund — an online community that’s become known as the “fatosphere”.

In a study published in the journal Qualitative Health Research, researchers from Monash University, the University of New England and the University of Canberra interviewed 44 fatosphere bloggers from Australia, the US and the UK about how their involvement in the movement had changed them.

“There’s been a lot of criticism of the movement that it promotes obesity and encourages people to give up on weight loss and makes their health worse,” said one of the researchers, Dr Samantha Thomas, a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University’s Department of Marketing.

“We saw there was a lot of opinion about the movement but very few people had actually studied it.”

Interviews with the respondents revealed many had experienced feelings of worthlessness, shame, crash diets, cycles of starvation and binge eating and laxative abuse before discovering the fatosphere.

“Having that support and feeling empowered, people slowly found that their health behaviours began to change dramatically. For example, many people suddenly felt confident to do swimming, something they would not have done before,” she said.

“People shifted their focus away from weight loss and more toward health. A lot of people started to take part in physical activity not as a way to lose weight but because they enjoyed it. Instead of pounding it out on the treadmill they start playing with their kids. It’s actually a massive shift in the way they looked at things.”

Shifting the focus away from restricting food and toward listening to the body’s needs could also lead to better food choices, said Dr Thomas.

“There are actually a lot of lessons for public health here,” she said.

“The term fat acceptance is really confronting for people. That’s why we have seen a lot of blame and criticism. Society tells us it’s not OK to be fat for a whole bunch of moral and medical reasons,” she said.

“This study shows that far from promoting obesity and promoting negative health behaviours, the movement is really positive for some people’s health.”

EAT THAT CONCERN TROLLS.

(Source: theconversation.edu.au)