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Abortion providers: Oriented toward service or profit?
Results so far:
| Profit | 14% | 175 votes | Total: 1261 votes | |
| Service | 86% | 1086 votes |
Profit
by Kimberley Heit
Created on: October 10, 2008
A scene I witnessed recently makes me very inclined to side with profit. I was waiting at an internationally branded family planning practice recently when I saw quite a disturbing scene. A woman went to the counter to pay for the abortion procedure she had just emerged from. She had her money in hand and quickly handed it over, seemingly anxious to leave. The attendant however, returned to her saying that it wasn't enough; the actual cost had worked out to be more expensive then initially detailed.
The woman explained that she only had that amount of money with her because that was what she had been advised it would cost prior to the procedure. The attendant behind the counter quite rudely responded that "well she had been later term then believed and that was why the cost had increased". The woman was told not to leave whilst the attendant went and saw if they doctor would allow her to leave now and pay the remainder later. The difference was something quite insignificant like $10-$15 and they had the woman's contact details on file. The attendant did come back saying the woman was free to go, but the treatment of this woman who was undoubtedly in an emotional state already sticks in my mind as very rude and unfeeling.
I continued waiting until the person I had arrived at the clinic with emerged. To my horror they appeared to be in extreme discomfort and quickly asked that we leave. The person I had accompanied had just had a vasectomy (one of the popular advertised procedures by abortion providers). This person was not new to vasectomies because this was a return visit due to the first being a failure!
The person then described some very alarming factors to me. In having the procedure repeated they realized that the first time had been a slap dash effort and this time because they weren't being charged the full rate the organization had again skimped on the advertised service. During the consultation time prior to the procedure where the paperwork encourages a client to ask questions this client's questions were completely ignored in favor of rushing into the procedure. At the beginning of the procedure the client was asked if they could feel anything in the area they were numbing. The client replied yes, but they ignored this and proceeded to start the procedure, causing him to spend several minutes in agony. It seems that because they weren't getting the full fee they reduced whatever service time they could.
Just a few short weeks later we had the opportunity to discuss abortion providers with a family practice doctor. His immediate words were "Money hungry butchers!" He made mention that when he was studying medicine it was the students that wanted to earn a higher pay packet without having to get full surgical training that opted for a career in private abortion clinics.
The combination of failing to provide proper consultation times, using inadequate anesthetic, and failing to act with sensitivity sure makes it seem like profit is the abortion provider's main priority. There are undoubtedly exceptions to the rule. Perhaps some great doctors who work in the arena because they are passionate about family planning being the client's choice. However, the scary fact is that the organization that has shaped my belief is one of the popular providers that exists in every continent on the world.
Learn more about this author, Kimberley Heit.
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Service
by Katherine Adams
Created on: June 01, 2009
If profit drives physicians and other medical providers to offer abortions, this debate wouldn't exist. American Medical Association lobbyists would have spent millions of dollars to advertise the arguments out of our consciousness.
If profit drives physicians and other medical providers to offer abortions, medical school classes about the procedure would be overflowing. They're not.
If profit drives physicians and other medical providers to offer abortions, we'd see a startling drop in specialties like pediatrics, psychiatry and a number of other medical specialties. That hasn't happened.
If profit drives physicians and other medical providers to offer abortions, women wouldn't have to cross state or country lines in search of someone to provide a legal service the woman has chosen to undergo. Some women still have to travel extraordinary distances to fulfill their medical needs.
The fact is this: Abortion is a difficult choice, and once the choice is made, it's getting harder and harder to find someone to provide this legal procedure. Less-controversial routes exist in medical school; who wants to make a living fighting extremists who want to control a woman's reproductive choices? You can be a surgeon or a gastroenterologist. It's simply too much of a hassle to deal with anti-abortionists, unfortunately. (Just moments ago, I saw that Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas physician who helped women choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy, was gunned down while serving as an usher in his church by an anti-abortion fanatic.)
Why would any physician today choose to provide a medical procedure that can draw hundreds of unwanted protesters to his or her office doors, shouting epithets and waving graphic photos to frighten patients away from stepping up to the sidewalk to the provider's office, much less enter the door amidst shouts of "baby killer!" and other horrible taunts?
Though abortion is a private, legal choice - just as having breast implants, tonsillectomies, chemotherapy and angiograms are - those who provide the service are targets for people who refuse to accept the reality that no one but the woman and doctor alone should make decisions regarding the patient's health.
To think that any physician believes abortion is a way to make a lot of dough and keep those Wednesdays free for golf is as ludicrous as that very stereotype. Fancy cars, Wednesday golf, and mansions are not accurate reflections of medical providers, especially in an era when uninsured Americans fill hospital ER waiting rooms, and doctors spend more time filing paperwork than curing sore throats.
Employees of Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides a long list of reproductive services for women, and depends on the donations of supporters, certainly can't be accused of fat wallets and huge savings accounts. Unlike most employees who provide legal services, Planned Parenthood staff has been spit on, hit by debris, and in some cases, murdered - simply for doing their jobs. Do these folks do this work for high salaries? Of course not.
A choice to provide abortion as one part of a medical practice is a choice to provide a legal procedure; still, it provokes controversy. Is any amount of money worth the hassle? Providers who perform abortions do so because they recognize it as an often necessary procedure, like thousands of others. If these doctors and other providers truly had dollar signs in their eyes, they'd be neurosurgeons. Or radiologists. Or heart specialists. That's where the money is.
The idea that providers make huge profits from performing abortions is truly laughable. Perhaps in days before Roe V. Wade, when "back alley abortionists" were the only option for women to end a pregnancy, these pseudo-medical people could charge whatever fees they desired. Luckily, we have physicians today who enter the medical profession to help those who seek it, despite the salary range.
I'd suggest a different debate regarding medical providers: Do doctors who offer Viagra to patients do it for profit or service?
Learn more about this author, Katherine Adams.
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