preconception preconceptions
2006-05-18 02:28:40.687716+00 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
A bunch of people are up in arms over this Washington Post article about a new CDC/ADTSR report on "preconception health":
New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.
The article then goes on to pull up some choice quotes to make it seem like the report does indeed treat women as primarily mechanisms for reproduction. So I tracked down Recommendations to Improve Preconception Health and Health Care --- United States: A Report of the CDC/ATSDR Preconception Care Work Group and the Select Panel on Preconception Care, and I'm not getting nearly the "you must assume your primary purpose is to breed no matter what the other consequences" vibe for as far as I've read it, but what did strike me was:
Data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAMS) in four states (i.e., Maine, Michigan, Oklahoma, and West Virginia) indicated that 38% of mothers who planned pregnancies and an additional 30% who did not plan pregnancies had one or more indications for preconception counseling, including use of tobacco or alcohol, being underweight, or delayed initiation of prenatal care (47).
So... uh... let me get this straight here: If you're not planning on having a kid, you're more likely to have a lifestyle that will lead to having a healthy kid?
No wonder the anti-abortion crowd wants to enforce unplanned pregnancies.