It's Never My Fault

There was an interesting item in yesterday's Best of the Web. A lawyer from Virginia who goes by "Dana L." when she's online complains that she was, in a certain sense, forced to have an abortion by the Bush administration. Writing in the Washington Post (where else?) she tells a story about how she got caught up in a romantic moment with her husband and, "in a sudden rush of passion", neglected to insert her diaphragm. Oops. She also seems to have neglected to ask her husband to use a condom, and he apparently also did not think of using one. Oops. So she calls her doctor in the morning to get a Plan B, a pill that, if taken within 72 hours of intercourse, can prevent implantation. But her doctor refused to give her one, that scumbag, as did the internist on duty. It seems that "health-care practitioners apparently are allowed to refuse to prescribe any drug that goes against their beliefs." What an outrage!

So why not call Planned Parenthood? "Unfortunately for me, in my panic that Friday, I didn't even think of calling them." Oops.

Next thing she knew, she was pregnant. That's a little harder to forget about than inserting a diaphragm, using a condom, or calling Planned Parenthood, so she had enough of her wits about her to finally haul her sorry ass over to Planned Parenthood and get an abortion.

Since it was a Bush-era FDA decision to keep Plan B available only by prescription, Dana wants to blame the Bush administration for her needing to have an abortion. One wonders whether, "in [her] panish that Friday", she would have been able to remember that it was available over the counter even if it had been, but no matter--it's not a matter of her failing memory, but of "religion" creeping into American politics:

All the while, I was thinking that if religion hadn't been allowed to seep into American politics the way it has, I wouldn't even be there. This all could have been stopped way before this baby was conceived if they had just let me have that damn pill.

I wonder where this "if they had just let me have that damn pill" comes from? It seems to me that it was readily available to her from her friends at Planned Parenthood, if she had only thought to give them a call. What she really seems to be complaining about is not that she couldn't get "that damn pill", but that getting "that damn pill" wasn't convenient enough to suit her. Apparently, whenever things are not easy enough for her to do in her own way, whatever happens as a result of her failing to do anything at all has got to be somebody else's fault, because surely she would have done something if only it had been a little easier.

Looking back, I see I wrote "oops" three times. At each of those times, something could have been done to prevent the pregnancy. None of those times was the responsibility of the Bush administration--each represents a failure on the part of Dana L., or her husband, or both, to be responsible about what they were doing.

If I ever get in trouble for killing somebody while driving drunk, I'm going to want to have Dana L. on my defense team!