NFP only OB-GYNs
A reader sent me a link to a story on NFP only OB-GYNs from the Washington Post. Overall plosive article but with the normal balance to try to outweigh the positive message.
Some women, however, report being dismayed after stumbling into one of these practices without realizing what they were.
"It never crossed my mind that it would be an issue," said Katie Green, 26, who was refused a birth-control prescription by Jones-Nosacek. "I was really irritated. It just rubbed me the wrong way."
"It caught me completely off guard," said Elizabeth Dotts, 25, who had a similar experience in Birmingham. "I felt like he was judging me and putting pressure on me. . . . I am the patient. I am the client. It should have been about me -- what I needed. Not what he needed or believed."
On Catholic Answers last week they had Dr. William Toffler [mp3] who recently came in the news in Oregon for challenging a new ethics policy where he worked. The show was quite interesting since he made many cogent examples in reply to secular doctors. At OHSU where he works they wanted to place a sign outside his office listing the procedures he would do and not do. He replied that it was a fine idea and thought that there be a similar sign outside the office of all the doctors there listing the same thing. Well they didn't like that idea so no one has such a sign.
I also liked his example about Doctors and Pharmacists being required to refer patients to other doctors/pharmacists. His example was a blacksmith when slavery was legal and a slave owner coming to them with a slave and wanting manacles made. If you were against slavery not only wouldn't you make the manacles but you certainly wouldn't refer the slave master to another blacksmith who does. This idea of forcing people to do referrals for something they could not in conscience do themselves is nonsensical.
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"It caught me completely off guard," said Elizabeth Dotts, 25, who had a similar experience in Birmingham. "I felt like he was judging me and putting pressure on me. . . . I am the patient. I am the client. It should have been about me -- what I needed. Not what he needed or believed."
Blech! What narcissism! Her wants and needs alone matter. Neither the conscience of the doctor, nor the the need of NFP-using pro-lifers to have a doctor who understands them and shares their values enter into it. No, it's all about her. Never mind that there are a gazillion standard BC pill-prescribing doctors for every NFP-only physician.
I am the patient. I am the client.
Lutz's Law #1: The customer is not always right. They don't always know what they want, and they may not even know what they could or should have.
If I were a surgeon and someone asked me to amputate a limb, and there was nothing wrong with it, I would not do so just in the name of service, nor would I point him in the direction of a surgeon who would cut off anything that was asked of him.
Diversity of opinion stops when the Tolerant can't get what they want, huh?
Not ALL OB/GYNs are against birth control for religious reasons. I've heard more than a few who are reticent to outright against birth control for health reasons.
When you hire a doctor to practice medicine on you, her or she is supposed to be administering his or her best efforts in healing you and maintaining optimal health. DO NO HARM used to be a sworn oath by physicians. Some still swear by it. Some of them happen to be OB/GYNs who believe that throwing large dosages of hormones down your gullet for everything from controlling births, to clearing up of acne to menopausal considtions is a harmful course, or should at least be administered with great caution.
When I was around 18 years old (over 20 years ago), I recall niavely saying, with regard to the Thalidamide tragedy, "Well thank goodness there is much better oversight in what sort of drugs they give people now."
Ok so where do I get to screech and complain about doctors trying to push me into birthcontrol. You wanna talk about shocked and dismayed.
I agree with josephine. When I was 16 my dermatologist wanted me to go on birth control, in addition to another medication, for acne. She would have referred me to an OB/GYN. I told her no, I could take the second medicine without birth control. (The issue was whether I would get pregnant on this second medication.) Four years later, and still a virgin, she tried again, this time throwing the "what if you get raped" question out there. I won. No birth control, and I took the other medication. I never thought that would happen in a dermatologist office. It's a conspiracy!
I like the sign idea.
They should also put a sign outside my ex-OB's office that says, "Will mock and deride you as stupid if you say you're using NFP."
Jane,
Maybe it's better this way. I'm betting the office would be overflowing with like minded people. That is, if my life has been any indication of how the majority seem to think.
The really big problem is that contraception has become so ingrained in our medical culture. I am about to move to a new place, where I will be NFP only. The other providers in the practice had lots of questions about how that would work, and if I would be able to carry my load of patients. Thankfully, they were able to understand that it is a conscience issue and this is a Christian practice. I am hoping and praying that God will work a miracle and show the other midwives and docs that being NFP only will grow the practice.....
I agree with josephine. When I was 16 my dermatologist wanted me to go on birth control, in addition to another medication, for acne. She would have referred me to an OB/GYN. I told her no, I could take the second medicine without birth control. (The issue was whether I would get pregnant on this second medication.) Four years later, and still a virgin, she tried again, this time throwing the "what if you get raped" question out there. I won. No birth control, and I took the other medication. I never thought that would happen in a dermatologist office. It's a conspiracy!
I was in the same situation. I flat out refused contraception. Told the doctor I simply told the dermatologist I was using the best way of preventing pregnancy possible. . . abstinence. He wasn't happy but went with it. After five months of monthly pregnancy tests coming back negative he stopped making me get pregnancy tests. :-p
As for NFP only doctors, it's not easy. My dad is a convert and NFP only physician. He'd already been practicing family medicine for 20 years as an agnostic before he entered the Church. It's one thing to start off as an NFP doctor but to have to explain to your patients after twenty years of practice why you will no longer prescribe contraceptives, participate in sterilization procedures, or refer for sterilizations or abortions is very difficult. His witness to the Gospel of Life in the practice of medicine is one of the greatest examples he has given me. It was in fact the Church's teachings on marriage and sexuality, something most Catholics seem to struggle with, that drew him towards the Faith. He read Humanae Vitae and thought to himself "This is truth. This reflects what I see day in and day out in my practice."
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