This appears to be the original source: (Courthouse News Service) Woman Says Anti-Abortion Nurse Removed IUD Without Permission, Then Lectured Her
Statements made by nurse Olona
Having the IUD come out was a good thing [because] I personally do not like IUDs. I feel they are a type of abortion. I don't know how you feel about abortion, but I am against them. ...What the IUD does is take the fertilized egg and pushes it out of the uterus.
Everyone in the office always laughs and tells me I pull these out on purpose because I am against them, but it's not true, they accidentally come out when I tug.
Everyone in the office always laughs and tells me I pull these out on purpose because I am against them, but it's not true, they accidentally come out when I tug.
(Emphasis added.)
This is horrifying. As several blogs and their commenter below have pointed out, IUD users are specifically instructed NOT to tug the strings. Just looking at an IUD, it seems that forcibly removing like that could cause severe damage to the uterus. Comment #8 on the Pharyngula blog suggests that she be charged with rape for doing something inside a woman's body without her consent. I wouldn't go so far as to make that comparison, but this is undeniably assualt. My mother (an RN) has assured me that this woman will be sued and lose her job, but with these new "provider consceinece" regulations, I just don't know. Even still, it can never make up for the fact that she has harmed and violated this woman. I don't know how anyone could trust a healthcare provider knowing that they can do such things. It's an absolute betrayal and an abuse of power.
*sigh* The links below pretty much say it all.
Commentary seen on the following blogs:
Pharyngula: They have a conscientious need to control your ovaries.
PZ Myers of Pharyngula
If you want to see the consequences of the recent wave of attempts to endorse "provider conscience rules", in which health care providers are permitted to freely exercise their whims and biases in providing clients and patients their services, read this story. As usual, it's all about controlling the reproductive choices of women: we've had politicians blocking access to Plan B contraception; laws that would allow doctors to deny care if it was against their religious beliefs; and pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. Beyond simply passive denial of giving a patient what they need, though, we now have gone to the next step: wingnuts actively removing birth control devices against the patient's will.
[...]
Ladies, welcome to your future. A future in which others will decide whether you may have children or not. Don't worry, though: they will never say "not". And don't feel like your choices will be taken out of your hands, you still have a choice. If you don't want to get pregnant, just never have sex, you slut.
[...]
Ladies, welcome to your future. A future in which others will decide whether you may have children or not. Don't worry, though: they will never say "not". And don't feel like your choices will be taken out of your hands, you still have a choice. If you don't want to get pregnant, just never have sex, you slut.
Feministing: Anti-choice nurse removes women's IUDs "accidently"
---
Feministe: Whoops! Anti-Choice Nurse “Accidentally” Pulls Out Women’s IUDs
Cara of Feministe
First of all, there’s no proof that an IUD does in fact have this effect on a fertilized egg — and the argument that it does is rather similar to those made by anti-choicers about emergency contraception and other hormonal birth control also being the same as abortion. Which is pretty ironic, since the nurse doesn’t seem to have a problem with those kinds of contraception.
Secondly, the nurse admits not only to having pulled out the IUD, but also to having done it repeatedly in the past.
[...]
Even Planned Parenthood’s website states in big bold letters that you should not tug on the strings. So I feel like that had to have been taught at some point when the nurse was first being instructed on how to shorten the IUD strings. I also feel that even if it hadn’t been taught, she would have figured it out by now and stopped doing it if removing the IUD was not her intention. Not that the practice she works for seems to give a s**t either way. (Oh, that silly Nurse Olona! Always pulling out patients’ IUDs without their consent, tee-hee!)
Of course, if the nurse is so opposed to IUDs, she’s also perfectly free to find another line of work. Or, since she works for a practice, to kindly ask another nurse to take the appointment from her. Or, ludicrous though it may sound, to divorce her personal feelings about IUDs and “abortion” from her job, and to just do it properly without assaulting women.
Personally, like Lauredhel, I’m concerned with why Olona hasn’t been charged criminally as well as civilly. And the really scary thing is that while the practice she works for has made the unforgivable error of letting this nurse keep her job, under the new HHS rule — which goes into effect tomorrow and protects anti-choice health care workers from employer “discrimination” based on their personally-determined definitons of abortion — a publicly funded clinic just might not be able to fire her.
As RH Reality Check also questions, how bad are things going to get once the regulation is in effect if health care providers are already so severely breaking the rules and violating patients’ rights now?
Secondly, the nurse admits not only to having pulled out the IUD, but also to having done it repeatedly in the past.
[...]
Even Planned Parenthood’s website states in big bold letters that you should not tug on the strings. So I feel like that had to have been taught at some point when the nurse was first being instructed on how to shorten the IUD strings. I also feel that even if it hadn’t been taught, she would have figured it out by now and stopped doing it if removing the IUD was not her intention. Not that the practice she works for seems to give a s**t either way. (Oh, that silly Nurse Olona! Always pulling out patients’ IUDs without their consent, tee-hee!)
Of course, if the nurse is so opposed to IUDs, she’s also perfectly free to find another line of work. Or, since she works for a practice, to kindly ask another nurse to take the appointment from her. Or, ludicrous though it may sound, to divorce her personal feelings about IUDs and “abortion” from her job, and to just do it properly without assaulting women.
Personally, like Lauredhel, I’m concerned with why Olona hasn’t been charged criminally as well as civilly. And the really scary thing is that while the practice she works for has made the unforgivable error of letting this nurse keep her job, under the new HHS rule — which goes into effect tomorrow and protects anti-choice health care workers from employer “discrimination” based on their personally-determined definitons of abortion — a publicly funded clinic just might not be able to fire her.
As RH Reality Check also questions, how bad are things going to get once the regulation is in effect if health care providers are already so severely breaking the rules and violating patients’ rights now?
(Emphasis original)
RH Reality Check: Ooops....She Did It Again: Anti-Contraception Nurse Takes Women's Wombs into Her Own Hands
Jodi Jacobson of RH Reality Check
This is the United States of America.
You know....that beacon of freedom for the entire world.
That bastion of excellence in everything. The country that likes to think it sets the standard.
So you might think that when you go to a medically-trained doctor or nurse seeking to have your IUD adjusted, the fact that they were trained and certified as medical professionals in a field with clear standards and the fact that you live in a democracy that prides itself on leading the world in human rights (or used to) your wish simply to have the small problem you are experiencing with your IUD fixed would be respected.
You might be wrong.
Now, apparently, nurses and doctors feel empowered to decide for you whether contraceptives are ok, which ones, if any, you are allowed to use, and when you will stop using them irrespective of your wishes. Not because of any medical reason. Just because that particular provider does not like that particular method. Or any method of contraception. Or maybe anything having to do with sex or sexuality. It's enough that s/he just does not like your choices.
You know....that beacon of freedom for the entire world.
That bastion of excellence in everything. The country that likes to think it sets the standard.
So you might think that when you go to a medically-trained doctor or nurse seeking to have your IUD adjusted, the fact that they were trained and certified as medical professionals in a field with clear standards and the fact that you live in a democracy that prides itself on leading the world in human rights (or used to) your wish simply to have the small problem you are experiencing with your IUD fixed would be respected.
You might be wrong.
Now, apparently, nurses and doctors feel empowered to decide for you whether contraceptives are ok, which ones, if any, you are allowed to use, and when you will stop using them irrespective of your wishes. Not because of any medical reason. Just because that particular provider does not like that particular method. Or any method of contraception. Or maybe anything having to do with sex or sexuality. It's enough that s/he just does not like your choices.
