I want to know if antis REALLY don't understand that abortion is not surgery, or if they're just pretending not to.
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) July 17, 2013
I found the irony of an (alleged) doctor claiming that a surgery was not, in fact, a surgery, too difficult to resist and decided to reply.
@DrJaneChi A D&C is not surgery? That's not what my OB said. Why was I given general anesthesia for a non-surgical procedure, then?
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
[For anyone unaware, I had a D&C in 2006 for a missed miscarriage. At the time of the diagnosis I was twelve weeks along, but the baby was only measuring 7w6d.]
She replied:
@astarofhope Convention, & so they didn't have to worry about your discomfort, & bc insurance will pay for it.
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) July 17, 2013
Apparently she's under the impression that a D&C is only classified as a surgery so insurance companies will pay for it. Does that make zero sense to anyone else? There are plenty of necessary non-surgical procedures for which insurance pays. Classifying a D&C as a surgery if it's not one shouldn't make a difference.
I questioned her further:
@DrJaneChi Did my OB lie to me when she said it was a surgery? Why did it take place in the OR, in the day surgery unit?
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
@DrJaneChi also, is WebMD lying when they call a D&C a surgical procedure? http://t.co/08jcIpqo0v
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
@DrJaneChi What about the ACOG? They also say a D&C is a surgical procedure. Are they lying as well? ... http://t.co/TGUyJL31Ch
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
Now she changes her mind again. Apparently it's the instruments involved that make something a surgery.
@astarofhope Abortion is not a dilation & CURETTAGE. It uses a plastic cannula, not a sharp metal curette.
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) July 17, 2013
I guess if I stab someone to death with a scalpel, that's a surgery too?
.@astarofhope An in-office aspiration (no curette) is an alternative for miscarriage management to an operative D&C.
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) July 17, 2013
Oh, so now "operative D&Cs" are in fact surgeries, but ones done "in-office" with a curette (what happened to the cannula she spoke of above?) is not. I press her again:
@DrJaneChi What definition are you using to define "surgery"? It doesn't seem to be this one: http://t.co/KIaEz5xfIU
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
But of course she finds reasons to nitpick that definition:
By that definition, a colonoscopy, a colposcopy & an IUD placement are also surgeries. @astarofhope
— Jane Doe, MD (@DrJaneChi) July 17, 2013
Sadly, I have to explain to this "doctor" that she's mistaken:
@DrJaneChi The first 2 are diagnostic procedures, not treatment. An IUD is not a treatment, either. So none fit the definition I provided.
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
And throw in some more actual facts:
@DrJaneChi I'm curious, do you think the NIH is lying too? http://t.co/3VFb9zDN6f
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
@sashaismykat @DrJaneChi And according to this, there are many types of surgical abortions: ... http://t.co/p7ftAiwZWc
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
Note that the previous link provided to her is from a website called "The Surgery Encyclopedia."
@sashaismykat @DrJaneChi Interestingly, they have an entry for colonoscopy too: http://t.co/R3xMNImz00
— JoAnna (@astarofhope) July 17, 2013
She never tweeted me again after that, nor did she ever own up to her lying.
Moral of the story? Usually when abortion advocates claim that pro-lifers are lying, the exact opposite is true, and it's not very difficult to catch them at it. None of them will ever admit that they're wrong, of course; the MO is to ignore you, block you, or call a posse of their friends to start spamming your Twitter feed with idiotic insults -- all of which only further serve to illustrate that their side is losing. We have science, logic, and reason on our side, and they don't.