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Question:
Can
you elaborate on the experiences you've heard from survivors of the
QF cult? The lack of healthcare, emotional and physical abuse, risks
of so many pregnancies and births, girls being robbed of their own
childhoods, shame surrounding bodies and sex et cetera. It would be
great to flesh those as a little so the readers can really understand
the terrible impact of these on the women that you've helped.
Because
QF/P places so much emphasis on the value of the unborn, eventually,
the discussion extended to the problem of ectopic pregnancy in which
many leaders in the movement decided that they would practice
medicine, declaring all surgeries to rescue a woman from the
life-threatening consequences of any ectopic pregnancy to be an
abortion that would consign their unborn baby to hell because of
their alleged act of murder. Because women become little more than a
vessel that carries a being that is more valuable and pure than they
can be, many leaders began teaching that women should refuse all
intervention for ectopic pregnancy in order to die as martyrs for the
pro-life cause.
Tubal
pregnancies constitute 98% of all ectopic pregnancies, present an
immediate risk of fatal hemorrhage for the mother, and for a host of
reasons, all tubal pregnancies prove to be non-viable. Of the 2% of
non-tubal ectopic pregnancies, though it may be possible to carry
such a pregnancy, all also pose great risk to the survival of the
mother.
Each case is unique, based on where the fertilized egg
implants, though in vary rare cases for which statistics are
impossible to obtain, a rare baby survives. However, the Patriarchs
saw an opportunity to exploit the this issue, asking women to reject
intervention for any and all ectopic pregnancies in the spirit of the
pro-life effort. Prior to vigilant surgical treatment of ectopic
pregnancy, one in three women died from the condition, and with
treatment today, ectopic pregnancy complications still constitute 9%
of all pregnancy-related maternal deaths.
Those of
us who opposed this teaching are grateful to the pro-life arm of the
American Congress of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists for graciously writing a
position statement on the lifesaving intervention to save the
very valuable lives of mothers with the condition. After the
publication of the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and
Gynecologists’ position statement, I received much feedback from
gracious families who believed that they had murdered their children.
These families were pleased to learn that by the time that the condition of the mother became life-threatening, the pregnancy had already ended spontaneously on its own, causing the hemorrhage which required the medical attention they received. Though I found it rewarding to bring such liberating news to those so affected, I still feel angry that these suffering parents were burdened with needless, ignorant heartache and unmerited shame through ridiculous beliefs.
These families were pleased to learn that by the time that the condition of the mother became life-threatening, the pregnancy had already ended spontaneously on its own, causing the hemorrhage which required the medical attention they received. Though I found it rewarding to bring such liberating news to those so affected, I still feel angry that these suffering parents were burdened with needless, ignorant heartache and unmerited shame through ridiculous beliefs.
~
Cynthia Kunsman
The
view of Quiverfull from my vantage
August
2015
