From My Inbox: UPDATE on Dr. Susan Wicklund's Clinic

posted by Katha Pollitt on 02/08/2009 @ 10:12am

Email
Print
Share
- Buzzflash
- del.icio.us
- Digg
- Facebook
- Mixx it!
- Reddit
What is this?
Take Action
Comments (34)

Subscribe Now

The Mountain Country Women's Clinic in Livingston MT has been open for one week. There were 51 picketers, and patients from hundreds of miles away. That tells you that for all the talk about how there are "too many abortions," right now in much of the country clinics are too few and too far between.

It's not too late to Pledge-a-Picketer, a peaceful, nonviolent, amusing way to show your support for Dr. Wicklund's commitment to help women regardless of their ability to pay. It's a scandal that she needs to spend precious funds on a security system, but that's the world we live in -- her previous clinic was targeted by an arsonist. Set your own rate -- a dollar? a quarter? Even a postcard of support would be nice.

(Want to read the post of which this is an update? If Nation blogs were designed like 99 percent of the blogs in the world, you'd just scroll down. But for some reason ours are designed so that you have to click on the blog title, in this case And Another Thing, which will bring you to the intro paragraphs of earlier posts, which you can then click on to get the whole story. Exhausting,I know.)

Dear Pledge-A-Picketers/ Friends:

First week's numbers: 51 picketers were outside Mountain Country Women's Clinc

PLEASE SEND YOUR PLEDGES TO: Mountain Country Women's Clinic P.O. Box 1780 Livingston, MT 59047

PAYPAL PAYMENT Option will be available by Feb. 10 via a pledge link at WWW.MOUNTAINCOUNTRYWOMENSCLINIC.COM.

THANK YOU!!!

Letter from Dr. Susan Wicklund:

Hello, and so many thanks to all of the people who have taken "The Pledge"!! It is Wednesday night, three days after opening Mountain Country Women's Clinic in Livingston, Montana. I am exhausted, but happy to report that we are successfully caring for women who need our services. We have had patients who have traveled from North Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, many parts of Montana, and from right here in Livingston. For those of you not familiar with our wide-open spaces, it means some of our patients have driven up to 8 hours to get here. We provided services to one woman for no cost because she had been bleeding and cramping for two weeks and unable to find anyone who would help her without her Medicaid being in place first. We helped another find partial funding through an organization in Wyoming, and have accepted others at a sliding scale. I never turn patients away because they can't pay. I've been there.

The protesters were out in force on Monday, opening day, numbering 35 at high noon. Tuesday was quiet with only 6 protesters near a local grocery store, and then 6 again today on our street corner and near the clinic door. Any money that is received through the Pledge-A-Picketer campaign will be used to help defray the cost of subsidizing patients, and to help pay for the security system necessary to keep staff and patients safe.

On February 6th we will send out an email letting you know what the total protester count for the week is. Please do your own math and send in your pledged amount. Some of you will rather use the PayPal account on our website, which will be up and running next week.

Honestly, however, I would love to get something by snail mail from each of you, telling me why you are so willing to do this. It makes these long, long days easier to know there is so much support for women in the far corners of rural America who are just trying to make the best choice they can for themselves and their families.

Yours in Choice,

Susan Wicklund, MD

UPDATE FROM ALAN KESSELHEIM AND MARTHA KAUFFMAN:

Welcome aboard. It has been quite a ride since we sent out the call. People keep forwarding the notice, so that our responders have been signing up from all over the country, and from as far away as New Zealand. Our call made it into The Nation after one of their writers, Katha Pollitt, got our email and signed up. More importantly, the level of commitment and support has been inspiring. People write in saying that they've been cut to part-time work, but will do what they can. Others say they are pledging on behalf of their daughters and grand daughters. Others say that it's time to put their money behind their beliefs. One woman said she's sending $1 for every year since Roe v. Wade.

As you read in Dr. Wicklund's statement, the clinic has been up and running all week. She is again engaged with women in need, and using her skills to help them through. It has been fairly intense in Livingston. Picketers have been active. They have been leafleting cars and lobbying downtown businesses to turn people against Mountain Country Women's Clinic. On Monday night, at the City Commission meeting, there was a standing room only crowd waiting to give testimony. Sue had many supporters there, who spoke on her behalf, but the anti-choice crowd lined up to speak as well. Fortunately, the city commissioners appear to line up behind the clinic and its legal right to be in town. On a darker side, some group has established a website which spreads malicious lies about Sue's work and abortion in general. It's ridiculous, although if a person doesn't know better, it sounds awful.

In any case, here's the deal with the pledges. This week's picketer total is 51. We want to make it flexible and up to individuals to fit their commitment to the need and their own budgets. Please don't feel tied down a specific pledge amount, or obligated to send money every time we contact you. Ideally, decide what you can pledge, do the math, and send a check to: Mountain Country Women's Clinic, P.O. Box 1780, Livingston, MT 59047. We are also in the process of setting up a PayPal account for folks who have forgotten how to use a checkbook and want to pledge on line. That should be up and running via a Pledge-A-Picketer link on the MCWC website, www.mountaincountrywomensclinic.com, by early next week.

While we don't want to be heavy handed about soliciting support, we also don't want to downplay the importance of it. This is a crucial time, and Sue really needs help to pay for the security system, to make her payroll, and to establish a fund for indigent patients. If ever there was a time to demonstrate support for Sue, and for women's reproductive rights, this is truly it. Please do what you can.

Stay tuned for next week's report. You have no idea what this network, and this palpable level of community, means to Sue.

In Solidarity,

Alan Kesselheim and Martha Kauffman

Comments (34)

"It's a scandal that she needs to spend precious funds on a security system, but that's the world we live in .. "

Many of us feel the same way about our business and our homes...we have to raise prices to cover things like security systems(see stores and banks)..and pass this on to the customers...

I could use a "stimulus" check from govt and picketers paid to demonstrate support for my business as they raise funds for me, too.

How do I get into a deal like this?

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 12:17pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 12:17pm

Sorta babbling on that one, MAASCH...

plus came off like you were comparing the "pro-lifer" protester to bank robbers and petty theives.

Again...not too smooth.

Posted by Mask at 02/08/2009 @ 1:53pm
Mask ,

In a previous life you must have been a miner......digging and finding things that are not there while thinking you have found something profound.

Kinda like ironpyrite... Looks like gold nuggets but upon REAL examination....Mask, just a simple observation....

No robbers or thieves, ..... abortion clinics are the same as other business, Mask, they are a business complete with real costs.

Commenting on the strange fact of using protesters to pan handle, so to speak,for funding seems to me to stretch the concept of people protesting out of genuine stance for or against.

At first I thought the protesters were protesting the fact there was pro life protesters there..... But now it seems it is nothing more than a money gimmic.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 3:24pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 3:24pm

MAASCH...it was YOUR analogy to preventing robberies on a thread about abortion clinic protests...

not mine.

Posted by Mask at 02/08/2009 @ 4:29pm
mask,

No such analogy was made or intended. The comment refers to the costs of doing business ( mine, yours or the abortion business)and that I thought it strange to call for protests to raise money as opposed to protesting the presence of pro live protesters if there are any. And that security is a cost of doing business.....usualy pasted on in the cost of the service or product.

You dig too deep sometimes and miss the "vein" completly.

Nothing more, nothing less.

..... And nothing of value mined by you.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 5:33pm
Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 5:33pm

And the "doing business" being discussed was abortion services clinics being forced to spend tons of cash on security due to the protestors and possibly OTHER "pro-lifers"....

and you mentioned banks and stores having to do that to prevent robberies...

ergo, you were trying to be dismissive of that expenditure at the clinics...and used a CRIMINAL analogy to do it.

So....????

Posted by Mask at 02/08/2009 @ 8:16pm
Mask,

Damaging an abortion clinic is criminal activity as is stealing or robbing. Every business has to spend $ for security.

Not many ask for protesters to "protest" for money. My snide comment is centered around a hunch that abortion is include in the spending, er,stimulus package..... And I need one, too.

As a member of a working family I need one, to be fair, of course..... Oh yeah, and to stimulate my business.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 9:13pm
I was dismissive of the fact they call out protesters, not to protest, but to make money.

Just under 100% of the jewelry salesman robberies are commited by Columbian gangs, which morphed into the Hispanic gangs of every flavor.

I wonder how much I would get if I called on all jewelry buyers to protest the Columbian embassys or interst or what ever or all hispanic areas against jewlery robberys.... And I wanted them to protest for money.

Same for any others business...maybe a new trend..... Protesters for revenue raising. Might be a good idea here.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/08/2009 @ 9:23pm
If Witchland needs help, this guy is looking for a job and change of state!

A doctor's license was revoked Friday in the case of a teenager who planned to have an abortion but instead gave birth to a baby she says was killed when clinic staffers put it into a plastic bag and threw it in the trash.

The doctor, Pierre Jean-Jacques Renelique, also is the subject of a criminal investigation. Renelique was not present when the baby was born, but the Florida Medical Board upheld Department of Health allegations that he falsified medical records, inappropriately delegated tasks to unlicensed personnel and committed malpractice.

Posted by comancheamerican at 02/09/2009 @ 12:22am
Posted by comancheamerican at 02/09/2009 @ 12:22am

And where did you read this story, RIO?

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 07:22am
Pick your florida paper or one of 2000 internet hits!

Posted by comancheamerican at 02/09/2009 @ 07:55am
Posted by comancheamerican at 02/09/2009 @ 07:55am

No, I asked where did YOU read about it?

Guarentee it wasn't the original CNN story....but CNS or a "pro-life" website, right?

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 09:22am
Who cares where he read about it .. The story is all over the media.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/09/2009 @ 11:23am
Right. The only way it matters where he read it is if the factual claims would be different. Here, the essential factual core is there regardless of where you read it. It'll be interesting to see what bright-line arguments people try to make following this incident...

Posted by Thrawn at 02/09/2009 @ 11:57am
No, it does matter.

Because it's unlikely that a partisan or ideological news site (as CNS or a pro-life website) would be....would present any non-ideological elements to the story nor post any updated information that didn't comport with their ideological bent.

AND given his use of uncited Cut & Pastes (seemingly trying to pretend they are HIS writings) it would be further proof that RIO knows little outside of what his few right-wing news sources tell him.

BTW, an old point, but...given all these "abortion horror stories" (and discounting their extreme rarety)....why is it (again) that when the Republicans (supposed "pro-life" party) controlled the House, Senate, and the White House...

the Human Life Amendment, which would have Constitutionally ended abortion, STILL languished in Committee (where it had been since 1973) and was never even brought to the floor for a vote by Hastert?....never even ASKED to be brought to the floor in the Senate by Frist...not even asked by BUSH?!????!?

Any of you "pro-life" guys figured out you're being conned by the Republican Party?

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 12:15pm
Mask, "Because it's unlikely that a partisan or ideological news site (as CNS or a pro-life website) would be....would present any non-ideological elements to the story nor post any updated information that didn't comport with their ideological bent."

I agree...all one has to do is read the NATION MAG to see this...

EVREYONE cut and pastes here Mask...you paste more posts here than anyone..:)..

The repubs never brought up the Anti-abortion bill because it is not what the culture or the country as a whole want or supports..

you know this and have been told this numerous time..

cut and save this for next time you ask the same question again.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/09/2009 @ 12:39pm
Katha Pollitt is doing what she can as a journalist to help Dr. Susan Wicklund's clinic.

One thing that gets overlooked, however, is that abortion is murder.

It is legal, in this country, because of Roe v. Wade. By the way, there are "pro-choice" legal scholars who would admit that Roe v. Wade was bad law.

Let's hope no Supreme Court justices retire in the next 4 or 8 years - until Sarah Palin becomes President in 2013 or 2017, and then let as many of the "centrists" or liberals on the court retire as possible and she will nominate and the Senate will approve constructionist judges who will issue a ruling in a case before them to strike down Roe v. Wade.

Note: Constructionist judges are judges who do the jobs they are constitutionally required to do and not jobs the Constitution does not give them authority for, such as making law.

Mask, I am posting this before having run it by Rush for approval.

Phillip McCrevice - It seems that being an assclown like I apparently am has it's advantages - it seems to give me the ability to determine what is bad policy (abortions) and what is better policy (no abortions).

Frosty Zoom - bonk to you, too, eh?

Darladoon and or Lillian (Ljerk) - I know that either one or probably both of you "know" I am not qualified to comment because I am male. Don't forget, however, abortion is public policy now and ALL citizens of the United States have the right to weigh in on/try to influence/decide upon/vote upon/etc. the public policy. We are a free country.

Posted by sjchermak at 02/09/2009 @ 1:16pm
The repubs never brought up the Anti-abortion bill because it is not what the culture or the country as a whole want or supports..----Posted by YourJomamma at 02/09/2009 @ 12:39pm

Fine, MAASCH. That's exactly right.

Now...tell RIO and SJCHER.

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 1:45pm
Now...tell RIO and SJCHER.

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 1:45pm

I have and they also know this.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/09/2009 @ 2:01pm
Mask,

I said above "ALL citizens of the United States have the right to weigh in on/try to influence/decide upon/vote upon/etc. the public policy. We are a free country."

What about that statement don't you understand?

I am voicing my opinion. This is a free country. If the culture or country as a whole doesn't agree with me at the moment that means those who oppose abortion have more work to do to convince others.

This is OK to do this, because this is a free country and there is free speech in the country.

It is NOT a citizen's obligation, when one has an opinion or belief, to drop that opinion or belief if the prevailing belief AT THAT MOMENT is otherwise.

Unless, I guess, if the prevailing belief AT THAT MOMENT is a belief that LIBS promote.

Then I guess one has the responsibility to drop their opinions and become a liberal. (or Progressive or Socialist or Leftist or Communist or whatever).

Is that how it works, under Liberal utopia? Let me know, Mask (and I am sure you will).

Posted by sjchermak at 02/09/2009 @ 2:27pm
Sjchermack,

"..is free speech in the country.

It is NOT a citizen's obligation, when one has an opinion or belief, to drop that opinion or belief if the prevailing belief AT THAT MOMENT is otherwise."

My belief exactly.

Posted by YourJomamma at 02/09/2009 @ 2:58pm
Posted by sjchermak at 02/09/2009 @ 2:27pm |

On the contrary, I WANT you to voice your opinion.

I simply also want you to explain why the Party that CLAIMS to support your opinion on abortion...doesn't, when they get into power.

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 3:40pm
<i>Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 3:40pm </i>

O...K? So your point is that the Republicans don't really care as much about banning abortion as they say they do? Oh no, the pro-life argument completely vanishes!

Seriously? The impact of your point isn't that "if you believe this, you should stop advocating your position," it's "if you believe this, you should advocate it MORE." Seems kinda contrary to what you'd actually want...

Posted by Thrawn at 02/09/2009 @ 5:10pm
Abortion is legal, but that does not make it moral. The 21st century has better technology to show life in the womb. I challenge all to go on You Tube and check out what abortion does to an unborn child.

It is selfish of women to only think about their bodies. Everyone will rail about this. A women does have a right to decisions about her own body, but there is another's life/body in her. Do we nurture life? Or kill it.

I live in Livingston. People are sick over having an abortion clinic in our small mountain community. She is going to hurt the downtown businesses here.

Posted by inlivingston at 02/09/2009 @ 5:35pm
Mask,

The circumstance you bring up - the "Human Life Amendment" - is one you bring up each and every time the subject of abortion comes up.

You, as always, want an explanation from me about why Republicans did not stop abortion when, according to you, they had the wherewithal to do so.

The "according to you" point of my comment is the most pertinent here.

I do not profess to have a complete detailed background of knowledge or explanations about that effort. But I do know this - if it really were true that the Republicans had the wherewithal to stop abortion and did not ---- then there would have been many, many pro-life people that would have been madder than a swarm of hornets at the Bush administration for failing to stop abortion when it had the chance.

However, other than you, I have not seen any significant comment on that subject - in fact I can not remember now having seen any comment by any pro-life groups expressing angst or anger about a missed opportunity.

Thus there no doubt is more than meets the eye about that effort - valid reasons why that was not something that was a realistic opportunity or even a possible or potential opportunity.

Thus, it probably is a figment of your imagination that Republicans intentionally did not stop abortion and want it out there as a campaign issue to con voters with, sentiments you have expressed in the past when plowing the same ground you plowed again on this thread.

You continually bring this up and want an answer from me about it - what is there to answer - it would be like a dog chasing his tail - me chasing after something that is pretty much your imagination to begin with.

Because, as I said, if what you say was true, a lot more people than you would be talking about it.

Posted by sjchermak at 02/09/2009 @ 8:25pm
Mask,

I did also want to let you know I took the chance once again and made a posting without clearing it with Rush first.

But, once I receive my instructions from Rush, I will post in with any clarifications, or retractions, or amplifications of the comment as need be - and if Rush wants me to say anything more I will post in with whatever Rush tells me to say.

Don't worry too much about my comments,though, because even though I said above I took a chance, we do receive general guidelines about what to say and what to think and I do operate totally within those bounds.

Posted by sjchermak at 02/09/2009 @ 8:32pm
Posted by sjchermak at 02/09/2009 @ 8:25pm

SJCER, after a long rambling post....

you still didn't answer the question-

Why didn't, when the "pro-life" party had won the House...won the Senate...won the White House...did the Human Life Amendment not even get a vote???

How about the theory that shakes you to your core....

they don't REALLY want to stop abortion, they want to keep it out there as a "leg of the stool" to keep poor working class social conservatives on the hook for the stuff they DO find time to vote on (tax cuts, deregulation) that those folks really don't get anything out of...

but would cripple the GOP if they found out that they were being conned.

Of course YOU wouldn't believe that theory...because it would mean Rush isn't "in the know" with the GOP or worse...

he's part of the con.

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 10:35pm
Posted by sjchermak at 02/09/2009 @ 8:32pm

Name 3 political policy matters, Rush Limbaugh has been wrong on?

Name 2...

Name 1...

I'll wait....

Posted by Mask at 02/09/2009 @ 10:37pm
Mask,

You are like the Energizer Bunny. You just keep going and going and going.

I basically told you above this "question" you have is a figment of your imagination, with the obvious implication that I had no intention of answering it.

But then you come back, mention I haven't answered your question, and ask it again!

And then ask another one from your standard "questions" that come up every now and then!

You must have speed keys on your computer, CTRL-A to spit out your standard ones about Republicans and abortion, CTRL-R for ones about Rush, CTRL-M for the one about the percentage of radicals in Islam, etc. (you haven't asked that one in quite a while now).

Posted by sjchermak at 02/10/2009 @ 04:24am
Posted by sjchermak at 02/10/2009 @ 04:24am

So you attack me for keep asking a question you DON'T WANT to answer...

hmmmm? And that puts ME "in the wrong"?

Gotcha. BTW, how is it Rush Limbaugh is a imperfect human being like the rest of us...and you are NOT a cultist...

but you can't even name ONE policy matter that he's been wrong on?!?!???

Even Reagan raised taxes...and I'm sure you thought THAT was a mistake.

Posted by Mask at 02/10/2009 @ 10:54am
Mask,

The question you want me to answer, about the "Human Life Amendment" is a figment of your imagination.

Why should I answer something that is a figment of your imagination?

Now, on another standard one, you want me to answer 3 things Rush is "wrong" about.

I did mention one, a few weeks ago, but it turned out I was wrong and Rush was right.

Remember, when I told you that Rush said the Pittsburgh Steelers would be "bird exterminators".... and I said Rush was wrong... that the Ravens would beat the Steelers and win the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles.

I was wrong about that, wasn't I?

Seems Rush was right, wasn't he?

Six time winners... Pittsburgh Steelers...more Super Bowl wins than any other team!

Have you gone to your local sporting goods store and bought a Terrible Towel yet, and if not, why not? I bought one yesterday.

What are you waiting for?

Posted by sjchermak at 02/10/2009 @ 11:12am
Posted by sjchermak at 02/10/2009 @ 11:12am

No, I wanted you to name 3 political POLICY matters that Rush was wrong about....not dumb ass sports shit.

How about THIS?--

?What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.

...We are becoming too tolerant as a society, folks, especially of crime, in too many parts of the country.... This country certainly appears to be tolerant, forgive and forget. I mean, you know as well as I do, you go out and commit the worst murder in the world and you just say you're sorry, people go, "Oh, OK. A little contrition."... People say, "I feel better. He said he's sorry for it." We're becoming too tolerant, folks. --Rush Limbaugh TV show (10/5/95)

"These tough sentencing laws were instituted for a reason. The American people, including liberals, demanded them. Don't you remember the crack cocaine epidemic? Crack babies and out-of-control murder rates? Liberal judges giving the bad guys slaps on the wrist? Finally we got tough, and the crime rate has been falling ever since, so what's wrong?"--RushLimbaugh.com (8/18/03)

Posted by Mask at 02/10/2009 @ 12:44pm
From what I've seen of those wide open spaces in the Mountain States, people can log major miles to get groceries or pizza. In an ideal world, folks wouldn't have to do that. Still, it's disingenuous for Katha to aver that any kind of clinic is too few and too far between in a section of the country with fewer people than a typical Eastern Seaboard metropolis. Dakotan women usually come here to Minnesota for abortions. That's fine by me; I'll even pay more in tax to make that happen, provided feminists stop acting like the fact that there isn't an abortion clinic in every drugstore is the result of some nefarious cabal to keep women down.

Posted by DP in TC at 02/10/2009 @ 4:34pm
Mask,

?????

What is the purpose of your post at 12:44 pm on Feb 10?

"....How about THIS?--

........

Posted by Mask at 02/10/2009 @ 12:44pm...."

?????

You were asking me to highlight 3 things Rush is wrong about....now you highlight 3 things you attribute to Rush...

I gather, based on the context of your prior posts, that this was an attempt by you to put down 3 things Rush is wrong about.

How is Rush wrong in any of the three things you have provided?

I have some suspicions where you may be headed with that stuff if you are trying to say Rush is wrong.... go ahead, head there.......but then you will find you will lose the ensuing argument... but go ahead and head there anyway, to put yourself in checkmate.

Posted by sjchermak at 02/11/2009 @ 10:35am