marfalight

No. The procedure that the "partial birth abortion ban" made illegal is properly termed intact dilation and extraction. The procedure is certainly not pretty, but it is in many situations actually safer than dilation and evacuation procedures as the fewer times you have to enter the uterus with an instrument, the better. IDX was often used in situations where a fetal anomaly was present, allowing parents who were suffering the loss of a wanted pregnancy to have a whole fetus to bury if they chose to, as the law stands fetuses are not allowed to be removed intact and so families lose that option.

Thank you so much for saying this! I always found it heartbreaking how misunderstood the partial-birth-abortion procedure was. As I understood, IDX was mostly done in the rare (and heartbreaking) 3rd trimester abortion situations where the abortion had to occur OR it was safer for a termination to occur than waiting for delivery, but the mothers/family wanted to have an intact body to bury. I've still not forgiven the pro-life lobbyists and politicians that supported its banning. They only hurt women who very much wanted their babies but, due to horrible biological circumstances, could not carry their pregnancies to term.

Thank you very much for doing this AMA! For something a little different, here are some lighthearted questions!

1) What was your least favorite course during medical school and why?

2) A lot of my friends who are involved with peace corps/missionary work have told me that having a good sense of humor has helped a lot in coping with the tragedies they have witnessed. Have you found that to be true for yourself as well? And do you have any quick humorous stories you'd like to share?

Thank you again! :)

I'm a major proponent of restorative justice, and Beyond Right & Wrong captured so many aspects of it. I don't know if you've managed to see the new film by Dr. Umbreit that was released last year but I really liked how he framed forgiveness. Here's a link to it if you have 27min to spare!. And thank you for doing this AMA!

Thank you so much for doing this! I cannot tell you how many New Year's Eves I've spent with my dad watching the Twilight Zone. :) It is still my all time favorite program (even though I've now seen almost every episode numerous times) that you continue to run, and I wanted to thank you for that. Please keep that going!

My question for you, is if you've considered doing a program similar to what TNT and TCM do, in which a host (or a series of hosts) explains a theme for the movies of the week--and the host and their guests explore the nuanced parts of the film (or poke fun at the sillier aspects of them)? The Science Fiction genre has fascinated me since my film genre course, and I'd love to see the official SyFy channel take a year (or at least a season) to explore the evolution of the genre in a more formal fashion. :)