Forgive me if this just becomes a rant, not sure what I'm trying to achieve here but need to get this off my chest.
I am British but I live and work in Bangkok and, like many expats, my work provides my medical insurance. I have worked for two different companies here and in both, maternity care was either not covered or was restricted to those who had served over 2 years. I understood this but was angry about it. I sucked up the significant financial cost of choosing to have a baby here, but I remember discussing with colleagues at the time that if a young, single colleague were to face an unplanned pregnancy, the cost implications would effectively force them to break contract and return to their home country. At the time, most abortions were also illegal here so it isn't like they would have had the choice to not continue with an unplanned pregnancy. The law has recently changed to allow abortions in more cases, though it is still all very hush hush and not as readily available as I believe it should be.
Fast forward to now... just as the whole fucking mess with Roe v Wade is in the media and causing righteous fury all over the world, I find myself requiring an abortion due to severe anomalies in the foetus. All very sad, but made far worse by the fact that I was planning this in the knowledge that in the US many women in my situation would be forced to carry to term a child that, provided a miscarriage didn't occur, would be either stillborn or born with most likely only hours to live. The thought had a really visceral impact on me. I would have been furious at the ruling anyway, but this made me feel even more strongly about it (hormones, possibly!)
Today I have discovered that there is no longer a heartbeat, so I can proceed much more easily with a D&C (abortion is still not very accepted here so induction was the only method I was being offered, which I feel was an unnecessary trauma but that's another story, and at least I can access abortion in the first place).
Now to my point... I have spent over £1000 on tests and scans so far, as maternity care is not covered by my insurance. This pregnancy was not planned. Now, I have discovered that my insurance also does not cover miscarriage care, so I will pay over £1000 for a D&C tomorrow. I could get it cheaper but I've seen so many doctors at this point due to the problems in this pregnancy that I just need to go ahead and do this, not spend days shopping around the hospitals.
Am I right to feel furious that, basically, all parts of a man's body are covered by our insurance but a uterus is, in many circumstances, not insured? Am I justified to take this back to my employer as an example of unfair treatment/discrimination? We are the sort of place that promotes wellbeing, equality, diversity etc and I know my boss is personally unimpressed with the difficulties I have faced accessing an abortion here (several doctors point blank turned me down). But this all feels like lip service if we aren't protecting women from the situation I find myself in. No man will ever be in this situation. They don't have to worry that if they have sex it could lead to this.
In my situation, if I do not have a D&C things might just happen naturally. But if they don't, I am at risk of infection e.g. sepsis and, quite literally, death. My doctor wants me to have the D&C. And yet my insurance won't cover it and my employer knows this when it signs us all up for this policy.
As I said, not sure what I hoped to achieve with this, I just needed to vent.
I cannot articulate my fury at the situation in the US or the fact that so many women and girls don't seem aware how precarious our hard-won rights are. I was asked recently when/why I became such an angry feminist. This. This is why. Because I'm considered second class in terms of my medical insurance. Because my body is not protected in the same way as my male colleagues'. Because a man can fuck around as much as he likes and never, ever worry that he will be left trying to access an abortion or paying for antenatal care or raising a child (and remember, I live on Bangkok, I see more than my share of gross male behaviour among the foreign men here).
Ok rant over. I hope someone can tell me I'm not insane or entitled to feel that it's unfair my insurance does not include miscarriage care, and to worry that many female colleagues here simply would not have the funds to manage this situation.
(There is a lot more that makes me an angry feminist, this is just today's particular frontrunner given my current situation!)