#some women want a whole fetus to bury and mourn

[ms-hells-bells]

Sorry if you’re not the person to ask, but ever since 7th grade I’ve seen and heard stuff like “babies are sucked out with a vacuum and torn limb from limb during an abortion and they feel everything” and that they’re “decapitated and torn to bits” during it and they feel everything and is that true? I feel like a bad person saying even if that’s true the woman/girl should get one if she needs/wants one but some websites say it’s true and some say it’s not and i’m confused 🥲

it is but it's not.. if it is done to a fetus that has developed enough to be described as 'limb from limb' and 'feeling pain', then that is a later term abortion where 90+% of the time, either the fetus is extremely deformed, will not survive gestation, or is already dead (if it is still early second trimester, which starts at 13-14 weeks, then it is possible that the fetus is viable and healthy, but the woman was prevented from getting an abortion earlier....like having extremely strict abortion laws that require one to travel state lines/countries and wait weeks, and have unnecessary ultrasounds, etc.). it is an extreme minority of cases. for example, in new zealand in 2020, 13,246 abortions were performed (almost 1 in 5 known pregnancies were aborted).....of those just 26 were late term abortions (defined as 21 or more weeks). that is essentially 0.2% of all abortions. all abortions at or above 9 weeks made up just 4% of total abortions, the majority of those before the second trimester.

there are two main methods (dependent on the trimester/circumstances). the first is intact induced 'birth', where the woman is induced and passes the (virtually always) dead or dying fetus. this (and the other method, which conservatives kinda mix up with this one) has been spun as 'partial birth abortion' by conservatives, who paint it as women giving birth to living, viable babies, who are then killed by doctors, which is absurd. this is sometimes medically called dilation and extraction or intact dilation and evacuation (depends on the place, some define evacuation as second trimester and extraction as third, but some use the terms as synonyms).

the process that you're talking about is also called dilation and extraction/evacuation in many places, also majority done on severely deformed, dying, and/or unlikely to live to birth fetuses. in this procedure, (correct me if i am wrong, gyns, I'M NOT A DOCTOR, this is my best understanding and simplified explanation of a complicated, individualised procedure), first you are (if the fetus is still alive) typically injected with a medication that stops the fetus' heart (almost always done, at least here, if the fetus is alive and at or past the 'viability' line, which is like 22-24 weeks, so less than a handful of cases in my country even get to this point of having an alive fetus while medically needing a late term abortion), and the doctors keep checking the heart beat until it stops, confirming that the fetus has died (this can also be done during intact D&E, i'm just describing the procedure you're interested in in more detail). once that is done, they then also use induction medications to help your cervix open up and pass the fetus. they may use tools like forceps and vacuum to pull the fetus out, usually crushing the skull, the largest part, and sometimes pulling the body in pieces in order to get it out successfully without causing major trauma to the woman.

this sounds gruesome and unpalatable, but it is a highly studied, highly practiced procedure developed over decades of research and implementation, by doctors who want the best and safest outcome for the woman, as well as the most 'humane' for the fetus, if still alive. the exact procedure, and actions done within it are individual for each woman, who decides it in discussion with her doctors. extensive thought, care, and consideration goes into each procedure when it is this late into gestation.

in the end, worrying about the exact methods of the procedure and what WE deem as 'okay' is not our right, it is doctors and the women themselves that know what's best for the situation. and in fact, loose abortion laws decrease late term abortions. new zealand had an abortion amendment in 2018-2020, making first trimester abortions FAR easier to get, and the proportion of abortions that were performed before 8 weeks of gestation went from 27% to 45%! surgical abortions overall (which in earlier gestation is NOT dilation and evacuation or extraction, it is suction and aspiration of uterine tissue, which includes the tiny embryo) went from 72% of procedures to 59%. and finally, all abortions at or above week 9 went from making up 6% of abortions to 4%.

i hope this gives some comfort. blocking any procedure just hurts women. because individuals have a right to defend their own body regardless of anything else, even fully fledged humans cannot use someone else's body without consent, like taking an organ or blood.

edit: correcting an error or two, largely due to my brain misreading a confusing report lol! 45% of nz abortion are under 8 weeks, 46% were between 8-12 weeks, and 5% being 13-16 weeks. so, 96% of abortions are performed below 14 weeks, not 9 weeks. this still means that 96% of abortions are performed during the first trimester though. and the number of late term abortions (21 weeks and over, which includes mid-late second trimester) was 102, not 26, which adds up to 0.8% of total abortions, not 0.2%. minor in terms of what i was talking about, but i'd hate to spread false statistics!!!

#the exact procedure differs based on trimester circumstances of fetus and the wants of the woman #some women want a whole fetus to bury and mourn #some want the quickest and least traumatic procedure #it's all discussed with the doctor

[deliberatemisspelling]

So I've been mentally writing this sterek fic (I am literally always mentally writing a fic, it's the actual writing part that I struggle with) and it's SUPER frustrating because I'm realizing that I totally do not know the sequence of plot events in TW at ALL after the whole nogitsune shenanigan.

Like okay so it starts with The Summer Fling, which is canon fight me. And Derek angsting about Stiles age and Stiles low-key panicking about Scott finding out and the usual stuff there. And then comes the Unofficial Breakup that has to be Unofficial because they were never Official but after the vault and Erica and Boyd, it's all a little too Real for Stiles and he's like whoa pump the brakes.

So that's chill, and then the no-tell motel, Derek is Dead drama whereafter Stiles goes to the loft to like, mourn or whatever. Turns out Derek's not dead, that's great! Not great? The pair of delicate feet and slim ankles appearing at the top of the Sexy Spiral Staircase over Derek's shoulder. Obvs Stiles just like bolts at this point because Derek isn't his boyfriend, he has no right to be there, Derek's not dead and moved on it's all SO wonderful.

In all the running away, Stiles misses that A. The ankles belong to his English teacher and B. Derek's been magically seduced! Tragic. Rapey. All very much part of Derek's general milieu. Where's Cora? Honestly who cares like I hate to say that about a female character but she's so obviously a stand in for Erica that they murdered for no reason that I just Cannot with the interchangeable women. Miss me. She's running around the woods grieving Boyd. Maybe burying him.

Anyway. There's drama! Alphas! Ice bathes! Root cellars! The canon nonsense. Derek gives up the alpha powers still because that matters later for my plot so i guess Cora is around somewhere. Being vaguely poisoned.

Except that after it's all over Derek turns up in Stiles room to uuuuuh dance around an apology/explanation for the whole Ms. Blake misunderstanding and of course Stiles tells him that it's not his fault and there's uuuuuh... comforting. Where's the sheriff? Fuckin sleeping, dude had a rough night.

And then of course Stiles ruins the afterglow. Because he and Allison and Scott, they did something. And you don't get to fuck around with death magic without consequences. And for Stiles, lovely hella extra Stiles, who cares too much about everything it's that now he doesn't care at all. Not personally. He knows he should, he used to, that he can fake it for his dad and for Scott but he doesn't want to Have To fake it for Derek so he tells the truth.

Which naturally for Derek is a Big No. He's not gonna be with somebody who isn't with him, not really. It all touches on some weird consent and trauma issues and it's just bad news all around and everyone (really just Derek, cuz stiles isn't big on emotions RN) is real sad. Super sad. Pack up with my magically healed sister and ditch town sad.

And then of course comes stiles spiraling deterioration, because he wants to get mad about the whole thing but he can't and that just makes him want to get madder and things aren't going well and then nightmares hallucinations nemeton etc etc Possession. Cool. Literally do not talk to me about the creepy asylum sex or the coyote girl. Stiles' possessed, sleep deprived and drugged up to his eyeballs. It's problematic at best and I'm not about it. Too bad, not sad, don't care. Didn't happen.

Anyway. That's a whole rigamorole. Derek pops back into town, there are some tragedies, again canon nonsense not too caught up in the details here kids. And then! Since you can't be a wolf and a fox at the same time, the nogitsune is defeated and it turns out that when it puked stiles new body out in a pile of bandages, it kept his pretty little darkness all for itself. Convenient! Stiles has Feelings again y'all I could shed a tear.

Except that I WON'T because this is where I basically don't know the plot anymore. I just had to read Wiki plot summaries of the last 3 seasons, which are, ohmilordy, absolute fucking nonsense.

All the shit with the Calveras and Kate being a purple leopard and Derek being both de-aged and human, the Desert Wolf and Kira leaving and the benefactor and the mute and the Beserkers and Liam being introduced and Lydia figuring out the Banshee thing and whatever dumb Peter shit goes on ALL HAPPENS IN SEASON 4? MY GOD. Plus there's extra nonsense with bonfires and magical werewolf viruses and tea leaves that I didn't even KNOW about?

I feel like I deserve a medal for a 5 minute perusal. Anybody that watched all that shit deserves a fucking National Holiday named after them. And that's before all the nonsense with Theo and the Dread Doctors and the Nazi alpha that is apparently NEVER dealt with because of the Ghost Riders and Kate AND Gerard SOME MORE and then some dude named Monroe like Y'ALL.

Y'all.

The plots of this show are a fucking Rat King and Jeff Davis be shot.

Anyway.

Now I know that after Stiles gets his Feelings back, he keeps that shit to himself. Derek's got a lot going on. He's kidnapped! And then is a fetus! And he picks up a hot mercenary girlfriend somewhere and she teaches him how to use guns cuz he's a wooby human for a while. Basically all the plot anybody cares about picks up again in the van on the way to Mexico Part Duex.

Because that's the first time Stiles spends any real time alone (isnt liam passed out for most of it?) with Derek, and he got the feels, but Derek doesn't seem to be doing the weird chemosignal sniffing. (Does stiles know about the humanity in canon? Idc.)

So Derek doesn't appear to like... know. So stiles keeps keeping that shit to himself because it's Too Late anyway. Anything they might have had is long dead.

Speaking of dead! Derek gets gutted! Again y'all. And so of course Stiles is really missing the times when he didn't feel stuff because he loves Derek, fuck does he, and Derek is always a friggin martyr so instead of staying he lets braeden handle it and goes to save scott. With long seconds of forlorn staring and several glances back beforehand, of course. Aka what happened in canon.

So then Derek evolves like a Pokemon, as one does, and when stiles (hauling scott) comes out of the church he's just standing there in the moonlight in all his naked glory.

Stiles drops Scott. There's an affronted sounding 'oof' when he hits the ground, but it doesn't even register for Stiles because Derek's head whips around, nostrils flaring and Stiles knows that Derek Knows.

Stiles blinks and Derek is just there, right in front of him, one filthy hand cradling Stiles jaw.

"Why didn't you say something?" Derek asks and there's more than a little accusation in his voice. Stiles scoffs as dismissively as he can manage.

"What was I supposed to say? 'Hey Derek, surprise! I'm capable of loving you again, so you should break up with your hot, age appropriate girlfriend to go back to sneaking around with a teenage moron who may or may not ever actually tell anyone about you!'"

"Yes," Derek shrugs, and now there's definitely some affronted noises, both from Scott and from Braeden.

"Your girlfriend has a gun," Stiles points out, but it sounds weak to his own ears and Derek doesn't acknowledge it. Stiles is very focused on the rough pad of Derek's thumb tracing the thin skin under his eye. Derek's other hand clenches in the fabric of his shirt, hauling him closer. His own hands come up to curl around Derek's neck and tangle in his hair. It's gritty and greasy and Stiles couldn't care less; Derek's naked and throwing heat like a sauna pressed down the length of him. It's intoxicating against the freezing desert night and Stiles huddles closer.

"So kiss me already," he huffs, and Derek's answering grin is blinding for the split second he can see it before Derek jerks him in the final few inches. Stiles makes an embarrassing noise against Derek's mouth and can't bring himself to care.

Derek's hand slides down his back, settles in the curve of his spine and his fingers dig in. Stiles moans into his mouth again. He can't stop running his hands through Derek's hair, down his neck and shoulders, thinks vaguely he might be trying to climb him but it doesn't matter.

It's probably a long time, longer than Stiles would like to admit, but Lydia finally does interrupt them.

"As lovely as this reunion is, do you think we can go now?" She asks finally, voice strained. Stiles breaks away from Derek just enough to glance over and find her heaving slightly under Scott's weight. Scott, who looks extremely bemused and unhappy, but not terribly angry. Braeden, when he thinks to look for her, is straight up gone.

"Uh, yeah. Hang on," he turns back to Derek, "Do you have like, pants?"

There's more, with like feelings and stuff where Derek says he wants to be with Stiles more than he wants to leave beacon hills, and Stiles is like, deeply moved. And then physically moved because he still does the FBI internship program, Derek just goes with him and stays off the FBI most wanted list.

And that's that on this week's self indulgent bed time story. Now that I've done this I'll have to think of another one for tonight. Oh well.

#sterek #text post #fic #ish #this is a wall of text i'm sorry #i cant figure out the read more on mobile? #but i have all of 2 followers so i apologize for all the scrolling you will have to do to get past this