The reading, “12 Reasons It Should Be Illegal for Doctors Not to Treat Trans People” written by Diana Tourjee is not only a crucial article for people to read but an informative one as well. Tourjee focuses on the unethical and inhumane actions being done towards transgendered individuals in the society just because they want to be able to go to the doctors when they feel sick. What surprised me throughout this reading was the whole thing if I’m being honest; I’ve been aware of the fact that trangendered individuals throughout history have had it hard but even saying that is an understatement to the obstacles and challenges they have gone through and continue to go through in society today. The fact that the HHS decided to determine if they wanted to effectively allow federally funded healthcare providers and insurers to legally deny care to transgender people is a representation of the ideology that trangendered people till this day are still not recognized, respected, and not seen as equal. 

The reading, “A Birth Story” written by Dana-Ain Davis, Cheyenne Varner, and LeConte J. Dill focuses on the birth story about a woman named Leconte J. Dill. Leconte wanted to share her story because she understands the power of reconstituting oneself after having experienced racism, in this case, obstetrics racism. Leconte is a forty year old, black, professional woman who had IVF; once Leconte became pregnant she started planning her life and birth ahead of time for the arrival of their baby girl. LeConte and her husband set up a birth support team that included two doulas and arrangements were made for nurse midwives to be at the hospital when LeConte planned to give birth. LeConte wanted a smooth, special, and memorable experience for her, her husband, and her baby girl during her birthing experience at the hospital. During LeConte’s pregnancy she was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia; therefore, her OB-GYN team wanted her to induce labor. During LeConte’s time at the hospital, she and her husband had several experiences that they viewed as radical caring and obstetric racism. LeConte experienced a nurse jabbing her arm over and over trying to find a vein, an anesthesiologist giving her too much epidural and making her dizzy, people pressuring her into having a c-section, and even moving her to a different story with no one to help besides her own husband. What surprised me while reading this article was how LeConte even experienced something like this at the most sensitive, important, and special part of her life along with her family’s. The idea that she left the hospital disconsolate, uncomfortable, and damaged from her experiences is a prime example of the continuous racism that leads society and will affect different aspects of society in obstructive ways. 

In the film, “Period. End of Sentence.” featured by Netflix was not only informative but a moving documentary that truly dives deep into not only the continuous stigma of menstruation but the way women in India have paved a new way for that stigma to begin to break down. What surprised me in this documentary was the fact that men in India did not know what a period was or what a pad was used for. The idea that these men have wives and children who are girls yet they do not know what a period is and that women get it once a month for the rest of their lives is mind boggling to me. What also shocked me was the fact that women in India were not only shy but ashamed of their periods and the fact that they had to change with cloths just found on places like the side of the road. The format in which these stories were shared; documentary and interview style helped me truly open my eyes to how not only women in India but in other third world countries as well are facing such medical oppression simply by not having the privacy to change while on their period in peace, the idea that they feel shy and ashamed of even having their periods, and the essential materials needed like pads or tampons are not available or even a thing in these countries. 

Personally, all both the reading materials and documentary all connect with the fact that people of all types; gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicicty, and even disability all face medical oppression in some way shape or form. Whether you are being denied the right to see a doctor because of how you identify yourself, whether you are being a black woman being faced in obstetric racism, or whether you’re a young girl living in a third world country with no access to support or help with their own bodies and the things they go through; you are being medically oppressed in some way shape or form.