Choices: You're Too Young

We all like having choices, even me, who has a lot of trouble making decisions. I am that "typical" woman who cannot decide where she wants to eat when her husband asks her, "What do you want for dinner?" Isn't that the worst question ever?! Trying to choose a movie to watch on Netflix or on an airplane is agonizing. I probably spend more time choosing a movie then I do actually watching the movie.

But, I have the choice, and having or not having a choice is the reason I'm writing this. With the recent developments in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Mississippi, I started thinking about the choices I have in my life. And while I've been very fortunate to have many choices in my life, one of the most important choices I tried to make for myself, as a woman, was denied time and time again.

I was older than 18 years old and married. As a husband and wife, we, together, made the decision to not have children. However, when I asked medical professionals in the United States to perform a tubal ligation, I was denied. DENIED?! I was an adult. I was married (which shouldn't matter one way or another). Yet, when I wanted to make an informed decision about my body, I was told that I was a little young and that I might change my mind, and therefore I could not have the procedure. But when my husband, who was the same age, asked to have a vasectomy, the only question he was asked was what date suited him to do the procedure.

I was very fortunate to finally find a doctor who listened to what I had to say, and agreed to perform the procedure. You can read all about it here. Five years later, and I - no, WE - have not changed our minds.

While I am very much pro-choice when it comes to abortions, I am also very much pro-choice when it comes to preventing an unwanted pregnancy to begin with. And for a doctor to say that a woman cannot choose to permanently prevent a pregnancy, and the law to say that the same woman cannot terminate an unwanted pregnancy, just blows my mind. So, I can't choose to have an abortion, but I also can't choose to prevent a pregnancy in the first place? You're damned if you do; you're damned if you don't. 

Healthcare in South Korea

Since it's our last week in Korea, I've been going through all bills and receipts that I've collected the past two years.  Yes, I am "one of those people" - I save bills for at least one year.  While going through everything, I came across all of our medical receipts.  In the past two years, we've (I, really) managed to rack up quite a few!

You might think, "So what?  Big deal!"  You're right.  If I were back home, there is no way I would share this information with you.  However, I want to share with you just how awesome the Korean healthcare system is.

As you can see in the picture, one or both of us went to a doctor or the hospital at least 25 times.  When I calculated the total cost, it only came up to 1,607,380 Won (~$1,600.00).  I added in 200,000 Won for the various health checks we were required to get and 300,000 Won for Zach's wisdom teeth removal.  That's a total of 2,100,000 Won (~$2,000.00).

What's more impressive is what the costs included:

• a trip (or two) to the E.R.
• 10 sessions of laser hair removal
• a tubal ligation where I had to spend the night in the hospital 
• a vasectomy
• and countless infections

What's not included is the medication.  However, each time we got medicine, the average cost was about 5,000 Won.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to get sick, the best place to do it is probably South Korea!