NOTICE: This document contains correspondence generated during peer review and subsequent revisions but before transmittal to production for composition and copyediting:
• Comments from the reviewers and editors (email to author requesting revisions)
• Response from the author (cover letter submitted with revised manuscript)*
*The corresponding author has opted to make this information publicly available.
Personal or nonessential information may be redacted at the editor’s discretion.
Questions about these materials may be directed to the Obstetrics & Gynecology editorial office:
[email protected].
Date: 12/02/2022 To: "Sarah Villarreal"
From: "The Green Journal" [email protected] Subject: Your Submission ONG-22-1829
RE: Manuscript Number ONG-22-1829
Personal Perspectives - Crisis Pregnancy Centers Dear Dr. Villarreal:
Thank you for sending us your work for consideration for publication in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Your manuscript has been reviewed by the Editorial Board and by special expert referees. The Editors would like to invite you to submit a revised version for further consideration.
If you wish to revise your manuscript, please read the following comments submitted by the reviewers and Editors. Each point raised requires a response, by either revising your manuscript or making a clear argument as to why no revision is needed in the cover letter.
To facilitate our review, we prefer that the cover letter you submit with your revised manuscript include each reviewer and Editor comment below, followed by your response. That is, a point-by-point response is required to each of the EDITOR COMMENTS (if applicable), REVIEWER COMMENTS, and STATISTICAL EDITOR COMMENTS (if applicable) below.
The revised manuscript should indicate the position of all changes made. Please use the "track changes" feature in your document (do not use strikethrough or underline formatting).
Your submission will be maintained in active status for 21 days from the date of this letter. If we have not heard from you by 12/23/2022, we will assume you wish to withdraw the manuscript from further consideration.
EDITOR COMMENTS:
Thank you for your submission. This was incredibly well-received. Please enjoy the comments below which are supportive;
there are also a few suggested edits below to consider.
Please note the following:
* Help us reduce the number of queries we add to your manuscript after it is revised by reading the Revision Checklist at https://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Documents/RevisionChecklist_Authors.pdf and making the applicable edits to your manuscript.
REVIEWER COMMENTS:
Reviewer #1:
Thank you for the opportunity to review your work.
I am incredibly appreciative of the author taking time and a lot of mental and emotional labor to document the terrible damage and danger of CPCs.
I think the narrative is written perfectly and I do not have any questions or suggestions.
I only have a moment to share.
As an OBGYN who is also an abortion provider, this hits very close to home for me. Although I practice in a liberal state with good access to abortion and contraception, I am also heartbroken about what is happening around us. I appreciate the author making concrete suggestions on how to address this situation (talk to medical students, try to vote against the
View Letter .
1 of 2 1/2/2023, 12:47 PM
allocation of funding), but to me personally, it seems like it is not going to be enough. To me, we have been living through the complete disintegration of American democracy (too complex of a topic to unpack here), and now we are just
documenting all the wrongs without any ability to fix anything. Our situation reminds me of the "vulture and the little girl"
story that broke out in the NYT (link below). We can also turn to comedy (link below). I am not suggesting authors have to address this in any way, but part of me was hoping that there will be an acknowledgment of how hopeless it looks for our patients.
Thank you again for doing what you!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_vulture_and_the_little_girl https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10150577369359990
Reviewer #2:
This is a thoughtful and timely essay that I feel should be accepted, after some mild editing. I also think that it would help to include a reference or two, such as: "Pregnancy outcomes after exposure to crisis pregnancy centers among an
abortion-seeking sample recruited online", DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0255152
Reviewer #3:
Your story is compelling and I like how personal it is. It could have happened to many of us (and probably did!). I like that you provide details about what happens in the clinic for those that haven't experienced it. And I like that you remind us to remain vigilant so that our hospitals/practices/learners don't partner with them. There were a few places I think you could shorten it up a bit simply to make it more readable. My pdf didn't include page numbers so I have cut and paste a couple examples below.
//=delete :
When I thought I might be pregnant, //I did what I had seen people do on TV.// I looked //only// for a women's clinic in my area. Thinking I was going to a medical clinic, I instead found myself at a crisis pregnancy
center. I had no idea what that was, or the difference between that and a real health clinic. Crisis
pregnancy centers (CPCs) //are places that// provide counseling explicitly intended to discourage and limit
access to abortion under the //rouse// ruse? guise? of a healthcare center. I had no idea that I would not be seeing a doctor or a nurse, but instead a group of religious zealots pushing their ideals on me.
You use "rouse" in a couple places. I think that is a typo for ruse. But I would suggest guise or disguise instead. One is shown above.
The other is:
our waiting rooms. I also found out that several of these CPCs will try to recruit medical students and providers in training to volunteer //under the rouse of// ^by^ pretending to be a healthcare clinic looking for
-- Sincerely,
Shannon K. Laughlin-Tommaso, MD, MPH Associate Editor, Gynecology
The Editors of Obstetrics & Gynecology
__________________________________________________
In compliance with data protection regulations, you may request that we remove your personal registration details at any time. (Use the following URL: https://www.editorialmanager.com/ong/login.asp?a=r). Please contact the publication office if you have any questions.