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September 24, 2012 - The fundraiser's still going on at indiegogo and will continue until October 6th. At which point the next step begins or your donations will be refunded. Please contribute.
Once again, if you or someone you know is suffering domestic abuse, The Domestic Violence Hotline can be contacted at their website, http://www.thehotline.org. Or you can contact them by phone at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or TTY (1-800-787-3224). I'll probably be adding this link to the sidebar when I update the site again.
While on the topic I have a lot to say about this storyline and its relationship to the issue. It's a bit hard to talk about this storyline before completing it so I'll be making more statements as Kristen's story continues. If it's not obvious, Kristen is being sarcastic in the first panel. Her background follows a stereotypical pattern of parental neglect, an impressionable weak-willed personality, and dangerously poor decision making. She is not a model for all abuse cases. Abusive relationships happen to all people and all personality types, but for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is actually highlighted by today's comic I decided to use a somewhat oversimplistic and stereotypical backstory for Kristen's character.
This will most likely not be the last storyline that features domestic violence. It's an extremely complicated issue with a lot of problems regarding both assessing and preventing it. And though abortion clinics do have a lot of resources to assist patients who face domestic violence, one of the most significant services they offer (and the primary focus of this comic) is abortion options. So in the interest of retaining the focus of this comic on that choice and not drifting too far off on a related yet lengthy tangent of all the circumstances and situations surrounding domestic violence, I simplified the causes and resolutions of much of what Kristen's faced to emphasize how little information to which the staff of an abortion clinic actually has access.
With the exception of Jennifer's mother, which she's doing largely as a favor, Mary doesn't have any regular patients. She meets people cold and has to make a quick assessment of their mental state, wellbeing, and attitude towards abortion. It's not easy. But failsafes exist, and by law she's required to follow up and see if Kristen's claims that child services have been contacted (Mary still needs to contact them despite Kristen's claim), she is receiving treatment, and that protective measures have been enacted to keep Kristen separated from her boyfriend (possibly including his arrest). In theory things are slightly easier for Kristen as a minor as she'll be afforded greater protection at school and can make allegations of statutory rape that would be difficult to refute. Kristen is also entitled to all the benefits that child protective services offer which are largely taking care of things for her rather than requiring the clinic's involvement (and saving me the trouble of writing about their involvement), but domestic violence cases are never particularly simple to deal with. Calls for restraining orders can easily be met with opposition disputing the credibility of the parties involved, and even once a restraining order is granted it's for the most part up to the parties to enforce it (at least until an incident where the restraining order is broken occurs). This means that not only is it the abuser's responsibility to keep away from his (or her) victim, but the victim must also actively avoid situations where the abuser is present. This has the potential to create a dramatic restructuring of their daily lives as well as the lives of the mutual friends, acquaintances, and family members who may find themselves caught between the two parties. Losing contact with not only the victim but also associations of the victim may cause the abuser to grow more hostile and aggressive and likewise some of these mutual associations may disregard the restraining order belittling the victim's situation and making the victim's situation more difficult.
An abortion clinic does have the resources to deal with these issues for the most part, but they often work in conjunction with other offices to do so. They also deal with a high volume of patients, and can't devote all their attention to one person. They have to assess what's the most important element of their patient's situation and what they can deal with themselves. In this instance I wanted to make such assessment easy. She's pregnant and needs to make a choice about her pregnancy. Her situation is hardly that simple, and I have tried to give indications of some of that complexity. Ultimately though I don't want to make her situation too confusing by having multiple tangents regarding Kristen being discussed simultaneously, so I wanted to focus on the primary interest of this comic, "what is Kristen's choice regarding her pregnancy?" I don't want to ignore other situations where abuse occurs or say any aspect of it is uniform or simple. But due to the portrayal of abuse in other mediums, there's a familiarity to Kristen's story, that I feel allows me to focus on this specific aspect of choice and how instances of abuse get handled in a general sense before exploring the complexity of the causes and solutions of abuse. Kristen's story isn't the only example of how abuse might occur, but it helps me form a basis of how clinics handle abuse before expanding upon the topic in greater detail.
There's much more to Kristen's story. And I can't really get into it without giving spoilers to the upcoming couple weeks' worth of comics, but I think I've covered all I want to say for now. However, there's certainly plenty more to say. As I do more comics with Kristen, I'm bound to have lengthy commentaries accompanying them, so if I failed to address any reactions to this storyline, I'll hopefully address them when I post the rest of the comics in this storyline.
-D
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