A Choice

Ultimately, who should decide a woman's fate? A woman? A woman and her doctor? The Supreme Court? Politicians?

This is my body I sit in, it should be my decisions that determine my fate. The VAST majority of late term abortions PERIOD are not the result of someone deciding "hey, I don't want to have this baby after all!" The misrepresentation of the facts and the states of minds and the ASSUMPTIONS about women facing what is probably the most brutal decision of their entire lives infuriates me. I don't have to agree with you and your choice, but I do think it is reasonable to assume that women with the guidance of their doctors should they seek it should be free to pursue a long standing medical procedure. NO one is happy when this decision is set before them.

I can't site specific statistics but I would bet money that we in 99.9% of the cases the situation is one of two - the fetus is NOT viable outside the womb & will likely die soon after birth either way from severe abnormalities OR the fetus is threatening the physical health of the mother. In either case, really, do we need to legislate the options available to her?

A judge makes a bad decision and a woman pays for it with her future fertility or even her life. Maybe I am hypersensitive to this issue having just faced a potential "late-term" abortion. I was 19 weeks pregnant when we found out that our baby was struggling. We had an ultrasound tech actually use the word "catastrophic" in reference to the potential problems. Typically, the edema and fluid on the lungs is a sign that the baby has a devastating anomaly - genetic or structural - and is NOT going to make it. We were beyond extraordinarily lucky. Some would even argue that we are a reason that these procedures should be banned because you NEVER know. Well the truth is we had every test known to man and everything with the baby looked fine. Often, parents are not so lucky and they have a test confirming this terrible disease or that one, or a sonogram confirming that their child is missing a brain, or most of their heart.

To tell someone that they MUST carry to term a baby that will undoubtedly die the moment it is born is beyond cruel. Many women choose to do just that. And I applaud them. I personally do not think I would have had the strength. I would and DID do anything possible to help my baby boy's chances. But we always had hope. Reasonable hope. I am not talking pie in the sky there may be a miracle and his brain will regenerate hope ... I am talking "we see no reason for him to have this problem - nothing genetically, nothing structurally, nothing!" hope. We had to persevere and figure it out.

How about this? Let's let the women actually faced with the decision, in consultation with their doctors, decide! I am not sure what I would have decided if I had to make a decision. Thank goodness I did not have to go there. However, I do know the important thing to me and my psychological health was that I had a choice. I could decide. Either way. I always believed in my convictions before being put to this test. Now, I even more firmly believe that no one can make that decision for anyone else. It is so personal and so difficult that is makes it impossible to be absolutist.