The Good News Just Continues

From least to most important....

1. Britney dumps K-Fed --- Isn't FedEx the BEST celeb moniker ever?

2. Dems take the House!

3. Dems appear to take the senate with VIRGINIA'S new senator elect Webb. Just a few months ago, behind 16 points in the polls. Thank you former Governor & soon to be former Senator Maccaca Allen!

4. Rumsfeld steps down!

5. We have our first EVER female Speaker of the House.

6. It appears that "deciding factor" Justice Kennedy is at least asking the tough and good questions on the current abortion case before the Surpreme Court. Can I just reiterate ... No Uterus...NO OPINION. Still, I was heartened to hear some justice on NPR (not sure which one) in the proceedings yesterday say and I am paraphrasing, "But we aren't talking about any fetus who would be viable outside the womb. These are not fetuses who are going to live. Period." And maybe the same guy maybe someone else chiming in saying that shouldn't judges stay out of the way of the doctors and the women faced with the decisions, i.e. the 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 anamoly - genetic or structural - and is NOT going to make it. It looks like we are going to be EXTRAORDINARILY fortunate and have faced down incredible odds. Babies with this have a 2-50% survival rate depending on the underlying cause. That means more than HALF don't make it.

I can NOT imagine ending a pregnancy that I wanted, especially when you are half way there. But what I can NOT imagine even more than that is being told I have NO CHOICE but to carry to term & deliver a child that is dead or who will die shortly after delivery. Many woman choose that route. Others do not, finding it to be severely emotionally traumatizing. How about this? Let's let the women actually faced with the decision, in consultation with their doctors, decide!

I am not 100% 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.