News-Record.com

Whew. Just...whew. That gave me chills.

In 1957, my mother became pregnant through a failure of a birth control method. She seriously considered an abortion. If she had applied to the authorities for permission, I expect it would have been granted... her previous child had been born severely retarded.

For whatever reason, she went through with the pregnancy and gave birth to me. I never learned the enormity of the process of reproduction, until my wife had a baby inside her. I had always thought of sex in very respectful terms, but feeling a baby's kick made a huge difference to me.

I'm still pro-choice in my political life, but I think that everyone should find a way to learn of the serious nature of that choice, as well as options other than abortion.

In college, I knew a fellow-student who talked very casually of her two abortions, and it makes me so sad to think of her mental state. The way she despised children, never wanted to have any of her own to raise, I always wondered why she wouldn't consider getting sterilized.

The older I get, the more puzzled I become.

Nancy- I think it was a gutsy move for this guy to produce that piece. And Eric, a mechanism for imparting additional information is the right-to-know law. These exist in other states, but the state legislature refuses to even let it out of committee in North Carolina.

Eric, maybe she did consider getting sterilized, but even today, doctors refuse to it for unmarried women. I know because I have a friend who has been trying to have her tubes tied since she was 21 and NO (reputable) DOCTOR would do it. The arguments -- she was too young to make that decision, she might change her mind later, she might marry and want children and regret the decision....she's 33 now and still doesn't want children, though she's since had two abortions and had to use the day after pill once.

I wonder about this. If a woman is old enough to make all major life decisions at the age of 21, why not this one? At first blush, this appears to be a case of an attitude that says the main reason for a woman to exist is to be a mother.

Another problem I have with this attitude is that it seems to imply that it is improper for a woman to ensure that no matter what sort of sex life she has, she'll never get pregnant. That seems pretty medeval (sp?) to me.

I mean, so what if a woman has her tubes tied and later decides she wants to be a mother? I keep hearing of this thing called "adoption." Surely that would be a viable solution in that case. What the heck is wrong with people??