Criminalizing abortion without exception is obscene, cruel, and immoral...

[Rex_Goodheart]

Somebody very dear to me was affected, as would-be parents, by a Meckel-Gruber pregnancy.

Now, you've probably never heard of Meckel-Gruber, because it's quite rare. The pregnancy I'm mentioning was even more drastically malformed than the usual M-G symptoms... too many arms, too many legs, web toes and feet. It's an extremely sad situation. It's almost like... name a malformation or malfunction, and the fetus had it.

As in all M-G pregancies this fetus had ZERO chance of living past a day or two, and almost zero of making it past one hour... and what little life the poor thing had was probably quite painful, as cysts are present in internal organs like the kidneys and liver.

The parents in question were understandably strained when they found out the condition, and even though they're quite religious they did contemplate an abortion. In the end, she decided to carry to term. I think it was a pointless choice, purely religion-driven, but, still, it was her choice and we should support that.

However, on the other hand, for a government to force a mother like this to carry a doomed fetus is beyond absurd: it's inhumane, cruel, barbaric, and immoral.

For more info on Meckel-Gruber, here's a brief summary:
http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/meckelgrubersynd/a/020804.htm

[applegrove]

1. Fact of the matter is - some women should not be pregnant. Medically.

They should not. And just like with the "morning after pill", when they stop access to abortion, they will get more late term abortion, more abuse, more women victims.

[Rex_Goodheart]

2. The only possible outcome of this pregnancy

was health risk to the mother. Nobody bothers to check for a Meckel-Gruber gene before conceiving. None of it was her fault, or his fault, either. My understanding is that both parents have to carry the gene.

[applegrove]

4. Gee - is the GOP going to pay for genetic councelling for couples

before they conceive? I think not!

Yes - don't know about that particular illness - but there is one where the child lives in the equivalent of a "burn unit" their whole life. With skin peeling off day in and day out.

[philosophie_en_rose]

3. I wonder about conjoined twins.

Under fundie logic, separations should never be allowed - even if both will die unless they're separated.

I agree with you completely. It is cruel to force women to be pregnant.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Torture.

A young girl gets raped. That's a lifelong trauma. Then she's forced to carry to term her rapist's baby???

That's SICK, INHUMANE, CRUEL, TORTURE.

Anyone who is ANTI-CHOICE on this...fuck you.

[bliss_eternal]

8. self delete

:hi:

[NMMNG]

21. Of course she should

Why should the baby suffer for what the rapist did? :sarcasm:



Yeah, and why should all those innocent Iraqi civilians (including children and babies) suffer for what 19 radical fundamentalists did?



Stupid fundies imposing their twisted crap on people. :grr:

[Luminous Animal]

6. A good article in Mother Jones Magazine

http://www.mojones.com/news/feature/2004/09/09_402.html
The Way It Was
By Eleanor Cooney
September/October 2004 Issue

It concludes with this:

Teenagers -- especially those who are poor and uneducated -- are by far the group having the most elective late-term abortions. If we truly wish to protect the young and vulnerable, promote a "culture of life," as President Bush said so grandly in his signing speech, then we must make teenage girls a top priority. Make sure they don't get pregnant in the first place, and not just by preaching "abstinence only." If they do get pregnant, don't throw a net of fear, confusion, and complication over them that will only cause them to hide their conditions for as long as they can. Because that's exactly what they'll do. You could argue that "partial-birth" abortion is the price a society pays when it calculatedly keeps teenage girls ignorant instead of aggressively arming them with the facts of life and, if necessary, the equipment to protect themselves from pregnancy.

I was hardly one of those tragically vulnerable teenagers. I suppose I was the kind of wanton female the lawmakers and wrath-of-God types look down on. There's no doubt that I was stupid and irresponsible, and I certainly knew better than what you might have surmised from my actions. By some standards, I suppose you could say I was a slut. Those sleazy doctors left no doubt that that's how they saw me. Some would say I got what I deserved, or that I deserved to die.

The arguments would be endless, but they would be irrelevant to the facts: From the moment I started looking for an abortion, not once did I even consider going through with the pregnancy. Not for one second. It simply was not going to happen. Nothing, and I mean nothing, was going to stop me, and it could have cost me my life. And this is what I had in common with millions and millions of women throughout time and history. When a woman does not want to be pregnant, the drive to become unpregnant can turn into a force equal to the nature that wants her to stay pregnant. And then she will look for an abortion, whether it's legal or illegal, clean or filthy, safe or riddled with danger. This is simply a fact, whatever our opinion of it. And whether we like it or not, humans, married and unmarried, will continue to have sex -- wisely, foolishly, violently, nicely, hostilely, pleasantly, dangerously, responsibly, carelessly, sordidly, exaltedly -- and there will be pregnancies: wanted, unwanted, partly wanted, partly unwanted.

A society that does not accept the facts is a childish society, and a society that makes abortion illegal -- and I believe that the PBAB is a calculated step in exactly that direction -- is a cruel and backward society that makes being female a crime. It works in partnership with the illegal abortionist. It puts him in business, sends him his customers, and employs him to dispense crude, dirty, barbaric, savage punishment to those who break the law. And the ones who are punished by the illegal abortionist are always women: mothers, sisters, daughters, wives.

It's no way to treat a lady.

[Hekate]

15. "It works in partnership with the illegal abortionist." Great point

That last paragraph says it all. Thanks for posting "The Way It Was."

Hekate

[LynnTheDem]

18. "a cruel and backward society "

Yep. That's bush's america.

[philosophie_en_rose]

7. www.womenonwaves.org

If the Supreme Court betrays women, brave women will fight back.

[bliss_eternal]

10. That's amazing--

thanks so much for sharing the web address! :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

9. I absolutely agree with you, Rex

To not allow abortion (safe, LEGAL abortion) is obscene. Like you, I knew someone who found out in her second trimester that her fetus had a condition that would not allow the baby to live but for a few years. I don't remember the name of the condition, but essentially, the baby would always be completely and totally incapable of doing anything for herself (it was a girl). The parents would have to devote an inordinate amount of time, and they had 3 other children, all young, whom they also had to give time and attention to. In addition, she would have had horrendous medical problems for all her short life.

The doctor told the parents eveything to expect if the baby was carried to term. The mother is Catholic, and abortion was not for her. However, after long, careful thought, discussion, and research, the parents decided to abort the fetus. I know this was agonizing for them, especially for the mother, but they felt it was the best thing to do. For someone to say, no, you HAVE to have this baby, we don't care about any of your concerns, we don't care about your other children, we don't care about the agony this baby would go through in her life, is unspeakable obscene.

[bliss_eternal]

13. That poor woman--

what a tough decision she had to make... Thank goodness she could abort safely and legally.

Thank you for sharing her story, SeattleGirl. :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

14. She was very overwhelmed.

She's not my favorite person in the world, but damn, I cried when she told me what she was facing. For her not to have had the option of a safe abortion would have been a nightmare for her and her family.

[Warpy]

11. Criminalizing abortion kills women.

That's the bottom line.

The only abortions that are ever stopped are the safe, legal ones done by medical personnel. The butchers flourish when it's illegal.

[LynnTheDem]

19. Perfectly said.

And to the point.

[The Witch]

12. oh, god.

:hug: :cry: :hug: :cry:

[Pushed To The Left]

16. The religious right 's movement needs to be destroyed

This is just another reminder of how dangerous they are.

[Ilsa]

17. As a recovered rape victim, I cannot tell you how much worse

my suffering had been if I had gotten pregnant from the rape. I don't think I would have survived. There must be exceptions. And women should never have to cry rape in order to get an abortion.

And yet, with all of the deep psychiatric and psychological information available in this day, there are still those who maintain absurd notions such as a woman can't get pregnant if she is raped. It almost drives me insane.

[LynnTheDem]

20. Ilsa...

:hug:

[bobbieinok]

22. light bulb goes on! that's probably the 'thought' back of the SD bill

--you can't get pregnant if you're raped

--therefore anyone claiming rape and wanting an abortion is a liar and should not be allowed an abortion