Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Where is Margaret Sanger when we need her?


Well, actually it is too late for that.
Of course you know I am talking about the woman who is credited with starting the American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood. She was one determined lady and good for her-she made real changes for the availability of contraception for women, but also to the idea of what women's healthcare should entail.
Last night I met a young woman - married, 3 children and only 25 years old. She had just found out that she was pregnant and it obviously was not a planned thing. She was crying and crying, and at 16 weeks, knew she was past the time of an 'easy' way to terminate the pregnancy. It is a more involved procedure, and even though I think I am very liberal in regard to choice, the idea of an abortion at 16 weeks turns my stomach. Knowing how the fetus is developing at the 16 week point, it is any day that she will feel it moving around in there. What a dilemma.
I guess that's the thing about CHOICE though; this situation has nothing to do with me - it really is up to the individual woman and her doctor.
The' judger' in me wonders what it is about this story that grabbed me...is it that she wasn't one of those skanky girls? Clean, had her teeth, not all scabbed over? Married, white, ponytail? Would I have given her another thought if she was a different girl? OR was it that big reaction that was the difference- the fact that she wasn't celebrating her pregnancy like so many of the girls do, no matter how many it makes...
Wow, that really does tell a lot about how jaded and judgemental I can be...better work on that.
I won't soon forget this young woman.



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