Monday, July 19, 2004

PRO DEATH OR ANTI-LIFE, IT DOESN'T MATTER

You know, members of the Pro-Life crowd, which you may have guessed, I am a standard bearer for, a front line soldier, are accused of being dramatic and insensitive to things we know nothing about. As a male, I am often accused of never being able to understand because I can’t have children.

Blah blah blather.

Anyway, there’s no amount of drama we could invent that comes close to the reality of abortion; the horror and the absolute Mengele-like indifference from the anti-life crowd.The New York Times is not a fan of the pro-life movement and often does what it can to denigrate us. So, with that in mind, you have to wonder what got into them to print this piece in the New York Times Magazine. They don’t have any idea how something like this turns people from "pro-choice" to pro-life, it's either simple ignorance or sheer coldness

Uber-feminist Amy Richards tells a story of getting pregnant, finding out she has triplets and going through “selective reduction”, which is exactly what you think it is. I’m going to just quote with little editorializing because I don’t have to:

“My immediate response was, I cannot have triplets. I was not married; I lived in a five-story walk-up in the East Village; I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April. I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to?

I looked at Peter and asked the doctor: ''Is it possible to get rid of one of them? Or two of them?'' The obstetrician wasn't an expert in selective reduction, but she knew that with a shot of potassium chloride you could eliminate one or more.”


Wouldn’t want to give up that income now, would you, you two-bit, unmarried, sleeping around-slut.

“On the subway, Peter asked, ''Shouldn't we consider having triplets?'' And I had this adverse reaction: ''This is why they say it's the woman's choice, because you think I could just carry triplets. That's easy for you to say, but I'd have to give up my life.''

Not that the kids have to give up their lives.

“He told me that he does a detailed sonogram before doing a selective reduction to see if one fetus appears to be struggling. The procedure involves a shot of potassium chloride to the heart of the fetus. There are a lot more complications when a woman carries multiples. And so, from the doctor's perspective, it's a matter of trying to save the woman this trauma.”

What about saving the kids lives??

“Before the procedure, I was focused on relaxing. But Peter was staring at the sonogram screen thinking: Oh, my gosh, there are three heartbeats. I can't believe we're about to make two disappear.”

At least someone was feeling guilty.

“Two days after the procedure, smells no longer set me off and I no longer wanted to eat nothing but sour-apple gum. I went on to have a pretty seamless pregnancy. But I had a recurring feeling that this was going to come back and haunt me. Was I going to have a stillbirth or miscarry late in my pregnancy?”

Oh, it will come back to haunt you and if I was a better person, I wouldn’t be so happy about that.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Say, does this thing work?

5:47 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home