Arguing with the Choir

Grrrr. I should know better than to wander over to Dawn Eden's blog. I know I will find something really annoying, and if I try to post about it, I will be stuck arguing with a bunch of people who will not hear any point of view but their own.

Dawn, for those who haven't run into her, is a very conservative Catholic. Not just against abortion, but against birth control. Loathes Planned Parenthood with the hatred of a thousand suns. Thinks feminists are out to murder babies for kicks. She generally makes me want to pack up and move to another country. Preferably on a different planet.

The most recent post was on abortion once more. Someone had made the comment that society at large should get to vote on whether they want all those aborted babies, rather then the women having them. I commented in return that I didn't want to give society a vote on whether I took a chance on bleeding to death or not. Which got the standard "That's what medical exceptions are for," response.

I've argued this with them before, and they never hear me. I probably won't even bother this time because they won't hear it, or Dawn will moderate it out of existence (she does that a lot, don't believe her when she says something was edited for being off-topic).

I would not be a medical exemption for an abortion. I'm only 36, and I'm generally healthy. I have no conditions that would lead an obstetrician to expect I was unusually at risk, no diabetes, no existing health problems at all except mild overweight.

Fifty years ago, either of my two pregnancies would likely have killed me. The second one easily could have even when it occurred. Thanks to an alert nursing staff, and a very speedy OB, I didn't bleed to death. Thanks to a well-prepped hospital (which I didn't have the second time), my first birth was merely traumatic. Had birth one occurred in hospital two, I would have had to be airlifted 100 miles to get the care I needed. Had birth two occurred in hospital one, I probably would have bled to death. Those are closer odds than I care to think about most days.

My point is that both of these were normal, healthy pregnancies. I was then, an even better candidate for a picture perfect pregnancy and childbirth than I am now. Neither of the births went wrong due to circumstances likely to repeat themselves.

So what if I get pregnant again?

In all likelihood I would go through with the pregnancy and have the child. Do my best to find a good OB and facility and pray a lot. I'm not a fan of abortion, personally speaking, so I don't intend to ever have one barring truly extreme circumstances. But I do not think that society should get a vote as to whether my risk is high enough to warrent an abortion. I shudder at the idea of a woman in my physical circumstances with a pregnancy she absolutely didn't want being told she has no choice but to cross her fingers and hope she survives.