Hillary’s Blog

I’ll keep it as simple as possible.

1. Those who have never been pregnant or can’t get pregnant have no say in abortion at all, obviously this includes men. (Just like as a white female I have no right passing laws or judgements against men stating they are not allowed to get vasectomies if they haven’t had children because they are restricting the gene pool or that men are not allowed to get a testicle removed if it has cancer because it still could be viable in creating a pregnancy.)

However, this does not exclude women who may be pregnant, or who may get pregnant in the future. So it does exclude those who are “childless by choice” (you had a choice, so should we…)

2. I agree that choice is important, but due to lack of education and those willing to fully educate women on the process and outcomes of abortion, it should be restricted, especially late-term.

3. I fear the way society will look down on women who have no choice to abort late (unviable pregnancy) if we ban it. They already are going through so much we can’t even understand.

4. In a normal pregnancy, you dont even find out if the baby has any fatal abnormalities until 16+ weeks (for genetic testing) and 20+ weeks for ultrasound. Which is why late-term abortions should be allowed if the baby will die and endanger the mother’s life. These mothers only find out late in the pregnancy that their baby will die. This is ALWAYS ignored by arguments of both “sides”, assuming of course there are SIDES, which there are not. I doubt there are people out there pro-abort every child. It’s “PRO-CHOICE” not “PRO-ABORT”.

5. I think abortion is horrendous, but necessary when the mother (who may have other children to care for) is in danger. I would also fully support a women who was raped or a victim of incest to abort early. (Those of you again who have never been pregnant… have no say in this.)

6. Those “anti-choice” need to stop using propoganda and assumptions that the babies of women choosing late-term abortion are normal. These babies will NOT have happy normal lives… they will be in constant pain, dependent on 24/7 care or life support or worse… if they and the mother even survive childbirth at all.

7. The cost for a complicated pre-term birth is upwards of $125,000+! This is just for the birth and 6 days in the hospital, not the continued care and raising of a severely disabled child, or continued hospitalization. You still have to pay if your baby dies 10 minutes after birth.

8. MOST insurances don’t pay for any, let alone a portion of this cost. For mine, I just found out last night I will have to pay over $50,000 OUT OF POCKET! Again, that’s just for premature birth and the baby’s 6 days in the hospital! Nationalize healthcare and this won’t even be in the debate.

9. Banning late-term abortions will endanger women who have other children to care for, and they may die trying to carry a baby that wouldnt be able to live anyway. Therefore leaving their other children motherless.

10. The restrictions on late-term abortion should include: 2 physicians agreement that the pregnancy is life threatening to the mother or the baby is unable to survive or will have no quality of life if carried to term. (Ex. on life support indefinitely, unable to meaningfully interact with their environment.) If they can not get the physician agreement to the above, they should not be able to abort.

11. Questions about what constitutes a reason to abort are physical, life-threatening mutations and genetic abnormalities. This obviously does NOT include; down’s syndrome or mental retardation (unless severe/profound) and other treatable and manageable genetic or gestational complications.

So don’t even go there with me… I’ve helped raise my brother who was diagnosed with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. He’s been in a wheelchair since age 11, just faced major back surgery (to insert rods into his spine and hips) at 14 y.o., and has a maximum life expectancy of 25 years old. Other than his physical problems, and Asperger’s Syndrome (on the autistic spectrum) he’s a pretty normal kid. So don’t tell me I dont know what it’s like to raise a child with severe disabilities.

The only people hurt by the ruling today are parents who love their unborn children and faced the difficult decision to end the pregnancy before the baby dies on it’s own (which can be life threatening to the mother) and dies in childbirth. With a partial-birth abortion, they were able to hold their baby and honor it and bury it. In the other methods, they break the baby into pieces and remove it piece by piece (why does THAT seem worse to me?!!?!)

Partial-birth abortion is not really “birth”, they dilate the cervix and remove the baby. It’s the same as the other methods of abortion, only the baby is intact, not in pieces when extracted from the womb. I think this is more humane than breaking the baby into pieces and taking it out! Call me crazy I guess. But now, it’s illegal… and parents have no choice but to have their baby mutilated before being removed, and they are now unable to see their baby after it’s aborted. Now these parents will not be able to say good bye to their child…