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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks to all who shared their stories. I don't think that can be easy. Thanks, OP.

I am pro-life.

I do not have strong feelings about the Supreme Court decision other than that it seems, from a legal perspective, reasonable.

I know a good number of people (including myself and one sibling and an adopted niece) who would not be here if our mom had not chosen life. Our mom couldn't really afford us. Her relationship choices were not good. Our grandparents urged her to abort because they believed her struggles as a single mom raising mixed race kids would be too great.

I want to join forces with the pro-choice side because I live in the real world; I hear and reflect on the stories like yours OP and others. But can we find a way to do it in a way (and I think, OP, you did) that allows choice while not elevating abortion as THE choice. I don't speak for any kind of movement, but I do know that 20% of people who go to pregnancy crisis centers (the kind many abortion advocates hate) go on to choose abortion anyway.

I know many people here perhaps hate people like me, think I'm stupid and ignorant, think it's not worth even talking to someone like me. But I just wanted to offer my appreciation of your generosity in sharing difficulty stories and offer my own perspective.[/quote]

The way to allow choice without elevating abortion as THE choice is to keep abortion legal, keeping necessary medical care available for people in these situations while improving the actual material conditions of motherhood in this country.

I don't think you sound stupid or ignorant, so I think you probably know this. There's room for pro-life people in the pro-choice tent - the work to be done on that common ground is in building supports for women in areas other than abortion policy, not prosecuting and outlawing. [/quote]

NP here. I'm also the pp who had to leave GW to get an abortion due to severe HG. I'm also adopted, if anyone thinks it's relevant.

I don't think the pro-life position is stupid or ignorant. I do think there are risks to pregnancy that a lot of people, across all political views, just don't know that much about. I'd certainly never heard of HG until I ended up in the ER with it. So, I include myself in this group.

For me, what keeps me pro-choice, even as someone who deeply respects my many pro-life friends, are questions like these. If we are going to allow "medical" abortion, then what conditions will count? Are we just going to keep adding and amending the law to specify conditions? What happens if a woman has a condition that isn't on the list but otherwise might be? Do she really have to die waiting for the legislature to pass a law? Some state legislatures only meet once every two years.

And what about mental health? If a pregnancy leads to a lifetime of PTSD, should the government to demand a woman endure that? How bad do the mental health effects have to be for abortion to be legal? And again, are we going to have to die waiting for the legislature to pass an amendment adding some new diagnosis to the list of "ok" abortions?

Further, pregnancy is always risky for all women, though clearly more for some than others. So, what risks to a woman's life will we require women to endure without having any say in the matter? Even mild HG can lead to a lifetime of health issues. There are no tests for HG prior to pregnancy, there is no cure, and few treatments, many of which don't work at all. (I was on five drugs, none of which worked, and I ended up in a rubber room from the side effects.) Should the government really be the one who decides what health risks a woman with HG takes?

Now that I've had HG I've learned about any number of other health issues that come with pregnancy. While I might be willing to take some of those risks, I would not be willing to endure others. And I'm pretty sure most women fall in the same camp. Some women may be willing to carry a pregnancy entirely without concern for their own lives, but I don't think that's where most women come down on it. I think most of us want some say if a pregnancy could lead to organ failure, death, or some other lifelong impact. And that's the crux of the problem with laws that outlaw abortion. It's very hard to write exclusions that allow women to manage their health and consent to associated risks because pregnancy itself is always dangerous to some degree.[/quote]

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