National Blog For Choice Day

Pro-choice bloggers are speaking out today about the right to choose. I've been thinking about this subject and how my feelings about abortion have changed since I had Tori.

There is no doubt that looking into Tori's face highlights for me exactly what is lost when a pregnancy is terminated. The pangs I feel when I think about my sons Nicholas and Zachary is tremendous; since Tori's arrival, I find myself thinking about them several times a day. How I wish that I'd had another alternative, some better medical treatment that could have prolonged that pregnancy without endangering me further so the boys could be here with me now, glorious and rambunctious at nearly two years old.

But then I look at Tori and I think about how her adorable and tiny body harbors an equally adorable and tiny uterus. And I think about how my mom had preeclampsia when she was pregnant with me, and how her mother probably had it with her children. There is evidence to support the fact that preeclampsia may be a hereditary disease, meaning that Tori has a chance of developing it with her (far, far in the future) pregnancies. And since there has been little in the way of improvement in the treatment of preeclampsia since my mother was pregnant with me nearly forty years ago--they just put her on hospital bed rest and gave her magnesium sulfate, just like they did with me and the twins--well...

I think that now, more than ever, I must fight to keep abortion SAFE, LEGAL, and RARE.

I hope and pray that no other woman is told that a much wanted pregnancy has to be terminated in order to survive. I don't want anyone, ever, to have to through what I went through. It sucks. It sucks ass in a big way. That day remains the worst day of my life, and I would give anything to prevent that horror from happening to someone else.

But it does happen. It happens all the time, and someday it might happen to my daughter. And I want, no, fuck that, I DEMAND that my daughter have the right to save her own life.

So I stand before you as a mother, as fiercely Pro Choice as ever. Giving birth to my daughter has only deepened and re-affirmed my resolve to fight for the right to control our bodies. For the lives of all of our daughters, I will continue to stand on the front lines of this battle.

Pro Child, Pro Family, Pro Choice. Rock on.

Comments

[Debbie in the UK]

Bloody right!! Well said.

[bluepaintred]

i still believe a womans body is her body, no matter what!

but there is a time for an abortion and i would hope that the decision is made in a timly manner. even if it is not. its still her body

[Heatherg]

I've never known a time when it wasnt pro-choice.

I just want to keep moving forward, not go backward.

For the sake of my 3 girls, I am rockin' on.

[Dea]

I agree, wholeheartedly.

[MsPrufrock]

Amen.

[julia]

How did I not know that this was happening today? Must join you in posting...

As always, your sister in the fight.

[Liza]

Rock ON
http://doolittle.typepad.com/doolittle/2007/01/hey.html

[Lisa]

Hear, hear sister!

[Catherine]

Safe and legal, of course. Rare, meh. I think more people should abort, actually. I'd rather a child was aborted than go through fucking hell, the way I did. Some people aren't meant to be parents.

[jen]

Amen Cecily, amen.

I've seen some uteruses (uteri?) and, well, while I'm sure Tori's is exceptional in its cuteness, they really aren't an adorable organ. Yech.

[wealhtheow]

Hey my dear--I knew you'd have something to say today. I'm going in for a pre-conception check-up this week, and although my family history is blessedly clean, hanging out in the infertile blogosphere has really opened my eyes to just how much can go horribly wrong. I'm very comforted by the knowledge that I have options open to me to decide what is best for my family should I be faced with the kinds of decisions you and so many other women have had to make.
You are an inspiration to me, and I am thinking about you and all our sisters who have gone through abortions.

I'm headed down to Richmond on Thursday to lobby with Planned Parenthood, and I urge any Virginia readers to join us--there is still time to sign up!!

[jackie]

I agree 100%!!!

[sk]

Amen! I have a 2 year old daughter (and a son that is one week younger than Tori!!) and I pray that she never has to make that decision but if she does I want it to be her choice. And as a fellow pre-eclampsia mom I hope she never has to go through that either.

[Donnie]

My morals are my own, and I will teach them to my family as I see fit. But I also don't expect the laws of government to reflect my own personal idea of "right" and "wrong."

So because of that, I support legislation that keeps abortion legal. Because it is necessary... especially for health reasons in cases such as Cecily's (and amen to "rare," Cec- the whole country needs some major education in CONTRACEPTION!).

I understand the pro life stance. And in my home we will teach our child from the doctrines of our faith about the sanctity of life, marriage, and family.

But I'm not simplistic enough to believe what is right for me should be forced upon everyone. So with great solemnity I feel the need to defend choice.

[Amy]

Yes. Exactly.

[toyfoto]

Great post. I often find myself wishing there was some way to take this issue off the public agenda. Pro-choice, as a call name, would be the first thing I'd change.

No one thinks abortion is a good thing. No one brags about them, for sure. But I just wish it was between a woman and her doctor. It shouldn't be any one else's business.

[Christine G]

Well put - very well put.
To make terminations illegal or difficult to obtain will bring the return of the "back street butchers". And the mere thought makes me shudder.

[Mary]

As you know, we decided to terminate our first pregnancy after it was clear that our daughter Naomi's congenital defects would kill her, either in utero or shortly after birth. Now that my daughter Lily is here, healthy, I struggle regularly with our decision, knowing in my heart that we prevented Naomi from a short, very painful life, but wondering all the same.

But THANK GOD I had the ability to make that difficult choice for my daughter, for my family. Thanks for the reminder that I need, more than ever, to support the pro-choice movement!

[Amber]

Amen to that! I've been where you've been rather recently and had to make the same choice you did Cecily and while it was the most painful choice I am glad I had that option otherwise my two sons would now be without their mother and for me that is NOT and option.

[Elena]

I pray Cecily that by the time Tori, and my two girls Rose and Izzy are having babies, that little babies like Nick, Zach and my Raphael have a better chance to survive outside of the womb at around 20 weeks!

I also pray that hospitals and caregivers become as skilled and educated with providing neonatal hospice care, as we are now with providing end-of-life care with other age groups as yet another option to abortion.

Bless you Cecily!

[Miss W]

I think I'm in the minority as I have always been (and still am, honestly) very much pro-life...But apparently my definition of pro-life is not the same as others. I have always believed that abortion is wrong in instances where you simply don't want a child (there are other methods for that, and, lacking that, I think that adoption is the better option).

However, I don't think abortion is wrong at all costs. In cases like yours, in cases like Julia's (uncommonmisconception.typepad.com) I think it's necessary to give the woman the option. (And it kills me that it had to be for both of you who I absolutely adore)

For me, it's a medical procedure that is sometimes necessary.

Again, I know I am in the minority in that I don't think it is *always* the woman's right to choose -- but in those instances where it's necessary, the option should absolutely always be available.

That being said, I think I have to redefine my "label" or the labels should be redefined?

Hopefully I was able to say that in a way that won't cause me to be the commenter who gets flamed.

[Bev]

Having made that awful choice to terminate my first pregnancy, I am committed to the pro-choice cause. It's a choice no woman WANTS to make, but that's the thing, it should be OUR choice not the governments! I now have two beautiful children, and not a day goes by when I don't think about my first child, but I still stand by my decision. It was the right choice for me.

[SandyC]

We need to change the rules of dialogue -- for untold thousands of women, abortion is health care, plain and simple. We need to make sure people who cannot grasp that fact keep out of the dialogue. Say no to getting health advice from religious absolutists and ignorant moralistic law makers.

[Elena]

Thankfully, Cecily allows this "religious absolutist" to continue to "dialogue" here.