Having My Baby, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise

“Some abortion opponents are pleasantly stunned and eager to watch Scott Roeder tell a jury his slaying of Wichita doctor George Tiller was voluntary manslaughter. Tiller’s colleagues and abortion rights advocates are outraged and fear the court’s actions give a more than tacit approval to further acts of violence.”

That’s right.  According to the judge in this case, it may be okay to kill a doctor if you disagree with his religious and/or political beliefs.  If he performs abortions – a legal medical procedure – you can shoot him at any time, and in any place, and that’s not premeditated murder.

Nobody likes abortion.  It’s not fun.  Women – including militant feminists – do not wake up in the morning and wonder, “Should I go to the movies or get knocked up so I can have an abortion next month?”

And yet, women – not just militant feminists – have always had abortions.  Anthropologists have found instructions for making aborticants in ancient tombs.

Many of the people who oppose abortions say they’re concerned with saving babies.  It is my observation that, while some may be sincere, many others want to punish women for having sex.  That’s why they support exceptions for victims of rape and incest.  You can have an abortion as long as you didn’t have any fun.  From this, I infer that they consider children to be a punishment.

Oddly, they don’t seem to think that the men who father unwanted children should be punished.  Obviously, men don’t get pregnant.  I would suggest that every time a man has sex without a condom, he be required to pay a year’s child support into a general fund from which mothers could withdraw funds as needed.  It would be like Social Security for the fertile.

I had an abortion when I was younger.  I had just graduated from college, and newly moved to New York City.  I was no longer on the Pill because my mother had breast cancer and I was leery of taking more hormones, so I used a diaphragm.  Religiously.  I filled it with spermicide twice a day, whether I thought I would have sex that day or not.

And I still got pregnant.  Later, I found out that, over a five year period, 80 percent of women who use a diaphragm will get pregnant.

I wasn’t ready.  I knew I wanted kids someday, but not then.  I made $150 a week at my job.  I was a ditz.  And I’d seen how much work it is to raise a child properly.  So, I scheduled an appointment with my doctor.

It was a relatively simple procedure.  i wasn’t more than six weeks along.  My doctor had an office on Fifth Avenue that was state of the art.

Let me tell you, it hurt like nothing else I had ever felt.  Years later, I would recognize it as the pain that comes with stretching the cervix.  No one, no matter how stupid or immoral she might be, would go through that experience thoughtlessly.

Which brings me to my point:  Women are humans, and they make decisions about their bodies with the same mix of intelligence, superstition, and situation as any man would do.  We are not frail little girls who need to be coddled.  You don’t need to murder our doctors because you don’t like our choices.

Choosing to have an abortion is complicated.  Choosing to have a child is complicated.  A human fetus grows within another human, and both have a stake in the outcome.  No one should force a woman to have an abortion, and no one should force a woman to have a child.

The Catholic Church didn’t ban them until 1869.  Unfortunately, they have a longer history of antagonizing those who give medical care to women.  Midwives (along with Jews) were a major target of the Inquisition.

The AP story further notes: “”The State encourages this Court to not be the first to enable a defendant to justify premeditated murder because of an emotionally charged political belief,” the prosecution wrote. ”Such a ruling has far reaching consequences and would be contrary to Kansas law.””

If this defense is permitted, it is good news for the American Taliban. They may not be able to promise their acolytes 72 virgins in Heaven, but they can negotiate a shorter sentence in the here and now.

I’m waiting to see who gets shot for serving shellfish.

Media Goddess Martha Thomases would like to jump on the Help Haiti bandwagon with the recommendation that donors consider these guys.