Word.

"What "health of the mother" looks like" by Jim C. Hines

When I was a teenager and still being brainwashed by the Southern Baptist Church, pro-life vs. pro-choice came up. My mother never really told me what I should believe in and I was leaning heavily toward "pro-life" because why would decent people want to kill an innocent baby. (Like I said, I was young and therefore naive and the Religious Reich (stolen term but fits so well) preys on this.) She only said once, "Five girls in my class in high school died from the illegal abortions they got. At least now, the abortions won't kill you."

I don't want kids. My mother had to have C-sections because of the shape of her body, a shape I inherited. With diabetes looming over my health, I probably would develop it if I got pregnant. Luckily, being on birth control doesn't hurt my body, so I don't have to deal with condescending doctors swearing I'll change my mind. (Dude, it hasn't changed since seventh grade. It didn't change when I held my nephew when he was six-weeks-old.) But it should never being anyone's decision but mine, the hypothetical father's, and my doctor's. Why is this such a hard thing to understand? And I'm glad I'm not alone in wanting people to just leave Roe vs. Wade ALONE and punching McCain in the mouth repeatedly.

Besides "the fundamentalist whackos never let anything go and must conform the world" argument, I find some information in Marriage and Families in the Middle Ages by Frances Gies and Joseph Gies. As the Christian church was establishing itself, one of the local customs it fought against was abortion and abandoning an unwanted infant to die from exposure. However, it doesn't look like anyone within the institution since (both Catholic and Protestant version) has bothered to examine how to change this policy in light of what advances we have made medically. And it has been twisted into a way to punish women. So I guess it's really just a sub-argument of the fundamentalist whackos can't let anything go argument. *Shrug*

Anyways, Jim's rant is a lot more eloquent than I have managed to be. Go read.

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