Reply #38: Thanks Matt and Nevernose ...

[PittLib]

for sharing. I have multiple scenarios within my own family (mother, sister, 2 aunts and cousin) that run the gamut from having to put a child up for adoption, to single motherhood, to abortion (positive and regrettable). My sister's story is especially interesting because my mother was forced to give her up (they subsequently reconnected) and she had to make a choice as well when she became pregnant while going through a nasty divorce. She now lives with a man and his daughter, whose wife left him after giving birth. She did not want the baby ... he did, so he convinced her to have the child - she signed away all parental rights and went her own way. I admire that tremendously, but I understand that it is not always in the realm of possibility. I'm a 30 year-old single woman with no desire (at this point anyway) to have children. I take parenting very seriously and realize how hard it can be. I have never had to make a choice, but not because I have always been careful ... I've been lucky. I see how the choices made by the women in my family have effected their lives ... good and bad, and while I may have chosen differently in their situation, I realize that it is not for me to judge. I have nothing but respect as they are the ones who have to live with their decisions.

We really need to refrain for using the right wing phrase "pro-life" as if pro-choice is otherwise ... I am pro-life. There is no such thing as pro-abortion ... even if you chose that to exercise that option, it doesn't mean that you are advocating abortion for all. Sorry, preaching to the choir, for the most part ... but there is a certain self-righteousness in labeling oneself "pro-life" for simply believing that abortion is morally objectionable. No one suggests that it is a picnic. However, if you do not believe in being absolute about it and making illegal ... you are pro-choice.