I think we need to talk

[haele]

7. When I was growing up, we had a neighbor mom of 5 who was constantly in pain.

It was hard for her to bend over, she was always running to the bathroom, she was exhausted.
All the neighbors would help her out when they could, my brother and I worked on their yard for her and her kids had to learn to cook and clean for her.
The dad - well, he was a typical 1960's era middle class dad who expected her to care for the house while he went to work.
Apparently, child #3 was a complicated delivery. And two subsequent children made it worse.
I knew her for 6 years, then I graduated high school and went off to the Navy.
Two years later, she o.d.'ed on pain pills a week after her youngest graduated high school and started getting ready for college. She just couldn't take the pain any more, and there was no one left at home to help her.

If she had the ability to choose abortion or even to manage her own fertility, she might be a happy great grandmother.

I also knew a young sailor whose wife passed during childbirth. She was a small woman, with medical problems. They just were stationed in a location where there were no hospitals or clinics that performed abortions nearby, and they took a chance - and lost.

Choice and access are important.

Haele