Octopus Overlords

Maybe this is too personal.

The question is how many of us, our partners, and our close friends have exercised the right to abortion that was just taken away.

"Partners/friends" here means people you know well. It includes sex partners and friends and siblings and friends' siblings but does not include celebrities or mere acquaintances. Let's draw the line at "They would probably answer my phone call."

"Abortion" here means any post-coital intervention to prevent pregnancy such as Plan B or an abortion procedure (but not pre-coital strategies such as condoms, The Pill, a diaphragm, or an IUD). Non-medical attempts at abortion should also be included as Abortion.

"Yes (pro-choice)" means you support the right to abortion and you, a sex partner, or a close friend has attempted an abortion for whatever reason.
"No (pro-choice)" means you support the right to abortion but have never been close to one (that you know).
"Yes (anti-abortion)" means you don't support the right to abortion but a close partner or friend has attempted one.
"No (anti-abortion)" means you don't support the right to abortion and have never been close to one (that you know).

Yes. My wife’s first pregnancy was Trisomy-13, which is a birth defect serious enough to kill the baby within hours, days or weeks but not enough to guarantee a miscarriage. The abortion allowed us to have 2 healthy babies later, and avoided the mental and physical pain to my wife of carrying a baby to term just for it to die. My legal assistant had permanent mental stress from going through a similar situation.

It was the humane choice, the right choice. One consistent with our Catholic faith (influenced by St. Augustine’s views, Vatican II and the 1966 commission ignored by Pope Paul VI’s Humana Vitae). A choice that we would no longer have if we were in the wrong state.

I believe I've mentioned this before, but my (now) wife opted for the morning-after pill after the first time we slept together. The condom had broken, and we weren't ready to have a child together just then.

That was in 1995. We married in 1998 and chose to have our first child in 2003 and our second in 2006.

Choice is important.

Just to respect the privacy of others, (under the belief that someday my celebrity status will be revealed and this account exposed ) - um - hell yes. I know (pretty close and personally) 4 women. And about 3-5 other women that I 'know about', but who didn't share anything with me personally (heresay, but very likely accurate).


And I don't know how this will land with people here, but here it goes.
I will take this thread to address something that always bothers me a little (Not that I'm saying this is anyone's viewpoint here)...

While it's obvious to me that the extreme examples of abortion should be protected, I have a problem with how exposed that leaves the position that this isn't simply about a woman's right to autonomy of her own body. The "other side" of abortion is not about sluts that want to engage in unprotected sex with reckless abandon. This is about 'planned parenthood' and the rights that women should have to their bodies and their lives. Not a single women of the ~10 women I know, did it for reasons of rape or health risks. And not a single one of them made a habit of it - and of the 4 I know personally, I can say they each went on to being loving parents in healthy homes.

So while the woman who will die, the woman who would render herself infertile, or the rape or incest victim's plight is so much clearly a "win" in the grand debate of things, in an attempt to explain this right to people, I honestly always cringe a little when that is the only example that is put forth - leaving women who were not raped, or who could theoretically/biologically see their pregnancy through to viability (but intellectually understand how horrible that could be for everyone) - left to feel like their needs for abortion are selfish or worse.

Yes, and we are pro-choice. I know I've mentioned that we had to have an abortion when one of the twins amniotic sac ruptured. That's an example of a medical procedure that should be (but not will be) protected everywhere. I know a woman who had too much to drink and ended up having sex that she clearly was not capable of consenting to. I know a woman who was still in college and used birth control and still got pregnant. In the end, it really doesn't matter why - these were women who were in no position to try to raise a child, and who needed to be able to make the choice. And it was a hard choice, even for the person who was quasi raped. But in our case and both of the others I know of, there were no regrets down the line.

I hate to consider myself pro choice but legally speaking, I am. I have a big moral problem with the choice as a means of birth control, generally speaking. But my problems with that decision making don't extend to you. That said, a close family member and therefore the child she never had would still be dead if she did not abort a child and now she will never have another. Someone, now in my past, didn't talk about it but she rather strongly implied she had had an abortion at one time before our meeting with no further explication when we were choosing our forms of birth control. I can only assume others I've been close to have had abortions but it's not my place to know.

A reminder: The Janes is up on HBO Max.

Not that I'm aware of but I know several people who have had a D&C after a miscarriage. This critical service is probably gone in anti-abortion states since they'll probably prosecute as a "stealth abortion " or some insane shit.

Ask the question "Have you (or someone you're close to) had a miscarriage?" and the list is going to be pretty big.

I've mentioned it before, but my wife nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy with our first attempt. The doctor was amazing and not only managed to save her life but her fallopian tubes, and we'd eventually go on to have two healthy, awesome kids. But I shudder to think about living in this new world in some deep red state where saving her life would be less important than trying to save a completely non-viable clump of cells.

Out of that medical procedure, three lives were essentially saved.

My nephew's wife nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy.

When I was in high school I once took three different girls to Planned Parenthood in the space of three weeks. One was for an abortion, the other two for birth control. I had a car and a reputation for being discrete. None of them were my girlfriends, but the PP people must've thought I was quite the player.