Once again, thank you McGrath. And thank you Susan, for telling your story. I agree that the enemy we really should be fighting, rather than fighting each other, is the hostile society which makes all the other choices so hard. Someone once said that a woman having an abortion is like an animal gnawing off its leg to get out of a trap. We need to do what we can to get women out of this trap. Re: adoption: My friend Jess discovered two years ago that she had an older sister. Yes, giving her first born up for adoption was a hard thing for Jess' mother to do, and I have no doubt it bothered her. She could feel the lack of that child she had carried for 9 months. When Jess found out about it, she was shocked at first, then overjoyed, and eventually found her sister. They have a beautiful relationship now, and I know the whole family is glad that that choice was made. I know a girl who had an unplanned pregnancy from a drunken encounter. She overdosed on prescription pills and landed herself in the hospital. She miscarried. She was a troubled, depressed, anorexic and unhealthy teen. What would have happened had she carried that baby to term? I don't know. But she feels the lack every day. She dreamt about him for years. She has two children now, but she still wonders what he would have been like. She can't register for him to find her, she will never hear his voice on the phone.
oops! gotta go! continue this train of thot later!
kate