Posted on 05/08/2007 11:20:22 AM PDT by Scotswife
The abortion debate brought home He and his wife have always been pro-choice; recently, they were forced to make the Choice. By Dan Neil May 6, 2007
MY WIFE AND I just had an abortion. Two, actually. We walked into a doctor's office in downtown Los Angeles with four thriving fetuses — two girls and two boys — and walked out an hour later with just the girls, whom we will name, if we're lucky enough to keep them, Rosalind and Vivian. Rosalind is my mother's name.
We didn't want to. We didn't mean to. We didn't do anything wrong, which is to say, we did everything right. Four years ago, when Tina and I set out on this journey to have children, such a circumstance was unimaginable. And yet there I was, holding her hand, watching the ultrasound as a needle with potassium chloride found its mark, stopping the heart of one male fetus, then the other, hidden in my wife's suffering belly....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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There is ALWAYS a huge risk that quadruplets will suffer serious harm or death in utero. That goes without saying. Overall, only about 70% of quadruplet fetuses survive through infancy, and that statistic arises from a combination of full miscarriages triggered by pregnancy complications and pregnancies in which all 4 survive and everything in between. When the mother is also having pregnancy-related health problems at such an early stage of the pregnancy, the risk to the quadruplets is multiplied many times over. Realistically, without doing a reduction, this couple could expect to lose somewhere between 2 (due to complications of extreme prematurity and crowding) and all 4, and faced a near certainty that any survivors would have serious disabilities. Instead they chose to have two healthy babies.
Statistical context is important when you say “if they knew that all might take”. The chances of this happening in an older woman with two previous failed IVF cycles, and no successful pregnancies by any method, is in the neighborhood of one in a thousand, and even smaller if the mother was over 40. This couple took a reasonable risk. At the time they chose to take the risk, they were facing around a 10% chance of even getting one baby if they transferred all the embryos.
Simple solution, only implant as many as you are willing to carry to term in one pregnancy. No killing involved.
Greater than this is the findings that they will have 2 children who will grow up knowing there were 2 others that were aborted...they won't even have to be told. It has been found that psychologically, children know their birth order, and know instinctively there were other siblings that are not alive, whether miscarried, stillborn, or aborted.
Interesting that the Amnio is brought up...that is invasive and a risk to the baby and mother as well, which the medical field doesn't want to bring up, either...
Their grieving time will come, some day, when they least expect it. They will battle with the grief, the shame, the guilt. Everyone who aborts does. Their family will too.
I am wondering if we are to consider him noble for choosing his wife and 2 out of 4 kids, when they knew this going in!! I have a 21 yr old daughter who has ever social and pro-choice reason given as viable reasons for her to choose to abort....heart condition, blood condition, double womb, single parent, won't survive normal birth so has to have a c-section, now in financial issues because of bedrest to keep the one and only baby she will carry... She chose LIFE! Against all odds, she is choosing LIFE! Somehow, I find the author of the article lacking, when measured up against my 21 yr old!
they bought a van a while ago....and booster seats too.
But I think they really liked the van and decided the grandkids were a good excuse to get it.
We did borrow it a few times when our cars were getting repaired, so that was nice.
I see the writer as the logical consequence of the values being taught in today’s society.
I think there are alot of people out there like him.
Didn’t they try to convince her to “reduce” as well?
And I’m sure she suffered much more “risk” than the woman in this article.
“I find the author of the article lacking, when measured up against my 21 yr old!”
you are right about that.
Considering that people expect parents to sacrifice for their children - to do their very best to protect them - yes - this man seems to lack a great deal.
People can talk all they want about statistics, but in the end it is still a parent watching his sons’ hearts being intentionally stopped.
A society that says this is “acceptable” is very sick.
God Bless Your Daughter!
I got Miss Ava a car seat....we go to McDs each week for her happy meal.....she is a french fry fanatic and loves to watch people there. I think we saw your mom there once.
anyone who purchases a car seat and takes a child to McD’s every week is DEFINITELY a grandma!
And this child will grow up thinking of you that way with warm memories.
What a wonderful thing you’ve got going there!
Words fail.
And to think that monsters like this are walking around in our midst.
Killing off the population is the key to revitalization.
I thought this headline was a joke.
The Governor’s “Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act” would expand the current health clause to permit abortions late in pregnancies. The bill’s “re-in-vitro” section would give women the right to abort fetuses up to 30 days after “full emergence,” provided dilation of the birth canal sufficient to allow reinsertion of the fetus’ head could be achieved.
Father in heaven!
To think that people wonder why the kids are going on shooting sprees and killing their parents. Survivor syndrome.
My first thought: Who is going to clip this article and show it to one (or both) of his precious daughters when they are old enough to understand.
My second thought: I can just picture this scum saying, “Vivian, I loved you and Rosalind so much that I killed your two brothers while they were in the womb.” I then imagine the neurosis that Vivian develops when she realizes that she better stay on Daddy’s good side or he may kill her because he loves Rosalind so much.
IVF is an abomination. This is a classic example of why that is the case.
Bears repeating...
What an asinine statement you chose to quote! (not your fault)
He aborted the boys because they have a statistical chance of being autistic? Give me a break! As the grandmother of an autistic child, I am offended by the “sperm donor’s” comment! Then, he adds kerosene to the blaze by saying that he also was reluctant to bring girls into the world because of Republican efforts to curtail Roe v. Wade.
Why didn’t he just get rid of all of them at once? THere are so many chances to have this man’s perfect little world upset. sarcasm/off
I pity those poor little girls being raised in that awful environment. I hope the parents change their minds and put them up for adoption to a good and loving home that appreciates them as human beings — not designer babies.
And if he is so worried about the health of his wife carrying multiples, why is she continuing with twins? This whole story sounds bogus to me.
“I thought this headline was a joke.”
It is a joke - but so true to life it is easy to mistake it.
yes, I cannot imagine that once the girls understand the circumstances that they will get the warm fuzzies towards mom and dad.
I imagine they will feel guilty for surviving the pregnancy while their brothers were sacrificed so that they could have a better chance to live.
I say “better chance” - because there is nothing in the article that suggests mom’s or babies’ lives truly were in immediate danger.
This appears to be a situation where the numbers game was played to justify “increased chance” of survival.
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