Posted on 07/18/2004 11:39:14 AM PDT by dennisw
July 18, 2004 LIVES When One Is Enough By AMY RICHARDS as told to AMY BARRETT
I grew up in a working-class family in Pennsylvania not knowing my father. I have never missed not having him. I firmly believe that, but for much of my life I felt that what I probably would have gained was economic security and with that societal security. Growing up with a single mother, I was always buying into the myth that I was going to be seduced in the back of a pickup truck and become pregnant when I was 16. I had friends when I was in school who were helping to rear nieces and nephews, because their siblings, who were not much older, were having babies. I had friends from all over the class spectrum: I saw the nieces and nephews on the one hand and country-club memberships and station wagons on the other. I felt I was in the middle. I had this fear: What would it take for me to just slip?
Now I'm 34. My boyfriend, Peter, and I have been together three years. I'm old enough to presume that I wasn't going to have an easy time becoming pregnant. I was tired of being on the pill, because it made me moody. Before I went off it, Peter and I talked about what would happen if I became pregnant, and we both agreed that we would have the child.
I found out I was having triplets when I went to my obstetrician. The doctor had just finished telling me I was going to have a low-risk pregnancy. She turned on the sonogram machine. There was a long pause, then she said, ''Are you sure you didn't take fertility drugs?'' I said, ''I'm positive.'' Peter and I were very shocked when she said there were three. ''You know, this changes everything,'' she said. ''You'll have to see a specialist.''
My immediate response was, I cannot have triplets. I was not married; I lived in a five-story walk-up in the East Village; I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April. I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to?
I looked at Peter and asked the doctor: ''Is it possible to get rid of one of them? Or two of them?'' The obstetrician wasn't an expert in selective reduction, but she knew that with a shot of potassium chloride you could eliminate one or more.
Having felt physically fine up to this point, I got on the subway afterward, and all of a sudden, I felt ill. I didn't want to eat anything. What I was going through seemed like a very unnatural experience. On the subway, Peter asked, ''Shouldn't we consider having triplets?'' And I had this adverse reaction: ''This is why they say it's the woman's choice, because you think I could just carry triplets. That's easy for you to say, but I'd have to give up my life.'' Not only would I have to be on bed rest at 20 weeks, I wouldn't be able to fly after 15. I was already at eight weeks. When I found out about the triplets, I felt like: It's not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I'm going to have to move to Staten Island. I'll never leave my house because I'll have to care for these children. I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don't think that deep down I was ever considering it.
The specialist called me back at 10 p.m. I had just finished watching a Boston Pops concert at Symphony Hall. As everybody burst into applause, I watched my cellphone vibrating, grabbed it and ran into the lobby. He told me that he does a detailed sonogram before doing a selective reduction to see if one fetus appears to be struggling. The procedure involves a shot of potassium chloride to the heart of the fetus. There are a lot more complications when a woman carries multiples. And so, from the doctor's perspective, it's a matter of trying to save the woman this trauma. After I talked to the specialist, I told Peter, ''That's what I'm going to do.'' He replied, ''What we're going to do.'' He respected what I was going through, but at a certain point, he felt that this was a decision we were making. I agreed.
When we saw the specialist, we found out that I was carrying identical twins and a stand alone. My doctors thought the stand alone was three days older. There was something psychologically comforting about that, since I wanted to have just one. Before the procedure, I was focused on relaxing. But Peter was staring at the sonogram screen thinking: Oh, my gosh, there are three heartbeats. I can't believe we're about to make two disappear. The doctor came in, and then Peter was asked to leave. I said, ''Can Peter stay?'' The doctor said no. I know Peter was offended by that.
Two days after the procedure, smells no longer set me off and I no longer wanted to eat nothing but sour-apple gum. I went on to have a pretty seamless pregnancy. But I had a recurring feeling that this was going to come back and haunt me. Was I going to have a stillbirth or miscarry late in my pregnancy?
I had a boy, and everything is fine. But thinking about becoming pregnant again is terrifying. Am I going to have quintuplets? I would do the same thing if I had triplets again, but if I had twins, I would probably have twins. Then again, I don't know.
Why didn't she bring the other two to term and then just cook 'em up and eat 'em?. She could have invited all her trendy friends over for baby-potpie. The next wave in societal evolution: The avante-garde cannibal.
Since the is the NYT, and they have been caught in the past with totally made up stories, could this be another work of fiction?
For this to be revealed to be a fraud would not be a strech given this is the NYT.
This is not some welfare case. This is a feminist activist who I bet makes a pretty good living if she's living where she does--a living I might add corrupting and filling our young women with vitriol and hatred. She does not deserve your made up sympathy scenario.
So true--something tells me they were all boys too because I suspect if the twins were girls, she would have likely "reduced" the boy to keep her new little feminist recruits.
as told to?
a hint of yet another NYT work of fraud/fiction?
Ok. So what if her boy gets some sort of illness and she might feel that she ought to take care of him? Should she 'off' him because she might have to give up her precious income for a part of a year?
Of course, she would probably find someone else to care for him.
What is the point of this woman's life? I bet even she doesn't know.
If I could talk to this woman, I would tell her that siblings are a wonderful gift. My daughter and her sister do everything together. They are 3 and 5.
No, although the NYT can no longer be trusted to get basic facts straight I think this story is true. The wretched creatures seem so of proud of herself.
Spare me the pity fest. You killed your kid's two siblings.
its a feminazi's wet dream.
She castrated her boyfriend (if not cuckolded him)
She had TWO abortions.
She had a baby without a rapist man.
AND
She got to say her father did not matter.
You have come a long way baby.
Having a tad of a journalism background, it is my understanding that quotes must be attributed and verified. That doesn't mean they always are, but not doing so could put them in a vulnerable position. Some seemingly personal details are a matter of public record, as in a court trial. Which is why I made the assumption, and I assure you it is not a matter of crediting the media, far be it from me. But if someone I knew gave a story like this to the media and attributed quotations to me that either I did not say or did not want printed, not spoken in a public venue, there would be consequences.
My immediate response was, I cannot have triplets. I was not married; I lived in a five-story walk-up in the East Village; I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April. I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to?
Any Questions?
No it's not okay to kill human babies but if they aren't actual babies but merely potential human beings then you would agree that it isn't wrong to remove them for any reason. That must be what she believes as well.
Call her what you want, but she's being honest. And there are a lot of people out there like her. This article just isn't a human interest story. This article is trying to make you become numb to the everday industry of abortion.
This is why we need to outlaw abortion.
I'm not unsympathetic to the woman's plight. I'm sure bearing triplets is scary. So is being a teenager and being pregnant. Or being pregnant by someone you picture as being a husband and father. I can understand how a person can feel trapped in a situation and abortion appears to offer a way out.
This woman will wonder about the other two the rest of her life. Her husband Peter was already feeling guilt. The kindest thing we could have done is to have a law in place so that they aren't making this decision at a time that they feel is a crisis.
One questionable decision of the New York Times was to apparently omit any reference to the fact that Richards is a board member of Planned Parenthood and other similar organizations, and a long time pro-abortion activist. Richards omits this significant fact about herself and writes the article as if she were just the average citizen. The editors at the Times must have known who Richards is, and they chose not to share this information with the readership. By saying nothing about the author's background, in essence the editors became co-conspirators with Richards in manipulating how the average person would read the story. (I went to the NYT site and couldn't find any statement about who Richards is, although I may have missed it.)
A Sorosite! What a shocker. Really.
YOu know, I think you are on to something. Not only to lie to her doctor, but to her compadre feminists. You can't help but wonder if they were to see her desperation to have a child by using fertility meds and then when she ended up with 3, well what better way to even out the "betrayal" of your feminist ways to have a child, then to murder 2 of those children in the womb.
Explain this. Is this what you beleive or are you saying it as conjecture?
Well, I hope it will have the completely opposite effect! Maybe with this people will begin to wake up to the horrors of the abortion industry!
SICK, SICK, SICK..to take the gift of life and use it as a billboard for death!
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