Oh, how interesting.

A post I made a week ago drew a comment from someone who called my position a pack of lies, based on my liberal opposition to the religious right. I am somewhat surprised that this is the only comment of its ilk I've received, but I think that's because I'm a really low-tier blogger, blogwise. I'm fine with that.

I'm pro-life. I'm anti-abortion. I would love to see a society where every child was wanted and every unexpectedly pregnant woman would have a support system that would take her and her child in and help her either keep the baby or give it to a home that is waiting to love it. We don't have that, because we aren't willing to pay for it. The Right Wing calls that socialism.

I am pro-life. I've sat hour upon hour on oncology floors and in nursing homes, I'm more respectful of the dignity of life than these Susans can ever know. But I am ultimately PRO PRIVACY. I've been there, I've had to hold the medical POA for my dying husband and make the calls he couldn't make, and second-guess myself endlessly, and have my kids staying up all night doing research and emailing renal cancer experts for help, and agonize over every damn call I had to make, and I have PTSD nightmares to this day over his last weeks. I could have put him on a feeding tube and kept his body running maybe, hell, two more months of oblivous brain-stem activity, like Terri Schiavo - but, thank GOD, I wasn't in the spotlight of some religous right circus. Would I have done any of it differently? No way. I consulted with every freaking doctor I could get my hands on, and they were national level cancer experts. They guided me. My church guided me. My family supported me. And that is how it should work.

I am grateful that it was a private family situation. And this is why, though I cringe at the "Right to CHOOSE!" rhetoric, I still prefer that to the alternative. Because abortion is ultimately a private health care issue. It's between the woman, or her family if she can't speak for herself, and the doctors. If the woman or her family has religiously guided considerations, they can use them to guide them, but beyond that, it's a private medical decision. It's a privacy issue, based on individual circumstances and conscience, and it really has to be, even if the outcome may be wrong to some of us, and that has to be accepted or we have to be prepared to deal with the inevitable spill-over into every family nightmare. Because where does the intrusion stop? We don't provide the health care system to support life when the religious right feels it should be kept alive - they don't put the money where their rhetoric is. If they did I might be more sympathetic. But until you have actually had to do it and have lived through the hell and have researched what is out there and have a clue what you are talking about, I suggest, with all due respect, that you shut the fuck up. Do your homework and come back, then maybe we can talk.