Choice and idiocy

I've written and rewritten this post several times today.  As I type I'm being hit on face book by people who believe in the sanctity of life but, unfortunately, not in the sanctity of mine.  Yup, I am being called a horrible baby killer again.  
All I did was say that I believe in choice.  I didn't slag anyone off, even though it would have been so easy to rip into the gobshites.  I said that I believe in choice, I believe in people (whose lives are very important) having a say in what happens in their own, personal,lives.  
I don't believe in the Death Penalty but, funnily enough, I would personally kill anyone who hurts one of mine.  I'm protective like that.  Actually, turns out I do believe in the Death Penalty.  For those who commit crimes against children.  For those who rape women.  For those who rape men.  For those who kill in the name of their God.
Fuck, turns out I am pro-death.  
Oh and another thing that is pissing me off about face book (because that is where I am currently being SHOUTED AT IN CAPITAL LETTERS and called such things as A MORON.  A BABY KILLER and EVIL) is this bullshit that is currently rife where you are requested to 'like' ridiculous posts.  They are the new chain letter aren't they? Several of the most recent examples:

1. Like if you think rapists should hang.  Don't like if you think rape is a good thing???  Seriously?  Are you for fucking real?
2. If this child gets a million likes s/he won't die of cancer!!  WHAT??  If s/he doesn't die of cancer it's because of the wonderfulness of modern medicine and the support team around the child.
3. Like if you think this child is beautiful.  Child in question usually has Downs Syndrome or Cleft Palate or something.  Either way, being requested to like such a kid is highly insulting to that child.  All children are beautiful, to their parents, and that's enough.  Children are like farts, you can just about stand your own.

This one is just something that fascinates me:

To my darling husband/wife Happy Birthday my darling.  I love you so much.  You are the light at the end of my tunnel (phnar phnar), the salt to my pepper etc. etc. etc.  

Just turn over and give them a sodding kiss and tell them you love them. I always think the people who post the shite like that above are like the lady who 'doth protest too much'.  

But then, I would.  I'm a bitter baby killer. 

Abortion

Dear Enda, you wanted a Gathering.  You got it!

source

I'm an Irish woman.  I am about to hit 40 and twenty years ago I remember seeing my friend's picture on the cover of the Irish Times newspaper.  He was the number zero in a phone number for 'abortion information'.  

Twenty years later I am a forty year old woman who is still not allowed to choose whether I do or don't continue with a pregnancy.  

I am fed up with not being allowed to choose what I do with my body.  I am becoming increasingly fed up with the fact that soon, in Ireland, the only people who will be able to afford abortions are the wealthy.  They are going to be the only ones with the money to travel abroad to do so.  

The poor and the ill won't be able to have this procedure.  If they are carrying feotuses that are 'incapatible with life' they are just going to have to suck it up and give it up and have that baby and watch it die in their arms.  

It's 2012 for Christ's sake.  It's the 21st Century.  

What has brought this to the forefront of news media is  the death of a woman called Savita Halappanavar   She was in a Galway hospital due to miscarrying her baby.  She died due to the fact that she was denied an abortion to terminate a pregnancy that was going to end in inevitable miscarriage.  

She was 17 weeks pregnant.  She went into hospital as she was miscarrying and she was in severe pain.  

She asked several times, over three days, if the hospital would terminate the pregnancy.  She was told 'this is a Catholic Country' and 'no, she could not have an abortion'.  

The foetus wasn't going to survive and that is so sad.  She was 17 weeks pregnant, she obviously wanted this child.  But she was miscarrying, it wasn't going to survive.  As a result of the hospital waiting for the foetal heartbeat to cease Savita developed septicaemia and died.  

I keep hearing the argument that 'Ireland has the best maternal care in Europe', I'm not denying that.  I received good care on each of my three pregnancies.  

I keep hearing claims that 'abortion is a bad thing and will ruin the country' and 'how can we be sure abortion won't be used as a contraceptive?'.  

I don't know whether abortion is a bad thing.  I know it's a personal choice.  I know, from the few women in my circle who've had abortions, that it was one of the most difficult choices they ever had to make.  Choices made for a variety of reasons: incapability with life, financial reasons and 'wrong timing'.  All of which, to me, are valid choices.  But then, who am I to decide what is a valid choice?  

Will abortion be used as a contraceptive for some?  Hand on heart, I have no idea. I know, from talking to an English friend who works in the field, that there are those who regularly have abortions.  I think these women are to be pitied more than anything else.

I want a choice.  I want to be allowed to have a choice in what happens to my body.  I want other women to have a choice in what happens to their bodies.  I want less grey areas and fewer doctors feeling that they are fucked regardless of what they do.I took part in a march on Saturday. It went from the Garden of Remembrance to Leinster House.  I'm not sure how many men, women and children were on that protest but I believe it was rumoured to be between 12,000 and 20,000.  I know that there were people gathered at Merrion Square and the protest was still passing by Grafton Street.  I know that you could have heard a pin drop during the minute's silence.  I know that people are angry and ashamed of what has happened in our country.  I know that people want change.  

It's the 21st century.

It's 2012.

Please, please, don't let it be another twenty years before anything is done to do away with these grey areas and finally give women, and men, the right to choose what they do with their lives and bodies.