I grew up in Oklahoma, and while a student at OU, had an abortion at one of those 3 clinics in the state, with hastily borrowed money. While it was definitely a difficult decision, it allowed me to complete my education in a timely manner and go on to a successful career and happy marriage (in another state). If this law had been in effect when I needed the procedure, I don't know if I could have scraped together the cash to pay the additional cost. Who knows where I might have ended up. Perhaps it's not a case of the smart people leaving, but those who stay being subjected to the backward intentions of a powerful and dominant right wing. No wonder their overall statistics on health, education, and poverty are so dismal. Despite the low cost of living, you couldn't pay me to move back, either.

denverdani:

I grew up in Oklahoma, and while a student at OU, had an abortion at one of those 3 clinics in the state, with hastily borrowed money. While it was definitely a difficult decision, it allowed me to complete my education in a timely manner and go on to a successful career and happy marriage (in another state). If this law had been in effect when I needed the procedure, I don't know if I could have scraped together the cash to pay the additional cost. Who knows where I might have ended up. Perhaps it's not a case of the smart people leaving, but those who stay being subjected to the backward intentions of a powerful and dominant right wing. No wonder their overall statistics on health, education, and poverty are so dismal. Despite the low cost of living, you couldn't pay me to move back, either.

I can tell you where you would have ended up. You would have been the mother of a beautiful child that loved you unconditionally. You might not have finished school "in a timely manner", but you would have finished. You still would be happily married, and would still have a succsessful career. I know all this to be true, because I live it every day. I grew up in Indiana, and when I was 19 and a student at Purdue University, I chose to rise to the challenge instead of being a coward. I chose to take responsibility for my actions, instead of taking an innocent life. It's been a rocky road, but it's shown me what I'm made of, which, I have to say, at the very least, is a whole lot less selfish than you are. You made your "choice" when you took off your panties.

I don't think need is an accurate term for your situation. You wanted an abortion, a woman who's life or health, had been raped or a victim of incest needs an abortion for her physical, mental or pyschological health. That doesn't take away the fact that in some states it is your right to abort a pregnancy for non-medical reasons, just not in Oklahoma and I don't think it's sad, its a testiment to the fact that Oklahomans view ALL pregnancies the same.

You would still be a mother....possibly the mother of the person that could have solved our energy problems, the person who could have kept us from going into an un-needed war, even the child that brings about world peace.....WE WILL NEVER KNOW NOW.

Statistically she would have ended up living in poverty, raising a child in poverty - which is the single best predictor for an adult to be undereducated and live in poverty.

Frankly I think it was cowardly and selfish for you to have the kid and subject it to that rocky road.

Odds are she would be a single mother in poverty, raising a child in poverty with very poor long term prospects for both child and mother.

While we can never know definatively, STATISTCALLY we do know.

And the odds that a child of poverty and deprivation becomes a drug dealer, a thug or even a Hitler is much higher than becomeing someont who brings about world peace or solves our energy problems.

Me- I prefer not to take chances of raising the next generation of thugs.

How can you know that her choice did not improve her mental health? She indicates that it very much likely did.

And it is sad that Oklahoman's believe the state and a fetus have the right to force a woman into involuntary servitude.

I want to applaud your courage for standing up and bearing witness against those who would have otherwise forced you into involuntary servitude.

You will see a lot of narrowminded responses. My apologies for their ignorance.

Hey we all know that you are the type to kill a baby just because you think it might turn out bad.... Why stop there, you are the type that would bomb down town LA, NY, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston because there are some drugs there.....

Fascinating! Someone who disagrees with your beliefs - and it is only a belief that a fetus is a baby - is necessarily a homicidal maniac. It is particularly interesting given that Oklahomans supported bombing cities in nations we are scared of with 2:1 in the 2004 election.

Even more interesting is your lack of coherent logical reasoning about the cities you mention. There are drugs there, but statistically they are less harmful or dangerous than driving your car on the interstate. So why would I bomb them? Remember, I'm advocating decision making based on Statistical LIKELIHOOD instead of some ideological dogma.

And you turn around and insist that everyone must act dogmatically. Hmm I wonder why....

Hey, nice cruel little comment there, madcapfeline. How terribly moral of you.

Good way to prove your superior character. Christ would be proud.

Sadly she still believes she IS being moral in that circumstance.

denverdani,

I appreciate your insightful comments and admire your ability to put your life together after a traumatic event. I can tell that it was a very painful experience for you, and I'm glad that you were able to go on to build a constructive, happy life.

You've been able to articulate your personal experience in context with a political narrative, one which has a dramatic impact on women's lives, with unusual clarity.

I hope someday the controversy of who owns women's bodies and lives will be resolved in favor of each individual woman. And just as with slavery and civil rights, we will look back and marvel at how we could have ever thought otherwise.

I can sympathize with her having made a different decision, and having then created a successful life despite her own difficulties. But heaping abuse on another who made her own difficult and painful decision, and who then made her own way in the world subsequently, displays a distressing lack of compassion. Compassion would seem to be an important component of a moral universe.

My purpose here is not to make "sad" any sadder but to provide some food for thought. I am a mother of two boys, now 18 and 20 years old. I wonder how many mothers who have had abortions have told their kids about it. I also want to know how kids feel when they learn their mother aborted some of their siblings.

I recently mentioned to one of my kids that my first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. It was a devastating experience at the time, but fortunately I did go on to have the two boys. Anyway, my son was almost shaken by this information - to learn that he might have had an older sister or brother.

Without yammering on in the usual pro-life way, if God goes to the trouble of giving us children when we indicate to him that we might want a child by having sex, how can anyone believe that we are not throwing a monkey wrench into the arrangement we have with our creator by then having an abortion?

I do take a long term view of the situation, however, and would not ban first trimester abortions. I think that it will be up to women, uncoerced, over time, to decide that they never want to be put in this position. If there are those women who can have abortions without pangs of conscience, there is really no way to reach them, and maybe we are doing society a favor by leaving them to their own proclivities.