John McCain is outrageous, what with his putting women’s health IN QUOTES in regards to reasons under which abortion ‘might’ be allowable.

Are you kidding me? Do you think women (who may not even WANT an abortion and may very well want to continue with a pregnancy) are LYING about their life teetering on the brink of existence when they decide (along with their doctor) that an abortion is NECCESARY?

Pregnancy is always risky. So is childbirth. And women are not incubators.

I am so sick of the implication that abortion is somehow always an irresponsible or selfish choice. That, even if an individual is not at a point in their life when she can realistically raise a child, she should still carry it to term and give it up for adoption. Because there are so many families that want a baby, blah blah blah, as if the foster care system is not already overflowing with unwanted kids. There are no words for how much I hate the suggestion that even if you don’t want a baby it’s really not so much of a hardship to carry a parasite for 9 months, that you have the obligation to do so for the poor women who can’t get pregnant.

Yes, abortion is, and probably always will be my pet issue. I have been the scared 17 year old looking up what abortion laws are in her state. Lucky for me, it was a scare and nothing more, but that was one of the longest, scariest 10+ days of my life. If ANYONE had suggested that I have a responsibility or obligation to carry a hypothetical baby to term, just because I was biologically capable of it, I would have flipped out. I was SEVENTEEN, a few days before starting my senior year of high school. And yes, I come from a white, middle class family, and were I to CHOOSE to do so, I would have been healthy and well taken care of.

But incubating a baby for nine months would have screwed up my senior year of high school, a time when one is making choices about their future. If I had been pregnant, I would have had an abortion. No question about it. I would have had an abortion and gone on with my college applications and classes and I don’t think I would have regretted it for an instant. And the thought of having to do that was hard enough. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for women who ARE pregnant and do not want a baby and choose an abortion. And I certainly cannot imagine how difficult it must be for someone who actually wants to carry a baby to term, but for health reasons, cannot do it, and who MUST have an abortion to save her own life. I cannot imagine how heartbreaking that must be.

And John McCain certainly can’t either.