Hello, Kosites,
I want to draw your attention to a brilliant, and eloquent, essay that appeared on Salon today, written by my friend, Suzanne Edwards. Long story short: Suzanne developed ovarian cancer coincident with her second pregnancy. While she was not sure of the cancer diagnosis until after her daughter was born (by emergency C-Section), she writes beautifully about what Choice means in these difficult, even tortuous, circumstances, and why the current political discourse on the topic of abortion and "the health of the mother" is insulting and worse. Complex decisions are being made by real women under complex circumstances that would makes some of these jokers (I'm looking at you, Richard Mourdoch) fold like a house of cards.
Suzanne's essay speaks volumes about her commitment to her daughters and her own future. Link and more after the jump.
"What 'Health of the mother means'"
Please go and read this amazing piece. As she so eloquently ends,
These are decisions that call for uncommon emotional and ethical depth. . . . I hope my daughters will one day read this essay as their mother's defense of both of them. I hope they live in a world that respects their inherent dignity. Whatever impossible choices they face, I want them to know that I trust them to make those decisions on their own.
Suzanne is just one of a host of women of enormous emotional and ethical depth.
I wish her health and I wish her a long and bright future.
And I wish for her and for her young daughters, a society that respects all women of whatever social circumstance as beings capable of making their own healthcare decisions. As people who understand--far better than those self-righteous pols that lecture them--the ethical complexity and responsibility of reproductive choice.
Suzanne, I admire and respect you more than I can say.
I've been at Daily Kos for a VERY long time. This is my first Diary.