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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Comments

Nancy

I just stumbled on this blog via a blogroll on a favorite site. Wow. Thank you for your service, courage and grace. I have appreciated reading all the personal stories. The stories need to be told, for so many reasons.

I wish you much peace.

Mia

Annie will not end up homeless if someone (someone at the abortion clinic, maybe?) directed her to social services where she could get signed up for the government programs our tax dollars fund. She can do it without her mom, and would probably fare a lot better. There's subsidized housing, Medicaid, Welfare, Food Stamps, and help with education and childcare available to her, and she can use these as tools to climb out of poverty if she has the desire. She just needs to get hooked up with a good social worker.

Of concern is Annie's boyfriend and whether or not she will continue to give herself to men who abuse, like said boyfriend. She may even go back to him, since a lot of troubled women seem to do this. Her family is another problem...I'm not so sure it would be beneficial to her to see them right now. It would be nice if she could break ties with them until they really do get straightened out, if and/or when that ever happens.

What's strange to me is they talked about birth control methods with her, as if an unplanned pregnancy is the worst or only thing you get from having indiscriminate sex. Not STDs, like AIDS. They talked about having birth control for the next ten years, but didn't seem to address her lifestyle issues or tell her that birth control doesn't prevent STDs. Sometimes it doesn't even prevent pregnancy.

I realize a pp said their sister had an abortion this late and is now a nurse with no regrets, and that may be. However, who is to say she wouldn't have become a nurse if she had her baby? Just like those who think Annie's life is over because she decided to have her baby - it isn't. The story has been played out over and over. Many wonderful people were unplannned.

Having a baby isn't like having a disability or even a disadvantage. It is inconvenient at times - like anything. It's also a big responsibility, being caretaker of someone else besides yourself. It takes a lot of dedication and selflessness, which not everyone has, I suppose. There's also the option of giving the baby up for adoption, if the mother doesn't feel ready to raise a child.

Lastly, the fetus is quite developed at 18 weeks (about 4.5 months?). No one talked about this. I'm sure Annie could feel the baby moving - the fetus is five to six inches long at this point. Developed arms, legs, organs, and sucking reflex. The weeks 18-23 are important for neuro development - the fetus can hear your heartbeat. Just a matter of growth and time.

Judith

Hello,

I enjoy reading your blog, and I was hoping you might be able to help with a project I'm working on. Though I understand that your blog is for sharing stories from your clinic and that it may not be appropriate to share our message directly on the blog, I'm looking for pro-choice folks on the web who can either help pass a message around about a project our clinic is doing to increase financial access to abortion in Iowa, or share ideas for other people/websites that might like to help. If you have any ideas, I'd be grateful to hear from you. You can find out more about the project at this link:

http://www.emmagoldman.com/news/medicaid.htm

Thanks for your time!

BJ Survivor

teen mom: I am glad that it has worked out for you. I hope Annie's situation turns out as well as yours!

MJ: My sister had an abortion at 17 weeks. That was 8 years ago. I assure you, she has gone on with her life and is not/was never eaten up by guilt over the procedure. She is a successful ICU nurse, has been happily married for the last year and a half, and will be starting grad school in the fall.

Amy Benson

Hello,

Your blog has come to the attention of curators at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America (http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles/). The Schlesinger Library is a special library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and also one of several libraries that comprise the Harvard University Libraries. Capturing the social history of women is among our highest priorities. Our collections document women's lives for use by researchers, students, and scholars. I would like to have a chance to speak to you about participating in our pilot project to harvest and archive contemporary blogs for future research. I can provide additional information about the project and answer any questions you may have, but I thought it best to keep this initial communication via the comment feature of your blog on the short side.

Please let me know if you would be interested in participating in our project, or if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Amy Benson
Librarian/Archivist for Digital Projects
Schlesinger Library
amy_benson at radcliffe.edu
617-495-5858

teen mom

what the f*uck is wrong u women leaving comments like that. i am 17 and have a 9 month old baby my story is almost exatly like annies. i come form a family like hers and what her mom said to her is what my mom said to me. my mom is now 11 months clean working and she loves my daughter. me and my daughter have enough money to live comfortably and our life is great. i cannot imagine if i would have had an abortion.
shame on you women. mabey leave your negitive comments to yourself. they are pretty immiture. who are u to decide how annies life will turn out. im am 17 and wayy more mature then u women.

Julie

MJ-
Annie's mother has condemned her grandchild to a life of regret,pain,self hatred,shame, and poverty. She put her own wants and desires over her daughter's struggle to escape homelessness,unemployment and drug abuse.

Natalie

This is a very interesting post. I have some thoughts, but they're a bit too wordy to leave here. Please check out my blog post at www.lifeisromantic.blogspot.com/2008/04/sun-will-come-out-tomorrow-annie.html.

And if you happen to talk to Annie again, please forward it on to her, too. :-)
Thank you, and God bless.

MJ

These comments are shocking! Have any of you actually had an abortion? A late term abortion? Annie's mother saved her from a life of regret, pain, self hatred and shame.

saltyC

Some parents are jealous of their children and don't want them to overcome them.

Agatha

What a foul woman her mother must be. Breaks my heart, because Annie has just condemned herself & her baby to a lifetime of probable poverty, subsiting on welfare. Forever.

John

Evidently she was not as sure as she thought she was,thus the last minute visit. From the description of her background and family life she is painfully aware of the empty promises of a drug addict. She was likely searching for any reason she could find to cancel. You were able to find funding for her to get an abortion but all you could do is wish her luck when she didn't follow through?

blossomcat

This is such a terrible story. The mother will 'try' to get off crack if Annie has a baby she can't support! How much will or even can the mother support Annie and her baby? Maybe Annie already had a lot of ambivalence, she she was 18 weeks pregnant when she came to the clinic. But it is hard to see how having a baby is going to help this young penniless, homeless girl with a completely dysfunctional family get out of her terrible situation--something she had dreamed of for the last 8 years!
I wish her health, happiness and success too. But I fear this is a decision that she will regret once the mother withdraws her affection and sticks with the drugs.

Linda

... and furthermore, what kind of mom would say "only if you have a kid that you've already decided you're not ready for, only THEN will I do what I should have done already." And how much you want to bet mom doesn't come through and leaves her daughter, once again, full of crack-addicted relatives, and now with a baby too. The more I think about it, the more horrendous Annie's mother becomes to me.

Diatryma

I hope it works-- and I hope that she remembers to come back once the baby's born to get long-term birth control if she wants it.

Linda

What kind of a mother would impose this kind of sick, killing emotional blackmail on her child?

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