i’m the woman the politicians don’t want you to think about. stable marriage, decent education, stay at home mother to a five year old, 32 years old and one who desperately wanted more children.

we had been trying to have another child for four years and i had had three first trimester miscarriages. i became pregnant again in 1991 and once past the sixteen weeks we thought we were safe. i went in for a routine sonogram with my five year in tow to see the heartbeat. there’s that moment when when you see the heartbeat and all is well and then it all goes wrong. you hear words like catastrophic birth defects, incompatibility with life, etc and everything stops. there were mad dashes to a perinatologist, meetings with genetic specialist, and we listened to our options. continue on with the pregnancy which will end with a dead or dying baby or terminate the pregnancy. it was one of the most difficult decisions i have ever had to make or so i thought. i was admitted to the hospital on june 11, 1991, labor was induced. i was 17-18 weeks pregnant, the staff at the hospital was wonderful and caring. jump forward a year and once again i am pregnant, after all nothing could be worse than what had happened the previous year. once again the ultra sound showed a neural tube defect, known as anencephaly, our daughter had no brain, and there was no hope of life. we were faced with the same choices continue on and plan a funeral or end the pregnancy. we ended the pregnancy. i am so grateful that i was able to have the procedure’s done in a safe hospital, with a caring staff and no one to judge me. i don’t regret what i did, if i hadn’t made those choices i wouldn’t have the beautiful son who was born in 1995, and no one should make that choice for me other than me!