i am a type one, insulin dependent diabetic and have been since childhood. at the age of 17, none of my doctors felt comfortable putting me on more hormone therapy on top of the synthetic insulin i need to live. not surprisingly, less effective methods ended up being just that. pregnancy for a type one diabetic is a crap shoot even when carefully prepared for, but a unexpected pregnancy while in the midst of puberty was more than my body could even try to handle. before i even realized i could potentially be pregnant, i was in the er with severe keto-acidosic shock (a very deadly side effect of mismanaged diabetes). in the span of less than a minute, i learned that i was pregnant, then learned that failure to terminate the pregnancy would kill both me and my child in “about a month” according to the er doctor. there was no “choice” involved other than deciding if i wanted my embryo to die slowly with me or quickly on her own. it seemed a greatly selfish move to force a tiny living thing through so much pain just because i didn’t want to feel sad about it’s loss. i still remember the exceptionally severe tone the doctor took with me and my parents. since he didn’t know us, he might have been concerned that someone would insist on me “not violating god’s will”. but since dad raised us agnostic, there was no opinion on what “god’s” will was except my own. and if i was god, i would want to resolve this sort of situation with as few deaths as could be managed. regardless, abortion care can’t be something a woman has to go to court to get permission for. i could have been dead before a trial or medical board review was able to be organized. and to outlaw a life saving surgery is not the will of any god i can fathom.