a married health professional, i was thrilled to find out we were pregnant with our second child. due to complications with obtaining our alphafetoprotein test at 14 weeks (sample was tainted by maternal blood so came back very high – off the scale actually – and was not able to be used for making any decisions) we had to wait several more weeks before repeating. at 20 weeks we repeated the test and were saddened but grateful to know that we were carrying a downs syndrome child. both parents agreed that we would like to end the pregnancy and that adoption was not a choice for us. due to being far along (20 weeks) we had to travel to a nearby large city to find a physician willing to perform an abortion. complicating things, he was also out of town at a meeting so we had to wait another week. this was a painful and tough decision because we so wanted a healthy child. we were grateful that science was able to give us the facts we needed and grateful that a physician was there to support us in our very tough and personal decision. no one ever chooses abortion lightly, but each story is it’s own story! we were able to get pregnant again in two years and have a healthy daughter, completing the two child family we had planned and prayed for. we still grieve for this lost pregnancy and 17 years later as i write this i am teary eyed. i hope that politics will allow women and their spouses to continue to make these personal decisions with all options available.