The Political Voices of Women

Here is a guest post from community member Kimber Caldwell, from The Politics of Joy.

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Not too many days ago, Cynthia and I were discussing Sarah Palin’s right to choose HOW she gave birth to Trigg.

#1… She chose to complete a pregnancy that was probably considered high risk, considering her age, the discovery of Down’s Syndrome in the baby and the fact that this was at least her 5th pregnancy. I have 5 children, but have had 6 pregnancies, one that ended in a miscarriage at 12 weeks. I don’t know many women who haven’t miscarried who have this number of children. It is not unusual.

#2… She chose to travel, despite how far along she was. When her water broke in Texas, she made the choice to fly home and then subsequently drive 50 miles to her chosen hospital or birthing center. Now, I’m not sure about you, but I remember the times when my water broke… As Cynthia pointed out, she would have had to have SEVERAL changes of clothes and a box of chux pads. Not to mention that labor usually intensifies after the water breaks, so I am sure she had the complete attention of the flight crew. But this was HER choice.

At first, I was a little appalled about some of her choices. But then I recalled the choices I made in my pregnancies.

After a C-section, I chose to homebirth my second child. She was a PERFECT VBAC. When I found myself pregnant with child #3 in a state that was hostile to homebirthing, I chose to fly home at around 8 months to finish my pregnancy and deliver at home. With child #4 and #5, again, I chose to homebirth. My water broke almost 2.5 weeks early with #5, but I chose to follow through on my initial decision. The supposed safe period after the water breaking is 48 hours… (that is in a stable environment and flying on a plane is NOT a stable environment!) Although we were right up to 44 hours, I continued to make the decision that I would birth this baby at home… and I did and all ended well.

Now, I do not say any of this to encourage homebirth as an option. It was our decision and we were comfortable with it and it worked well for us. I made a lot of choices that my friends and family were not always comfortable with. Just as some of Sarah’s choices may not have been the wisest, they were HER choices to make!

For me, pro-choice is not about making abortion easier or more prevalent. There has been a steady decline in abortions, which I think is fabulous. But the extremism of pro-life is that you do not have any right to make decisions. I would NOT want to make the decision of whether to keep a baby that was conceived by rape. But I also do not want a court to tell me what I have to do! And I would not go through a pregnancy (such as an ectopic pregnancy) where the best thing I could hope for is to lose my reproductive organs and the pregnancy, and the worst being I would DIE and leave my husband a widower and my 5 living children motherless!

I want to send you to Huffington. Lynn Paltrow has written an amazing “Open Letter to Governor Sarah … and I could not agree with her more heartily!! (HT: Cynthia)