My mother …

... is awesome!

A few days ago she got junk mail from Planned Parenthood, soliciting donations to fund their nefarious purposes. Neither of us can figure out where they would have gotten her address to send her anything. The only baby-related mailing lists either of us is on are ones for new moms, since I signed up for things when I was pregnant and when I first had Roo.

And yet there it was, in the pile of junk mail, an envelope bearing the Planned Parenthood logo and address in the upper-left corner. Had it been left to me, I would have ripped it in half and tossed it in the recycle bin, the same thing I do to every other piece of junk mail I get. But that wasn’t enough for my mother.
She was angry, indignant. I don’t remember exactly what she said but I remember clearly the tone she used when she spoke. She was offended that such a thing had found its way to our mailbox. It wasn’t enough, either, to simply request to be removed from their mailing list.

My dear, sweet mother, who so rarely unsheathes her claws, wrote “Abortion is murder!” on the donation form before stuffing it in the envelope and sending it off.
“It’s not enough to be taken off their list,” she told me before she mailed it. “They need to know why!”

I concur. I know more than a dozen birth mothers who have changed lives and created loving and eternal families by choosing adoption. When I think that any one of their babies could have been aborted, I feel sick. And I think of my own mother, whose birth mom could have found a doctor to terminate her unplanned pregnancy. And of course, my sweet, sweet Roo. Although he said it was up to me, H favored abortion. He would have snuffed out her tiny life with no more thought than he would give to a zombie on his stupid video games. Think how many lives have changed for the better because Roo was born! I can’t bear the thought of a Roo-less world.

The envelope my mother mailed was marked “No postage necessary if mailed in the United States,” but there was an inked note nearby that “your gift of postage helps fund reproductive rights!” Rights? What about the rights of the unborn? What about the rights of a woman to know exactly what she’s getting into by choosing abortion?
I would like to state emphatically and for the record that I am wholeheartedly opposed to violent opposition, such as bombing abortion clinics and the recent brutal murder of an abortion doctor. But neither can I condone abortion.

I know I’ll probably attract a lot of venom for so plainly stating my convictions, and I’m okay with that. I think that abortion is probably the single most polarizing social issue in the world today. I don’t want to make someone else’s decision for them. But neither can I stand idly by and pretend that it doesn’t bother me that women are getting abortions. I can’t pretend that oh, even though it’s not for me, it’s fine for someone else. I don’t think it is, and I will shout it from the rooftops.

Abortion is NOT the only option for an unplanned pregnancy, and it certainly isn’t the best one either. Adoption may not be right for everyone, but it should be considered at the very least. I am a better person for having placed my baby for adoption. My life has changed for the better in so many ways, some of them imperceptible as yet but all of them worthwhile. I am a better person, P and M are better people, and Roo will be as well. I know it. My mother knows it. And, if she has anything to say about it, so will Planned Parenthood.