When I was 20, I had a pregnancy scare. The pharmacy where I got my birth control pills was closed for some reason, so I had gone to a different place. The pharmacy where I went gave me pills that were more than two years pass the expiration date. When I called, they told me that they don't condone sex without marriage, and that they did not sell the morning after pill. When I missed my period, I was quite certain I was pregnant. I was a junior in college at the time, at the end of my Junior year. I was stressed out of my mind, and went to see my regular doctor at the student clinic for a pregnancy test and to discuss my options. My boyfriend showed up, and I was so mad I refused to talk to him. I was so confused by the way that a stupid situation could change my life.
The first thing that my doctor told me was that he does not perform abortions, and he doesn't think that I should get one either. He explained his theory of life. Then he gave me my options.
Fortunately I was not pregnant. But to this day, I don't know what I would have done if I was. It was one of the most frightening times in my life. I appreciated that my doctor took the time out to discuss options that, in reality, were not things of his choosing. He of course, before I left, reminded me that abstinence is the best policy. And wrote a prescription for the morning after pill.
I always admired my doctors ability to walk a line. He was a wonderful conservative Christian who really practiced what he believed. But he provided excellent medical care, and gave his patients, many of them young women, all the options. That has got to be hard at a college clinic. But I know that it helped me stay both safe and informed during college, and helped me make smarter decisions about my sexual health.
As a conservative Christian and attorney, I understand the troubling intersection between faith and choice when you are advising someone else. What concerns me with the new agency rules and guidelines, with the force of law, is that it impacts the duty of a healthcare professional to discuss options. And that is really important.
I further wonder about the legal implications of this. Some may not know it, but when the United States Supreme Court made its historic decision in Rowe v. Wade, the child at the center of the discussion was almost 3 years old. I often wonder how that child feels today, a kind of hail mary pass in the annals of legal theory. And I wonder what a challenge to these rules would look like.
I also wonder about the people who make such a choice and their real dedication to a child's life. I often see people picketing at the Planned Parenthood down the street from where I live. I pass it on my way to work in the morning, and at least a few times a week there are people there with signs. I just wonder if they don't realize that there is another growing crisis around them. Right now, the departments that handle children who are abused or neglected are having the same budget shortfalls as other agencies. Children are being returned who should not be, simply because there is no where to put them. Do they think about that, and the life of abused and unwanted child can face. We owe a duty to children, not just in the womb, but thereafter. Fortunately, the child in Roe v. Wade had a mother who could have afforded, both emotionally and financially, to have another child. But some women, like a 20 year old college student who realized that her pregnancy would mean she was kicked out of college, and that her life would change forever, wouldn't have the liberty to make such a choice. A woman, and man, in a position dealing with sexual health, needs all the options.
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