Mira Ptacin aborted her child when she found out that the baby would be unable to survive after birth (according to the doctor). Her words given idea of what a woman goes through when she finds out that something very, very serious is wrong with her child.
Convinced that her daughter would die, Ptacin was faced with 3 choices – stick out the pregnancy, induce labor early, or have an invasive abortion procedure done. She says:
“The D&E would take 3 days and would be quite painful. First step: dilate the cervix by inserting laminaria rods. Andrew told me that I’d be put under anesthesia. I wouldn’t be awake to see the process. He mentioned forceps, but when he started to explain the actual excavation process, I made him stop. I didn’t want to hear the specifics – what was the point? The details didn’t matter because the result was going to be the same. I just wanted to pick the path that was the least cruel, but I wasn’t sure for whom. Do I choose what is the most respectful for Lily and let her live out her life naturally? Or do I do what would be the least painful for me?”
To the baby, which was old enough to feel pain, the details probably mattered. Below is a picture of a D&E abortion
This was the death that Ptacin chose for her baby. At one point when she was wavering, the doctor said:
“Listen to me, Mira. “Partial-birth abortion” is an inaccurate term,” Dr. Stein told me, over the phone, when I’d finally accepted her phone call. “You must understand that.” She explained how the term I had used to describe the D&E was a political one. Incorrect. Inaccurate. Charged with meeting. That the phrase was coined by the National Right to Life Committee, and that it was not recognized as a medical term by the American Medical Association. Or the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The term “partial-birth abortion” was false. A generalization… The best decision, the healthiest choice, for me, in her opinion, as a health professional, as my doctor, was to terminate the pregnancy, immediately.”
Mira Ptacin “Un–bearing” Kim Wyatt, Sari Botton Get Out Of My Crotch: 21 Writers Respond to America’s War on Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health (South Lake Tahoe, California: Cherry Bomb Books, 2012) Kindle edition
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