That's Bobbi McHaughey, mother of the McHaughey septuplets, born 1997.
The observant among you might notice there are 8 babies, not 7. That's because Bobbi and her husband Fred/Ralph/Dave/Mike (let's be honest, he's the most inconsequential member of this family) had a child before the Miracle 7 arrived 25 years ago.
I know all this because I came across one of those clickbait articles that lure you in with an interesting premise and then take 5000 words to drag you to the bitter end of the story with the flaccid not so interesting resolve. All in service of exposing you to a panopoly of banner ads which you will NEVER click but for which advertisers will pay a premium because you know adtech and the numbers demand it.
As you can imagine carrying 7 babies to full term is a near impossible task.
We're talking about a human being not some frisky Dachsund who came across a strapping German Shepherd in the middle of some alley and spits out double digit litters every other year.
In fact the pregnancy was of great concern to her obstetric team, who upon many tests and discussions recommended Bobbi undergo a reductive pregnancy. For her safety and for the viability of the other embryos.
She chose not to abort one of the precarious embryos. But only after she thought long and hard about it. Notice the operative phrase here: 'chose.' Because in these dangerous times that choice about her body and her pregnancy is no longer on the table.
I think most reasonable people (that would by nature exclude those in the Red States) would not have an issue with her following the advice of her medical team and undergoing a precautionary abortion in order to deliver the best possibility of survival.
Under Jewish Law, the law that preceded Christian Law that is now being rammed down our secular throats, the life of the mother supercedes all other considerations, making an abortion not only permissible but obligatory, should medical conditions demand it.
I'm not saying Jewish Law is better. We've got some strange shit going on as well. I'm not giving up cheeseburgers or lobster tails, any time soon. And this whole business about cutting off the top of my penis without my say-so still irks me.
The larger point I'm fumbling to make is that had Bobbi -- the mother -- given up one the fetuses for the survivability of the remaining 6, that would have been her decision and hers alone.
Let's follow that line of logic to its natural conclusion:
Suppose it were a woman pregnant with 6 embryos, that needed to be reduced to 5...
Suppose it were a woman pregnant with 5 embryos, that needed to be reduced to 4...
Suppose it were a woman pregnant with 4 embryos, that needed to be reduced to 3...
Suppose it were a woman pregnant with 3 embryos, that needed to be reduced to 2...
Suppose it were a woman pregnant with 2 embryos, that needed to be reduced to 1...
Suppose it were a woman pregnant with 1 embryo, that needed to be reduced to none because of a medical condition that neither you, nor I or Kevin McCarthy or Jim Jordan or Marjorie Taylor Greene knows anything about.
I'm willing to bet there's a plethora of things MTG knows nothing about.
Also, didn't the tenets of the GOP revolve around small government, personal responsibility and individual freedoms? When did they throw that train in reverse? And start fueling the engine with high grade Vibranium?
The point is, it's no one's business. And certainly not that of a Supreme Court handpicked by a merkin-sporting troglodyte who could not, even on his best day, cite one SCOTUS precedent setting case that shaped American history. I would bet my house on that.
It would be as if I had gone in to my dentist to get a routine root canal to remove an inflamed incisor only to have the doors burst open mid-procedure, by some jackbooted Proud Boys, to shut down the operation.
"You can't do that sir. that's against God's will."
Oh yeah, God's Will, the one transcribed 2000 years ago, in the middle of the night by some poor goat herder roaming the nether regions of Babylonia, looking for a watering hole for his flock and his undernourished camels.
"And one more thing,"said the Proud Boy as he scooped up a free toothbrush and left, "the 2020 election was rigged!,"
God help us.
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