Chessen was astute and more courageous than many people. It may take another epidemic like Zika to get these laws restored. I would hope not. But our public health infrastructures have been eviscerated. Those women who can will go underground, just like the respectable midwestern ladies of my mothers time, aided by their ministers and rabbis.
This seems a bit sanctimonious to me. Ablest language or not, about 50 percent of babies exposed to thalidomide during a critical period of gestation simply died of heart defects. Rubella caused heartbreaking neurological damage as well.
The horrific disabilities caused by Thalidomide and rubella were a driver of liberalisation of abortion laws. One of my mother’s friends got an abortion because she was exposed to rubella in pregnancy. Another chose to keep a baby who was badly damaged. Sweet kid but he never learned to speak and eventually died, breaking the heart of his family. Some years ago I tracked down Shari Chessen, who kindly consented to talk to me. She was the Romper Room host who was exposed to thalidomide and had to get an abortion in Sweden. She was vilified for it and fired from her job. She got her abortion in the first trimester. Years later she told me that she found out that the fetus indeed had defects incompatible with life but it wasn’t medical policy to share that information with patients. She found out because her second husband was one of the doctors on her case. One makes these decisions in conditions of ambiguity but the consequences are profound either way. It should be the individual’s decision to make.
Agreed, well put. I appreciate your sharing of your mom’s friends’ experiences. Never an easy decision to make. I’m familiar with Chessen’s story and wrote about it for paying subscribers when the Dobbs case was first argued. She has a quote that’s something like, “The wheels on the abortion bus go round and round.” I thought of that when learning the court’s recent decision.
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
It's there throughout the new testament but
Like the disciples and the parables, when they received the holy spirit they they understood them.
Chessen was astute and more courageous than many people. It may take another epidemic like Zika to get these laws restored. I would hope not. But our public health infrastructures have been eviscerated. Those women who can will go underground, just like the respectable midwestern ladies of my mothers time, aided by their ministers and rabbis.
This seems a bit sanctimonious to me. Ablest language or not, about 50 percent of babies exposed to thalidomide during a critical period of gestation simply died of heart defects. Rubella caused heartbreaking neurological damage as well.
Thanks, Wendy. I bet Dr. Frank would have more to say on the subject, but that’s a fair point and a good reminder.
The horrific disabilities caused by Thalidomide and rubella were a driver of liberalisation of abortion laws. One of my mother’s friends got an abortion because she was exposed to rubella in pregnancy. Another chose to keep a baby who was badly damaged. Sweet kid but he never learned to speak and eventually died, breaking the heart of his family. Some years ago I tracked down Shari Chessen, who kindly consented to talk to me. She was the Romper Room host who was exposed to thalidomide and had to get an abortion in Sweden. She was vilified for it and fired from her job. She got her abortion in the first trimester. Years later she told me that she found out that the fetus indeed had defects incompatible with life but it wasn’t medical policy to share that information with patients. She found out because her second husband was one of the doctors on her case. One makes these decisions in conditions of ambiguity but the consequences are profound either way. It should be the individual’s decision to make.
Agreed, well put. I appreciate your sharing of your mom’s friends’ experiences. Never an easy decision to make. I’m familiar with Chessen’s story and wrote about it for paying subscribers when the Dobbs case was first argued. She has a quote that’s something like, “The wheels on the abortion bus go round and round.” I thought of that when learning the court’s recent decision.
Romans 7:6
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
It's there throughout the new testament but
Like the disciples and the parables, when they received the holy spirit they they understood them.
Discuss with all nations