In her book, Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood, Naomi Wolf writes with naïve surprise about being “infantilized” by the medical community. She is highly critical: “The medical establishment too often produces a birth experience that is unnecessarily physically and psychologically harmful to the women involved, even according to its own standards of measurement,” (Wolf, p. 6). She found her obstetricians condescending and reluctant or unable to give specific answers to questions about such matters as episiotomy and epidural rates. Being Naomi, she attributes this condescension, disrespect, and disregard for the patient to the condition she was in at the time (pregnancy). I would be surprised to find Naomi had much experience in the medical system prior to this, her first, pregnancy. If so, she might have been more inclined to use her journalistic skills to find another cause than her pregnant condition. In this quiet interim between Christmas and the New Year, I’m going to go off the topic of abortion for a moment to tell you a story – a few of my own, Naomi-like observations.

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You’ve known the hollow sound of your own steps in flight.
You’ve had to hide sometimes,
But now you’re all right.

~ Jackson Browne, “Fountain of Sorrow”

But finally Roger had had enough. He looked at her and calmly, coldly, said, “Have you ever had to kill anyone?”

~ Unidentified Vietnam Veteran

“For someone who is pro-life, the news of an abortion by a friend or relative brings a mixed bag of emotions. Anger, rage, regret and sorrow are some of these emotions. She did commit a selfish act by aborting her child, however no woman who truly understands what abortion is seeks an abortion.”

~ a Faithful Pro-Life Blogger

In an article telling pro-lifers how to talk to the post-abortive, a young blogger begins with the above paragraph. My comment in response did not make it through her screening process to publication, which disappointed me. I had politely cautioned the blogger against beginning her conversations with the post-abortive with statements such as the one she made above.