Maggie's Farm

Have to admit my travel wish list hadn't ever included South Dakota...nothing against the place, but more allured by Nepal, Peru, India, China, etc.

As for the abortion fight that sparked the boycott talk: I may be pro-life, but it makes my blood boil when anyone pontificates about no abortion in cases of rape and incest. I am inconsistent because of a tragedy I watched unfold in the city, years ago. One of my young parishioners delivered her first child at the age of 12 after being assaulted by a pack of cousins and neighborhood kids when she left her group home for a "family" visit. While I know the baby she carried had a soul, what about the mother's? She delivered that baby when she was still so young she thought tampons were gross. He was wisked away, went into foster care for good. Breast feeding and worrying about "are we spoiling a child" are luxuries for mothers being supported by their men.

Forgive my inconsistency: I still think abortion is murder. But so is what was done to a child I loved. Sometimes you have to kill one to save the other. In other instances, ie: where the mother is adult, fed and housed, married, sentient, no excuses. Although no one has ever satisfactorily answered for me what life is like for a kid born to a mother who doesn't want him, in a horrific situation. Children are killed slowly all around us by neglectful, abusive parents who should never have been.

Call me old fashioned, but I also agree with the now-dismissed Catholic argument that when there is a question of saving the mother or baby, the baby should come first. I used to argue this point rather testily each time I went into labor early on, to be sure the male got it. I think his perspective was a bird in the hand is worth two...But mine was: save the baby over me, and use the the life insurance to pay for a cleaning lady for the trophy stepmother and private school for the kid.