Woman shoots herself in the stomach.

[jackofallgeeks]

I can't even make sense of This. A pregnant girl shoots herself in the stomach to induce abortion. There's just no... I mean... Gah! Even if you're OK with abortion, I mean... Why wuld you do that? There are clinics, it's legal, half the pro-choicers I know are for Roe v. Wade because it's supposed to stop back-alley stuff like this from happening. And here a 22-year old woman, on her due date shoots herself in the stomach. I don't know exactly what the virginia laws are, maybe she's not allowed to get a late-term abortion, but then why'd she wait so long? And her attitude! "I'm just glad it's over so I can move on with my life," she said. You shot yourself.

I'm at a loss.

Comments

[tiel.livejournal.com]

What the crap????? I think a little piece of my brain just leaked out my ear.

[starlight1184.livejournal.com]

Oh geez. I have no answers, but... I don't think thats the last of this kind of thing we're going to see as states begin to illegalize abortion. There has already been a case recently of a young girl being forced to drink turpentine by her mother, and her aunt to try and induce an abortion in a state where it has been illegalized. It's not a optimistic picture.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

We know you and I disagree, and I've no intention of making this an abortion argument, but I see a little bit of a disconnect in what you say. that is, you make the argument that abortion should be legal because if it's not there will be poor girls who will be forced into unsafe abortions. Well, OK, but if it were legal wouldn't it just be the case that these girls would be forced into unwanted abortions? Maybe not in all cases, but it seems to me that a forced abortion is a forced abortion and that's not right no matter how you slice it. Legalizing abortion doesn't solve this problem, it hides it. The mother for fed her daughter turpentine ought to be charged with a criminal offense, and it's a lot easier to charge someone with that than to claim some girl was coerced into abortion.

In short, I don't like the argument that abortion should be legal so girls aren't coerced because I don't think girls should be coerced at all and it's a completely separate issue from legal or illegal (or even readily available) abortion.

[starlight1184.livejournal.com]

I also don't feel like debating the pro-life/pro-choice aspect here.
However, I just wanted to say I agree that the girl who shot herself in the stomach made a REALLY stupid decision. Moronic. I truly think there's something there that we don't know about... in an earlier comment someone mention that she was giving birth that day, and why didn't she make the decision earlier. I have to question her mental competence.
And the case I mentioned, the women who forced the girl to drink turpentine WERE being charged (as they should be). Just so you know.

[ambereternal.livejournal.com]

Okay, I am pro-choice, but she was due that day. That baby could have survived outside of the womb. She should have been tried...even if her defense was mental insanity. She could have been sentenced to treatment.

[dikaiosunh.livejournal.com]

I've only got the unsatisfying answers: there are some sociopathic or otherwise fucked-up people out there, and you're never going to design a law that nails them all.

(Also, just FYI, here's some info on VA's abortion regs: http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/choice-action-center/in_your_state/who-decides/state-profiles/virginia.html Of course, it's from NARAL, so it's got a spin - but it's still accurate, just read everything they hate as something you'd like. :) And, no doctor in the land - unless you could find a really unscrupulous one, I suppose - would perform an abortion that late. Almost no doctor would perform a late-term abortion at all unless the mother's health were at serious risk).

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

And, no doctor in the land ... would perform an abortion that late.

This is right and true and good. What I meant in my post is that maybe she wasn't able to get a late-but-still-arguably-reasonable-term abortion. And if not, then why did she wait? My point is, it's legal to get an abortion (and at 22 a number of those regulations NARAL lists don't really apply, especially considering she was willing to take a bullet to get it done) -- why didn't she? That's what I can't process. What would possess someone to shoot themselves, and then have a "well, I'm glad that's over" attitude about it?

Those are all rhetorical questions, of course.  :p  Your answer of "some people are fucked-up" is about as good as I expect to get.

[dikaiosunh.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I understood what you meant. I just thought you might be interested in the legal context in VA, since you'd mentioned it.

There are, I think, women who seek late-term abortions for legitimate, or at least understandable reasons (e.g., health problems with the fetus or health risks for the mother that aren't known until late in the game in the first category, problems with access and/or parental consent, plain fear). This woman is, of course, not one of them.

It reminds me of those cases you occasionally hear about where, e.g., the husband is having an affair and decides to kill his wife to get rid of her. Or some such. I want to scream, "Be a man! Just suck it up and divorce your wife! That's got to be easier than murder!" Some people get trapped in warped perspectives somehow (if I knew how, I'd tell everyone and the world'd be a better place), where doing something like shooting yourself in the stomach looks like an easier path than having an abortion, or going through childbirth, or whatever.

That said, from the article, I still know very little about the case. Her comment about it "being over with" seems to indicate some deep, deep callousness. But I wouldn't rule out something more like freaking out about having a child and doing something stupid. That still wouldn't excuse it, but it'd make it a bit less creepy.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

I just thought you might be interested in the legal context in VA,

Oh, yes. And that was much appreciated. just wanted to be sure I was clear, is all.
^_^;;