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

[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.
^_^;;