70 year old doctor flies into SD to perform abortions (interesting)

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/31/griffin.abortion/index.html

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (CNN) -- Not a single doctor in South Dakota will perform an abortion, which is why Dr. Miriam McCreary has come out of retirement.

Once or twice a month, the 70-year-old grandmother takes a 45-minute flight from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to perform abortions at the last clinic in the state willing to offer the procedure.

"I want every child that's born, to be born into a family that wants a child. I don't want children to be born into a family where they are not wanted and can't be cared for carefully. That's the tragedy," McCreary said.

On this day, there were no protesters. Still, the doctor entered through a back door. Inside, she donned a white lab coat and got to work. A medical staff has completed most of the medical screening.

"We always worry about people who are ambivalent and they're not sure they want to do this," McCreary said, "and sometimes I'll say, 'don't do this. You don't want to do this today. Please go home and think about this and come back if you want.'"

She said patients are told in counseling of the alternatives to abortion, but that not many choose these options.

"Adoption is a wonderful thing, and they are always given the option to have the pregnancy and have children placed in adoption. And I admire those who do, but not many do," she said.

[melody]

1. I have a new hero n/t

[ThomCat]

2. You and me both.

Time to donate a bit more to help poor woman pay for abortions.

[mom cat]

3. We better get ready to start a legal defense fund. K&R

[Caoimhe]

4. Thank god for doctors like her!

Hard to believe that a legal procedure can be so demonized and hyped that people are unwilling to perform them. Kudos to this lady, she's a caring humanitarian and an earth angel!

[Maat]

5. What a caring person!

She is a heroine of mine! And I'll work on arranging a donation.

As many here know, I've been a social worker, and I am an adoptive parent. All I can say is .. this wonderful person GETS IT!

[HockeyMom]

6. Let me tell you my husband's story

My mother-in-law never wanted him to be born. Yes, she was married. Yes, she was faithful in that marriage. Yes, she already WAS a mother. She did not want any more kids. No, her husband didn't either. They had no money to get around the "therapeutic abortion" laws at the time.

For his ENTIRE life, my husband heard from both her and his father, "If abortion were legal, I would never have had you." Who would want to grow up living like that? Adoption? To have a child come back looking for their birth parents, 20 years later to find that Mom and Dad were a married couple who just plain didn't want more kids and wanted nothing to do with you? As it is, this has haunted my husband his whole life. I cannot tell you how many times my mother-in-law even said this to ME. "If I had the choice, he would have been born." My husband has spent almost his entire life trying to prove his worth to his parents. Even after their deaths, it is still unresolved. These people make the assumption that marriage solves everything as far as unwanted births are concerned. That is NOT true.

The only thing I can say is that these people need to stop looking through their rose colored glasses and look at REAL LIFE.

On the other side of the coin, MY aunt, who also was married, decided at 45 that she didn't want any more children, but she had the FINANCIAL means back then to do something about it.

I find it very ironic that the only woman I have ever known to have had a abortion, was when it was ILLEGAL and was already a married woman and a grandmother. So much for the "keep your legs crossed, you sluts" rants.

Those "Smile, Your Mother was Pro life" stickers is the height of arrogance to me. How DARE you presume to tell ME what I am. I CHOSE to have children. Nobody FORCED me too. I would also never FORCE another woman to make the same choices as me. That is what CHOICE means. Free to be you, and free to be me.

Sorry for the rant. These people make me SO MAD.

[troubleinwinter]

8. Yes, CHOICE, not forced birth.

[NVMojo]

7. wow!

[Vidar]

9. Gutsy lady!