My daughter, Catherine, submitted this letter to the newspaper as a rebuttal to Marilee Shrider's column on Roe v Wade.  The editor sent it back to her with the directive to shorten the letter to 200 words.  Cat felt that she would rather have it go unpublished than gut it's message.  I liked her letter so much I talked her into letting me post it my Web page.   So here it goes......

My great-great grandmother, Henryetta Thompson, was born in 1857 in Tennessee.  She was married at 14 and had her first child at 15, her second child at 17, her third child at 18, her fourth child at 20, her fifth child at 22, her sixth child at 24,  her seventh child at 27, her eighth child at 29, her ninth child at 31, her tenth child at 32, her eleventh child at 33, and her twelfth child at 35.  She died two months later, but not before burying 5 of her 12 children.  Two years into Henryetta's marriage, congress passed a law making birth control illegal.  The author of the law, Anthony Comstock, reasoned, "Can they not use self-control?  Or must they sink to the level of the beasts?"  Henryetta had been left to shift for herself where birth control was concerned.  When she died, her husband and remaining children were left to shift for themselves, as well.

Considering that each new pregnancy in that era was potentially life-threatening, the current belief that woman back then wanted a dozen children is a misconception.  Women had a dozen children because they had no access to birth control.  Still, slave women in the South were chewing cotton root, a common miscarriage inducer, while a daughter of poor immigrants would later recall the memory of her mother lifting a heavey pickle barrel over and over, all night.   Other women were eating hellebore, pennyroyal, black cohosh, mistletoe and shepherd's purse, all in spite of the fact that abortion was illegal and 1 in 5 women died in the attempt.

Today, birth control is legal and women are encouraged to use it.  In fact, they are ridiculed if they do not use it and have a resultant  abortion or child they cannot care for (Can they not use self control?  Or must they sink to the level of the beasts?")

The common romantic ideology of the proponents of an abortion ban is that abortion will stop if it becomes illegal.  Prohibitionists at the turn of the century thought alcohol would go away if it became illegal, too, but rather than ridding the country of alcohol, it created a new class of organized crime and a new demographic of drinkers.

What's more likely to happen is that some percentage of the 1.3 million women having abortions in this country every year will continue to have abortions, just like their ancestors did.  They will just be having riskier ones, just like their ancestors did.  If even one-fifth of them (260,000) die from botched abortions (the same ratio as in Henryetta's era) it would be the third leading cause of death in women today, right behind heart disease and cancer.  That would be roughly 100 times the amount of people that died in 9/11, and, that would be every year.

If abortion become illegal, it will no longer be practiced in a clinic, but more likely in our homes.  At least some of us will be finding our daughters and sisters dying on bathroom floors.  At least some of us will be posting flyers for our missing nieces and neighbors, last seen entering illegal abortion clinics.  At least some of us will learn that our daughters will never be able to have children.  At least some of us will be holding vigil at our comatose daughter's hospital bedside.  Statistically, 20% of American women have had an abortion.  If you don't think the circumstances of a ban would touch you or your family, think again.

Abortion isn't a perfect solution, but neither is pretending not to know in advance that millions of women and girls will die if abortion is illegal.  Until modern medicene finds a better solution (hello, funding) let's be realists, protect our daughters and prove to our great-great grandmothers that we deserve the freedoms that we have.

Anyone want to make a prediction on the snow?

Will it happen?  When will it happen?  How deep will it be?  How long will Bakersfield talk about it after it happens?

Terri Irwin received the video of her husband Steve's death, from a stingray  barb  today along with assurances that all other copies of the tape have been destroyed.

"The footage has been the subject of widespread media interest and it was appropriate that we took all possible steps to ensure something of such a personal and tragic nature did not fall into the wrong hands"  Queesland Sate Coroner Michael Barnes said today.

Speculation had been rife that footage of Irwin's death could eventually be posted on the Internet.

Terri Irwin told an Interviewer in September that the video "would never see the light of day".

Family friend, John Stairton, has seen the film and told Barbara Walters that he never wants to see it again and doesn't want anyone else to see it either. 

It's nice to know that in today's world where celebrities sell access to their most private lives,  Terri Irwin can't be bought.