It's a sad world with thoughts like this...

On the subway, Peter asked, 'Shouldn't we consider having triplets?' And I had this adverse reaction: 'This is why they say it's the woman's choice, because you think I could just carry triplets. That's easy for you to say, but I'd have to give up my life.' Not only would I have to be on bed rest at 20 weeks, I wouldn't be able to fly after 15. I was already at eight weeks. When I found out about the triplets, I felt like: It's not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I'm going to have to move to Staten Island. I'll never leave my house because I'll have to care for these children. I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don't think that deep down I was ever considering it." -- Amy Richards, an abortion rights advocate, describes her decision to kill two of her babies, leaving her with a single baby, instead of having triplets

I'm saddened. I'm disgusted. I wanted to cry.

Abortion is a right that women need to have. I believe, though, that it should be a last resort, used primarily in cases of rape, incest, medical necessity, etc. It is women like Amy Richards who abuse that right. It is women like Amy Richards that make abortion a greater evil, and give right-to-life groups ammunition beyond belief. It is women like the one I heard of in California who wrote on a reflections board at a clinic that she was on her 17th abortion (and I'm guessing because she didn't want to go on the pill or use a condom) who take a procedure that, in President Clinton's words, should be "safe, legal and rare" and make it into a joke.

How could these women I mentioned do what they did? How could they have this done not because they needed to, but because of their own selfish desires? 'Oh, God, I'll have to move to Staten Island and not have freedom, oh me, oh my.' Life is the most precious commodity we are given. I've lost friends and my father all at young ages. We don't get enough time with the ones we love, and usually regret not having done more. These women gave up a combined 19 children for their own needs. It puts me beyond outrage.

Maybe this sounds like equivocating to some, or maybe it makes people think I'm a hypocrite. I believe in God. My belief in him has guided me through some rough times, and I have gone to an empty church to pray by myself when I have felt the need to unburden. It feels good to do so. It's extremely helpful. I do not believe that my support for abortion rights makes me a hypocrite, because I believe its usage should be limited to the conditions I listed, and we should do more educating and more outreach to make it that way. Legislating this and more court fights is not the way to reduce abortions and stop people from making a selfish choice. Education is, being open about it is. Roe v. Wade should be preserved, but we should do everything in our power to show women like Amy Richards that there is a better way when one wants an abortion for selfish reasons.