"It's So Personal"

Andrew Sullivan has some really amazing stories about people's abortion experiences.  In fact, I was up way too late last night reading all of them.  They are sad, hopeful, and from a variety of perspectives, including a gay couple and their surrogate.  Most of the stories have to do with late-term abortions, but one of the more recent ones concerned an early abortion.  (These are the two most recent stories posted by Sullivan, so if you are reading them in order, read them last.)

Here they are, mostly in order from earliest to latest.  They are worth the read.  This is also a nice summary of why Sully is doing this (offered by a reader), for which I heartily commend him.  One of the things that has annoyed me about him the most is his anti-choice position - he's such a conservative-in-the-mold-of-small-government-and-individual-responsibility that I find his view on abortion incongruous from that point of view.  What I appreciate most about Sully is that he's willing to be challenged on those beliefs and is open to change.  

It's So Personal

It's So Personal, Ctd.

The Catholic Mother - Not many priests, of any religious stripe, have the courage or grace to tell a family that "he believed we were not choosing our son's death, only choosing the timing of his death in order to spare him a great deal of suffering."  Wow.

The Trauma

A Tiller Patient - I think this one is my "favorite."  Poignant, and gives a full portrait of the man behind the rhetoric.

A Target of Terror

The Regret

Not Knowing For Sure

When Principle Meets Reality

Serial Abortions

Preparing for the Worst

An Unforgiving Family

Serial Abortions, Ctd. - with a nice shout-out from Dan Savage.

The Guilt

Serial Abortions, Ctd.

Should Men Even Have a Say?  - an interesting perspective.

Holding On

(The Gay Fathers) - also linked above

(What Guilt?) - also linked above

This is not all he's posted about abortion or the whole aftermath of Dr. Tiller's murder, but these tell real people's stories.  I am convinced that the more we hear the truth of these situations, the more we will see these issues as individual moral choices that should not be constrained by the government.