Pick a lane

You've probably all seen this picture before, but I was sent it today in an e-mail by my husband's radically pro-choice aunt. What a shocker. I think she sent it to most of the people in her address book too.

While I'm always hopefully optimistic that hubby's family will find their way out of the lapsed Lutheran woods, I sadly don't think this is an indicator of her softening her position.

It's much like my cousin who is a religious, who addressed herself as Sr. Mary Frances when she wrote to my father, but to me, she's just Mary Frances. I don't understand her "nunship" or "sistership" since it is in name only...she has no vows, or daily prayers, or mother house or any standard nun or sisterly things to bind her to anything.

Hubby's aunt is all touchy feely and goo-gooey about babies to a point. That point is when it suits her. There is no basis for her position on abortion other than the hollow issue of fairness and opportunity. "Not everyone has had the opportunities that [I] have had."

I don't really know what that means. Neither does she. For her to think about it at all is to see the dead-end in that line of thinking. My "opportunities," or lack of them, dictate my morality? My "opportunities," or lack of, further dictate my right to choose certain courses of action? If I'm lacking in certain socio-economic opportunities I can choose abortion, but if I'm happily married and living in a house with the prerequisite amount of material goods, I can't? How is that even being honestly pro-choice? How relativistic, arbitrary and subjective?

I'm having to restrain myself today and not fire off a retort asking her about the incredible, miraculous and marvelous picture she sent, "Is it a baby or is it a choice?"

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Below is what was (ironically) contained in the e-mail from my husband's aunt, slightly abridged and emphasis is mine.

Please read before viewing picture - it's worth it!

A picture began circulating in November. It should be 'The Picture of the Year,' or perhaps, 'Picture of the Decade.' It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby.

The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. The baby's mother is an obstetrics nurse and knew of the surgeon's remarkable surgical procedure, performing these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As the doctor completed the surgery, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. The doctor was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of a 21-week-old fetus emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of the surgeon as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.'

The baby's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.' The baby was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome...incredible....and hey, pass it on. The world needs to see this one!