A ringing endorsement from a Ms. signatory

Ms is putting out the signatures for it's "I had an abortion" petition, in which they encouraged women who are unrepentant about their abortions to announce it to the world as an expression of how perfectly normal they believe abortion is, in support of perpetuating the practice.

If by "normal" you mean "statistically unremarkable", then you're right. If by "normal" you mean "healthy" or "right", that's another matter.

The article about the Ms project includes this interesting passage:

Another signatory, Debbie Findling of San Francisco, described her difficult decision last year to have an abortion after tests showed that she would bear a son with Down syndrome.

"I felt it was my right to make the decision, but having that right doesn't make the decision any easier," she said. "It was the hardest decision I've ever made."

Findling, 42, is married, with a 5-year-old daughter, and has been trying to get pregnant again while pursuing her career as a philanthropic foundation executive.

She says too many of her allies in the abortion-rights movement tend to minimize, at least publicly, the psychological impact of abortion.

"It's emotionally devastating," she said in a phone interview. "I don't regret my decision _ but I regret having been put in the position to have to make that choice. It's something I'll live with for the rest of my life."

Why in the world would people devote their lives to making sure that "emotionally devastating" events continue to happen in women's lives?

I also find it bewildering that Findling says she "regrets" "having been put in the position to have to make that choice."

This wasn't a situation where anybody was putting a gun to her head or anything. She doesn't mention any particular pressure from doctors or family members or anything, no outside influence threatening her with abandonment or bodily harm if she refused to choose. This is something that she elected quite on her own, based on her own acceptance of abortion and unwillingness to accept a child with Down Syndrome. It was her own value system that put her in the position to have to make that choice. So she's regretting her own value system while signing a petition perpetuating it, encouraging other women to adopt the value system that put her in a position to make that choice. Share the misery, I guess.

"Emotionally devastating." That's a ringing endorsement.

Her own value system told her to choose between one of these and one of these (GRAPHIC).

Her own value system told her that the second option was preferable to the first. Her own value system. It was "emotionally devastating."

If your value system is leading you to "emotionally devastating" choices, it's time to change your value system to one that embraces these.