The Death Of The Unborn Baby

One of my sister's recently had to go through an abortion... as the baby wasn't forming well.... I had never till that instant ever thought twice about abortion ... Probably my being gay and all that, coloured the lens I was seeing the issue through... As the right of another minority, with ref to religious right atleast, as the right of another minority to exercise her right.... Well before you get any ideas... no i'm not changing my mind... it's just that I sort of realised the religious complusions that causes many to be so militant about abortion.

The pregnancy had to be terminated... I can't get myself to say the baby was killed or put down... because that seems too cruel... but that's what it was... The pregnancy was terminated because the baby was growing normally and would have been born with an abnormality... what abnormality can't say... the doctors say my sister's reports one day... viewed the baby on an ultrasound ran a bunch of painful tests and said... the baby was not going to be ok when born... If you've noticed I keep repeating the word 'baby' instead of 'he' or 'she' or 'nephew' or 'niece' that's because we never found out... never wanted to know... the gender didn't really matter to the decision making... either ways it was my sister and my brother-in-law's flesh and blood... no way they could see it go through a life of torture... be born with a physical deformity or a mental disability... It took them just a day to reach that decision... that there was no way they could bring a child into this world... no matter how long they've been trying to conceive .. no matter how much they were looking to this day.. no way were they going to put the child through a daily routine of pain... and goodness only knows in what way....

The family... theirs and ours stayed with my sister and brother-in-law right through the process... The baby came out in the middle of the night... just after my brother-in-law had dropped me home and gone home himself... We stayed up in our respective homes... my other sister watched over the eldest as she went through her labour... The next morning we got there as early as we could... I carried some filter coffee in a flask for the as-yet-not-to-be mother ... She was sound asleep after the rigours of the previous night... The doctor had just come in and examined her...He called my brother-in-law in... my brother-in-law insisted I go with him... We walked in.. and sat down... The doctor told us the aborted feotus had the feared defect... an incomplete last bone in its spine... the spot which ties together many essential nerves... and that it was completely unpredictable on how the baby would have eventually come out..

Then came the bomb... we would have to take the unborn child's body ... and cremate it... You can't just through it in the trash he said... At that instant it hit me... this is not about a simple clinical procedure that helps you tide over a 'situation'... It's not as simple sperm meets eggs... eggs forms embryo.. the chicken hatches the egg... farmer decides what happens to egg... After a point it's about a person ... a person who if left unborn would have to be cremated... Just like he or she would be at the end of their lives...

That's when I realised those against abortion may have their point... but then again I agree to disagree with them.. respectfully...

I was born in this city, lived most of my life here
Made friends, lost friends
Last night I realised it's the weekend coming up
Wondered what we would do
Then it struck me there is no we anymore
Hopefully not for long though
The we became I when he moved away this week
To another job in another city
It struck me that I was born in this city lived most of my life here
Funny then, that I feel so lost in city once my own