On 9 Chickweed Lane the discussion about an unplanned pregnancy continues. The author has not yet revealed what is the future for the pregnancy, but he is being very good at pointing out some of the dynamics of what really happens here in the USA. The discussion above is true to life for more than one issue. I can remember some of the early fights for equal rights for women. In those fights, it almost became mandatory for women to stop being stay-at-home moms in order for them to prove that they were truly liberated. Positive lip service was given to the women who chose to stay at home, but one could tell that, like the woman above, there was no regard given to that choice.
Sadly, among some opposing that, nowadays there is an opposite of that which is small movements that women must be stay-at-home moms or be somehow not considered to be truly good moms. At the extreme of that is “quiverfull” movement which argues almost the opposite of the lady above. They argue that a woman must get pregnant, as the Lord allows, because he desires families who have a “quiver full” of children and that blessedness is found in that. If the woman above assumes that a “modern” woman needs to exercise her right to an abortion, the “quiverfull” movement assumes that God wishes large families and does not approve of any birth control, even natural family planning.
Notice that in either case, the woman pictured above or the quiverfull movement, a woman truly has no choice and there are no gray areas. Before someone comments, let me point out that the Orthodox Church is against elective abortion and would not be against some forms of family planning.
And truth, as it so often does, rests between the two extremes–at least for those not bound by their convictions to one extreme or the other. Choice is just that–a reasoned consideration of what is best for one particular woman at a particular point in her life. As Mrs. Kiesl pointed out in an earlier strip, choice isn’t easy. This one’s not supposed to be.