"Bush Forced Me to Have An Abortion!"

There was an astonishing piece of self-righteous writing in the Washington Post this past weekend, and what's really amazing is it was run without any of the ridicule it surely deserved. Well, let me see if I can fix that.

First, we have the sad, sad story from Dana L., a lawyer who lives in Virginia:

The conservative politics of the Bush administration forced me to have an abortion I didn't want. Well, not literally, but let me explain.

I am a 42-year-old happily married mother of two elementary-schoolers. My husband and I both work, and like many couples, we're starved for time together. One Thursday evening this past March, we managed to snag some rare couple time and, in a sudden rush of passion, I failed to insert my diaphragm.

The next morning, after getting my kids off to school, I called my ob/gyn to get a prescription for Plan B, the emergency contraceptive pill that can prevent a pregnancy -- but only if taken within 72 hours of intercourse. As we're both in our forties, my husband and I had considered our family complete, and we weren't planning to have another child, which is why, as a rule, we use contraception. I wanted to make sure that our momentary lapse didn't result in a pregnancy.

The receptionist, however, informed me that my doctor did not prescribe Plan B. No reason given. Neither did my internist. The midwifery practice I had used could prescribe it, but not over the phone, and there were no more open appointments for the day. The weekend -- and the end of the 72-hour window -- was approaching.

[...]

Weeks later, the two drugstore pregnancy tests I took told a different story. Positive. I couldn't believe it.

She then goes on in excrutiating detail to tell us all the terrible travails she went through to find an abortion doctor and have the subsequent abortion. Poor lady.

This story brings about all kinds of questions. When I was 36 or 37 and decided that my family was complete, I immediately ran to the Clinton Adminstration looking for them to provide me with contraception. After all, it was their responsibility to look after all of my needs.

No, that's not really true. That might be how a liberal would do it, but I actually took responsibility for myself, went to the appropriate doctor, and took myself permanently out of the genepool. So why didn't Mr. L do the same? Is he a wimp, or is he one of those muscleheads who think that a vasectomy will make him less of a man, or who because of a "woman's right to choose" thinks that it's the woman's total responsibility to fix these things? Either way, he could have and should have solved this problem years ago.

And this lady's supposed to be a lawyer, and yet she doesn't know that all she has to do is show up at Planned Parenthood and they would treat her like a conquering hero for ending her pregnancy in whatever way she needed? Later, during an online chat, Ms. L. admitted that she should have knows about PP:

Myersville, Md.: Thanks for the honest article. Does Planned Parenthood distribute Plan B in Virginia or is it only availble through MD offices? If not, is it because of Virginia's state laws regarding the distribution of birth control?

Dana L.: I believe Planned Parenthood distributes Plan B nationwide. Unfortunately for me, in my panic that Friday, I didn't even think of calling them.

I guess her hysteria and illogical thinking was Bush's fault too.

Dana L. spends the entire article documenting her own incompetence throughout this matter, and tries to blame the Bush administration for it. Don't they teach anything about personal responsibility in law schools these days?