Richard Ko
November 3,1998

This article talks about a story of a woman who had an abortion and reflected a woman's mind before and after an abortion. For a women who is not ready to have a baby; when she is pregnant, she is scared and have no idea what to do next. She has three choices --keep the baby, give up the baby for adoption, or abort the baby. However, the three choices have both negative and positive meaning to her. Keeping the baby is emotional, motherly, foolish, human, tender, tiring, love-filled. Nevertheless, it is responsibility. Adoption and abortion are brave, unmaternal, intellectual, painful, scary guilty. However, it means freedom and success. she is the only people who can appreciate how hard it is to make such critical decisions. The female who must make the decision can relate to the issue in a more authentic way than those who are abortion opponents or abortion-rights advocates who have never gone through this kind of hard situation. Before the pregnant female makes any decision, it is better for her if she asks for advice from different sources such as her parents, best friends or some professional counseling centers. After all, it is her future that is at stake.

I chose this article because one of my friends had an abortion. Her situation was similar to the story. She cried everyday and her boyfriend had nothing to do with her. It seemed like a misery in her life. Finally, she aborted her baby without telling her parents. She suffered the pain in the surgery and the pain in her heart. She said she will never do that again, because she felt guilty that she killed a new life. This article is kind of short and has very little vocabulary. When I read it , my friend's story just popped into my head. I know it was so hard for my friend to make the critical decision with only the help of friends. I hope that family and school can incorporate correct sexual concepts in children's minds and provide them the resources they can depend on. For a pregnant woman who is not ready for having children; no one has right to make her decision, but to provide various information to help her out.

waver (v)~ to change your mind
Claud wavered between thinking they should get married and that she should have an abortion.

unmaternal (adj)~ unmotherly
"Adoption is brave, noble, unmaternal, intellectual, painful, scary, 'best' for you and me," she wrote in her junal.

unwed (adj)~ not married

professed (adj)~ to pretend
profess (v)

Unimpressed with Claude's professed matrimonial readiness, Cummings checked into a home for unwed mothers, planning to give up her baby for adoption.

fetal (n)~ infant,baby

convince (v)~ to persuade
convincing (adj)
convinced (adj)

The school referred her to a therapist, who showed her pictures of fetal development in an effort to convince her that the amalgam of cells clinging to her uterus was not yet a human life.

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