A word about abortion and then I need to get some sleep. I’m a man, that therefore I know it means in some people’s eyes I have no right to speak. Yet I do. I was born as a defective child. In more recent times I would have easily been considered an “at risk” pregnancy. Hell, I was even then. The rationale offered by many pro choice rights advocates is that some lives are just too tough to live. No they’re not. My second lesson came from working for several years with the severely developmentally disabled population. I still miss that work. I learned more of what it meant to be human through my friends who are challenged in that way than I have in any other work. Every single life is valuable, every single life. And lastly, I have a family relation who had a child through rape. It wasn’t forced on her to do so. Nor should it have been. But she saw that even though she had been violated, the life produced was not at fault. She chose to go through with the pregnancy and give the little girl up for adoption, knowing she couldn’t raise her well. I have a beautiful relative living a good life out west because of that decision who I will never know. She could make a major difference in this world because of that choice by my relative. She may not. Should that make a difference? No, it shouldn’t. Since every life is important, no matter the outcome.