Dori: Jayapal should have been more careful

Everyone in the country seems to be talking about a New York Times op-ed written by Seattle Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

She starts off by talking about her miracle child who was born in Mumbai. She said it was a very difficult pregnancy and birth for her body, and that her child had quite a lot of serious medical issues in those early years, such as an inability to eat naturally, water in the brain, undeveloped lungs, and a need for blood transfusions. She said that all of the turmoil led her to be diagnosed with PTSD, and that her first marriage did not survive.

Later on, she said, she met her second husband and wanted more children. However, doctors told her that another pregnancy would be very high-risk and that the second child would likely have medical complications like her firstborn. She said that she was not prepared to go through that again, so she and her husband decided not to have any more children. However, she said, despite taking precautions, she got pregnant.

It was excruciating. I wanted children, but I wasn’t ready, nor was I fully recovered. I was so grateful that Janak had survived, but I could not tempt fate again. It had to be my choice, because in the end, I would be the one to carry the fetus in my body, I would be the one to potentially face another emergency cesarean section, and I would be the one whose baby could suffer the serious, sometimes fatal consequences of extreme prematurity. I could not simply hope for the best — I had to make a decision based on the tremendous risks that had been clearly laid out for me.

I decided I could not responsibly have the baby. It was a heartbreaking decision, but it was the only one I was capable of making.

Congresswoman who championed $15 minimum wage wasn’t paying her interns

There’s so much to unpack there. And when you write a New York Times piece and put this all out there, it’s all fair game.

After our third child, my wife and I decided we were not going to have more kids. It was a difficult series of conversations. I wanted more, but my wife said that she couldn’t give to a fourth child what she gave to the first three.

Once we made the decision, I got a vasectomy. Why? We all learned way back in health class that contraceptive methods are not foolproof. That’s been drummed into our heads since junior high.

If Pramila Jayapal and her husband decided they could not have any more kids, why in the world didn’t he get a vasectomy or she get a tubal ligation? That’s question number-one. If you know that you don’t want more children, you choose a certain method of contraception. It’s a pretty easy procedure.

Then she said that she thought that the baby, if born, could suffer the serious, sometimes fatal consequences of extreme prematurity. So you chose the always, certain fatal consequences of an abortion. Don’t act like you were doing it for the kid. You were afraid that the kid might die, so you chose to abort it — that makes no sense at all.

It’s just interesting to me that politicians like Pramila Jayapal believe that they know how lives should be lived, and they make their political decisions based on how they believe you and I should live our lives. They want to impose their worldview on all of us. It sounds like she has had a lot of turmoil in her life, and I hope that her child does do well. But I don’t know that I want that person telling me how to live my life, and telling me that their worldview is better. It’s not worse. But it isn’t mine.

Follow @http://www.twitter.com/dorimonson