erikred | Tomorrow

We waited impatiently on street corners and on buses, in sports bars and pubs, waited for minutes and hours, huddled around PDA livefeeds and plasma screen TVs. We muttered to ourselves and growled at strangers if they made to change the channel. We had to know how she’d plead.

First they’d said no partial birth abortions. Then the court had said they couldn’t take away a woman’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of whatever happiness she could salvage after losing the baby. So then they’d said, what about the fetus’ rights? And the courts had answered, you have to be born to be a citizen. So then they’d passed a definition of citizenry that put the requirement at conception.

Three days later, she told the doctor to abort her chromosomally defective baby. A week later she was under arrest.

We were all afraid she’d bow out and plead temporary insanity. You know, hysteria. We didn’t dare blink.

The alarms went off. She entered the courtroom. How do you plead?

Not guilty by reason of self-defense. And then she said: and I want to charge my dead offspring with battery and attempted manslaughter.

Take that, child of mine.