[Syonyk]

I certainly don't intend it as a sales pitch. I intend it as something true. Sorry, I'm in a bit of a weird state tonight, chewing through a lot of Psalms, after having gone through Job, and the collection of prophets in the past few weeks, and life... is less stable than I'd prefer right now, with a lot of challenges. Happy to chat via email or Matrix, I'm not hard to find.

As for SSRIs, I've not actually tried them, I'm just going based on what several people have told me, that they're like putting earplugs into your emotions.

For the unborn, I don't see a point in ignoring reality. In 2023, the last year I've got convenient stats for, the US had ~3.5M births, and ~1M abortions. We're not "orders of magnitude" off the 1-in-2 stat from a century ago, we're... maybe a factor of 2 off. I see no point in pretending otherwise. And I do know more than a few people who have either lost young children, or lost preborn children. That's just my world. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Jesus wept with them, certainly, but also was rather clear on who He was.

[MandieD]

And about one percent of the women around you have survived an ectopic pregnancy because we're still (mostly) a society that cares more about the life of a breathing, thinking person than of an embryo that was doomed from the moment it landed outside of the uterus.

I'm part of that one percent. I regularly say a prayer of thanks for the doctors and nurses who (mostly metaphorically, but one physically) held my hand and explained what had gone wrong, how I could deal with it in a way that would preserve our chances to try again with as little risk to me as possible. I thank God that I was in a country with the resources and the legal apparatus for me to deal with my disappointment quickly and safely.

And I'm thankful for the child who I was able to bear nearly a decade later.

I don't judge anyone for the abortion they felt was the best of their hard options. I theoretically would have been left until I was bleeding out in many countries [0], and even my own home state doesn't quite feel safe now.

[0] No, I wouldn't. I'm a well-off American woman who can fly to somewhere rational, and worst case, am good friends with several MDs.

[ksenzee]

> Jesus wept with them, certainly, but also was rather clear on who He was.

I'm just saying John 11:32 is not immediately followed by John 11:40. There is a time for grief, and there is a time for evangelism.

> And I do know more than a few people who have... lost preborn children.

I've miscarried twice myself. A lot of women have. Sometimes it's grieving a child you never knew, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's just a late period. Miscarriage is rarely the same depth of loss as stillbirth; it's almost never the wrenching, life-changing grief of losing a six-year-old. It feels honestly a bit grotesque even to make the comparison.