Hey did you know that January 22 is "Blog for Choice" Day?

Oh no! I was just reading Lindsay Beyerstein's Majikthise blog and read her post about today being Blog for Choice day.  Jeez.  I almost missed it.

I'd like to take a minute, on this Mommy blog, to thank all of the feminists who fought for women's rights and for abortion rights. I'd like to raise a glass to the 34th birthday of Roe v. Wade --  the decision that took away back-alley abortions from our country and gave women control over their bodies.

With freedom comes responsibility.  Here is a toast to educating our youth about safe sex - for their health, and to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

My third toast is to the incredibly brave men and women under red-state seige (and some blue-state locations), who actually provide abortion services.

During our long fertility journey, my surrogate mother became pregnant after our third IVF.  When she went in for an exam at 15 weeks, we discovered that the fetus had died.  My surrogate mother tried to get a D and E procedure up in the very conservative portion of Northern California, where she lived.

The next day she called me, crying through angry tears. She had gone for the procedure and was told that she needed to go through "counseling" before she could get one.  "The fetus has died!" she said. "I'm not terminating a pregnancy!" 

"I'm sorry, maam, but those are the rules," said the nice nurse.  So we brought her down here to the silicon valley, and we found a wonderful doctor - both a fertility specialist and someone who performs abortions - to perform the procedure.

The entire situation was horrifying.  In the long, cold, Republican crazy years, it started to seem possible that, even if you had worked for years to HAVE a baby, but the fetus died, you might have the proper medical procedure withheld from you because someone had managed to have their interpretation of the concept of "God" have more power than your personal freedoms.

Absolutely terrifying.

So my last toast of the night is to all of the Americans who voted the Republicans out.  Thank you, for ending the biggest seige on our country that I have experienced.  There's still a chill in the air, but I'm hoping that we reclaim balance, retain personal freedoms, and uphold our country's tenets in the coming years.

Scroll through some of the very personal posts at the Blog for Choice site, folks.  Check out the amazing posts from Amanda at Pandagon, talking about a woman undergoing a court-ordered C-section (VBAC was not allowed),  Jill at Feministe, with a gut-smacking post about exactly what list of things makes her pro-choice, and finally, with Liza in Culture Kitchen, writing a post that will make you cry, it's so full of mother love.

And as you read, remember one, very small, teensy thing.  Politics is personal.