Kathy Chooses

By Joy Carlson

Having been groomed by her father, Kathy was always in some type of sexual relationship. She had already had two abortions, one by a rape which occurred in high school, and the other when a boyfriend left her. Her new live-in boyfriend, Doug, had said he wanted children. Yet, when Kathy became pregnant, he told her to get an abortion. “Get an abortion,” he said, “Women do it all the time.”Kathy had seen the results of the second abortion and it affected her deeply. How could she do that again? They say it is the woman’s choice. With Doug pressuring her to have an abortion, could she make her own choice? What would Kathy choose?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Oct 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781595558787

Joy Carlson

Joy Carlson helps people heal from the wounds and lies of life and traumatic experiences. She is married to Dave and they have two grown sons.

Book preview

THE JURY’S VERDICT

"C hair of the jury, do you have a verdict?’

Yes, we do, Your Honor.

What is the verdict of the jury?

Not guilty, Your Honor.

There were cries, sighs of relief, and gasps of astonishment heard throughout the courtroom. Reporters got up to hurry to turn in their story or report to their network.

It had been a long trial. Many witnesses had come forward. Many people who had testified from different organizations, and agencies who wanted their message to be heard also had taken the stand.

How would this one woman’s choice affect the world now? How would the decision reached by this jury change future decisions? Would there be an appeal? It seemed like a higher court, like the Supreme Court, should decide this issue. A decision of this magnitude should not just be decided by twelve people chosen at random, twelve people who were from ordinary walks of life and not schooled in the laws of the land.

Yet, it is ordinary people who will be affected by this decision. It is ordinary people who need to make choices like this, especially women, and others who are seen as less than.

She had taken a law giving her a choice and had taken it back, closer to the starting point. It was there she had applied her right to choose. It is a woman’s right to choose.

Having seen that the choice could be made earlier and that it would not hurt the innocent, she chose to end a life. Not the life of the unborn. The life of the one who did not want the unborn but wanted to perform the act which would bring the unborn into existence. He wanted pleasure. He wanted satisfaction. She wanted to be valued as a person. He really did not value her as a person, just as a body to be used. If she refused he would pressure her, shame her, and deceive her with lies that he loved her. Later he would reveal the truth that he just wanted one more fix. Sex, a cheap drug that some men use to satisfy the longings in their souls.

That is the way she felt. And since he was more powerful than she was, she chose a source of power to overcome his power. It was a source used down through the centuries by many when they wanted to overpower another. This source of power was chosen at times even when the person or group was already more powerful. This source of power was chosen at other times, as in her case, when the person or group felt less powerful, and wanted to rise above the one or ones seen as more powerful.

She chose a weapon. In this case, a gun, to carry out what she saw as her right, the right given to women to choose to end a life.

ASSIGNMENT

Bob had always wanted to know. He was always asking, Why? How? Why did that person say that? Why did that person do that? Why did this event turn out this way? Why? Why? Why?

In grade school he found that if he was on the school newspaper, he was allowed to ask his questions. It was a position where people would accept his questioning and if someone got mad, he could blame it on his position. He discovered he liked investigative reporting (although finding out the reason they were not serving pizza for a while was because the dough maker was broken turned out not to be so exciting.) He continued in middle school where he delved into relationships and courses offered. Why were some classes offered for boys only and others, which tended to be mainly girls, open to both boys and girls? He was told that it was for the safety of the girls as they would not be able to handle the rigors of such classes and the school did not want to embarrass them. In high school there were times when he covered protests that were affecting the extracurricular activities or the elective courses. It ended up there was not enough funding. Decisions being made at the state level were affecting the local level. He became the go-to person whenever the editor knew a story could make a difference. Bob was there when the school board was deciding which schools would need to be closed. His questions caused them to rethink their proposal. They called another meeting to discuss the issue. College had proven to be bigger territory—politics, racism, and having coed dorms, to name a few.

Bob landed a job at a prestigious magazine that was known for reporting the news. He loved his job. People would write into the magazine about his articles. He kept working at improving his investigative and his reporting skills.

Thus when the shooting had taken place and the reason for the shooting was announced, Bob was summoned to cover the story.

The owners of the magazine wanted this story covered from the beginning. They knew it would make news. A woman had made a choice, an actual choice. Not a choice forced upon her after the fact. A woman made a choice before the situation reached a point of forced choice. Was she stable? Did someone else force her into this choice? Was it premeditated, thought out? How many people knew about this choice before it was made and carried out? It seemed like there might be a chance that the outcome of this trial would have great impact on society. Society had decided that a woman had a choice to carry a pregnancy to full term or not. Some people argued about whether the embryo was alive or not. Some argued that a woman needed to consider whether or not it would be fair to the baby if the woman would not be able to care for the baby properly. Some people argued whether it would be fair to the baby if there were a chance of some form of abnormality. It opened the door for the woman to decide to end the pregnancy because it was not a convenient time in her life or her family’s life. The outcome of this trial might determine whether society would be upheld as it had been in the past, or would society be changed again. Would society have to make adjustments to the new norm?

These were questions that people would want to know. These were questions that Bob was assigned to answer.

Bob started his investigation. He attended all the meetings where police reported on the shooting. He found that Kathy had admitted shooting the victim. It was reported that there was no forced entry. There had been no evidence of any struggle. The police were looking for a motive.

Bob contacted a number of Kathy’s coworkers and friends. They said Kathy was a fun, caring woman interested in photography, hiking, and space. She was seen as intelligent, not given to fits of anger or other emotional outbreaks. Many were surprised she would kill someone. Some reported that of late Kathy seemed to be struggling with a woman’s right to choose. Since Kathy had talked about a woman’s right to choose, Bob asked if Kathy was pregnant. Some of them did not know. Others were pretty sure she was not pregnant yet, but was anticipating what she would do if she became pregnant. Some commented that they could see Kathy having a hard time deciding to have an abortion. She might go ahead with it, as she was not in a place to have a child. It would be hard on her at this time in her life. Many of these saw that Kathy would be capable of doing it, though, as they saw her as a capable woman.

Bob decided he would have to wait for the trial to get the whole story. Then, once the trial took place and the verdict was announced, Bob realized that to get the full story it would be best to talk to the jurors as to why they came to the conclusion they did.

THE LAW

J

UROR

4

It’s the law. We needed to decide according to the law. The law states that a life can be terminated during the first trimester. Doug was in his first trimester of life. He was in