The New York Times has a beautiful article about perinatal hospice programs, where parents of newborns who are fated to die (or who are stillborn) can give birth, get support and hopefully find some peace. Read the whole thing, but be forewarned that it’s heartbreaking.
The fact that these programs exist as one choice for women facing troubled pregnancies is wonderful, and that at least some of the programs have avoided becoming politicized is incredibly important. Carrying a pregnancy to term when you know that your baby will die within minutes or hours or days — if it is born alive at all — is not easy. Terminated a wanted, but doomed, pregnancy is not easy. That women have a wider variety of choices is inarguably a good thing.