Massachusetts Family and Probate Court Judge Christina Harms evidently believes that a woman with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, who is also Catholic and wants neither an abortion nor sterilization, should change her mind and want both abortion and sterilization.
Here are some conditions under which that might be pertinent:
1. Christina Harms is the woman in question.
2. Christina Harms is close to the woman in question, and the woman in question has just asked her, “What would you do? I’d like to know your honest opinion, seeing as how we are close, and I trust you.”
3. This story takes place, not in the present-day United States, where, thank heaven, it is no longer generally considered okay to sterilize people forcibly. (Although let’s not be blithely ignorant here: Compulsory sterilizations aren’t exactly ancient history. Heck, they aren’t even a more-distant memory than this song.) No, instead, this story takes place in the Land Where The Only Things That People Do Are The Things Christina Harms Thinks Should Happen.
But these conditions do not, as the philosophers say, obtain. Props to Massachusetts Appellate Court Associate Justice Andrew Grainger for reversing the decision.
