May 30, 2012 - I'm kinda a huge fan of Dr. Bryce. As I tried to establish in her first appearance, she really likes babies. I mean, she actively enjoys hanging out in maternity wards to view babies when she's not busy (cuz why else was she there in Monday's comic). But at the same time she's a doctor with professional responsibilities. The first of which is do no harm. So despite her personal feeling about abortion, she doesn't advertise a pro-life viewpoint and needs to get baited by Jennifer to make an oblique indication of her political views. Despite those views, she does make a point to vocalize the options that a woman in Jennifer's situation has available to her.

Different states have a wide variety of regulations regarding the responsibilities Dr. Bryce has informing Jennifer of her options. Some states protect doctors that neglect to mention medical risks to pregnant women, and others even encourage or mandate invasive ultrasounds, displaying ultrasounds to pregnant women, and other actions designed to discourage abortion and potentially cause huge emotional and mental duress.

Whenever I hear these laws, I have to remind myself that the people enforcing them are the doctors themselves, and the first responsibility of any doctor is to do no harm. So I have difficulty believing any responsible doctor would partake in such egregiously harmful actions.

Obviously, despite her personal feelings, Dr. Bryce adheres to the idea of doing no harm to her patients. And that's why, I kinda love Dr. Bryce.

-D