December 24, 2013 - I'd like to think Jen's father is living in filth and unable to feed himself, but then again he's probably with his mistress and I haven't revealed anything about that character yet other than her existence. Seriously though, housework is underappreciated.

While I was travelling in December I missed a story about a lawsuit pending involving religious beliefs interfering with medical care that a reader recently made me aware of. I really don't like religiously-affiliated hospitals for the reason the article mentions and I would like some legislation requiring them to at least refer patients seeking abortions. With so much legislation out there putting regulations on abortion providers, more should be done to make abortions a common procedure in hospitals, but with one in six hospitals religiously-affiliated that's very difficult without government regulations.

Another situation that's starting to get attention is this situation in Texas where a husband wishes to take his comatose pregnant wife off life-support and the laws won't let him despite concerns about the health of the pregnancy which are too early to diagnose, and the obvious consideration that when the couple first got pregnant they expected raising a child together, not to mention the wife expressing a desire NOT to be on life support. Furthermore it's unclear who's paying for her medical support. Is the husband expected to pay for it against his wife's wishes? The state? I desperately hope things change in Texas soon. It's scary to consider that their law is almost literally seeing women as nothing more than baby incubators at this point.

-D