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Alfredo Gualdron Proffesor Patrick Morely Writing 0002G 10 Apr. 2012 The weeping woman, myth or reality? When I was child my mom used to tell me traditional stories before sleep. I never thought if those were real until St. Juan's night in 1999. The older people say that St. Juan's night is when the ghosts come out to pay their punishment. Nobody believe that, isn't it? I didn't believe it, I kept awake until late in the night, and after midnight something started to be weird. The nights used to be noisy, grasshoppers, frogs, and some kind of wolves kept the nights busy but that night was quiet, everybody was sleeping, and I just could hear a deep silence. I felt alone in the darks night then a slight cold wind passed through my body, leaving my skin as a chicken. I felt somebody was behind me, and I turned back to look who was but nobody was there. I started to laugh but in that moment I hear a loud scream, it felt like a cannon in the silence of the night, it was like a scary movie scream. My body frozen, I couldnt move any muscle, I was scared and I remembered my grandfathers words... He used to say that the body knows when something bad is coming, first avoids all common sounds, then becomes extremely sensible to the wind changes and finally freeze all muscles. Everybody in my town knows that ghost's sound are in a different frequency and its hard to hear, also knows when they passed close to someone they left something called deadcold, is like a slight cold wind, and finally they only can see the movement.

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In that moment I thought I wasn't alone. I heard another scream, loud and clear, woman's screams. I could feel the sadness in that scream, I remember the Weeping woman story, my mom says she was the most popular and beautiful woman of the nearest lands. She was young, canella skin, dark brown eyes, always fresh red lips and perfect curves shape, all in the village knew her beauty because she used to move her hips at the drum rhythm in that way that only she could do it. From some reason she left her own baby into the river, and the baby dies, then god gave she a punishment, she has to pass every night weeping until she brings her own son alive to the haven's gates in order to go inside and rest in peace. She never found her children, so every night she weeps and steals one child with bad behaviour. The people say that her screams seems to be loud when she is far, and soft when she is close. The good news, I wasnt a child with bad behaviour. The bad news, the screams started to be softer. I had enough time to think about the Llorona, as we call. I've never understand why she permits that her own baby dies into the river is like an abortion, and abortions in our society are not myth, are fact In Canada is legal, in Colombia is not, but the people do it and the weekend news report some local cases in which both, the mother and fetus, die. Maybe they have the same punishment as the Llorona. Because two weeks before St Juan night Leidy the pretty nice girl who lives near from my home had an abortion and her health went down, never stopped bleeding and his mood became depressed. She was young and beautiful, deep blue eyes and gold hair, soft white skin and guitar shape, when she dance she used to shake her hips as a blender. Now she is dead. My grandfather use to say that some times, the dead people stays with us as ghosts, if they took bad choices in their lives. Maybe was Leidy who cried at St Juans night. But Leidy didn't want to have children, she was raped and as result she became pregnant so she aborted an

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unwanted child, is this bad decision in life? She was so sad and suffered too much before she died. Im not agree with abortion, I think it is a big responsibility to carry a human life. However, According to Profamilia organization halve of the news born child are unwanted, and half of them becomes in abortion (PROFAMILIA). In a country where aborting is illegal, the people comes to unsafe methods to commit the abortion and put in risk the mothers life ending several times with their lives such Leidy did. In the other hand countries like Canada does not have any restriction about abortion is legal through all nine months of pregnancy, more than hundred abortions are performed every year, maybe Canada have a lot of ghost rounding away. Maybe not, because most cases are done without physics complications in the mother's health.(LifeCanada) Any way the abortion can be easy procedure but have several implications to the woman health. The complications increases if the gestational age is greater than eight months, and can appear from the first hour following the abortion, just for name a few of them endometritis, haemorrhage, convulsion, embolism and death, and its just the beginning (LifeCanada). Abortion has also psychological implications, those woman can feel mild depression and several anxiety disorders increasing the probability to end in a psychiatric treatment (LifeCanada). An abortion is a traumatic event in the live, and can turn a happy woman in a living ghost just like the Llorona who is looking for her lost child weeping every single night. Now the Llorona is apparently close, because the soft weep, I became to pray. I was really sacred, a cold wind passes over my head, just like someone hand, and my body became to shake, I couldnt breathe I though the Llorona came for me, because I kept awake until late in the

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night since my mom send me to bed early. I didnt move for a while, after that I heard one more weep, this one was deep and loud, everybody in my house heard and woke up to see what happen. I feel better because the Llorona was running away, but I didnt sleep for the rest of the night thinking about my friend, her unborn child, and all thousands of teenagers who have unwanted child. Now in Colombia the abortion is permitted only in three cases: If the fetus cannot survive because some bad formation, If the mothers life is in risk and If it was a violation. For each of those cases the health insurance should make a safe procedure to remove the fetus and preserve the womans life. Perhaps Leidy could still alive if the abortion were legal in that time. Taking Canada as an example just a few cases fit into the cases described above, so how many weeping woman doesnt have the responsibility to bring the live to their children? Now I believe in the Llorona legend, every single woman who has experienced an abortion no matter if was a legal or illegal action, becomes in a weeping woman but not in the afterlife.

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Alfredo Gualdron Professor Patrick Morely Writing 0002G 10 Apr. 2012 Annotated Bibliography PROFAMILIA. Encuesta Nacional De Demografa Y Salud 2000. Bogot, 2002. Print. Since 1990, every five years, is made in Colombia the National Demographic Survey and Health, which aims to provide current, real and timely information about the population, especially women and adolescent girls. Social programs are based on this survey. I will use the statistics results about the unwanted child and abortion in colombian families, to support the idea of abortion as public health issue in countries where the abortion is illegal. LifeCanada. "AbortionInCanada.ca." Abortion Complication Rates. LifeCanada. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. The article present some statistics about the number of women who aborted in Canadian hospitals and had physics complications during the procedure or after the procedure. The article explains what kind of physics complications could occur and at what time. I will use the numbers presented in this article to show that abortion is common and safe in Canada. As well, I will use the information presented in this article to list the most common abortion complications.

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LifeCanada. "AbortionInCanada.ca." Psychological Effects of Abortion. LifeCanada. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. The article present some information about psychological complications after the abortion procedure of women who aborted in Canadian hospitals. The article explains what kind of psychological complications could occur and at what time. I will use the information presented in this article to list the most common psychological complications after abortion.