Mindscan

"There most certainly is," said Lopez, some fire starting to come back into her, "if you'll permit me a little latitude."

"A little latitude is all your going to get — like from here to Warren; don't take us clear across the globe."

Lopez did her trademark bow. "But of course, your honor." She repeated the question, giving herself another chance to make the jury hear the loaded word at its end. "Ms. Bessarian, have you ever had an abortion?"

Karen's voice was small. "Yes."

There was chatter in the courtroom. Judge Herrington frowned his small frown and banged his gavel.

"Now, we don't want to portray you as a criminal here, Ms. Bessarian," said Lopez.

"We wouldn't want the jury to think you had committed that act recently, would we?

Will you tell the court when you terminated the life of a fetus?"

"In, um … it was 1988."

"Nineteen Eighty-Eight. That would be — what? — fifty-seven years ago, no?"

"That's correct."

''So if you had not terminated that fetus, you would have another child — a son or a daughter — some fifty-six years old."

"I — perhaps."

"Perhaps?" said Lopez. "I think the answer is yes."

Karen was looking down. "Yes, I suppose."

"Fifty-six years old. A mature man or woman, quite likely with children of his or her own."

"Objection, your honor," said Deshawn. "Relevance!"

"Move it along, Ms. Lopez."

She nodded. "The real point is that the abortion was executed in 1988." She put a special emphasis on the verb executed. "And that was … let me see now … forty years before Roe v. Wade was overturned by Littler v. Carvey."

"If you say so."

"And Roe v. Wade was the case that temporarily legalized a woman's ability to terminate the life she was carrying, isn't that so?"

"It was not intended to be a temporary measure," said Karen.

"Forgive me," said Lopez. "My only point was to assure the court that you had terminated a fetus when it was in fact legal to do so in these United States, correct?"

"Yes. It was a legal procedure. Carried out in a public hospital."

"Oh, indeed. Indeed. We don't want to put a picture of back alleys and bent coat hangers into the jury's mind."

"You just did," said Karen, defiantly. "This was a legal, moral, and common procedure."

"Common!" said Lopez, with relish. "Common, yes. The very word."

"Objection!" said Deshawn, spreading his arms. "If Ms. Lopez has a question for the witness—"

"Oh, but I do. I do. Ms. Bessarian, why did you have this abortion?"

Deshawn was getting angry; his face was still calm, but his voice wasn't. "Objection!

Relevance."

"Ms. Lopez, please get to the point," said Herrington, a hand supporting his shoehorn jaw.

"Just a few more minutes, your honor. Ms. Bessarian, why did you have this abortion?"

"I did not wish to have a child at that time."

"So the abortion was indeed a matter of personal convenience?"

"It was a matter of economic necessity. My husband and I were just starting out."

"Ah, you did this for the good of the child, then."

Deshawn spread his arms. "Objection! Your honor, please!"

"Withdrawn," said Lopez. "Ms. Bessarian, when you had this abortion, you didn't think you were committing murder, did you?"

"Of course not. It was a fully legal procedure back then."

"Indeed, indeed. The period sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages."

"Not by me."

"No, I'm sure. Tell us, please: why was it not murder to terminate your pregnancy?"

"Because … because it wasn't. Because the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that it was a legal procedure."

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand what the law said back then. What I'm asking about is your own personal moral code. Why was it not murder to terminate that pregnancy?"

"Because it wasn't a person — not in my eyes, or the eyes of the law."

"Today, of course, the law would disagree."

"But I would not."

I cringed. Karen was being too feisty for her own good. And Lopez seized upon it.

"Are you saying your standards are higher than those of the law?"

"My standards aren't subject to pressure groups or political whim, if that's what you mean."

"And so you still maintain that that fetus was not a person?"

Karen said nothing.

"An answer, please, Ms. Bessarian."

"Yes."

More chatter; another tap of the gavel.

"You're saying, yes, that fetus was not a person?" asked Lopez.

"Yes."

"That fetus, which was created by the physical expression of love between you and your late first husband, may God rest his soul. That fetus, which had forty-six chromosomes, mixing uniquely your husband's traits and yours."

Karen said nothing.

"That fetus was not a person, correct?"

Karen was quiet a moment, then: "Correct."

"How far into your pregnancy were you when you terminated it?"

"Nine … no, ten weeks."

"You're not sure?"

"It was an awfully long time ago," said Karen.

"Indeed. Why did you wait that long? Had you been unaware up to that point that you were pregnant?"

"I became aware within four weeks of conception."

"Then why the delay?"