Quote:
Originally posted by AlphaGamDiva
I know a man who was never adopted, raised in an orphanage and he has lead a good, solid life...you can't rate someone's quality of life until they are given the opportunity to live. In other words, you can't say that just because someone was born into bad circumstances, that their whole life, things will be bad for them.
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For every one of those stories, there are hundreds that go the other way.
Have you ever experienced state run childcare? our foster care system in and of itself is atrocious... the system in Washington DC, our nation's CAPITOL, for crying out loud, is so dysfunctional that over a hundred children have died as a result of the failure of DC Social Services to properly keep uip on their cases. (I am 90% sure of this, but visit
www.washingtonpost.com and do a search and it will bring up all the recent articles. There's one just about every week). Is it "morally responsible" to bring these children into the world, subject them to lives of abuse and poverty, only to have them be let down the the system that fought for their existence in the first place? What bright spots have these poor children had in their short lives?
DukeBlue- I am so grateful to you for articulating my thoughts on this issue exactly. You are a credit to my gender
All through our lives we are instructed on the message of self control: Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD. This can be applied to all sides of the coin- to premarital sex as well as abortion and having a child.
One one hand, we can say that if you take the responsibility of sex, you accept all consequences that may go along with it. We all know that a good percentage of people engaging in intercourse- especially young people- are not well informed about the consequences that sex carries. I come from a mostly white upper class hometown, and I cannot count the number of people who had misinformation about sex. Sexual activity is a flood that will not easliy be dammed. When we ignore it, and preach abstinence instead of education (providing condoms and an open environment in which to facilitate conversationa nd question and answer), it's like saying "it will not get dark tonight." People are going to have premarital sex. Teenagers are going to get pregnant. And they will get abortions. Which is better- providing them with a safe, sanitary environment in which to have it sone, or leaving them to their own devices? Coat hangers? Back-alley butchers? How is that socially responsible?
Likewise, I believe that just because a woman is physically capable of having a child doesn't mean that she should. I like the analogy of donating one's body. If we are truly to argue that men and women should be equal in this respect, then what happens to the myriad of men who walk away from this responsibility? And let's be honest here... of the men that I've slept with, there are definitely some I would absolutely not consider as fathers of my children. To retain them as parents, to maintain that ever-constant connection through a child--- why? Am I to choose my sexual partners on the basis of "If I were to get pregnant, would he be a good father?" I don't understand that. My sexual life WILL NOT be dictated by the fact that I have a uterus and there is the possibility I could get pregnant. I am a separate person from my future children. They don't run my life (yet)
).
Finally, I am pro-choice, but that does not mean pro-abortion. I am not sure that I could go through with having an abortion should I ever face that decision. Being pro-choice does not mean that you are in favor of across-the-board abortions. Just because you favor the choice doesn't mean you favor the act. You favor just that- the choice. Making abortions legal doesn't mean the YOU have to get one. It doesn't make a pro-life opinion null and void. You may still have your opinion and exercise it over your decisions. Pro-choice just means that other people have the right to exercise their own.
:: steps off soapbox::
::looks around at all the other soapboxes... there are lots::
phew. sorry. just had to get that off my chest.
wait, one more thing-
there have been several comments about women being raped and where abortion stands relevant to that. There was one comment saying something to the effect of "if a woman isn't responsible to get a medical exam, then she should have the baby." I literally have to clench my jaw about this. Rape is a horrifyingly traumatic thing. And it is not always a dark-alley, empty parking lot, stranger-in-a-hooded mask event. Most rapes occur at the hands of someone the victim knows. If there was an ambiguous night where there was too much alcohol (and I know we've ALL been there) and your friend crossed the line, are you so quick to cry rape and rush to the hospital? What if a woman was drugged and doesn't remember the event until days later(raises hand here)? Is it still her "irresponsibility" at fault? Or what about incest? When a girl is raped by her father/uncle/brother and is too intimidated to report it, is that irresponsible? THERE ARE TOO MANY VARIABLES WITH RAPE TO CATEGORIZE IT. It is NEVER the vicitms fault. Don't begin to assume that you understand the emotional rollercoaster that follows such an act, and have the right to dictate a time frame for a woman to take appropriate action.
:::really steps off soapbox:::