Quote:
Originally posted by swissmiss04
It's a graphic procedure, to be sure. If a woman is going to have an abortion (for whatever reason) she will 99.9999% of the time elect to do it as early as possible. If it's personal, she'll want as few people as possible to realize she's pregnant. If it's medical, it needs to be done asap to prevent further problems. I've never heard of a case where a woman carries a baby to 8 months and then says "Ya know, I've changed my mind." If she has a 'partial birth' abortion, it would no doubt be out of medical necessity and not simply on a whim. Also note that abortion often causes fertility issues (if not complete infertility), especially if performed later on in the pregnancy. And as with any operation, there are risks to life and limb. It's not a decision to be made lightly!
If we attempt to deny women the choice (or hinder their ability to implement the choice) to make decisions about their own bodies, we'll be no better than the Third World countries we've attempted to liberate.
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However, at some point the life inside her is not hers.
I'm going to refine my point here.
I found an interesting article on MSN (they really seem to be more pro-choice on this one) that gives some interesting figures. First of all, partial birth abortions account for about 6% of all abortions.
"But 6 percent--more than 80,000 abortions--are done after 15 weeks, and several hundred of these are done after 24 weeks, commonly taken to be the point of viability. The fetus is now too big to fit into the suction tubing. A 20-week fetus is commonly 6 inches long or more."
So what I would refine my point to be (and yeah, I'm changing my mind a bit for the sake of consistancy) would be that any time AFTER the point at which a fetus is considered viability -- let's say 24 weeks although many other articles have said 22 -- partial birth abortion should not be allowed.
However, in the period between the 15th and 22nd(or24th) week where the fetus is not viable outside the womb, I guess this procedure is as reasonable as any other abortion procedure. They're all pretty graphic, but if that's what someone wants to do, who am I to say no?