Abortion... please don't flame!

[MoxieGrrl]

I am pro-choice in all situations. I have good faith that the doctors performing abortions would not give late-term abortions unless it was absolutely 100% medically necessary. I agree with whoever said, "If you are against abortions, then don't have one."

Abortions are about $500. That's pretty expensive and dangerous birth control. While I think that multiple abortions show a bit of irresponsibleness, it really does not affect me. I would rather someone pay for an abortion out of their own pocket than have a child they cannot support and let me pay for it through my taxes.

(Note: I do wish those groups that are for abortion and stand around Pittsburgh with their mutilated fetus signs would quit. Those pictures are gross.)

[pinkyphimu]

well, personally, i lean towards the pro-life side of the fence. lol...as all of my friends will say, they can't believe it bc i am so feminist and liberal in just about everything else. i guess every now and then my 9 years of catholic school shows.

i think that too many women use abortion as birth control. if you don't want to have a baby, then use some protection and some common sense! if you are sleeping with every guy in the neighborhood and find yourself pregnant, then you already made your choice. getting pregnant is a consequence of your actions.

now, i firmly believe that abortion in cases of rape and incest is perfectly fine. i know that if this ever happened to me, then there is NO WAY i could ever love the child. i know that sounds terrible (and i do love kids), but i can't imagine looking at the child and not remembering that awful night!!! as far as incest goes, i think that most cases involve younger women (like 10-18) and i don't think that they CHOSE to have sex with their relative, so i kind of see that in the same light as rape.

on a slightly side note, i think there is a misconception that all women who have abortions are perfectly happy with their choice. i know this is not true. one of my good friends had an abortion our senior year of college. she was in an abusive relationship- mostly mental, but abusive none the less- and finding out she was pregnant was the one thing that made her realize that she had to leave this man. she decided to have an abortion bc she knew that she couldn't take care of this child. after the procedure, she became a completely different person. before she was a total social butterfly and then she became completely opposite. she went home every weekend, nearly left school, dropped out of all of her activities, etc. etc. etc. even tho she knew that this was the best decision, it was by no means easy and it is something that she still has a hard time dealing with!!!

oh, and a friend of my mom's had an abortion in the 70s and she still cries on the anniversary of the abortion.

[AKA_Monet]

I am with smiley21: I myself would choose NOT to have an abortion if I were pregnant...

I am old enough to know where babies come from... I also consider myself a responsible adult who made the choice to sleep with man unprotected and know that I could get pregnant... So, basically, I am saying, I made my bed, so I now could lie in it...

One thing to consider:

For the ladies:

If none of you have been pregnant, then you really don't know what you will do until you are in that situation...


For the gentlemen:

If you haven't ever gotten a woman pregnant, then how do you really know what you will do when you have gotten into that situation???


On that note: I have a close friend who carries a severe genetic disorder. She does not have the genetic disorder, but she is a carrier... At any rate, she has a 1 in 50 chance in producing offspring that could have this disorder... If her egg is fertilized and implants into the uterus and becomes a fetus, it possibly with live until birth... But the child born will have no skull, none of the organs will develop fully and it will not live passed day 2 outside of the mother... Well, she found out thru genetic testing on her first pregnancy, that her child had the disorder. She decided to abort at 6 months...

I have had other friends and family use abortion as birth control...

I have had other friends and family use abortion because it was their choice...

Then I have had friends and family who have had their children, and jacked up their children's lives...

Sooooo??? I dunno...

But either way we look at it, the concept of abortion is a political one... The bottom line is a personal one...

[OUlioness01]

i'm very pro-life, but i don't feel that i have the right to dictate what other people do to their bodies. i cannot control lives. however, i do not believe in partial-birth abortion for any reason. why? as i understand it, partial-birth abortion is performed at a time when the fetus has a chance of surviving on its own outside the womb. i have not heard of many cases where a woman is faced with the chioce of either her baby or her life so late in a pregnancy. if the circumstances did work out in thos ecircumstances for me i would probably choose to attempt to save the baby if at all possible. however, i do not have the right and i cannot make that decision for someone else...it is a decision every woman has to make on her own and live with.

i have heard of the removal of a fetus who is already dead termed as abortion, but in my mind that is necessary surgery.

*edited to add that i fully support abortion in the case of incest or rape. no person should have to live with that burden.

[twinstars]

Let's remember, women can and do get pregnant by accident while using birth control of one form or another.

It's not always the case that the women was just dumb or totally irresponsible and had unprotected sex, gets knocked up (big surprise) and now needs to pay the consequences. What if she WAS careful? I would guess that many or maybe even MOST women seeking abortion tried to be careful in some way and were just unlucky (condom broke, pill failed, etc).

[AOcutiePi4ever]

im totally pro-choice, which is unusual here in the deep south, and especially among the ultra conservative people i seem to be surrounded by everyday. however i try to be openminded and tolerent of abortion because i know this world is far from perfect, and if i was a 12 year old who was raped and found herself pregnant, or a loving mother who wants despretly to keep her child but knows if she does she will die-- (in one case i know of, the baby was in utero without a brain, just a tumor instead, and the mother was terribly ill and would die if she had the baby-- better to abort the fetus then have the mother give birth to it and probably die-- after all the fetus had no brain anyways, and therefore i am sure we can all agree wasnt alive anyways. of course if bush had it his way she would have had to have it. but whatever now i am off on a huge tangent.) anyways like i was saying-- i know if i had ever found myself in one of these situations, i would like to have an option to save myself. i dont care how selfish that sounds to some people, because it isnt. you cant force a little girl to have a baby when she is one herself. i dont care about the sacredness of life--- that little girls QUALITY of life is sacred too, and NO ONE has the right to tell her she must have that child. my philosphy is if you are pro life, then DONT HAVE AN ABORTION. otherwise keep out of it, its a destressing thing enough as it is, these women dont need scorpians jumping down their thoats.

yes, this is a topic that i feel very strongly about. haha.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally posted by twinstars
Let's remember, women can and do get pregnant by accident while using birth control of one form or another.

It's not always the case that the women was just dumb or totally irresponsible and had unprotected sex, gets knocked up (big surprise) and now needs to pay the consequences. What if she WAS careful? I would guess that many or maybe even MOST women seeking abortion tried to be careful in some way and were just unlucky (condom broke, pill failed, etc).

Yes, you are right... Sometimes, isht happens...

But, IMHO, I think that ultimately, women must control there reproductive health at all times no matter what and cannot rely on anyone to "do right by them"... If women want to call themselves responsible adults, then they MUST do it... Otherwise, IMO, it is irresponsible--especially when one is suppose to know where babies come from...

If the woman gets the condoms herself for her man, since that is the only "natural" way to get pregnant, which is scientifically proven, then the oneous is on her to purchase the "safer" condom... Latex with spermicide...

Pill failure is a whole 'nother topic...

However, I know of SEVERAL women in their 30's that have "trapped" their man into marriage because of pregnancy... That is my issue of it most... Do I think these women ought to have aborted, I dunno... But what I can say, the person that is affected the most is the one who didn't ask to be here...

[aephi alum]

There are several possible scenarios where a woman is pregnant and in the position of deciding whether to have an abortion...

- The mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy
- It is unlikely that the fetus would survive to birth or much beyond birth
- The fetus has a genetic disorder or serious physical or mental deformity
- The mother was raped
- The mother was the victim of incest
- The parents had unprotected sex
- The parents used protection, but the protection failed
- The parents were actually trying for a baby but the mother changed her mind
- The parents wanted a boy but got a girl (or vice versa)

(have I missed anything?)

I'm in full support of a woman's right to choose. I have to say, though, the last two scenarios I listed make me somewhat uncomfortable.

Personally - my husband and I are not trying for a baby right now (much to my mother-in-law's disappointment ), but if an "accident" were to happen I'd keep the baby and just get our family started earlier than I'd planned.

If (God forbid) my life or the baby's were endangered, or I were raped, I would probably not keep the baby.

I also draw the line at partial-birth abortions - ugh. If you haven't decided on abortion by that late in the pregnancy, when you've had several months to make up your mind, just have the kid.

[AKA_Monet]

I thought that some states have a law that if any "fetus" past a certain age, especially during 3rd trimester would have to be "C sectioned" and if the resulting child can breathe on its own without massive help other than the neonatal, preemie oxygen tube, then the medical community MUST keep the child alive? Am I wrong?

On that know, I know a woman that was forced to give birth to her child at 5-6 months in the womb. And the child was on "respiration" and many other things for a good solid 6 months... Until all its organs could function on its own... I met the child when he was 2-3 years of age... So it is possible for some preemies to survive when removed from the womb at late 2nd and during 3 trimesters... How it is exactly done, I dunno...

[twinstars]

I don't know about other pro-choicers, but for me the really late-term stuff is a whole different thing. From what I know, these abortions make up a very small precentage of all abortions- they are rare- and they are only done in cases of medical necessity nowadays. I don't think that any pregnant lady who changes her mind that late in the game can just get one.

So for the sake of arguing about whether abortion is right or wrong (or should be legal/illegal) I think it makes more sense to talk about the type of abortions that make up the vast majority of the procedures done today- the 1st-trimester ones.

I also think it's a legitimate position to say that early abortions for whatever reason should be kept legal, but late abortions when the fetus could arguably survive outside the womb should be restricted to special cases (mainly medical necessity). What I mean to say by this is that plenty of people who call themselves pro-choice would not be in favor of allowing the really gruesome late-term abortions for elective reasons.

[aephi alum]

Originally posted by twinstars
I don't know about other pro-choicers, but for me the really late-term stuff is a whole different thing. From what I know, these abortions make up a very small precentage of all abortions- they are rare- and they are only done in cases of medical necessity nowadays. I don't think that any pregnant lady who changes her mind that late in the game can just get one.

If it's medically necessary, particularly if it's something that could not have been foreseen earlier in the pregnancy, that's a different matter. But theoretically, a woman could decide one day before she's due to give birth that she doesn't want the baby... that's the idea I don't like. (And you're right, most doctors would probably say what I'm saying - just have the kid, and put the kid up for adoption if you really don't want him/her.)

Late-term abortions are major surgery. If you're going to have an abortion, best to do it early.

[LeslieAGD]

Although I don't think I would have an abortion (except in extreme cases of rape/health complications), I don't believe it's my place or anyone else's place - especially the government - to tell a woman what to do with her body.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by PM_Mama00
Nevermind I'll put it back up!

I always felt like I was pro-choice for two reasons... rape and incest. But then something happened to my friend's aunt.

She became pregnant, but there were major complications. If she carried the baby to term, then she could have died during labor, the baby could have died, or both coudl have died. It was an extremely high risk pregnancy. She ended up terminating the pregnancy. She is a great person, from a good family with great morals, but it was possibly the best choice.

How do you feel about abortion in cases of life or death?

Please only respond if you're going to respond with a mature, helpful opinion. Please do not respond with "Abortion is bad no matter what". I guess this thread is more for those who are Pro-Choice.

I am basically Pro-Life, but was not when I was in college (just so you know where I stand).

In the scenario of your first paragraph, I think you would find that only the most rabid of Pro-Life groups would disagree with this abortion. I highly doubt that anyone would argue with a tubal preganancy or other high-risk, life-or-death termination.

I'm sure that good people have had abortions. I'm sure that some women never feel any guilt, and others are bereft by their loss. I personally can quickly name at least 10 people who have had multiple abortions for whatever reason.

While I became Pro-Life earlier, my personal experience has lead me to cross the line into Very Pro-Life. I have had two miscarriages, one at 10 weeks (from being beaten), the other at 16 weeks (from a mistake in medication). No one will ever be able to convince me that what I saw each time was not a child, but a mass of tissue! I look at children who are the same age as my children would be and wonder what mine would have been like. Not a day goes by that I don't think about them.

Yet, I've had friends who've chose to abort come to me for comfort. It's a sickening choice to make, and once the deed is done, we need to be comforters, not judges.

[AlphaXi4983]

I am very pro-choice, and believe that abortion should be legal. After all, this is the land of the free, right? I think if it were to be completely unconstitutional, that's starting to bring relgion into our government (as if we dont have enough issues with that now...) and that would just be a huge mess. However, I do think it should be carfeully regulated and women and men should be educated from a very young age that it is NOT a form of birth control-- it's a last ditch effort, basically. If families wish to raise their children with the ideals of their religion, then so be it. I do believe that the issue of the unborn child is important, but I think it should be up to the woman/people involved.
I was raped when I was 15 by a complete stranger. Luckily I didn't become pregnant, but I could have. Ever since then I have been pro-choice. I could have been a mother at 15, not able to provide anything for the child, not able to take care of myself, and not even finished my junior year of high school.

[GeekyPenguin]

What exactly is considered a late-term abortion?

Depending on the answer to this, I may have more questions.

I'm pretty rabidly pro-choice. I don't know how easy it would be for me to decide to have an abortion, but I know that I do not want children nor the burden of carrying a child.