BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Pro-Life Pro-life/Pro-choice debates...

No I don't think you called anyone a nincompoop, that is just a general attitude I get from women. Again general. As if somehow this newly accepted form of viewing life is more intellectually valuable than the previous one, held for centuries. It's merely a different point of view, not a more enlightened one. I personally get that a lot, but not from you specifically.
I am sorry if I offended you in any way. My experience is either hostility because I haven't had baby after baby (and I have several so this is absurd) or hostility because I didn't abort the first and chase my career. I can't find a place where I dont' get crud for my decisions, so I understand the frustration you feel for yours.
Blessings!

Speaking as someone who has had to miscarriages, which were physically, and emotionally damaging, I am strongly pro-life for many reasons. Basically...life is life and no one can change that. You can call pro-choice an opinion, but it's really not. That is just the way someone justifies their own wrong. I am against government control as much as the next person, but I am also against murder. Life is life and since humans are not the maker, we can't be the taker either.

Speaking as someone who has two miscarriages, which were physically, and emotionally damaging, I am strongly pro-life for many reasons. Basically...life is life and no one can change that. You can call pro-choice an opinion, but it's really not. That is just the way someone justifies their own wrong. I am against government control as much as the next person, but I am also against murder. Life is life and since humans are not the maker, we can't be the taker either.

While I don't agree with abortion, I am starting to have a different perspective on the legalities of it.

Of course I would LOVE it to be illegal, since I feel as though our society is too much of a throwaway society when it comes to things that are inconvenient to us... and I fear it is a slippery slope when it comes to things like this.

At the same time, there are plenty of other things that are legal that people do and get away with that go against my beliefs as well.

In the end, we each have to answer to our own actions (imo) regardless of whether what we have done was deemed legal or illegal by society's standards.

I almost think that more education & more helpful alternatives (minus the preachy/religious aspect of it) would be more beneficial and helpful to the cause of saving lives than some of the extreme measures I have seen and read about being taken in the fight against abortion.

More facts and & figures showing what a market it is, who is getting rich off of it, figures on how many per state, per doctor's office, etc are being aborted on a monthly or yearly basis. How many have had complications due to having one (or many). How many have had one who were not on any form of birth control. How many have had multiple abortions. Stats on WHY the person was having the abortion (rape, incest, convenience). Why hide these facts? Put them all out there, let us be educated when we make our choices in return.

These facts are usually inconsistent, hard to find, at odds with each other, etc. and why? Because the people making money off of it don't want to shock us into realizing what is going on. We wouldn't need laws if instead of using over-the-top images of aborted fetuses we started giving women more REAL information. At least, that is what I would hope. Maybe I am being too hopeful here.

I find it really hard to believe that when a woman gets pregnant she ONLY see's the pregnancy as a "tissue" and doesn't really comprehend it is a child she is carrying. She may deny it to make herself feel better, imo, but the end result of carrying that "tissue" results in a child. A human being. Period. If she chooses to abort that "tissue", she ultimately chooses to kill a human being. Let's be honest here and quit trying to cloak what's going on in terms that depersonalizes it. The fact that so many have such a hard time post-abortion in dealing with it goes to show it is more than just "tissue" imo.

Going hand in hand with this, I think more could probably be done with making adoption easier in the U.S. I've never personally tried to adopt but I have always heard how hard it is to adopt here. Perhaps if adoption were made easier there would be less people willing to have abortions.

We are such a me-first society that I think abortion will always be around. It's way too convenient.

I don't think anyone in Missouri is getting rich since they have tried to get around the legality of it. There are only a few places here that they are done. The patient doctor confidentiality is what worries me. It use to be it was between a woman and her doctor, now it has to be public knowledge.
Let women decide for themselves what they want to do with their own bodies. We haven't had the vote for very long and will probably never get equal pay. Don't they think women are intelligent enough to decide.

I really do not know where my stance is. I am pro-life in my heart of hearts but I am not one to picket Planned Parenthood and I do not believe the government should take away the woman's freedom of choice.

I do not believe a fetus should be aborted because it is a nuisance that could have been prevented but I also do not believe that a woman should carry to full term if it is a health risk to her or if she was a victim of a rape and the baby is just going to be a horrific reminder of the incident.

I do believe that all options should be exhausted before a pregnancy is terminated.

I am also pro-life, with a very few excpetions.

If the mother's life is at risk, I think this is a very hard choice. In most cases the baby would wind up dying with the mother anyway, so aborting is saving 1 life as opposed to saving zero lives.

In the case of rape - I am always torn on this one. I was a victim of rape. I, however, was lucky not to become pregnant because of this event. I do know that the trauma of my rape has lived with me - well it still lives with me - 20 years later. I would like to say I would have given the child up for adoption, but I cannot in all honesty say I would have been that strong.

In cases of incest, this is an incredibly traumatic thing to put the (usually young) mother through. Not only is it rape, but it is "dirty" rape - at least that is how the victim usually sees herself. Plus the chance for genetic abnormalties in the child are very high. Although it hurts, I have to say that I believe in this case abortion is the better call.

For those that choose abortion just for convenience, this I do not agree with. If a woman has the means to afford an abortion, then she had the means to afford birth control and should have excercised that right instead. It is not fair to take a life just because someone doesn't want stretch marks.

I realize there are all sorts of scenarios that fall in between these two extremes. I do not have the right to judge any of them. I really don't have the right to judge the woman I just mentioned (although, obviously I do).

But that is why I think it is way more important to offer women choices about birth control first, then options other than abortion second. Then if an abortion is done, be there to offer forgiveness if she wants or needs it.

Unless we have been in this situation, we will never know what kind of internal struggle each woman has in making this decision. And, sorry men, you will never know.

The truth is though that medical and traumatic abortions (rape/incest) make up less than 2% of abortions. The rest is birth control or because of prenatal testing (which is horrible IMO because of the high rate of false positives. You are just as likely killing a perfectly healthy baby as one with Down's, etc).

But yes - I agree with the comments above. For me, personally, the only reason I would ever terminate a pregnancy would be in the case of ectopic or other life-threatening pregnancy condition. My living children would have to come first in that case. Even if I were raped I don't think I could kill a child. The innocent baby shouldn't have to suffer for his father's crime. If I felt like my husband and I couldn't raise the child lovingly I would seek a good adoption situation.

Angela <><

I continue to see this issue as a personal choice. I don't believe that morality and ethics can be effectively legislated. I also know that if the government attempted to prevent this activity, we'd end up with some really nasty situations with backroom "clinics" and coat-hangar abortions.

I would not opt to abort and would be happy to share my views on the issue if ever a friend or acquaintance sought guidance; but in the end, it is the individual's right to choose how they will manage the results of their personal actions.

Yes, you can't say in a law - abortion is OK for 1,2,3; but not allowed for a,b,c.

Legally I believe abortion must remain legal. But I also believe that abortions going into the 3rd term should remain illegal. This is most definitely a child that could possible live outside of the womb. It has been shown many, many times in pre-term babies.

I think the issues comes down to education, just as we need more education in birth control issues. And more openness in these issues - not condemnation, which only causes shame and hiding, not prevention.