Abortion

[andrewducker]

I say that I'm pro-choice, but the truth is that I'm actually anti-abortion. Rather, I'm pro-making sure that women have the resources and education available so that there's no need for abortions save those performed for medical reasons. The best way to stop abortions is to stop the need for abortions -- not with abstinence education that tells girls they're naughty for getting knocked up but doesn't tell them how to prevent it, but with realistic sex education and more resources for young women who find themselves pregnant and unable to afford prenatal care and postnatal expenses of raising a child

Which pretty much sums up how I feel.

Stolen from the ever-vigilant Lady Sysiphus.

Comments

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

Reducing the need for abortions is a good idea for many reasons, but there will always be a need for abortions. No method of birth control is 100% perfect, and human beings will never exercise perfect judgments. We don't just need to keep abortion available -- we need to make sure it's available on demand, and without guilt or apology.

[cx650.livejournal.com]

I believe in abortion being readily available without guilt or prejudice with the caveat that it is NOT and never will be the ultimate form of birth control.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

In contrast, wrt morality, I see abortion as absolutely neutral and no more immoral than trimming one's toenails. I see it as a risky (as is true of any surgical procedure) and unnecessarily complex and difficult form of birth control, given that there are far simpler options, so promoting safe, effective, and easily accessible birth control is obviously just as important as promoting safe and easily accessible abortions. The only moral component I see wrt abortion is that anything that reduces the numbers of humans born that does not harm people (and from my PoV clusters of cells are in no way people) is a moral good because reducing our population is very much a moral good.

pro-choice

[jodikid.livejournal.com]

Lately I have spoken to several young men claiming to be pro-choice. My main irritation is that by in large they have mistaken the term pro-choice to mean pro-abortion, if I have been give the right to choose why is it suddenly wrong to choose LIFE?

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Mistakes will ALWAYS happen. That's Chaos Theory for you.

I'm anti-saddling a poor kid with a parent or parents that couldn't give a toss about it. That's a far bigger crime than abortion, IMHO.

I think both you and Lady Sysiphus need to have a look at that phrase, "Anti-Abortion", and consider a new one....

[sylphigirl.livejournal.com]

this is not a black and white issue. a fetus is not a mindless thing, as far as popular science has led me to believe. it has a brain, and senses, and experiences. while it does not have full sentience the point is that left without intervention, it will 99% of the time develop full sentience. whether you believe a baby in the womb is a person or not, you cannot argue with the fact that by having an abortion you choose to prevent a baby from becoming a person. abortion is making a potential person die.

the moral question then surely arises from the moment the child is conceived, and the hair splitting around what constitutes a thing with rights is irrelevant to the moral debate?

rambling now...

[nickys.livejournal.com]

> making sure that women have the resources and education available so that there's no need for abortions save those performed for medical reasons.

Education is definitely very important (and currently a bit lacking in some areas, although the UK isn't nearly as bad as the US).

I think it's important to inform people of all the risks they're taking. Like all activities, sex has it's risks.
If you choose to climb mountains for fun you might fall off one, if you choose to have sex for fun then you might get pregnant (or cause someone else to become pregnant).

Another point is that it's also good to educate men about their contraceptive options and to point out to them that they also have a responsibility to take care to avoid causing an unwanted pregnancy.

Although the CSA is deplorable in many ways, one good effect it has had is to cause young men as well as young women to be much more aware that sex without contraception could have a long term effect on their lives.
There has apparently been an increase in condom use among adolescent males in the last few years because of fears of having to pay child support.



It's interesting that the number of terminations performed in the UK in the first year that abortion was legal was almost exactly the same as the estimated number for the previous year, when it had been illegal. All that changed was the number of women who survived the procedure.

It's reasonable to conclude from this that (outside of American soap operas anyway) almost noone has an abortion for trivial reasons, and that women who have abortions are almost always sufficiently desparate to end the pregnancy that they would do so even if the only option was a dangerous, illegal procedure.