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We need an abortion thread ...

KC Jul 20 2005 11:39 AM

... this will be hot topic in the coming weeks.

metirish Jul 20 2005 11:43 AM

Yep it surely will, lets get started, the new fella Roberts as deputy solicitor general for George Bush(1st), wrote a brief arguing that doctors in clinics receiving federal funds shouldn't be able to talk to their patients about abortion (the Supreme Court agreed) .

ScarletKnight41 Jul 20 2005 12:14 PM

You sure we need this?

soupcan Jul 20 2005 12:23 PM

Put me down as pro-choice.

ScarletKnight41 Jul 20 2005 12:26 PM

It's common knowledge that I'm also pro-choice.

seawolf17 Jul 20 2005 12:29 PM

I'll take pro-choice for the win, Tom. I'll also take anti-thread.

cooby Jul 20 2005 12:42 PM

Pro choice, but I personally don't think I could ever have an abortion. But admittedly, I haven't had to make that choice.

KC Jul 20 2005 12:53 PM

For my part in the abortion of a pregnancy a half-a-lifetime ago, I feel it's one of the single most regretable things I've been involved in. "My kid" would just be getting out of college about now. I made my mind up a long time ago that it was a bad thing to do, a life was erased by our hands, and that I would never do it again. I don't care if someone has an abortion, so I guess that makes me pro-choice. If asked, I would counsel against one though.

Willets Point Jul 20 2005 12:55 PM

I think abortion is wrong, but also don't think the making it illegal as many pro-lifers wish will do any good (it would be as effective as Prohibition was in making people stop drinking). Both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice activists give me the heebie-jeebies so I suppose I'm somewhere in the middle if such a thing exists. At any rate, I believe that adoption reform, universal health care, honest sex education, and better and more freely available contraceptives would go a long way to ending abortion by making it uncecessary.

Yancy Street Gang Jul 20 2005 01:15 PM

My feelings are pretty much the same as those of Mr. Point. I think advances in medicine and technology will make abortions less and less common. By the 22nd Century, people will be looking back in horror at all the abortions that occurred in our time.

sharpie Jul 20 2005 01:17 PM

The one that I was involved in, had the baby been born, would be in his/her late 20's by now. I have no regrets. The girl and I had broken up by the time of the abortion and there was no hesitation on her part. We were both teenagers and totally unready for parenthood. I have two kids now, both wanted. I lost touch with the girl 20 years or so ago. I'm pro-choice but feel pretty much the same as Messrs. Point and Gang.

Vic Sage Jul 20 2005 02:03 PM

gosh, its great to see youse guys are all against aborting fetuses. But, you know, its not like there are other people out there who throw a clambake everytime an abortion is performed. I don't think the abortion issue has anything to do with whether or not you think an abortion is a good thing or a bad thing. Lets assume, just for arguments sake, that EVERY rational human feels that, religious views aside, destroying an embryo is unpleasant at the least, and more likely viewed as horrific at best. The abortion issue is only about one thing... who gets to decide. Do people have a fundamental right of privacy, or can the government impose its will on this most personal of individual decisions? Its not about whether you'd personally have an abortion, or recommend it to anyone, or anything else. Its whether you believe this is a decision best left to individuals or whether you should be able to impose your personal opinions on this issue on somebody else, through governmental action. One's view on this issue tends to turn on whether you think a fertilized egg is a human being invested with full constitutional rights. If so, abortion is murder and should be outlawed. If not, does the fertilized egg become a person somewhere along the sliding scale of its development? Does it happen upon "viability"? or only upon birth? or only upon graduation from law school or medical school, as many Jewish mothers believe? Its not an easy question, and i'm not pretending it is. But it has nothing to do with whether you LIKE or don't LIKE abortion. And such a determination should have nothing to do with reference to religiousity or particular faith-based rationales, as that is no basis for a system of government... unless your an Islamic fundamentalist country.

sharpie Jul 20 2005 02:17 PM

You're right, Vic. Being pro-choice isn't mutually exclusive, however, of being squeamish. I'm proudly pro-choice and squeamish.

KC Jul 20 2005 02:32 PM

Vic, didn't everyone who said they were pro-choice pretty much answer to: "whether you believe this is a decision best left to individuals or whether you should be able to impose your personal opinions on this issue on somebody else, through governmental action" I don't see anything wrong with people additionally posting how they "feel" about the subject.

Centerfield Jul 20 2005 02:59 PM

I believe it is a choice best left to the individuals. In other words, I do not feel the fetus has any constitutional rights until it is born. I have no justification for this, other than my personal beliefs, but I do feel that the alternative is too unclear to turn into law. If, in fact, you state life begins before birth, how much before birth? Third trimester? Conception? Should sperm be afforded the right to vote? I would hate to see some a guy masturbate and immediately get arrested and charged with 5 million counts of spermicide.

SwitchHitter Jul 20 2005 03:44 PM

I think people should be able to get abortions if they want them. That has nothing to do with whether I would get one. I think that the folks who choose them don't do it lightly or on a whim any more than any other medical decision is made that way. If someone chooses to have an abortion, that's none of my business unless it's my underage daughter. And since that hasn't happened, I really have nothing more to say about it.

ScarletKnight41 Jul 20 2005 05:13 PM

Thankfully, I've never been in the position to have to make that choice (backing up Willets' point about contraception going a long way towards making abortion unnecessary. Or at least less necessary) . I have been through the process with a friend who did, however - let's just say that I'd never wish that kind of thing on anyone.

TheOldMole Jul 20 2005 09:57 PM

Choice.