Abortion: What it is and answers to common questions. - Comments

I am 12 weeks pregnant, (will be on Monday anyways) and I heard my baby's heartbeat at six weeks. Do people not understand how truly amazing that is? There is LIFE inside the womb, and you can SEE the heartbeat as well as HEAR it at such an early stage. I think all the people who are for abortion NEED to go to an ultrasound, they base there shit on so called "science", and not what is just plain out the right thing. Get a conscious. I don't know how people can live with themselves.

I couldn't read the whole thing. I find it insulting that people think a woman who is raped should still have the child against her will. And people wonder why people commit suicide. In fact a lot of women will die if they don't get an abortion, what about that scenario?

v It's not a well written article. It relies on unfounded information and...a really, really bad analogy...or two...

With a lot of work, sources and a lot more time put into it, I'm sure that a well-written pro-life abortion article would be absolutely possible. However, this was not done. Considering how large the topic is...I find it really too short to encompass everything in this morally-grey issue. It could have been really well written but it wasn't.

Additionally, your analogy doesn't quite work for me. A potential light? It does not take into account sentience (which is personally a major issue for me concerning when abortion is an acceptable choice for me) nor does it take into account miscarriage, social issues, personal issues and a thousand other things. At the end of the day, there is no good analogy for this because there is nothing that can adequately measure up.

I agree with some of the arguments made in the comments, but something a lot of you touched on was that it wasn't a life, but a potential life. Think of it as a potential LIGHT while it could be a complete dud, and not work, maybe cause a few problems, it could just a likely be the light that guides you out of the darkness. Other than that, I also have to say, you criticized her for not stating both sides, neither did you. you stated bad things only and didn't touch upon the good things in anyway, making you, whether sir or madam, a hypocrite, which is frowned upon in this establishment

This seems like an 'I'm right and you're wrong' article.

This is wrong on so many levels.

1) The factual level:
Fetuses and zygotes vs. babies and children. Until it is born, it is a zygote that develops into a fetus. Once it has been born, it is a baby that develops into a child.

The heartbeat argument: Every animal has a heartbeat. Fetuses don't have heartbeats until about 2 months in (according to about.com, pick apart the validity of that site as you wish), at which point only an extremely unobservant woman would not have realized she's missed two periods.

The dog analogy has been covered, so I'll leave that one alone.

2) The societal level:
Women will have abortions no matter what. Would you rather they do it with a coat hanger, which may kill the mother, or in a clinic, which is safe for her? Nothing will stop a woman who knows she cannot take care of a child, cannot bear it to term, or is not mentally capable of dealing with a pregnancy.

In an ideal world, the only pregnancies would be wanted pregnancies. In case you haven't noticed, we don't live in an ideal world. Condoms break, birth control fails, women are raped. [As a side note, American culture doesn't teach "Don't rape" so much as it teaches "Don't be raped". There are a thousand issues with that alone, but I won't get into that here.]

3) The individual level:
Some women cannot bring the baby to term for whatever reason. Many cannot handle carrying the baby of a rapist as a constant reminder of how one man destroyed her entire life. Some can, but many can't. And do you really think it goes away after nine months? There's the loss of work, the loss of income, the loss of time, any complications [people do still die from giving birth], the stigma of having given a child up for adoption [your 'perfect solution'].

Some women can't handle a pregnancy and will die from it. That is a fact. [See 4 for clarification]

What disturbs me the most about the pro-life argument as presented here is that it gives more weight the right of cells to not be disturbed than it does to an adult woman who has not made the decision lightly.

4) The personal level:
Different from the individual level because this is MY experience and MY life, not some nameless, faceless woman's.

My body is so messed up that if I ever get pregnant, I will die around 20 weeks in. The earliest a baby has ever survived being delivered is, if I remember correctly, 23 weeks. If I abort, only the fetus will die. If I do not, both I and the fetus will. I would rather kill something that will die anyway than kill it by committing suicide, because that is what a pregnancy is for me: a suicide. When you say abortion should be outlawed, you're handing me a loaded gun and forcing me to pull the trigger. And I am not okay with that. It is my body. I will decide when and how I die. You do not get to make that decision for me. Men do not get to make that decision for me. Women do not get to make that decision for me. *I* get to make that decision for me.

5) Stylistic comments:
No facts, no sources, formulaic structure, and bad grammar [you rarely want to start a sentence with 'so' or 'or', which you do multiple times in one paragraph]. Overall, it reads like a middle schooler's paper and not like an actual fact-based article.

Kudos to you for writing this, though. You had to know you'd get comments like mine, and you went ahead and wrote it anyway.

I know you've heard this before, but a fetus is not a human yet, it is the WOMAN'S body and the WOMAN'S right to have an abortion if she wants. What if she's delicate, and her body can't handle it? She could die. This was not an article, an article is an objective report of information. This was completely SUBJECTIVE, and very rude. My cousin had a baby, and her life is NOT that great. A woman has a right to her body.

I don't think a fetus can be compared to a human person - it's more comparable to a parasite or a potential human, in the way that a seed is a potential tree. The fetus can't survive on its own outside the uterus and is dependant on the mother for food. Are the rights of a fetus really more important than the rights of a person?

Previous commentors have mentioned the negative effect that carrying the baby would have on a rape victim so I won't repeat it, but what about the negative effect it could also have on the child if they were to ever find out they were the product of rape? What about the potential resentment the mother might feel towards the child?

I would just like to say I'm not pro-abortion; in an ideal world abortion wouldn't be necessary because every pregnancy would be a wanted one. But as it is, that's not the case. And I would much prefer (and I'm sure other women would agree) that abortions be undertaken in a safe environment with the required equipment - because abortions won't cease to happen just because it's not legal, it just means that women will (and do) go to drastic measures which could lead to medical problems or death. Not to mention, I hardly think that women take the decision to abort lightly.

It would have been better for you to have included sources/quotes to back up your points; there's nothing wrong with opinion pieces, but not when that opinion seems to be soley based on personal biases rather than fact.

A woman's body is not an incubator to be regulated. Also this is more of a journal because it is just opinion with no actual research or factual evidence supporting your opinions.

This should really be a journal since there isn't really any facts and it's just your opinion. I don't need to comment on the animal and women statement since everyone already mentioned it.

And to the person below that said you have morals because you're pro-life... really? that's saying that everyone that is pro-choice don't have morals. I do have morals and i'm pro-choice. I don't consider it a baby until it can live outside the womb which is about 24 weeks. I don't think people should wait that long (earlier the better).

And someone said something about adoption. totally agree. think of all the other kids out there that are in fosters home and aren't adopted because people want babies and not children. I'm not trying to sound like an ass but why do people that adopt (obv. this isn't about everyone that adopts) want babies so much more than children that are already born? Why don't they want to help children that are already on this earth?

Oh, and that comment about the kid growing up and becoming a doctor that cures something? What if that kid grows up to be the complete opposite? What is the kids grows up and becomes a rapist and rapes women/men/children? Why don't you mention that? Why don't you mention the not so great things they could become?

YES! Thank you so much for writing this, I totally agree. Just ignore all the bashers. There are always gonna be people like that when you write about a controversial topic. And I totally agree with the thing about what if that person grew up and saved lives. I saw this one comic where this man was crying out to God, "Hey, why is there so much suffering and disease? Why don't you send someone to help us?" and then God said, "I did, but you aborted them." And just today I saw sort of a movie/documentary thing on abortion and they compared it to the holocoust. It's called 180 movie, if you wanna check it out.

Anyways, I applaud you for being brave enough to write this and submit it. Very well-done! I like the analogy of the pregnant dog and the pregnant woman. =)

Kicking a dog in the stomach. Well if you kick a pregnant woman in the stomach you can get arrested for attempted murder.

The heartbeat does not become noticeable until the second trimester of the pregnancy, so abortions that happen in the first trimester are aborting fetuses that do not resemble human beings and do not have heartbeats but are just a little more than a clump of cells in the woman's uterus.

I'm actually pretty impassive on the abortion pro- life/choice argument, but either side can really make some good points to back it up, and I think your article really needs a little bit more to retaliate against pro-choice.

I had a lot to comment on this, but it seems like pretty much all of it has been covered by previous commenters, haha... But yeah... very biased with no sources or science to back up any of your reasoning or facts; not to mention a ridiculous and obnoxious comparison of someone beating a dog mercilessly to end her pregnancy and an abortion carried out in the doctor's office (hahaha, seriously? That's not comparable in the least! Beat a female mercilessly and you'll get in loads of trouble, as well! Probably more than you would beating a dog...)

There are far too many factors in the abortion argument to sum up either side in a few paragraphs. If you're going to attempt to do so, though, you should spend some time researching the topic and making sure you're able to back up your facts/arguments with reliable sources, and respectable comparisons.

I'm not trying to sound rude, so I apologize if I do. I'm just trying to give some constructive criticism... but I will admit that my disagreeing with the argument seems to be making me more critical of the whole thing, haha. Still, I think the previous commenters seem to be spot on.

Agreed with everything Airi said.

I agree with Airi.

You are aware that it is perfectly legal to remove foetal puppies from a dog when carrying out a neutering operation?

Kicking something in the stomach and abortion are not really the same thing at all and it's a bit shocking to me that you just compared the two. If you hit a woman in the stomach, you will most likely be charged with assault just as if you hit a dog in the stomach, you will be charged with animal abuse. No matter what species they are, be it a human or dog, you cannot kick someone in the stomach. It is abuse and assault and you'll get in legal trouble for it. For example, if a husband found his wife pregnant and decided to beat her to force her to lose that fetus, he would go to jail for abuse because that is exactly what that is. Just as if a dog owner beat their pregnant dog to make them lose their pregnancy, it would be abuse because it is abuse. Abortion doctors don't just go around hitting women in the stomach, that's not how abortions are performed at all. Not even close. I don't honestly see how you can rightfully compared abuse to abortion when they're not even close to the same thing.

As for rape, what if the woman cannot handle carrying the fetus? Is the fetus still more important than her rights and her mental state? Is the fetus more important than women in general? There are some women out there where if they get pregnant from a rape, they'd rather kill themselves than be forced to deliver that fetus. There are some women out there who just cannot mentally handle carrying their rapist's fetus for nine months and then giving birth to that fetus. For some women, forcing that onto them will destroy them, it'll destroy their mental state. Let me ask you, did you even consider this? Did you even think about how mentally harmful forcing a rape victim to carry that fetus could be? Not everyone woman can carry a fetus created from rape and if she cannot handle it then she should not be forced to. That rape victim should not be forced to become an incubator and carry a fetus she does not want and cannot handle to carry. No woman, regardless of how that fetus was created, should be forced to carry a fetus they do not want. I am asking a sincere question when I ask you, did you even consider how forcing a rape victim to carry such a painful reminder could damage and destroy them mentally and emotionally? Do you even care about forcing a woman to carry a fetus would effect her, regardless of whether she was raped or not? Rape victims have been tortured enough, do we really need to make it worse for them by forcing them to carry a fetus their mental state may not be able to handle?

Abortion is not an easy thing for people to go through with. It's not like majority of women find out they're pregnant and happily go have an abortion. It's something that many people put a lot of thought into and have to gain a lot of courage to actually. These women already deal with enough, the last thing they need is someone making them worse by making them feel like a murderer when they killed nothing. For me, I am pro-choice. To me, a fetus is not a life but a potential life. To me, it's a potential life until it's born, then it's a life.

I thought this was well-written, but I found it far too biased. There wasn't really any balance, for example, opposing points of view.

And there are a few issues I feel I should address, if I may.

"What if that baby was going to grow up to be a doctor who saved thousands of lives? Or a scientist who found the cure to cancer or AIDS?"

I think this argument is flawed, because you could just as easily say "What if that baby was going to become the next Stalin or Pol Pot?" Postulating what the baby "could grow up to be" isn't valid.

"Is it that babies fault that it was conceived? Should an innocent baby be murdered because of someone else's crime? The answer is NO. If that child reminds you of the pain you went through, there is always adoption."

1) Abortion doesn't deal with babies, it deals with foetuses. Cells, basically.

2) Murder is when you kill a person with malice aforethought. Abortion isn't done out of malice.

3) Well yeah, there is adoption, but then there are also far too many children in the world who are up for adoption and don't get adopted. Many won't be given a loving home. Not to mention that the adoption process can take months, even years.

"If you wouldn't kill a mentally challenged person who is outside of the womb why would you kill a baby? That person still has a purpose in life."

Well firstly, mental illness isn't a reason for people to abort, seeing as it doesn't become apparent until after birth. Secondly, mentally ill people who are out of the womb have nervous systems, feelings, emotions. Foetuses don't. (That is of course depending on the abortion happening within the legal time period.)

What about if the woman's health is endangered?

Not many people would have the courage to write this because they know they'll be criticized. I think abortion is very wrong. As soon as the baby is conceived, it is a living human being. If you kill it, since it is a living person, your murdering it. Period. Abortion is murder. Think if all the children that were aborted. Millions and millions. Think if all the wonderful people, doctors, teaachers, and scientists we've lost. One if those poor, unwanted children could have found the cure for cancer. But we'll never know now, will we?

So has Rick Santorum invaded Mibba now? Great.