The Views of Abortion - Comments

@harlequin.girl: I totally agree. I don't have a vendetta or anything against adoption, I actually want to adopt in the future, but I just hate when people say "well just throw them in an orphanage". There are enough orphans as it is and you never know how that will effect a child. My aunt adopted a child from Russia over 10 years ago and he still has seperation anxiety. Obviously this isn't the case with everyone but it's the same thing as with abortion. You don't really know how a person is feeling about their situation and you should let them make their own choices.

Also, I don't think all people having abortions are awful. Accidents happen. Yeah, there are some idiots out there that should really get their knees fused together, but their are also people who are victims of rape or incest crimes and people who are being careful but just had an accident.

I'm glad that you at least responded in a concise and intelligent way. Nothing against you but you wouldn't believe the things people say to me just because I have a differing opinion :) Thanks for responding.

@JennyLynn2012 I found a lot of the wording in your comment to be quite condescending: "this little thing called the Declaration of Independence"; "any woman was ignorant enough to have sex..."; "punishing the child for your mistakes." You argued a really over-simplified version of the issues. First off, you assert that the Declaration of Independence never clarified when a baby has the right to be classified as "life." Well, the Declaration of Independence declared the US separate from GB. The document that dictates are the US government and its practices would be our constitution and while our constitution does not specify what constitutes as life, during the 1960's the Supreme Court rules that in the penumbras of the bill of rights a "right to privacy" can be inferred. This lead to the legalization of bill control and set legal precedent that, in the court case Roe v Wade, made abortion a woman's private, legal right to choose. Also, one of the biggest disagreements in the prolife/prochoice debacle is that conservatives say there is life as soon as an egg is fertilized and liberals argue that, legally, life begins as soon as a fetus can survive outside of the womb. Before a fetus can survive without the mother's nourishment and shelter, that fetus is an extension of the mother's body (in my eyes). There is quite a big difference between a fetus and a baby. Lastly, I'd like to get to the whole rape thing. While the number of women whose rape results in pregnancy is tiny, this is still an issue. No woman should have to carry her rapist's child. A woman who can is unbelievably strong and resilient and should be praised but that doesn't make her any better than the woman (the victim) who simply can't live with her attack's offspring growing inside of her. You cannot just say "oh abortion is wrong. if you were stupid enough to get pregnant you need to live with your mistakes" because that is as very, very oversimplified version of a much larger issue.

@Alex; periphery. I couldn't agree with you more.

@itsKatastrophe. I agree with nearly everything you said. Your arguments were concise and backed up really well and as I was reading I was nodding along to nearly every point you made. However, the things about adoption I don't really agree with. There are some incredible people out there who would do anything to be parents by for whatever reason - fertility issues or maybe because its a same-sex couple - are unable to produce offspring of their own. If there is someone out there who knows she would be unfit to parent a child, giving up that baby is the most incredible gift you could ever give - to the baby and to the potential adoptive parents. While you argue that you'll never truly know where the child will end up, the cases in which people go through years of struggle to adopt a child to raise only to abuse said baby are much more rare than cases in which biological parents treat their children poorly and probably never should have had that baby in the first place. It is terrible what happened to your friend and, because of that knowledge, you probably have a personal response to the topic but its unfair to cancel out adoption when there are so many brilliant people who would make excellent parents but can't and so many awful people who keep popping out babies that they really shouldn't.

I have always been and always will be pro-choice. I don't see it as "oh, now all the girls who accidently got knocked-up can go make a pit stop @ the clinic while they're out getting their groceries". I see it as a way for girls and women who, regardless of whether they're responsible, irresponsible, or the victims of a crime, can make a decision regarding their own bodies and their own futures. Obviously there needs to be restrictions and regulations put on abortion so that one woman can't get 6 or 7 abortions, or decided a month before her due date that she doesn't want a kid anymore. But the way I see it, there will always be someone in some back alley who will do it for you, and I'd rather know that women are safely getting abortions instead or risking their health and lives to get one.

One reason I'm pro-choice is because I've never seen a fetus as a baby, b/c it isn't one. If it was a baby it would be able to survive outside of the womb without help as far as preforming nature body functions like breathing, temperature maintenance, etc. Obviously a baby can’t sustain itself when it comes to food and protection, but at the very least it can breathe.

I don't think I could ever put a child up for adoption. You have absolutely no idea where they'll end up and even if you would have been a struggling mother, they could still end up somewhere much worse. I have a very close friend who was adopted from the Ukraine and it wasn’t until we went to college that she told me about how abusive her parents were since she was about 12.

As far as child of rape goes,I think it should absolutely be up to the mother whether or not she wants to carry the child. There have been numerous studies about the effects on women who carry children whom are the product of rape. To be short, the effects are not good, even when they are carrying the child. Women experience anxiety, PTSD, and depression to name a few things and when they actually give birth the feelings of having no control over bodies can be extremely overwhelming that they can experience nervous breakdowns. Even though childbirth is painful, it should be a joyous experience for the mother to be, not a horrible one.

Also, I don't think that girls and women who aren't ready for kids shouldn't have sex. I don't want kids period, does that mean I'm not allowed to have sex partners? You can be as careful as you want to be to prevent pregnancies but short of having no uterus, there is always a chance that you can get pregnant.

I know a few people who say that it isn't right to abort children who test positive for mental challeges or illness and I do agree to some extent. Just because a child may have mental illness doesn't mean they can't have a good life. However, I think that if you have a child who tests positive for cystic fibrosis or a type of cancer, that at the very least mothers-to-be should be provided with a genetic conselor so that they can fully understand what they're child and family will be facing and then make an informed decision about it.

P.S. @ Careless Whispers, if you don't have faith in science then I guess you don't use computers or any electronics, you don't have a car or any vehicle, you grow all your own food and you never go to the doctor or at least don't take his advice. There are some things that you can debate until the end of the world, facts are facts regardless of whether or not you like them or believe them.

The Catholic Church is a dunce caption IMHO. How is it such a grave evil to stop a rape victim from turning into an absentee mother or creating another malnourished orphan? What? Did god tell them that abortion is illegal? That it's unethical? Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. THIS IS ALL INTERPRETATION. The word "abort" is not in the Bible. Repeat. Abort the mision. Kill the seedling if it's not alive yet. It's moral and we can't infringe on the mother's rights. Every situation is unique. Some call for abortion.

Here's what I think: It's not up to you, it's up to the person who is in the situation. They'll make the decision, whether you think it's right or wrong. Nobody wants something to be decided for them, especially if it can affect the rest of their life.

Basically, butt out of other people's lives and don't lecture them for their own choices.

@ itsy bitsy spider.

Touche.

I have virtually no faith in "science", though, so to me half of those "facts" aren't relevant in my personal opinion.

@Careless Whisper.

It's scientifically incorrect that a fetus is the same thing is a baby. That's fact, not opinion. If you can look it up and prove it, then it's not an opinion.
And it is normal for someone to view their opinion as a fact. But an opinion cannot be fact, because they're two different things--and that's a fact. You can look and prove that.

@everyone who wanted sources.

I am sure I could find more but at least I was able to find one.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=16413693

And @itsy bitsy spider: it's perfectly normal for someone to view their opinion as fact. Like you saying that a fetus isn't a baby. That's your opinion. I would happen to strongly disagree.

Just sayin'.

I'm not 100% pleased with the use of wikipedia for a source of any definition, although I will point out that if you want there to be a choice for anyone, you are just flat out pro-choice. Being pro-choice doesn't mean that you're thrilled with abortion or that you want one for yourself. It simply means you want there to be an option for people. Pro-life means you don't want that option for anyone.

Where are you getting the statistics that pro-choice is going down in favor? You don't have a single reputable source in your article. I also wonder about what your point in the entire thing is. Congratulations, you sort of defined the difference between pro-life and pro-choice, which could have been answered with about a minute with google. What was the driving point of the article? To just inform people that there are two sides in a widely publicized debate? Your grammar was fine, your structure was fine, but your article failed to answer, as one of my teachers always drilled into me, the 'so what?' part of your article.

You're very young and I'm thrilled that you want to be involved and that you care about something, but it takes more than being passionate in order to really be taken seriously. Researched articles? Are they peer reviewed? How old are they? Where are they? Also, bringing up abortion at all is like lighting dry brush on fire in the middle of the forest. You can burn the entire place down if you're not careful, so don't walk into this debate with nothing more than three definitions and mysterious articles that you can't place, and an article that seems to have no point, because you're going to get burned. Your article, as it stands, feels like a partially finished, but very long, intro to an actual argument or article than an actual argument or article by itself.

@ Livelaughlove1221

Everything is a personal choice. Any choice you make about aborting the fetus (a fetus, not a child) or keeping it is a personal choice. And you're acting like you're absolutely right and it's a fact. It's your opinion, not a fact, and everyone has a different opinion, so it does matter how you view it.

I'm pro-life. It's not only because of my religious views but because you are killing a child. It doesn't matter if the child is unborn, it's murder. Even if someone is raped (which is a horrible, horrible thing) it's not the child's fault, so therefore the baby should not be killed.

Killing a baby is the same thing as killing a person, it's murder, and it is wrong. The only time abortion is okay is if there is a choice between the mother or the child dying. Then, that's a personal choice.

But abortion is WRONG. No matter how you tell it, no matter how you view it, abortion is sinful and WRONG. I hope this will get through to some people.

I'm 100% pro-life. I believe abortion is murder. There is no changing my beliefs on that; it's ending a human life, whether or not someone wants to call said life a "parasite" (a statement I find absolutely appalling).

I've also heard that pro-choice is on the decline and that recently a few abortion centers have been shut down for that reason. (If I get around to it, I'll find my sources and post them here.)

Nice article, though. Very well written.

@JennyLynn2012

Please, stop posting all these comments. This is your fifth comment, and a few of the other ones were just replying to what other people said. This is not a forum; you can quote, post, argue, all that on the forum. Just please--I want to hear from new people. This is an article.

If a woman isn't ready to have kid. Than don't have sex. Simple as that.

It's your body, do whatever you want. As long as you're not just using as it as birth control because you were being irresponsible by not even trying to use protection, I think it's fine. I agree with InsaneArtist. What if you're raped? Do you really want to have to live with something that's also a part of something that traumatized you? Or what if you were being careful but sometimes it still doesn't work out for you? Plus the foster care system is horrible, I don't think it's healthy mentally to have a child go place to place like how they usually do or be in group homes. It's just a government thing, not really morals.

Just trolling through since I've commented...

The adoption argument is just as invalid as the the fetus wants to be born argument. There are SO MANY kids in foster care services and so many kids who never get adopted... And if you're aborted, the whole idea that you want to live...you're not conscious to even make that de--... I can't even.

Whatever. I stand by my original statement. I just can't stand the adoption argument. And the idea that if someone is "irresponsible enough to get pregnant" OMG. What if you're raped? What if you're on BC AND your condom broke and you're that 2% who gets pregnant even though you were careful?

Scenarios don't matter. The freedom to choice matters.

I am pro choice. I believe it is completely the woman's choice. But, I believe if she is having multiple abortions, that is a bit wrong. I know of someone who has sex, ends up pregnant, gets an abortion and a few months later it happens all over again. That's not right.
If the woman has had drug problems, knows the child will end up with defects, was raped, or truly can not take care of the child in the position she is in, then it should be acceptable. And, if by some reason abortion does become illegal, the option for it after a rape or for a druggie, I think, should still be there.

Why would someone who was irresponsible enough to get pregnant in the first place be a responsible parent/fetus carrier? that logic always fails to escape me.