@ cold.little.crime
It's all well and good to state that you find out that you're pregnant when they're 6 weeks, and even to mention the limit of 24 weeks, but here's the fact that means that a limit that long doesn't matter.
Over 90% of abortions happen before 12 weeks. At that point the fetus is around the size of a turnip.
On top of that, your experience in Great Britain is going to be vastly different than the people whose experiences are mostly happening in America (although probably not enough to change the fact that most abortions are before 12 weeks), and that needs to be addressed. In Great Britain/UK, there is a much wider availability for medical services in general.
In America, abortion rights are being eroded. In many states, there's literally only one abortion clinic that a woman can go to maybe in her entire state. And when she gets to those abortion places, they might not be a Planned Parenthood one (which does way more than abortions, but is still the best place to go for one), and not only might the non-PP place force the woman to stare at an ultrasound, not only may the place shame her her potential decision (sometimes even before finding out if she's even looking for an abortion), but they then tell her that she can't get one for another 24 hours.
That woman might have had to road trip just to get there and now she has to pay for a hotel room just to go through with an already trying decision. She then has to spend probably a minimum of 500 dollars for the abortion because even though it's a medical service, none of it is covered by insurance. None of it.
It is not killing a child. It is giving a woman a choice and control over her life. It is trusting a woman with the autonomy to make the decision that is best for her existence. You don't have to like abortion. You don't have to ever want an abortion, but you I deeply implore you to realize that for many women, it is the best choice for them to make.
I've pointed this out before, but I'll point it out to you now. I've had trouble with suicidal tendencies in the past. I've attempted suicide three times in my life and that is enough for good, cautious doctors to refuse to prescribe me quite a few medications because it might exacerbate my condition and lead to me killing myself. Pregnancy can do that same thing, and if I kill myself while pregnant because I can't get an abortion, then that fetus isn't going to live.
Also, just another comment: you say you'd never say these things to a woman going through this, but what you're actually demonstrating is that you won't say this to a woman who comes out and says she's going through with it. Most women don't tell other people that they have done this or that they are doing this because of public stigma, especially comments from people going, 'it's killing a child', because what that person hears, whether you mean for them to hear it or not, is 'you're a murderer'.
And then we get into the issue of what exactly you want done about abortion. Do you want it eliminated entirely? If so, how do you think we should enforce it? Would you allow for any exceptions? Do you think we should put already desperate women in prison for attempting or succeeding with an abortion? Do you want women to be forced to go through with a pregnancy? If so, how would that happen?
What would happen with all the now born children that are in the world? I'm asking that since, in America at least (I don't know Britain's situation), thousands of children age out of the system never having been adopted whatsoever. Children that are never adopted and end up going through the foster system in America have a higher chance of, although it's nowhere near a guarantee, of getting in trouble with the law or having a pregnancy of their own.
I mean no disrespect with my questions and honestly, if life were simple, then your stance would just simply be an honorable and good stance. You want to protect life and I get that, but I can't in good conscience agree with you when I know that we're not just talking about the life of the unborn that's at stake. We're also talking about the mother and pro-life people, in my experience (although I don't know how you feel about it), tend to view the woman as almost unimportant in the situation. At the bare minimum, that is how women who are struggling with the decision to keep or abort a pregnancy end up feeling, that the people that are pro-life don't care about their lives at all. Maybe they're wrong, but it is a very real feeling.
February 7th, 2016 at 06:15pm