A couple of thoughts on abortion

[mousme]

This has cropped up a number of times on my flist of late, which isn't all that surprising, considering my friends.

I don't know if it'll surprise many people on here if I say that, fundamentally, I don't believe that abortion is right. Maybe it will surprise people. It won't surprise those who know me well. I am the product of someone's choice not to abort, so I feel rather strongly on the topic, to say the least.

That being said, until there are safe, viable alternatives to abortion, I will remain pro-choice.

When there is a clear and present danger to the mother's health, I am all in favour of terminating a pregnancy in a safe, medical procedure that is authorized by law. Until dangerous pregnancies are a thing of the past, I will remain pro-choice.

Until everyone who doesn't want a child is given access to birth control and other safe-sex products, I will remain pro-choice.

Until little girls are no longer raped, I will remain pro-choice.

Until such a time as women are no longer abused and raped by men they thought they could trust, I will remain pro-choice.

Until such a time as abortion remains the *only* resort for some unhappy, desperate women, I will remain pro-choice.

Until such a time as women are entirely in control of their own fertility, I will remain pro-choice.




I am not anti-life. I am pro-choice. There is a difference.


:::ETA:::

I am leaving comments open for now. Everyone is welcome to their opinion, and to discuss in a sane, rational, and respectful manner. Most of you don't need to be told to remain civilized, but this is a sensitive topic, so if you get upset, keep your hands away from your keyboard. Close friend or online acquaintance, if you insult or otherwise flame someone on this LJ, I will ban your ass faster than you can say "Bob's your mother's brother." Capito?

Comments

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what you're saying, sorry. To me it sounds as though we're saying the same thing, that abortion is indeed called for in certain cases. Did I misunderstand your point?

[fruity-spikey.livejournal.com]

don't you ever have that feeling and question going on in your head : "where do I really come from ?", "Why was I born ? I never asked for it ?" . Do you even want to know ? Have you got the need to seek for your biological mother ?

I know someone 70ish seeking for her mother , it could be by grand-mother who abandonned her back in 1937. It just appeared in my mother's life last week, a woman looking for the descendants of our genealogy tree. An adopted person seems to seek their origins at some point or the other. This very person though waited tohave her adoptive mother to die to start doing the research. There is grief somewhere when you get adopted, I have a couple of friends and they resent their adoptive parents. Is it the case with you ?

Adoption for me would be for children you lost their parents in dramatic cases like car accidents or so. I don't see adoption as an alternative for abortion at all. Someone who aborts because they can't be bothered with condoms should be shot ! Someone who has no idea that even once , sperm and egg can be fertilized, should be MORE educated ! In France we can't adopt French children bceause they are not that many, children "abandonned" are rare, it's more a case of irresponsible mothers, teen age mothers and so. Adopted children usually are being put in foster homes or orphanages where the mother can still keep contact (a card is enough, which i find it very cruel). Law in France as regards adoption should change because it is creating hurt, angry children for the rest of their lives. The adopted children i know are now adults and they were clearly abandonned, they retain a grief inside them, an anxiety for the future and tend to be very fusionnal with people. I wished in anideal world that adoption did not even exist for when you have a child developping in you, you create a bond that's for life and you keep that child because he/she is part of your flesh.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

You and I have very different experiences of adoption, it would seem.

I grew up in a warm, loving home, with two parents who wanted me very much. It made me feel all the more secure to know that there were two people, a couple, who had gone out of their way to get me. I knew I was wanted. I knew that there was no chance of my being an accident.

I knew a few other adopted children when I was growing up, and none of them seemed to feel this anxiety and hurt and anger that you're describing.

The way my mother explained it to me when I was little, so that I would understand, was that my biological parents couldn't keep me, that they understood that they weren't in a good position to raise a baby and then a child, and so they made the ultimate sacrifice by giving me to people who would love me and treat me well.

I've often wondered about my biological parents, but only in a vague, off-handed way. When people used to ask me about my "real" parents, I would smile and ask if they wanted to meet them, as they'd be picking me up right after school. :)

People don't ask about my "real" parents anymore. I know who my "real" parents are, and they're not the ones who technically gave me life.

And adopted children, by definition, don't go into foster homes. They are adopted into a new family. There are many, many foster children who stay in the system for years, and that's where the system fails them, because they have no stability, no security, and no continuous source of love and support.

It's also much harder for children who were adopted late, and were bounced around from foster home to foster home before being adopted. I was adopted when I was four months old, and being very young makes it a lot easier. I have never known anywhere but the home my parents provided for me.

[fruity-spikey.livejournal.com]

this is a lovely story and thank you for sharing it. Like you say i have only sad stories of adopted children. Yours is a success !