mousme | A couple of thoughts on abortion

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?

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I think Forthright pretty much took the words out of my mouth with his first comment. I wholeheartedly agree with your position: I don't believe it is right but I will remain pro-choice. And there is a difference between pro-choice and anti-life.

Furthermore, in my case... despite the size of my stomach (for those who know me in person), I sure am not going to be caught dead telling any woman whether she should choose to yield the Strength and the Courage to carry a child during nine months unless she wants to. And any guy who can't understand that ought to be put through pregnancy and child labour and see how they cope with it!

Unfortunately, I am not convinced that we will ever be able to resolve this debate... for a long, long time. (And I consider myself an optimist.)

My mother told me that giving birth was not actually as painful as Western media would have you believe. She said it was a lot like a case of constipation. I remember her looking very scornful every time we saw women screaming in labour on TV....

Then your mother is a very lucky woman. It varies tremendously from individual to individual, from what I understand. I also have been told that women tend to "forget" just how painful labour was as a kind of psychological self-defense. If they remembered just how bad it was, they'd never want to have children again, after all. ;)

The woman giving birth in the room next to mine when Matthieu came into the world was yelling out for mercy and asking for it to stop, she was changing her mind, "Au secours, au secours" and the whole thing. Oh, my god, but it was embarrassing.

Thank modern medicine for epidurals.

I'm torn on this issue (the one about giving birth, not abortion). On the one hand, I do think that Western culture and the media tends to over-exaggerate the pain of normal labour (complicated labour is another matter entirely, and I have no doubt that it can be utterly excruciating), which complicates matters because most Western women's only experience of labour is through the media, and so they expect it to be the worst pain EVER, which makes them afraid, which makes the pain worse, as do the circumstances under which many women labour (in a strange environment, unable to move freely, without food, and often without emotional support). It's a vicious circle.

But the physical pain of a day or two of labour is, in my opinion, dwarfed by the physical demands of nine months of pregnancy, and both of those are again dwarfed by the mental/emotional/hormonal hardship on the mother before, during, and after the birth. I cannot imagine forcing someone to go through that process against their will, not simply because of the pain of giving birth, but because of the effect it has on your mind and your soul.

A couple of thoughts on abortion

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