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

[alcinoe.livejournal.com]

but I've never seen stats on how frequent that really is

I don't know how one would even get stats on it. Even though I know of one woman who has had multiple abortions I still don't think that it is as common as some people seem to think. I have had an abortion and it was NOT an easy thing to go through, so my opinion is that it probably happens a lot less than some believe.

[luvenditti.livejournal.com]

I personally know two women (one who had 3 abortions, one who had 4 in the space of 2 years) who have because they don't LIKE condoms.

[alcinoe.livejournal.com]

That isn't a statistic though. It would depend on how many friends you were polling and what their motivation was in their answers. I know one woman and you know two. That doesn't mean that it is very common, just that we know these people exist.

[whiskeygirl8.livejournal.com]

I would doubt that many women think, "I don't need to use birth control because if I get pregnant, I can just have an abortion."

I would believe, though, that many abortions happen because of things like ignorance of birth control and/or how pregnancy happens (you would be amazed at how many people don't get the fundamentals) or "oh, just this one time won't hurt" or just being drunk and not thinking about birth control and other things similar. So, while it's not a conscious decision to forgo birth control during sex and use abortion after as an alternative, it is similar.

However, that said, I don't condemn those people as bad. Instead, I prefer that people be more educated (a LOT more educated) about sex, pregnancy and birth control. Although, I could write a whole post just on that, so I'll stop now.