Re: RE: Cross-Border Abortion
I absolutely agree with your last statement, Rev. It is child abuse of the highest order.
I, too, get enraged and frustrated with those adults who don't use birth control. Kids it's a bit different. They don't understand the far reaching consequences of their actions. They cannot be expected to make good choices when hormones are raging and the delight of all this new physical stuff is overwhelming. Shit does happen when you're a kid. It's supposed to! That's how we gain experience. I just hate seeing a kid's life impacted forever by bad choices.
I don't see abortion as a form of birth control. I maintain that there need to be laws in place. Any woman who has more than two abortions needs to be sterilized. Nazi approach, perhaps, but if a woman can't be trusted to take care of her reproductive organs, she ought to lose the privilege. Now that's probably opened a big can of worms!
I also think pregnancy is a woman's issue, not a man's. It is us who makes the decisions about our bodies. I'm not talking about nuclear family units who either plan babies or "ooops" one and deal with that, I'm talking about single women who accidentally get pregnant. It happens.
I was married a zillion years ago. I missed my monthly and when I checked my birth control pills, I discovered they were outdated. Can you say panic attack??? I called the doctor, the lawyer, the fire department ... basically freaked out. Turned out it was a false alarm, but having a baby at that point in my life (I was 19) would have been the worst thing that could ever have happened to me.
I was already an accomplished alcoholic with an enormous chip on my shoulder and a self-centred bent. Not exactly the right material for motherhood. I would have kept the child for exactly the same reason I got married ... I would have thought I was supposed to. I'd probably be famous today as the mother of a serial killer! I wasn't fit to raise vipers, never mind babies.
I'm pretty much the opposite end of the maternal scale from you, Manda. I mostly don't like kids. I'm too self centred and aware enough of my shortcomings not to have cursed any kids to growing up under my tutelage. Abortion would certainly have been the smart choice for me back then. Having been in that position through no carelessness of my own, I understand how it can happen and why some women should not give birth. It also made me realize that the issue was mine, not my husband's. He would disagree, I'm sure.
I find this an interesting topic. As long as people stay away from the bible beating rhetoric, I enjoy hearing differing opinions. There's certainly no pat answer to the problem, though.
Reverend Blair said:
I absolutely agree with your last statement, Rev. It is child abuse of the highest order.
I, too, get enraged and frustrated with those adults who don't use birth control. Kids it's a bit different. They don't understand the far reaching consequences of their actions. They cannot be expected to make good choices when hormones are raging and the delight of all this new physical stuff is overwhelming. Shit does happen when you're a kid. It's supposed to! That's how we gain experience. I just hate seeing a kid's life impacted forever by bad choices.
I don't see abortion as a form of birth control. I maintain that there need to be laws in place. Any woman who has more than two abortions needs to be sterilized. Nazi approach, perhaps, but if a woman can't be trusted to take care of her reproductive organs, she ought to lose the privilege. Now that's probably opened a big can of worms!
I also think pregnancy is a woman's issue, not a man's. It is us who makes the decisions about our bodies. I'm not talking about nuclear family units who either plan babies or "ooops" one and deal with that, I'm talking about single women who accidentally get pregnant. It happens.
I was married a zillion years ago. I missed my monthly and when I checked my birth control pills, I discovered they were outdated. Can you say panic attack??? I called the doctor, the lawyer, the fire department ... basically freaked out. Turned out it was a false alarm, but having a baby at that point in my life (I was 19) would have been the worst thing that could ever have happened to me.
I was already an accomplished alcoholic with an enormous chip on my shoulder and a self-centred bent. Not exactly the right material for motherhood. I would have kept the child for exactly the same reason I got married ... I would have thought I was supposed to. I'd probably be famous today as the mother of a serial killer! I wasn't fit to raise vipers, never mind babies.
I'm pretty much the opposite end of the maternal scale from you, Manda. I mostly don't like kids. I'm too self centred and aware enough of my shortcomings not to have cursed any kids to growing up under my tutelage. Abortion would certainly have been the smart choice for me back then. Having been in that position through no carelessness of my own, I understand how it can happen and why some women should not give birth. It also made me realize that the issue was mine, not my husband's. He would disagree, I'm sure.
I find this an interesting topic. As long as people stay away from the bible beating rhetoric, I enjoy hearing differing opinions. There's certainly no pat answer to the problem, though.
