Better Prevention or Changing Attitudes?

Hey, lconcepcion , get your facts straight....the IUD doesn't kill babies, it prevents pregnancies from ever happening. IUD's come in two varieties in the US. One time releases hormone into a women's system (Mirena) and prevents pregnancy much the same way that the pill does, and the other (ParaGuard) has copper on it, and the copper has spermicidal properties. Either the hormone or copper, combined with the actual device, which is thought to prevent implantation, prevents a women from ever getting pregnant, so don't go calling someone a murderer for being smart enough to take preventative measures. As far as why there is a decrease, it is probably a combination of all the factors, limited access to abortion services, better access to preventative measures (birth control, morning after pill). That being said, at the end of the day, even the most careful of us can end up in this predicament. Birth control fails, even with vasectomies and tubal ligations folks still get surprises, it's not because they were irresponsible. It's good to know that I have options, even if I may never use them. Who are you to condemn someone else for the very personal choices they make?

Abortion is not even about life or death. Abortion is about not having to deal with the consequences of a choice. Every man and woman has the right to choose whether or not to have sex. Most of them know or should know how babies are made. To have sex or not to have sex is where the choice is made. If a child is concieved, abortion is where the couple or just the women get to decide if they want to deal with the consequences of thier indescretion or go about thier merry lives. Abortion is another item in a long list of topics where people do not want to take personal responsibilty for thier actions - both men and women. For Doctors dollar signs drive thier desicion to perform or not perform an abortion. And statistically speaking, very few abortions are peformed because a woman was raped (5% or so). For those of use who are pro-life, we need to step up to the plate to save the babies that women and men do not want to deal with by taking them into our homes. If we are unwilling to do this, we really do not have a leg to stand on or a voice to speak with.

I find this article to be very unbalanced. The author doesn't explore the idea that the drop in abortions might be because of moral consciousness until the second to last paragraph and then instantly refutes it in the last. I'm tired of the liberal media making their ideals seem so right and the norm and those who have conservative ideals to be back-woods weirdoes.

All of this rationalizion on why abortion should be condoned, makes me sick with our society. How ignorant cruel, and selfish.! What would you think if babies were being murdered once they were born at an institution? There is no difference, it's a baby and a living human being inside the womb, as well as, outside the womb.. How can you possibly think this is morale, when it has been recorded that these precious, innocent babies try to excape the tool that will be murdering them.
More women then not have had severe mental problems and depression after having an abortion. I can actually attest to this first hand, since my mother had at least three.
This is not a natural act.

its not hard to find pictures of abortions on the internet.. all you have to do is google fetus images and there's plenty of pictures of tiny bodies w/little fingers and toes and little noses...all cut up and put back together on a table so the dr can be sure he got all of it... like a morbid jigsaw puzzle........ they arent little blobs.. they are little tiny people... my unborn daughter shifts around and if i push on a spot she pushes back.. if i tickle i feel her little tiny fingers on the other side doing the same... she's a person.......

I had an abortion when I was 17 because I was to afraid to tell my parents and the other reason my very controlling boyfriend. If I could turn back the hands of time I know I would go back to that day and change what I did. However, I know I can not make that happen. Therefore, I suffer greatly from depression because of the procedure I had performed. I torture myself enough with guilt. I really do believe I ought to be behind bars for what I did to my unborn child. With that said, my plea is to every woman who is faced with an unwanted pregnancy to seek other options in the long run your mental health depends on it.

Addendum to my previous comment:
It seems obvious that passive methods would be preferable, that the cumulative effect of two generations of men and women with access to accurate abstinence and birth control information and the current generation's increased risk of Death by Sexually transmitted disease would have a cumulative effect of reducing unwanted pregnancies from the start. With less invasive methods of abortion available as well, well that kind of takes care of much of the rest. The idea of older mothers keeping pregnancies that might have been aborted a generation ago is also no mystrery. I was a vocal advocate at the dawn of the current women's rights movement in the 1960's and that first generation of liberated woman burst into freedom -- sexual, reproductive, adn employement freedom with a mission and a pent up bundle of needs. A much larger number felt the "need" as part of the "cause" to defer or omit childbearing from thier lives in order to fully explore the "new freedoms" before them. the succeeding generations women have gradually matured and are living in a world in which it's much easier to take these hard-won freedoms for granted, as we all do. This results in a populace in which exstablishing a career, then rearing children at a much older age than previously and perhaps retruning to the profession is an accepted part of life. Hence fewer abortions among older women. The risk of childbearing has also been reduced through better support for nutrition and advanced screening for genetic problems prior to conception. Put all of these together in any proportion you want. They all played a part and none of them militates particularly strongly toward any single political view. It appears to be nothing more than a healthy maturation of society. IMHO

Abortion is murder! I believe more women are beginning to realize this. I know I have talked to my daughter numerous times about sex and abortion and she understands it completely, especially since there are people we know that have had numerous abortions and still have kids. Education and the abolishment of abortion is the best answer.

mlajoiez-

I do understand the psychological aspect of your post, as far as the whole "how would you not be scarred considering that mothers should be bonded with their babies, physiologically and psychologically speaking. However, that is what differentiates a human from other animals.

Humans possess deductive reasoning. We know that our offspring are not the same as an animals. Our offspring require constant care and financial support. They are time consuming, can have a plethora of problems including but not limited to health and mental abilities. Animals don't have jobs- they don't have daily stress, they don't have a social view to contend with- basically, there are no repercussions for an animal giving birth. They can devote all of their time and energy to their offspring. Now, in a perfect world, it would be great if we as humans could do that as well. But we can't. Now mind you, I'm not saying that any of these reasons make it morally "right" for those of you who believe it to be morally "wrong", I'm just saying, those are outside influences that affect a woman's decision to terminate.

For many women, of course it is scarring. Honestly, I've never had an abortion. I'm just happy that I do have the choice if it were needed by me. I know abortion is ugly. So is war. So is starvation. So are school and mall shootings. Honestly, so is the meat industry.

But that doesn't make it any less of a reality.

Again, perfect solutions do not exist for imperfect problems. And to those who say that not having sex is an option, then good for you- don't have sex. Because someone can't afford another child- or who already has two and is working two jobs, or whatever someone's reason may be to terminate- is not a reason for them not to have sex. (Just so you all know, married women obtain 1 in 4 abortions. They aren't all careless teenagers or undereducated individuals.)

It's not the perfect solution, I admit. But it IS necessary.

This is a good trend, Thank God!!!

I have had an abortion. It is the most traumatic thing I have ever gone through. It is horrific. Women keep silent about it because they are ashamed. They really don't want to tell those who are thinking about it not to do it because of the shame. It was not only tramatic to my body, but I have never fully gotten over it. I did it when I was 18 and as a result almost have not been able to have chlidren later. I regret it. Don't do it...it messes with your body and your mind forever.

SEDONA4, you are so right. I don't consider myself particularly religious either, and when I was younger, I also parroted liberal political thought on abortion, much like LAMULLEN is doing now. But then I was confronted with my own un-intended (can't call it un-wanted) pregnancy and made MY choice about MY body and MY uterus. And it's not until you see and feel that tiny little BABY that you realize that there is nothing else legally or morally or politically parallel to pregnancy--your body is literally shared with another life. Every single choice you make affects another human being's health, happiness, and existence. There is nothing else like it. Except maybe Siamese twins or something? What the pro-life movement should focus on more than "God's orders" or "what the Bible tells us" is giving a voice to the most innocent and defenseless among us--tiny babies. Not everyone who claims to be "pro-life" is a "religious right Bible-thumper," although we share the same goals--standing up to give rights to those tiny human lives and protect them from harm.

Talking about "easy access to abortion" makes it seem like such an everyday thing but it's not. I have dear friends and even family members who, sadly, chose abortions and found themselves saddled with a guilt they did not expect they would have in making THEIR choices about THEIR bodies and ending THEIR pregnancies. And now they live with a quiet pain and those who went on to later have trouble conceiving feel they are being punished in some way--ask those women if in their hearts they still feel like abortion should be every woman's right.

Posted By: ferrynheart @ 01/17/2008 11:35:12 AM
Comment: I believe abortion is murder, plain and simple. Aside from that, I also challenge the prevailing argument that abortion is OK because "women have the right to make choices concerning their body". Who are they kidding? We don't even legally have the right to put our bodies at risk by choosing not to wear a seat belt! We don't have the right to kill our bodies if we are suffering. The premise that we legally own our bodies and can do what we want with them is a lie. It is nothing more than an excuse to legally commit murder.
Give me a break........people drive without seatbelts all the time. Is it legal? No, but they do it anyway. People smoke and drink alcohol to excess, too. Is it legal, yes. Does it hurt? Yes, and more than the person who is doing the smoking and drinking, too. Abortion is a horrible thing to contemplate, but if God says this child will come into the world, the child will come into the world. And there is nothing we could do to prevent it. The child may come to another mother, but the child will come none the less.

Fair enough lamullen -- it is "leeching" off your body -- struggling for its own life, which you, exercising your CHOICE, created. And, you're right, "poof" it can be gone, because of your CHOICE. As a nurse, you could also give one of your more annoying patients the wrong medication and "poof" they could be gone too. Either way, ending a life is murder. It may be a socially-justifiable murder in your mind, but murder nonetheless.
Back when I was pro-choice, I thought, "It's not "murder". How mean. It's terminating a pregnancy. There's a difference." (I also thought it was sick that persons protesting at abortion clinics would hold up pictures of fetuses to make the poor pregnant women "feel bad". Now I realize, how else can they get through to a person what she is destroying? If she's so convinced it's not a life, why are the pictures frightening and sad?)
A fetus has the spark of life, of individualism, of what makes us all unique and different. If you choose to snuff out that spark, you are saying, "My life is more important than yours. My wants and my individuality is more important that you." I don't think anyone has the right to make that determination.
But isn't it interesting, none of us is going to know for sure while we're here on earth. I guess you'd better hope you're right and I'm wrong.