Abortion: Right or Wrong?

[Martin]

I do respect and sympathise with the other side of the argument. I fully appreciate a lot of what they're saying, I just don't agree with it. I don't like the use of the word 'murder', as it's far from that, but I think countering it with things like 'is shedding skin murder' is slightly dishonest. While it's true that until a certain point in the development that an embryo/foetus is effectively just a group of cells, not any different from cancer, the skin cells/cancer cells/whatever aren't in the process of becoming a new human life. While I do appreciate what the argument about protecting a life is saying, like I said at the start of the topic, the wants and needs of the person who is already alive must come first.

One thing I don't like in this topic from the anti-abortion side is the way they, to me at least, seem to be painting an image that outside every abortion clinic in the country there's a big winding queue of women coldly lining up to pop in, erase a drunken mistake and swiftly forget about it. That's not what it's like at all. Having never been a pregnant woman contemplating an abortion, I can only imagine it's a very difficult decision to make and something that's hard to live with afterwards, no matter what they decide to go ahead with the abortion or not.

 

[Meat Pie]

I'm sorry to go off topic here, but I feel it important that I express this.

I may not agree with a number of views that have been posted, but I commend anyone who has stood up and spoke their mind in this topic. Its a brave thing to do, whether you come from the pro-choice or pro-life camp.

I think there have been some very divisive comments trying to dismiss people's views because they are male. I don't care what gender, race, sexuality, or whatever background you come from. You may have fundamental disagreements with someone's opinion but it still deserves to be voiced. Whether your opinion is that this is a morality issue for society, or whether you feel its an issue of the right for women to make their own decision, you must have the opportunity to speak without having your opinion denigrated because of your genetics.

That is not on.

 

[Lottie.]

I'm neither pro-life or pro-choice, simply because I look at both sides of an 'argument' and see pros and cons, like most things in life. I never take sides, simply because I don't want to.

In this case, I don't agree with pro-lifers protesting outside clinics, making vulnerable women feel even more vulnerable than they already are. Then again I don't agree pro-choicers because the question I think is, does having abortion allow women (and men, as it takes two to make a baby and have sex!) to be 'slightly' reckless when it comes to sex such as not using contraception because they can't be arsed. Note I use slightly as I'm not trying to say all women are like this, just some.

I have experienced a friend going through an abortion last year, and it was very traumatic for her (I won't go into any more details.) I do agree that it should be the women's choice when it comes to abortion, but if you are in a relationship, then the partner has a say too. I don't think the woman should have the entire say into having an abortion, they should have at least 80/90% of the decision, with the rest for the guy. Now when it comes to becoming pregnant through 'rape', I think the women should 100% make the decision, because she did not put herself in that position, therefore becoming pregnant is the last thing she wants!

I try to look at both sides of the argument, but I cannot say I am a pro-lifer or a pro-choicer.

 

[Jordan]

Whilst this is a very interesting (and lively) debate, it is unfortunately not an issue on which I can weigh in my opinion. However, from a macro-perspective, I'd like to point out that there's an intriguing hypothesis from John Donohue and Steven Levitt about the impact of legalised abortion on crime on society.

It's worth a read - the general gist of it suggests that the crime rate is lower in areas where abortion is both legal and freely available to women, based on studies of legalisation across several states in the USA. Their argument is that abortion can lead to fewer "unwanted" children, who often would have otherwise grown up with divorced parents, in foster homes, or in significant levels of poverty, and would be more likely to become involved with crime from their teenage years.

 

[Pixie-Ro]

Hmmm...have just stumbled across this hugely emotive discussion.

Personally I am pro-choice, although I am strongly against abortion being used as a form of contraception, which is sadly becoming the case more and more often these days. As a woman (and I think somebody has already mentioned this) I always felt that if i didn't want a baby, then I had to be responsible for that, as a man can walk away at any time, but is is the woman who is ultimately left with the responsibility of baring and raising that child. If you don't want a baby - whether you're male or female - it is your responsibility to make sure conception does not occur. sorry if I'm not being particularly coherant, I'm finding it difficult to put my feelings into words.

One thing that has upset met throughout this topic is the constant talk of an early pregnancy being nothing more than a 'collection of cells'. I sincerely hope that none of you or your partners ever suffer an early miscarriage, and someone says to you 'Ah well, don't worry about it, that beating heart you saw on the scan? Those hopes and dreams of your future? It was only a collections of cells'.