Abortion: When is it right?

Question

I have read a bit on the subject of Abortion and the ethics their of. My problem with understanding the issue is this:

I understand the entire argumant of woman who believe it is their own body and may therefore decide what to do with it. I sympathize with those woman; rape, financial problems, and complications during pregnancy make their argumant very strong, but....

When those woman have an abortion it is not neccesarily their own body they are protecting, but the body of another they are harming. Even if that body may only be a few cells it will in time become a full grown human being with the same basic human right (the right to live).

So the real question then is when do we ascribe those rights onto a child still being carried within its mother

Answer 1

Abortion is acceptable to most people if it happens because of:

Rape/Incest
Baby will not survive after it is born
Mother's life is at risk if baby is born

I do believe that abortion should be legal, with the exception of late-term (this is currently how it is now.) I do NOT support abortion as a form of financial or birth control, as some use it for, and I would like to see children adopted instead, but I realize not everyone will be willing to do this, and may find other, less-satisfactory ways of aborting the baby.

Abortions now are regulated and licensed. If abortion were illegal, I do fear that back-alley abortions may start up again. And if one woman is forced to do this, instead of going into a clean facility with properly-licensed people, and ends up getting a disease or dying from a improperly-performed procedure, that's one too many.

Therefore I do believe that abortion be legal, safe and RARE.

Answer 2

I never believed in abortion until my 18 year old daughter was raped during her first year of college.

Thank goodness she turned out to not be pregnant and she never was faced with making such a heart wrenching decision on what she would have to do.

My daughter is the type of person that she would have taken responsibility for the unborn baby growing inside of her. That wasn't my top priority. My top priority was for my daughter. She had worked hard to get where she was in regards to furthering her education. Her future was bright and the world was hers for the taking. She could do whatever she wanted with that life but being tied down to a baby would certainly have limited her options. These were the thoughts that ran through my mind for the days immediately following the rape until we knew for sure. Had she been pregnant it would have been her decision and I would have supported her in whatever direction she would have chosen.

She herself was conceived out of wedlock and my parents tried to force me into getting an abortion and I couldn't. I had created her and I was going to take responsibility for her. Best decision I ever made. My viewpoint definitely changed when it was my daughter facing a similar decision. So I went from a staunch opponent to abortion to a reluctant proponent of abortion under certain circumstances. Unfair to the baby she may have been carrying? Perhaps. I don't think anyone can know for certain which way they would lean until they are faced with this circumstance and there isn't a right or wrong answer. There is only the answer each and everyone of us can live with after the fact.

Abortion is not a black and white issue. I don't support partial birth abortions by any means. Anyone who does is condoning murder, plain and simple. I also do not support abortion as a form of birth control. I know a woman who has ended at least 4 unwanted pregnancies and never gave it a second thought. On the other hand in the case of rape I think abortion in the first trimester is justified.

I do have a problem when a woman uses the excuse that she would have to carry the baby for a whole nine months to justify getting an abortion as if that is a lifetime to her. Nine months is *only* nine months and the only individual that those nine months really matters to is the baby she is carrying. If the woman has no intention of raising the child, have it and give it up for adoption. Not a hard decision and nine months goes by rather quickly.

As you can see, I still haven't totally come to terms with this issue. I am a Mom though and the daughter I gave birth to comes before anything.

Answer 3

You're not anti-abortion. Just as most people aren't anti-abortion. Everybody supports abortion to some degree, when it's for rape, incest, or the woman's life is in danger. Most women have abortions because birth control failed them or they don't have financial means to support it and they can't imagine themselves giving their children to adoption. It's a complicated issue but the thing is abortion is always going to happen. Whether it's legal or not. I think the fetus should have rights when it's viable outside the woman's womb. Probably around the 6-month where if it's born it could survive. I'm Pro-choice and I think rape, medical reasons, or the woman isn't ready are good reasons for abortion. I don't condone partial-birth abortion, though. I'm a firm believer that abortion should be done within the first trimester and not the third trimester. Most abortions happen around 6 weeks when it looks like a salamander and has no brainwaves.

Answer 4

A woman knows if its the right decision to make. What makes some people think that if the baby is born it will be healthy or well taken care of? It may not be especially if its unwanted already. you don't know of the circumstances or lifestyle of the mother who wants to have an abortion. She may believe that she is better off with out this responsibility and even doing her fetus and the world a favor by not delivering an unhealthy or possible drug addicted or deformed baby into this world. A mother knows if she is not going to be able to make that commitment. This unborn fetus may have been exposed to drugs or alcohol, or you name it from the mothers womb. The mother knows if she is not capable or mentally fit or psycological (bad spelling) pressure or that her body isn't healthy enough or stands a great risk of living in an enviorment where there is too much abuse and its not what the mother knows that her baby should be born into and she may be a victim suffering and powerless to help herself. Whatever the reasons she will have to live with her decision.

Answer 5

I only consider abortion to be acceptable when it's the result of rape or the baby is terminally ill and it would more cruel to let it live than not.

I don't support abortion when the woman was too careless to use protection, that's just being selfish coz you could always give the baby to a family who'd really want it, same with the women in financial problems, a condom doesn't cost much and keeping your legs closed it free, that's just a weak excuse to have an abortion coz they were too stupid.

Answer 6

That's just as tough of an issue. A lot depends on the society. My first inclination is to say when the baby can survive outside the womb, but I knew someone who gave birth after 6 months and it probably cost close to $1 million to keep that baby alive for two months. The question is, who is willing to aborbe that or pick up the tab. In today's U.S. you can't write off medical charges in Bankrputcy anymore, hence you can be saddled with $1 million in charges of which you may have to pay $50K or $100k over your lifetime. That's a burden for anyone without insurance.

How would you like that burden forced on you.

Unwanted babies who are not put up for adoption or not aboptable (and those do exist) become a tax burden for everyone.

Personally, I think if religion stops the process of abortion, then religion should pick up the tab, fully and completely, not the general tax payers.

Answer 7

Rights belong to those who are born, not those who will probably eventually be born, jus like the US Census only counts people who are here and not fetuses.

The question should be, will making abortion illegal prevent it from happening? Clearly not. Women would go back to getting back-alley abortions like they commonly did before 1973. Or they will self-abort. Many more will die, but I guess they have it coming, right, Moralist?

Answer 8

Yes, it's the woman's body to make choices about. But, the argument I have is that she shouldn't engage in activities that could cause a baby if she isn't ready to raise a baby. It is a choice to have sex, and the choice to have sex comes with the consequence of potentially becoming a parent. If she's not ready for that potential outcome, she has no business having sex.

Answer 9

Abortion is never right. The parents made their choice when they had sex. No one has the right to kill an innocent.

Answer 10

my thots- we men cannot even begin to imagine wat it takes to give birth to a child. and a woman has to undergo all that herself. i think she shu have full and complete rights to decide if she wants to do it or not.
i agree killing a life is bad. but its a lesser evil compared to giving birth and not being able to care for it for the rest of his life, or a substantial part of it atleast.