What's your view on abortion and why?

Question

I'd like to request that anyone asnswering the question please explain his or her answers. I'm not interested in whether you are pro-choice or pro-life. Rather, my goal is to look at the reasons you use to support your position.

Here's what I want to know:

1. When do you believe that a zygote/embryo/fetus/baby can first be categorized as a HUMAN life? (conception? birth? when it could survive outside the womb?, etc.) At what point of fetal development would it no longer be acceptable to have an abortion?

2. Are there exceptions to when it would be okay to have an abortion? For instance, would you allow an exception if the mother's life was in danger or if the pregnancy was the result of rape?

3. Did you or someone you know have an abortion? Did this change your view on the subject? (This part may be uncomfortable for some people, so feel free not to answer this part of the question.)

4. Be sure to explain your answers.

ophirhodji, you compare eating an egg to the idea the opinion that life begins at conception. However, conception means the time when the sperm reaches the egg. The chicken eggs that people eat are not fertilized.

Answer 1

Its not my place to decide for others however my take on it is thus.

If you are legally dead when brainwaves and heartbeat stop. Then it would be logical to assume that this is when you are legally alive.

Answer 2

1. As soon as it is viable outside the womb, which can be as early as 24 weeks. While I'm pro-choice, I actually don't think abortion should be legal past this point except in extreme circumstances. (There ARE medical situations which can threaten the life of the mother in which a late-term abortion is all that can save her, for example, severe bleeding inside the womb that needs to be stopped before a C-section could be completed. I heard a gynecologist talk about these circumstances on the program I cite below.)

2. I think you should be able to have an abortion for any reason you like in the first 12 weeks (btw, this is when over 90% of abortions are performed anyway--women are not evil and don't want their fetus to suffer so most do it as quickly as possible after they find out they're pregnant). After that point I'd prefer that it only be done if there is something severely wrong with the baby, but someone who has had trauma like rape or incest should get more time to decide too. There should be some way to inject the fetus with morphine, I don't see why that's not possible.

3. Yes, but very few. It didn't do much to change my views but it did affirm what I've always suspected: women take this choice very seriously and while opponents like to talk about people choosing the sex of their children, etc., it's more often than not someone with low income who doesn't want to be trapped in poverty by having a baby too soon.

It's a terrible choice, IMO, and everyone should use birth control responsibly and hope they are never faced with it. But it just comes down to trusting and believing in women. The alternative is forced pregnancy. Whenever I remember that, I remember why this is my position.

Answer 3

I do not believe that life begins at conception. I am pro choice but I do not believe in late term abortions. If the fetus can survive outside the womb (and I'm not talking a 10% chance hooked up to every machine we have invented) then it is a life. I think abortion is a personal choice and not a decision to be taken lightly. The woman who decides on abortion must ask herself some serious questions and be sure that she personally can live with that choice before she does it. This is not a method of birth control but accidents do happen, sometimes with serious consequences, leaving abortion as the logical choice. I certainly believe in a womans right to choice if her life is threatened by the pregnancy or it was the result of rape. Yes I did have an abortion 28 years ago and have never regretted it. I will always be sorry that it was necessary for me but not that I did it.
A question I always had for people who believe life begins at conception, do you eat eggs? Not trying to be smart, just a thought.

Answer 4

I believe at conception there is Human Life. As soon as the baby is conceived it is too late for an abortion. I do believe in medical exceptions. Had a dear friend who had multiple abortions and another friend who had 1 abortion. They both suffered from depression at some point due to the abortion. I should say they related the depression to their abortion. That wasn't the only side effect. However it did make a long lasting mark on their hearts and minds and mine!

I also had a choice at a young age to have an abortion, I chose life and don't regret it. As a single mom it was a hard time, but I am a stronger person as a result. Love my son!

Answer 5

Being that the fetus is growing and developing is is already alive but not yet breathing and eating food by itself. The mother has to eat food so the baby will be healthy so there's another way that its alive. It is just not physically in front of you but its alive in you, why do you think so many mothers can feel an kick from the baby sometimes? its alive..
I am against abortion, I do not think its right and that everyone should have the right to live the life given to them. Any how being raped is something every woman fears, its a scary thing especailly if your too young and don't want a baby, right now I understand its not your fault for being raped but its not the baby's fault either, right? Thank God I do not know anyone that has been raped, but I know a few that have had abortions and they only get them because they keep having sex and getting themselves pregant. Their fault they should have to keep the baby, but instead they choose to kill it. That being said I also feel that they should keep abortion legal, its wrong but say someone rapes a girl and she becomes decides to have an abortion, but its illegal. Well she's going to do it herself and might go to some back alley and stick a hanger up herself or a knife or something and get herself hurt badly. If she does this its unsafe, unclean, and hurts herself along with the baby. So I think it should be legal so no one hurts themselves, for rape victims, but not for someone who had sex and decided they did not want the kid, they shouldn't have done it to begin with and they can give it up for adoption.

Answer 6

Abortion is the single greatest evil that exists in the world today. I cannot think of anything worse than the murder of innocent human life. The idea that it's the mother's body, the mother's right, is ludicrous. Actually it's the child's body, and the child's right to life. If you didn't want to have a baby, then control yourself. That's your CHOICE. People who are not resonsible enough to have a child or do not want one, should not be having sex. I know that's a novel idea in today's society, but it's the truth.

1. A human becomes human at the moment of conception. It's ridiculous to say that there is a certain point in that the baby actually becomes a human. There is nothing that makes the baby a human one day, but not the day before.

2. The only exception for abortion is if the baby puts the mother's life in danger. Rape is not a valid excuse for an abortion. A, because it's still murder of a a living human being, and B. If a human life is that horrible of a reminder for you then give it up for adoption. It's not the fault of the child that he/she was the result of a rape. Rape is a horrible thing that I cannot imagine, but it does not justify murder.

Ali: sperm are not human life because they only have half a chromosome. Nevertheless they all die any ways every so often. I think it's every few days.

Answer 7

Personally, I believe that it is every mothers decision, not mine. Do I think partial birth abortion is heinous and cruel, yes. Would I take away a mother's right to choose this, no. I'm not the judge or part of the jury that decides what's right for a mother. Each person has to live with their own conscience, and since there are no takers on carrying an unwanted pregnancy for an unwilling mother, then there should be no givers of restrictions about whether or not that mother can have an abortion. Again, I personally would not have certain types of abortions (if I were a woman) but I don't feel it is my place to tell another what to do with her body. Yes, I know several mothers who've had abortions, and as I said each person has to live with their own conscience. I can't make that decision for them, and I don't think anyone else can either. I know it isn't listed in the numerical format you assigned, but hopefully I answered all of your questions sufficiently. Have a great day.

Answer 8

Thom1274: Do you masturbate at all? Everytime you ejaculate, millions of possible lives are lost, so I guess having sex or masturbating to you is also considered to be heinous.

Having said that, I believe that life is developed before you are born but it is certainly not developed at the time of fertilization. Its probably sometime later when the embryo takes up an anthropoidal form.

Edit...

Yes, they have 1/2 of the chromosomes of a normal cell, but that is still genetic material that gives life. In fact the sperm was design to give life. If you just define life to be every cell that has a full set of chromosome, then almost anything you do incurs a lost of such cells, epethelial cells, immune cells, etc. So why then would a single cell just being fertilized be considered life?

Scientist recently have found ways to turn a somatic cell into a pluripotent cell, ie a cell that can give rise to all kinds of cell types and potentially be the seed for an embryo, through genetic manipulation. Would you then consider such cells to be life too?

Answer 9

Infant death was a tool of Satan's to try and stop Moses and Jesus from comming to earth and fullfilling God's purpose. Of course that could never happen. Now it seems like anoither tool that Satan is useing but this time taking it to another level by making people make there own descision @ least in the U.S. to take there own babys life. He must realy like because I'm pretty sure it makes God furiouse. What other species of animal would actually reach up into the womans vagina and rip the baby from its mother.Maybe it just goes to show that Satans waiting for someone or more important souls to be born for Christ.

Answer 10

I believe that we are people at the conception. We are in God's care even before that.

I be live that it is mother's right to decide about the abortion, but I also hope that the mother would not choose to kill the baby for her own convenience. I understand medical issues.

We should protect the unborn babies who cannot say anything to save their lives. : )