Lots of abortion questions tonight, so can a pro-lifer answer mine (below)?

Question

What is the American law that allows you to force me to use my body to incubate a fetus for nine months?

LAW. Not Commandment, not Bible verse, not moral argument... LAW.

Liz: You are correct. One question, though: if it hasn't had a chance to live, how is it a "life"?

Chi Guy: What premise are you talking about? Please back up your non-answer.

Getting pregnant and incubating a fetus are two totally separate biological functions. Getting pregnant takes one second. Incubating a fetus takes nine months. Now do try to answer the question, Chi Guy. I usually respect you, but in this instance, you're standing on a sinking raft.

s l: So the laws against murder, child abuse, rape, torture, theft... you think we need to be reminded of these things, but not "murdering" our "children"? That's kind of a weak argument, don't you think?

AMAZING that so few people were able to answer this question without lecturing me about "taking responsibility" for my actions. People... I've never had an abortion; I've never been pregnant, so just chill out and answer the question, okay???

Answer 1

Ummm. In America, women are given the right to choose!
A famous decision made in 1973 has made abortions legal throughout America. We don't force any woman to give birth or conceive unless she wishes to.

EDIT:
Chi Guy:
A baby or fetus anything you call it grows up to be an adult one day. Giving birth is not the only thing that counts. When you decide to have a baby, you are calling upon a lot of responsibilities. As a parent, you have to think about giving your child a good life. Women don't just get abortions for fun. Think about it this way, I get pregnant today. I am happily married. Tomorrow I wake up my husband dies or leaves. I am left with no security in life. I am in no position to give birth or provide for my child on the way? What do I do? Because a getting an abortion is religiously wrong, I bring a child to this earth and make his/her life hell? If there is a god, then the child will go back to him where it came from. It will be a better place than living here in turmoil don't you think?

EDIT: keithr2003

I don't think that poor kids don't have the right to live. But of course if you are poor I don't think that you should give birth to multiple kids however. By the way American poor is not poor. I mean Darfur poor.

Answer 2

Chi Guy and Liz are both correct. A woman has the choice to become pregnant or not become pregnant unless she has been raped, so there is no way that a law banning abortion would be forcing women as a whole to incubate a fetus for nine months.

As for Liz's comment, it depends on the definition of life. You said that it isn't life if it hasn't had a chance to live. I am sure there are many who would agree that the fetus is alive, rendering your argument void. As long as the definition of what is alive and what is not in regards to the unborn is ambiguous, this issue will not be resolved anytime in the near future.

To answer your question directly, there is no law that forbids women from getting abortions. Whether or not that law (or lack thereof) is an ethical one I leave to the philosophers to debate.

Answer 3

For nine months -- there is none.

The current Supreme Court ruling is set forth in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) which partially overturned Roe v. Wade.

Casey created the "undue burden" standard -- meaning that states are allowed to regulate abortions, provided they do not totally eliminate the right to choose, and provided that the regulations do not impose an undue burden that makes it effectively impossible for the average person to have an abortion.

But Casey also recognized the concept of of viability -- and that there is a point after which, if the mother has not previously terminated the pregnancy, it's now too late to do so by killing the unborn. Though the unborn can be transplanted to an artificial incubator if one is available and it would not result in death of the unborn.

So, there are laws that might require you to be (or find) an incubator for a few months -- but not nine months.

Answer 4

I am usually Pro Choice, but I find your argument completely flawed.

No one would force you to incubate a baby for 9 months. You make that choice when you become pregnant. If you make the decision to have sex then you risk becoming pregnant.

I usually disagree with Chi Guy on every issue under the sun. I guess this is no exception since I believe that abortion should be legal but his logic and arguments are far superior to yours.

Answer 5

Thats a case of religion coming too close to politics... The belief that a child is alive before birth is a religious belief that can not be forced upon you. I personally believe there not much better you can do in 9 months then bring a child into the world , but that is MY belief and i have no right to force it on you or anyone else.

Edit: isha that answer made me sick, your basically saying poor people don't have a right to live....Look i was raised by a single mother and i turned out ok , and i respect my mother for raising me. You didn't consider the roles uncles, aunts, friend, and other extended family can play in a child life. Its one thing if you don't consider a fetus a child, but to call it a child and then "ask" god to take it back is a horrible way to look at things.

Answer 6

Let's say you didn't want to have a baby. You and your husband used birth control, but it's not 100% effective. Then you're in an accident (or attacked) and put into a permanent vegetative state. I'm pretty sure that in some states, your husband (or even a doctor) *could* insist that you be allowed to carry the baby to term, even if you had been CLEAR to him when conscious that you did not want to have a baby. Maybe your mother had died in childbirth. Maybe you have an illness you are unwilling to pass on to a child, and your husband told you he'd gotten a vasectomy (even if he hadn't). For whatever reason, you absolutely did not want to become pregnant, and now you are, and can't make your own decision. Even if you and your husband had just separated, he would still have the right to say, "She has to keep it." Is that the kind of law you're looking for?

Me, I think abortion is terrible, and I'm still glad to live in a country that allows women to be the ones that get to make that terrible, but sometimes necessary, choice about their own body. As long as we aren't in comas :-)

Answer 7

From point of conception, medically speaking, the fetus as you so callously refer to the baby thus formed, is a recognized life. The LAW is that no innocent life is to be taken, especially one that has no way of defending itself. At 3 months, the baby is fully formed, and has all the features of a fully formed baby. To abort a life is to commit murder, regardless of the argument used, interpretation argued, or the size of that life. To cheapen any life, is to cheapen your own. If you don't want to be at pregnancy risk, keep the instrument of danger away from the opportunity to cause interference with your way of life. You might even try taking responsibility for your own actions.

Answer 8

This is a gray area. On one hand, Law prevent anybody from harming, let alone killing somebody else, including their children. On the other hand, a woman may feel that it is a burden to be pregnant for 9 months against her will. That's exactly why condoms were invented :)

Answer 9

There is none. There is absolutely no law saying that you can not murder a innocent little life that hasn't even had a chance at living. No law at all.

Answer 10

While it may not be a law, it's common sense...the onus falls on you for getting pregnant...bottom line, don't get pregnant. Do what whatever you need to do to assure that doesn't happen.

That's one way to assure you aren't just an "incubator".

I am not referring to women that get pregnant due to rape or incest.