I do not advocate the “killing of innocent children”. I advocate for a woman’s legal right to choose whether or not to continue with or terminate a pregnancy. Furthermore, I advocate for her right and responsibility to choose according to her own religion, her own moral code, her own conscience, and not mine and not yours. Do you think we should adopt this position with regard to murder? What if the murder’s moral code and conscience say: “Survival of the fittest is the only law. I can do whatever I want, take whatever I want–no matter what its effect on others–survival of the fittest baby.” Do you advocate for their “right and responsibiliy to choose according to according to [their} own religion, [their] own moral code, [their] own conscience, and not…yours”?
**Chaos is the only outcome from what you advocate. **
(I would substitute or add “life” for/to “pregnancy” in your statement above–both will either continue or be terminated.)
And you are delusional if you believe rendering abortion illegal will cause “all of the violence to go away”. Coercion will escalate, beatings will escalate, rage will escalate, women will investigate all means of illicit abortion. If you have never been in this situation it’s easy for you to be an armchair critic. You cannot appreciate the secret violence if it has not been visited upon you. It is unfair to call peple “armchair” critics. Those who think abortion should be illegal–believe the “fetus” is a human life entitled to the rights and protections aforded to those who have already been born. This doesn’t mean they are not sympathetic or empathetic to the situation, do not appreciate the anguish…what they are saying is that that is not a reason for society to allow-that innocent life to be killed.
Many who are not pregnant–with an unwanted pregnancy–experience coercion, beating, and rage–our self absorbed society appears to run rampant with people who know no self-control when they don’t get what they want or when things don’t go their way–and who have no problem taking it out on others through abusive means.
Abortion…either.
But I am not in a position to judge another woman’s situation or to try to persuade her to act against her own moral code. If she asks my opinion I will share my experience, strength and hope with her, because we share a common situation in that I aborted a 13-week-old fetus in June of 1971. I will share with her that I have learned not to repeat the experience, how it shaped my relationship with men, with God, with my daughter, with other women who have asked me about my abortion. I will not vomit this information all over her so that she may sort it out in times of trial and anxiety and fear and dread and worry and confusion. I will not intervene, I will not judge a woman’s situation or decision that comes from that situation. Nor will not advocate for abortion. I will advocate for her to consult whatever Higher Power she may have and decide for herself, with this Guidance, which way to go. First words cannot express the proper empathy for what you have go through but I don’t think anyone is asking you to judge the womans situation–that is not for us to do–you can however judge the act. The question is – do you believe it is ok to take the life of an innocent human being–in certain situation? Do you believe the “fetus” is an innocent human life–or something else?
**Intervention, coercion, persuasion, manipulation are all inappropriate. **
**Do you say this about all of our laws against things like murder, stealing, domestic abuse, child abuse, etc–or only about abortion? If only about abortion–why is abortion different? **I will not participate on any of those levels in another woman’s pregnancy. If you choose to do so, that is your prerogative. But I stand behind free will as a gift from God. Sometimes we don’t use it wisely. No one is immune from foolishness or selfishness. I couldn’t agree with you more about that.
**But people should be free to make life decisions without hindrance from others. Again I have to ask where do you draw the line? It seems we have a mryiad of laws doing exactly this–no murder, no stealing, no drinking and driving, no assault and battery, no speeding, no storing a car on the street in front of your house, no taking illegal drugs, no driving without a seatbelt, no riding without a helmet and the list goes on and on. Are you suggesting we have no laws? What makes abortion special? The unborn baby is not a “part of the woman” it has it’s own DNA. Why should it not have any rights? Or why should the woman, and only the woman, be given the power of life or death over it? I seriously would like this explained to me?**Anyone is free to disagree with this, as I’m certain most of you will. It does not change my position.
**The main life decision in this case is not the one that relieves the pregnant woman or that saves the fetus. It is the one that led the woman into having intercourse in the first place. That’s where to start: the pre-pregnancy, pre-sexually-active place. The place where we are not afraid to give our children - our pre-adolescent children - the facts about their upcoming sexuality - beyond abstinence. They are entitled to the whole package, not just “don’t do it and God will be happy.” **Absolutely–but once the pregancy occurs–does this have any bearing on whether or not an abortion should be allowed?
**Limerick **
