Today is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. There are lots of other bloggers doing a much better job than I would at commemorating this incredibly important occasion. Jessica at Bush v. Choice has a great write up on the best ones. I also wanted to post a link to Hillary’s press release on her reproductive health care agenda. Hillary has worked hard through her career for the rights of women and lower/working class Americans and it is good to see that she is continuing in that tradition.
As important as Roe is abortion rights are not the be all end all of reproductive freedom for women. In fact its just the tip of the iceberg and should be considered as an absolute minimum. There is much much more work to be done and as long as those who would take away womens rights to control their own lives and bodies are in power we must work to counter their influence. Already getting honest and effective sex education and access to birth control is prohibitively difficult and there are lists of other problems that need addressed.
Monday was Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday. Due to personal issues I have not been able to blog as often as I would like but even though I missed the official day I wanted to pay my respects as much as possible. As we do every year we talked with our children about the importance of racial diversity and the ongoing struggle to eliminate racism. However as I was not alive during Kings time I lack the authority to speak on the subject in any more than academic terms. So I highly recommend that everyone read Reclaiming King: Beyond ‘I Have a Dream’ by Adam Howard.
So I apologize for my extended absence and I promise to work hard to do better in the future.
P.S. In unimportant news Grandpa Fred was woken up early from his nap long enough to drop out of the presidential race. Im sure Fred Phelps and his cult of followers are sad to see their candidate drop out. Luckily for them Huckabee is still in the race and he may be crazy enough to please them.
Aborting babies is horrific and it is murder. The more correct figure for the number of abortions is 1.3 million a year, since the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling. That number is staggering in mind. So I think it is appropriate to use a word like ‘holocaust’ to describe such a shockingly, large number of intentional deaths.
Huckabee is defending the innocent, while Hillary is speaking about women’s rights, which translates to more baby deaths. I find it hard to defend her position on children and especially unborn children. I see Huckabee’s position as tolerant, and life-affirming.
Science, medicine, and our law says that abortion is a medical procedure and not “murder”. Just because you define a fetus as a person does not make it so.
Almost all democrats have the same stance on abortion which is that it should be legal, safe, and rare. It has been shown that making abortions illegal does not cut down on the rates of abortions but does endanger significantly more lives.
I think it is arrogant of anyone to make the case that a woman cannot decide for herself what to do with her body. It is something that certainly should be decided on by a woman and her doctor.
If we suspend reality for a moment and say that outlawing abortions will end them(Remember it won’t even decrease them.) what do you think will happen to all of the unwanted babies that are born to mothers who are not able to provide for them?
Oftentimes Christians (not implying you) make the case that if a woman chooses to have unprotected sex she has to live with the consequences. Is that all a child is to them? A punishment for someone making a mistake that almost all of us have? What sort of life does that “consequence” then have to look forward to?
A picture is worth a thousand words. So I hope this quick-reference web-page helps define the terms of the debate. This reference lists fetal development facts and is accompanied by in utero pictures of the baby. http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fetaldevelopment.html
I do know the gestation process, I am not blindly following the words of others. I believe after lots of personal reflection that women have the right to control their bodies. Until the baby is born, it is a part of the mother. As I said, science, medicine, and the law recognize abortion as a medical procedure, not murder.
That isn’t what is in debate at all, it is already an established medical procedure. The only thing up for debate now if whether or not right wing christian conservatives can once again push their views into law.
I can certainly understand why someone would be opposed to abortion, it is a topic that is deeply emotional and at times horrific. That does not change the fact that a woman does not lose her rights when she becomes pregnant.
I ask, again, if there were no abortions what happens to all of the unwanted children?
I think you are so wrong because children are a gift from GOD and we are suppose to protect them from harm. Those pictures are so bad that it made me cry. If women can’t take care of them than they can give them to people who would love them. There is a lot of couples that can’t have kids that want them
And I think you are so naive. There are millions of unwanted children in the world already, who takes care of them? Don’t fool yourself into thinking that adoption is an actual viable answer to unwanted pregnancy. It is in some cases but not all.
I know that this is an old comment thread but I had something else that I wanted to say. If your god is giving babies away as gifts he really has a lot of issues. Shouldn’t there be some sort of screening process? What about the crackhead with 7 kids does she really need another “gift”?
it is funny that it is only a fetus (otherwise it’s a baby) or “medical procedure,” when someone wants to try to ease the pain and guilt of what it really is. Murdering and unborn baby who cannot speak for itself.
You’re comment is illogical. It is always a fetus and a medical procedure when you are talking about abortion. It’s defined that way by science, medicine, and the law.
illogical? It is only called a fetus when someone is aborting as both of us said. It is a baby when the same people want to keep the child.
My point is that it is always a baby…but people who want to ease the pain and guilt of terminating an unborn child, call it a fetus in an effort to dehumanize the child.
Why is it only murder (otherwise it’s a medical procedure) when someone wants to take away a woman’s right to control her own body?
her own body? Her body is not what is being terminated? It is the body of the baby.
Women who have sex willing they shouldn’t if they don’t want kids they have to take responsabilty for what they do. kids don’t ask for women to spread there legs and get pregnant
You’re right, that would be weird. I’m sure that children would much rather be born into a family that didn’t want them, be abused or neglected, or who knows what else just so their mother could be properly punished for having sex. Hmmmm, kids as a punishment, doesn’t make much sense to me.
Really…are listening to yourself? People used to use the same argument against African-Americans. Back then the law said that if you were not white then you were not fully human.
The point is just because the law and supposed science says one thing, does not make them right. In fact, there is much science to support protecting the life of the unborn.
I don’t know about you but I tend to always side with being a voice for those who can not speak for their selves. Whether it be those in the Sudan, the invalid, the unborn or whatever. Those who need someone to speak for them, is who I support.
Great I have some wonderful opportunities for you to join in to further the cause of gay rights. When should I expect you to add your voice to ours?
We will never agree on this issue most probably. I would like an answer to my question, what would you propose should be done with the millions of unwanted children if making abortion illegal worked (it won’t) and people had to keep every conceived fetus?
hmmm, sounds like you would support my position. If a parent could tell if there child was homsexual in the embryo, with legal abortions they could decide to terminate (murder) the unborn “gay” child.
So your position is that abortion is ok to get rid of gay babies?
I agree. I think that abortion is a serious medical procedure and should be consider carefully by the mother carrying the fetus, or, depends on how far along she is in her pregnancy, the child.
My personal moral belief is this: if the pregnancy is less than 3 months, then it still consider a fetus, but if it’s already been 6 or 7 months, at which point the child has nearly done developing inside the womb, then it should be consider a separate entity from the mother, and the mother should not get abortion at this time because it is kind of like murder, unless it concerns the health of the mother. I also agree with you that mothers who give birth to child when they have no mean of take care for that child only brings more suffering to another life, I would rather terminate the pregnancy in its early stage before the child develop in the womb.
alright well lets see. you say that abortions are murder right.. well hmm are you going to take care of all these babies sweet heart? When women are raped and they become pregnant are you going to make them wake up every day and see that child and think of what happened to them, would that make you sleep better at night.
When teens are not financially stable or responsible to raise a child you want them to keep it? that makes sense, so that way the child isnt given the opportunity of great potential by society, they will have born into poverty and society will close their eyes.
although i think adoption is a very good option i think abortion should be an option left to the women.
I hate when i see Pro-life people outside of the abortion clinics on tv or anywhere.. does anybody tell them that they dont have the riht to be standing out there expressing how they feel. no, they have the freedom of assembly, freedom of petion, and freedom of speech no one takes that away from them therefor i beleive we should not take away the right for a women to choose what she wants to do.
According to our state laws a fetus is not even considered a citizen until the take their first breath of air… inside the womb a fetus never takes in air, so according to the law it is not murder.
So I think before you speak you need to think of the right that enables you to do that.. what would you do if someone took away your right to choose what you could say..
At week 17 the baby can dream (REM sleep). At week 19 the baby in the mother’s womb looks like this —————- http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fig17baby5mos.jpg
Babies born prematurely at weeks 21 and 22 are routinely saved. These little babies are real, living persons. I can see it with my own eyes. Thanks.
Here’s a little comic strip I stumbled onto this evening. While short it concisely states some of the hypocrisies in the Christian stance on abortion coming from the bible. http://www.jesusandmo.net/2007/10/22/women/
Hi Summer,
It’s actually odd that I ran across this website as I was procrastinating studying for a class but I just had to respond to some of the comments being made. I am 19 years old, and I am a senior in college at an extremely liberal university. I don’t care whether you are a devout Catholic, hell fire and brimstone baptist, or agnostic. I am none of these, but I believe abortion is wrong. Why? Well, let me make it personal. Doctors told my parents to abort me because they thought I would have Down’s Syndrome. I don’t. Mental illness is not an excuse to abort a fetus, baby, or whatever you want to call it. Where do we put all the millions of unwanted children if we don’t abort them? Have you ever met a couple who can’t have children who want them so badly? There are millions, yes millions of couples waiting to adopt babies. This is what you do with the so called “unwanted” fetuses. I don’t want to offend you, I just like to argue my opinion; thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so.
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for your comment. Actually I am a person who is not able to have children and it is extremely painful. However, I am also intimately involved with foster and adoptive care systems and know that there are millions of children who will never be adopted. They will be pushed around from one home or group home to another and most of them will be abused along the way.
Most couples who can’t have kids of their own still want that perfect child that other parents want or have they do not want the baby of a crack addict. The demand in America for children of any color besides white is low.
Then there are parents who would keep the child even if it was not the right choice for them. These children would grow up knowing they were unwanted and often the victims of abuse or neglect.
The main argument I have against making abortion illegal is that it will not have an impact at all on the number performed. All it will do is ensure that women seek medical care from quacks and underground “clinics” where they will be injured and even killed.
I understand that abortion is an extremely sensitive topic and one that required a lot of soul searching on my part. It took a long time for me to not begrudge other women their choices since I didn’t have a choice in my personal life.
Thank you again for your comments.
Summer
As far as abortion goes, there is evidence on both sides of the scientific spectrum to support the idea that the fetus is ‘alive’. In fact I doubt anyone would say the fetus isn’t alive, rather, that the fetus does not have the rights of a born child or a human being who is living, breathing, etc. What disgusts me is that conservatives try to use arguments which are either A) on a religious basis, something that has no argumentative value in government, B) an appeal to emotion, which is also not permissible in court but is used anyway.
It might be worth noting that approximately 70% of conceptions are spontaneously aborted. Somehow I doubt life begins at conception if that many “dead babies” are piling up in women’s periods. Also I honestly doubt people support abortion following the first trimester, so the whole bullshit of “partial birth” abortions and such only irritates me further because it’s a non-argument.
Some of these comments I find quite shocking, and totally naive. So, women shouldn’t spread their legs. Where is the responsibility of the man in all of this? Perhaps men should abstain from sex if they don’t want children. Maybe antiabortionist would manage to convince men or their responsibility in all of thes. Most of these comments, shockingly are from women, who seem to think it is the woman who is solely the one to blame.
I, have been lucky enough never to be put in the position of having to make the choice of having an abortion. But like Summer Ludwig, I agree that it is better to have a wanted child than to have a child born unwanted and subject to abuse. If children are a gift from GOd, I would barely be able to recognise that fact, from the horrific treatment that some living children receive. And for most women, it is not an easy choice.
Let’s see.. you’ve said ‘abortion is a medical procedure’. Assisted suicide is a ‘medical procedure’, as are other atrocities such as female circumcision. If you have a right to abortion, you should have a right to suicide (its a medical procedure, it must be OK!). If you can ‘remove the fetus’, you should be able to ‘remove the heart’. It’s your body, right? Who am i to impose my morality on you? I must be a religious fanatic who, for some reason, wants to force you to follow his religion.
If there are millions of unwanted children in orphanages, and it was better that they had been killed, we should go in and ‘abort’ them all. “Every child a wanted child.. and if not wanted, killed!” What do i propose we do with all the ‘unwanted’ children in orphanages? kill them, what else?!
There is no rational reason to say that ‘the fetus isn’t human’ until it can survive outside the womb. You might as well say that it isn’t human until it can feed itself.
During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Douglas said ‘if you don’t want a slave, don’t have one’. Lincoln famously replied ‘no one has the right to do what is wrong’. If abortion is not wrong, nothing is.
NO ONE has the right to do whatever they want with their body, as is evidenced by laws against bigamy, prostitution, adult incest and selling your organs. Thats really nice that you did a ‘lot of soul-searching’ before coming to your conclusion, but i don’t see how that is relevant in the least. Abortion is murder; an unborn child (a ‘fetus’ if you want to feel better about your position) is as human as you or me. If it isn’t human, then what the hell is it?
Wow. Let me think for a second… OK, so first adoption is a slightly unrealistic option for dealing with the unwanted babies. There are millions of kids living in orphan homes, or with foster parents, who are not wanted and who cannot find a permanent home. There may also be many people who can’t have kids who want them, so they look to adoption, but that still is not enough. Most people who adopt take on only one child, at most three. Considering how many abortions occur every year, there would be an exponential increase in the number of children in our orphanage/foster child system. I do not think the system would be able to handle that.
Also, why is the woman the one who deserves punishment for “spreading her legs” and becoming pregnant when, in most cases, it takes two people to tango, and become pregnant? The man is guilty as well, and should also have to “live with the consequences of his actions.” That being said, I think I should state that in the case of counseling over abortion, the woman, the man, and the doctor should all talk about the options, but, as the woman is the one whose body has had to look after the child, the woman should have the ultimate decision.
I have many other points I could make about abortion, but I am procrastinating on important work, so I will end after saying one last thing: I support women choosing whether they want a baby or not, with input from the father. However, I would never have an abortion personally because that’s me. I would rather raise the baby, although I would love to just not get pregnant. One thing I think everyone should consider carefully before stating whether they are “pro-life” or “pro-choice” is: If you knew before you were born that you were not wanted, would you rather never have to experience that feeling in life, in either an orphanage or with parents who hate you or ignore you, or would you rather die? I have been raised by someone who was so against abortions, she had seven kids. I think that was irresponsible and selfish of my mother, and while I am grateful for the opportunity to develop these opinions, I would never have missed them if I had not been born.