This is a continuation of Part I, which is a list of reasons why women should not have abortions. A lot of them lies, a lot make no sense, some are even reasons to choose abortion, oddly. Read on for more.
Reason #41: You may regret your abortion for a very long time
Yes, a woman may regret her abortion. However, facts show that most women don't regret their abortion. Nevermind that, women also regret adoption and parenting (Postpartum depression is a recognized condition, while post-abortion syndrome is not). If a woman is more likely to suffer depression after giving birth, why should she be forced to do that? Let her make her own choices.
Reason #42: Your mom chose life
With that specific pregnancy, yes. Lets focus on the important word here: CHOSE. She had a choice. Secondly, many people wouldn't be here today if their mother's had kept previous pregnancies instead of having abortions (I can think of a few I know personally).
Reason #43: Do to others as you would have them do to you
Is this a reason against abortion and choice? Personally, I would NOT want people to force me to gestate against my will. I would NOT want people to ignore my wants and needs. I would NOT want to die just because someone decided that abortion was wrong. Thus, I support choice.
Reason #44: Going against your value system might not make you happy
This one makes sense, as a sentence. Of course, then we realize that abortion is not against everyone's value system.
Reason #45: Who cares what other people think!
Yes, who cares? Stop letting people like the author tell you what to do. Stop caring what they think, and make which ever choice is BEST for you.
Reason #46: Being responsible is more rewarding than copping out
If the author thinks abortion is "copping out," they don't understand the pressure they've put on women who choose abort. Abortion IS taking responsibility.
Reason #47: Abortion, the responsible choice?
I'm sure there is more to this in the paragraph that follows. Without reading, I'll simply say- yes, abortion is a responsible choice.
Reason #48: So you wouldn’t be a good parent?
This is supposed to be a reason against abortion?
Reason #49: Abortion procedures are brutal
No more or less brutal than other invasive medical procedures. Let women make their own choices.
Reason #50: Abortion may make you unhappy
Birth may make you unhappy. Parenting may make you unhappy. Adoption may make you unhappy. Again- let every woman make her own choices.
Reason #51: Abortion creates secrets, suppression and denial
This is your fault, author. If antichoicers did not make abortion out to be such a big deal, such a horrible thing, women wouldn't have to keep quiet and fear for their lives, safety and privacy.
Reason #52: Suppression leads to anger, depression and forbidden grief
This is a continuation of the previous reason. So I reiterate. Abortion doesn't have to be a secret. Did you know that the majority of teens who abort have at least one parent who knows about their abortion?
Reason #53: The fetus can feel pain
Straight out lie, if we're talking about when the majority of when abortions are performed. Fetuses cannot feel pain until the third trimester.
Reason #54: You can begin bonding with your baby now!
Depending on the woman and the gestation of her pregnancy, yes. Again, is this a reason against abortion? Some women don't want to bond.
Reason #55: Your unborn child can feel, taste, smell, hear, and see
Again, depending upon the gestation of the fetus, this is mostly a lie. Fetuses cannot think or feel when the majority of abortions are performed.
Reason #56: Abortion is playing God
Denying women the liberty to make choices about their own body is playing God.
Reason #57: Why should God bless America when we kill His children?
This one is silly. Why should God bless anyone in the whole world? Because He is our Father, loves us overwhelmingly, and has chosen to give us eternal life with Him.
Reason #58: Saving the planet starts with ending abortion
I've heard arguments otherwise. I don't think popping out massive amounts of children is going to help save the planet.
Reason #59: You can’t compare humans to animals
What in the world does this have to do with abortion? Or a woman's right to choose? Yes, you cannot compare humans to animals- so stop treating women like cattle, and allow them to make their own choices.
Reason #60: The abortion industry is a business
The birthing industry is a business. Oh no? So what?
Reason #61: Abortionists don’t enjoy their job
Actually, the ones who speak up say that they love the work they do which helps women. The only part they hate is the protesters outside their doors.
Reason #62: Abortionists are known to have bad records
This is an absolute, straight out lie.
Reason #63: Women have died from abortion
Yes. However, abortion is safer than carrying to term and giving birth. Most deaths in abortion are in situations where abortion is illegal.
Reason #64: Abortion is not real medicine
Actually, abortion IS real medicine. It's a real medical procedure- one of the most common, in fact.
Reason #65: Right or wrong? It’s all in the words
Not sure what this is supposed to mean. Use your own morals to decide if abortion is right for you?
Reason #66: Every child deserves life
A fetus is not a child. What has the fetus done, to deserve anything? What about the woman? Doesn't she deserve equality and dignity and liberty?
Reason #67: You might be aborting a genius
Or the next Hitler. You never know.
Reason #68: Planned Parenthood clinics are not neutral
That's true. They're in favor of abortion remaining legal, because they don't want women to die.
Reason #69: Planned Parenthood’s beginnings were unsavory
In a way, yes. That doesn't reflect anything on their current situation, though. Nevermind that there are other places to have abortions.
Reason #70: Hitler would have loved abortion
Um, what? Godwin's law?
Hitler would have hated the abortions of his perfect, white race, and loved the abortions of others. That doesn't mean abortion is good or bad.
Reason #71: Hormonal changes cause moodiness around the time most abortions occur!
Hormonal changes cause moodiness all throughout a woman's life. That doesn't mean she cannot make her own choices about her own body.
Reason #72: Abortion isn’t natural
Abortion is natural- a spontaneous abortion happens in 25% of all pregnancies.
Reason #73: Abortion is not a form of birth control
Abortion is a way to control birth, but it is not a contraceptive. This is irrelevant to a woman who's choosing what to do with her pregnancy; she's already pregnant, she doesn't need contraceptive.
Reason #74: Abortion is selfish
More lies. Abortion is not selfish. For some women, it is the most selfless thing they can do.
Reason #75: Abortion may change your relationships
Yes, abortion may change your relationship. But I'm about 100% sure that having a baby absolutely WILL change your relationships. So again... let... the woman... choose... her own risks.
Reason #76: Slavery was legal too
The funny thing here, is that making abortion illegal is making the woman into a slave. So arguing against slavery is arguing against the antichoice side. Besides that, abortion was once illegal in America. Then they legalized it. Problem fixed!
Reason #77: Abortion is unconstitutional
I'm pretty the Supreme Court of the United States disagrees.
Reason #78: Have a child now while you can
First off, how old are we assuming this woman is? And what's the rush to have kids? Children should be had when they can be cared for and are wanted, not rushed to get them out of the way.
Reason #79: The population explosion is an urban myth
Because, you know, throwing 2 million children into the already broken foster care system a year wont destroy it. [/sarcasm]
Reason #80: Abortion is a betrayal of women
And we end with another absolute lie. Abortion is not a betrayal of women. Women have been aborting since 500 BC, whether they do it themselves, do it with midwives, do it with husbands/boyfriends, or have a doctor do it. They will not stop. Abortion is as much a part of womanhood as pregnancy is.
Reflecting on Privilege
10 years ago
I give major props to you for being able to tolerate that BS long enough to write a blog post about it.
ReplyDeleteProps from me too - that's quite a gargantuan undertaking! In fact, I'd go as far as to suggest you put more effort in than the author herself. Around point 70 she resorts to the ubiquitous "What would Hitler do" argument then appears to completely run out of any more ideas.
ReplyDeleteCan you give some examples of how, for some women, having an abortion is the most selfless thing they can do?
ReplyDeleteSure, Mattress.
ReplyDeleteOne example would be this Catholic couple, who had a wanted pregnancy and were preparing for a wanted child. When they learned that their child would suffer immensely after birth and had a low survival chance, they decided to have an abortion instead of force their child to suffer.
http://www.truthout.org/1203097
There are also women who plan pregnancies, become pregnant, and then fall upon hard times and choose to abort because they need to be able to pay for their children's food.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29864032/
So instead of offering an unborn child a low chance of survival, it's selfless to give the child zero chance of survival? Instead of trusting God for chance at a miracle it was selfless of them to cut off that possibility?
ReplyDeleteInstead of offering your child up for adoption if you are unable to care for it, it's selfless to instead take away their chance for a life?
It is selfless to think of the child's well-being, suffering and life quality instead of one's personal wants for a child and religious beliefs.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, God's miracle is the child they will have because of that abortion.
So if you think that someone may possibly suffer in the future, or have a lower quality of life than you arbitrarily decide is good enough, it is selfless to instead kill them now?
ReplyDeleteMattress, if someone is going to die in extreme agony almost immediately after birth, yes, an abortion is the moral thing to do. I know I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knowingly put an infant through pain, when it could have been prevented. Maybe you have no compassion.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know the future and you do not have the right to decide another individual's fate. There are things called anesthetics that can eliminate or reduce pain when it is happening, killing someone prior to pain that you can't know for sure will happen is not compassion.
ReplyDeleteKilling someone after they have known pain is not more compassionate than preventing the pain in the first place. Killing someone after they have known pleasure is not more compassionate than preventing one from experiencing pleasure in the first place. Abortion is not inherently selfish. Neither is continuing a pregnancy. But BOTH can be done for selfish reasons. Do you think a single woman who puts the life and health of her ACTual children/babies at risk to bring a complicated and expensive pregnancy to term is being selfless? If you answer this, you'll be the first anti I know of to have done so.
ReplyDeleteAnd not everyone can safely use anaesthetics and very few can function when anaesthetics are applied and not every pain can be anaesthetized. Besides, if you don't decide to donate an organ, you are deciding an individual's fate in the same way that abortion determines the fate of a *fetus*. And deciding to give birth is deciding someone's fate, as well.
Sigh, the rhetoric of antis....
Further to #70, Hitler was Pro-Abortion and Pro-Life. Neither of which is ProChoice. They are both ANTI-choice positions.
ReplyDeleteFurther to #77, if abortion is unconstitutional, then rape, slavery and mandatory organ donation are NOT unconstitutional.
Further to #78, and some women just don't WANT children. In fact, part of the reason I don't want children is because of women like this who encourage the view that women are no more than their uteruses with comments like these.
Further to #79, just as, I'm sure, an extra two million children would not overburden a world already stretched to its limits because there is no such thing as famine and starvation. (/sarcasm)