Ice

dk, does that mean that birth defects are not reported to the woman automatically, in the sense that the woman has to ask for the report or it won't be given?

dk

Women submit to an abortion for their own reasons, of their own volition and have a right to privacy.

HumanisTim

However, I seem to hear much dissent when I asked if they would protest against abortion decisions based on the fetus' sex, sexuality (assuming that in the future genetic markers are found which determine/predispose one to one sexual inclination or another), race, eye colour, or other physically non-debilitative but (arguably) socially-debilitative attributes.

I personaly don't think its right to do it for superficial reasons. But each persons body is their own and the decision is theirs and not mine or the Governments to make for them.

mike_decock

No dissent from this pro-choicer. I'm all for it for whatever reason. I just think of it as natural selection.

-Mike...

Writer@Large

A woman decides to have an abortion because she didn't mean to get pregnant, doesn't want a child, and refuses to carry it to term.

A woman decides to have an abortion because she was raped, and aborting the baby is her small measure of victory over her unknown (and never arrested) assailant.

A woman decides to have an abortion because her unborn child is dagnosed with Downs Syndrome, and she does not want to endure all the years of caring for a slowly dying child.

A woman decides to have an abortion because her unborn child is dagnosed with Downs Syndrome, and neither her nor her husband have insurance that would cover the care and medical requirements of such a child.

A woman decides to have an abortion because she had sex with a black man, and she's white, and if she has a mixed-race child her family--who no one would call racist but they're certainly "traditional" in their view of such things--will disown her.

A woman decides to have an abortion because her child will be a blonde, and she wants her child to have red hair, like her own.

As a pro-choice advocate, I look at all these scenarios and I see one thing: they all begin with "A woman decides ... " And to me, that is ultimately the most important part.

--W@L

Loren Pechtel

As far as I'm concerned, not having an abortion when she knows there will be serious problems (or even that serious problems are likely) is child abuse.

Ice

But to call it child abuse is to acknowledge that there is a child involved. And to call it potential/future child abuse would be to use pro-lifers' potentiality arguments which pro-choicers reject.

beth

I would not abort merely because of physical characteristics, unless those characteristics are birth defects. I chose not to have more children because it poses severe risk to my health. If I were to become pregnant, I will not carry a child to term. My husband has been told this and has agreed to this. This is the sole reason why I would abort, I do not want to carry anymore children to term.

abe smith

Ummmm. I had one child = one pregnancy, ever/only. ( ON PURPOSE! He now a man, a father; joy to me always.) Now, for all the various real reasons, pregnancy & all its dilemmas, choices, problems is no longer personal nor real for me. I have grandchildren. And/but as a humanbeing who has at least a minimal stake in the subject, I will reiterate my longtime and eh absolutist opinion:
that a woman's body ABSOLUTELY BELONGS TO HERSELF! and that the choices about it and its contents are ABSOLUTELY hers & hers alone to decide.

JerryM

As a practical matter, the right to terminate a pregnancy actually belongs as much to the medical provider as to the woman. Freedom of choice is really the right of a physician to perform an abortion procedure (or prescribe medication to that end) without criminal consequences. Proposed anti-choice laws virtually always target the medical provider, not the woman herself. So it's really the doctor's rights that we're talking about. And a physician and patient should be able to engage in an informed, consensual medical decision without government interference. Conversely, a physician should not be forced to perform a medical procedure if it violates his good faith medical judgement. Some physicians may feel that performing an abortion for "cosmetic" (for lack of a better term) reasons is not indicated, and they have a perfect right to refuse to do so. Others may perform the procedure for any and all reasons. But the decision must be left to the woman and her medical provider--not the state.