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Re: Abortion [split] [message #178681 is a reply to message #178637] Thu, 10 November 2005 13:32 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
NeoSaber is currently offline  NeoSaber
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Arcane1 wrote on Thu, 10 November 2005 09:21

The issue with being able to know or predict people's reactions in situations I'll take you to task on though. There are few people in the world that surprise us as much by their actions as our family. You'd have to assume that your (hypothetical) sister would even tell her family beforehand and not make the decision alone. There are so many variables that predicting is tough. Look at how families often behave after a death and the whole matter of property/cash issues arise to see how absolutely nutty people get. This issue isn't too far from that emotionally and I have seen people do far differently than what I would have expected faced with a surprise pregancy.


Wouldn't that be one more reason to outlaw abortion though? If my sister somehow got pregnant, and I have a hard time believing she'd do something stupid but for the sake of the hypothetical I continue, and she was confused and didn't know what to do, or didn't know if she could even turn to her parents, then shouldn't we eliminate abortion as a possibility. If someone is upset and confused, it's a terrible crime to burden them with deciding whether to kill their child. They need some support, emotionally, financially, etc to get through the life altering event. Leaving abortion legal for this reason is like giving guns to people suicidally depressed and then asking them to decide for themselves. A person doesn't have to be suicidal to know that's wrong.

When people become emotionally involved in something, because it happens to them, they often aren't thinking clearly as they can't see things from a detached perspective. They get tied up in what's in front of them and miss the obvious. Laws can help act as a guide in these cases as you have it written, "This is wrong, no matter how right you think it feels at the moment."

Granted, as a man I can't understand entirely what a pregnant woman goes through. However, I'm the oldest of 4 children. My first brother was born when I was 5, my sister when I was 10, and my second brother when I was 16. I've been able to observe my parents' reactions to pregnancy several times, at different points in my life.

If I recall correctly, both my sister and second brother were 'unexpected' pregnancies. Especially my second brother, as my mom was in her early 40's at that point and never thought she'd have another child. Financially speaking, at both times my family wasn't doing well. Yes, we had a home, but that was about it. No medical insurance, no savings, couldn't even afford a monthly cable bill at one point. My father didn't really have steady employment during those times, at one point he was employed by a construction company that pretty much fell apart, and then had a job that once it was going well, the owner decided to close the business and retire. My parents were somewhat estranged from their parents, and didn't have many people to turn to when they needed help.

Health wise, these pregnancies were equally troubling for my mother. She'd suffered severe postpartum psychosis after my first brother was born, and it was likely more children would cause her to relapse. I doubt she wanted to risk having a break down and killing her kids or something. She did have a relapse after my sister was born, although it ended up being no where near as bad as what had happened the first time.

Despite all that, my mother would never even consider an abortion. My father stood by her through everything, I doubt the thought of leaving us ever entered his mind. Parents teach their kids by example, yet my father's parents had divorced when he was a kid, so he never had a father in his life to serve as an example of fatherhood. As a matter of fact, his only example in life was that men leave, yet he refused to follow that example. When my parents were first married, my mother's parents practically disowned her (although they did make amends eventually), as they disapproved of my father so much. They literally let my parents live on the street, despite them asking for help, when they couldn't afford an apartment. My father's mother died of cancer when I was very young, and like I said, my father barely knew his own father. They didn't have many people they could turn to for help, they were faced with the 'bad times', but they didn't go against their principles to take the 'easy way' out.

It's my mother who really hammered it into my head that abortion is immoral, and never should be allowed under any circumstance. She is unrelenting in that, even when I posed a hypothetical like "what would I do if I was married and my wife's life was in danger?". So, despite being a man, my perspective on abortion is greatly influenced by what my mother has said and done in her life. I may never be able to experience what it means to be a pregnant woman, but my mother has and she tells me all the time (and I mean all the time, as if I didn't understand it yet Sarcasm) that abortion is immoral and wrong no matter the circumstances. She's stood by that even when things got bad for her, and despite the death threats she used to get from some 'pro-choice' people when she did volunteer work for pro-life groups.

Kytten9

While I respect your opinions, I seriously doubt anyone who isn't female would have a clearer or more valid perspective on this. You don't have a uterus so you cannot understand the pressures of being a woman, same said as I cannot fully appreciate the pressures of being a guy.


Interesting perspective I ran across the other day:

Men are Responsible for the Abortion Problem

To quote a part:
Quote:

Wantonly destroying one's children is not a choice that most women make enthusiastically. In fact, most women who have had abortions say that they would choose to keep their babies if they felt that they could do so. Women who find themselves in the crisis pregnancy feel that for practical reasons they have no choice but abortion. And, in nearly all cases, men are at fault.


Letting women have abortions because they've been abandoned isn't a solution to the problem, it only makes the situation worse. Men think they can make women get abortions, or just abandon them in part because things like abortion are legal. Society needs to help people, not let them destroy themselves or others.

NeoSaber

Renegade Map Maker at CnC Source
Animator/Compiler/Level Editor/Object Rigger/Programmer for Red Alert: A Path Beyond

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