History of Abortion: Opinion Interlude — How Do You Feel About Abortion?
March 5, 2008 by Kristen King
Filed under Women's Health
Starting last month, we began exploring the history of abortion with a review of some nonsurgical abortion techniques. We’ll wrap that up this week and move into more current events throughout the month. But in the meantime, let’s take a moment to talk about the issue. How do you feel about abortion? Please respond in the poll below and/or leave a comment on this post. You’re welcome to select a survey answer and elaborate in the comments, or just answer the poll.
Check back for results and more info on the history of abortion in the US and around the world.
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Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King
Tags: womens health blog, womens health, controversial issues, abortion, history of abortion, what do you think about abortion, abortion should be illegal, abortion should be legal, lively women, kristen king
I am really torn on the topic. I have a big problem with people using abortion as a form of birth control – and I do know some who have. Yet, I can understand the problem if someone is not ready to have a child. On the other hand, a few good friends of mine did have one earlier in their life and I don’t think it’s up to me to judge if that was right or wrong – it was the right decision for them at the time. It doesn’t change how I feel about them.
I guess I’m technically against it but I feel that it should be legally available to those who do want/need it because otherwise, we’ll end up with an even larger tragedy of the backstreet and dangerous abortions.
Thanks for your comment, Marijke. I can also understand how someone may not be ready to have a child, but I have a hard time with the thought of aborting a baby when there are SO many options for adoption in this country and thousands of parents who would do anything to adopt an unwanted baby because they can’t have one of their own. So is abortion when you just don’t want a kid a selfish thing to do?
I personally couldn’t do it but if another woman feels it’s the right thing for her than that is her decision. My daughters are included in that group. I’ll drive to the clinic and sit with her and try to be as helpful as I can. I hope to never have to do that but I will.
It’s really hard. I don’t think people are actually PRO abortion. Although that’s me just being naive. Some people do view it as a form of birth control. I think people…women and men are just afraid and feel helpless and hopeless and because they’ve made a mistake already they can’t bear to make another one: meaning raising a child when they’re not ready.
I do believe in the sanctity of life, even as someone who is destroying her own…but there is just something miraculous about life…something that makes me honestly BELIEVE in the good of the world when I see babies. Because they’re so innocent. That being said, the government should not be allowed to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body and her life. I wish there were another alternative…and there are. Adoption. Safe sex. Abstinence. But at the end of the day I wish no woman or man were ever in the position where they needed to make such a decision. To choose one life over another…such a society that we live in when we as women say that our futures, our livelihoods are more important than anothers. But that is the world we live in. One country is superior or at least behaves in that manner. One gender is superior. Another race is superior. Another religion. Sometimes I feel like I cannot be pro-death penalty and pro-life. In my heart, it is murder. The government says we can sentence a man to death for premeditated murder but also says a woman has the right to choose her own destiny. Doesn’t it seem contradictory?
At the end of the day, it is too hard to say. These are my views and luckily for the world we all have different opinions on what is moral and immoral and what we ourselves can live with. Just as I personally could never have an abortion, I could also never join the armed services and fight in a war. I could never destroy someone else’s life. But someone could look at me and say, “I could never do what she does to herself. I could never have an eating disorder. I could never live with THAT.”
Legal abortions save lives though. It gives women a way out of a desperate situation. But it also destroys humanity. It’s really hard. It’s just really hard. But that being said, I agree with what everyone else has said. I’ve sat in the clinic with friends and sadly I’ve given money to those who couldn’t afford to pay for it themselves. And as devastating as it was for me to do that given my own views, I would do it again. The only thing we can do in a situation like abortion is say I love you and I’m here for you and I don’t agree with your decision but I support who you are. I respect who you are. And I respect that this is your decision to make and so here’s my hand if you need to take hold of it.
Erin, what an insightful comment. I think you really got to the heart of the matter, and I’m so glad you shared those thoughts. Please come back and continue the discussion!
If abortion were legal, i would not be here today. i think every one deserves a right to a great life. Maybe more people should consider adoption
I’m personally for abortion, but not because it’s “right” or “wrong”. Because of abortion’s paradoxical moral intricacy, i propose we put aside morality and focus on abortion from a purely rational view in terms of its wider implications.
While its great to allow a person a chance to live life, they’re only putting more strain on the many world problems associated with overpopulation. For example, more people means more mouths to feed, meaning food is scarcer and more expensive for the rest of us, more natural resources are consumed and more fossil fuels are being burnt. In the big picture, outlawing abortions allows unwanted population growth, which is not only problematic for the mother, but ultimately problematic for society and even the environment. If we allow abortion, it will act as a much-needed population control method that, at the risk of sounding evil, will prove beneficial for the earth.
People sometimes fail to make the distinction between wether something is morally justifiable, and wether it should be permissible. Abortion is an evil, no doubt about it, but it is a necessary evil for the wellbeing of the mother, society and the environment. It makes sense that we want to live righteously, as we’ve been brought up that way, but its important to understand when we need to get our hands dirty, when we need to compromise ethics we hold dear for something bigger than us.
And so, we can’t win this debate either way on pure human decency. I don’t expect you to agree with me, but I urge you to base your opinion on a rational, evidential standpoint when instinct fails.
and yes, while I wouldn’t like to be aborted for this reason, I would accept it if i understood.
I am pro choice, If someone isn’t ready for the baby then they should abort it. If they are physicaly and emotionaly ready to have a kid then have the kid. It should be the persons choice on who’s having the kid or not.
i’m not a pro-abortionist, but i am pro-choice.
i don’t like abortion, especially since in most cases putting kids up for adoption is a far less barbaric alternative.
but since there isn’t any objectively-based case against it that people can agree on (is it immoral? is it murder? etc.), its seems slightly better for the mother to make her own decision that for a government to make such a personal, ethical decision for her.
this is a debate that can’t be held in a courtroom, but in the conscience of every mother who is confronted with the choice.