Let's have the abortion talk here. Right here. This thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First anyone can be ashamed of anything medical. Roe v Wade was about privacy.
Second, there is growing evidence that this is not just about religion. Women suffer, even if they were not raised to be anti-abortion.
Third, we need to stiffen up child support laws, then talk pro life.
BTW, I am pro life, anti death penalty.

Oxymoron, and the fundamental flaw with the anti-abortion movement.

Don't generalize. Ther are many of us that are truly pro life, in all cases.

And what you people do not get is that abortions have always been and always be around. The only difference is in the past 30plus years they have been safe and legal. A woman who feels she needs an abortion will always find a way to get one. The anti-choice people have no respect for a woman's privacy or safety.

[Anonymous]

I've never had one, but I know three women who had abortions, and none of them regrets it. All were very early, almost as soon as they knew that they were pregnant. One who was 18 when she had it and is now 43 has a PhD, two gorgeous kids, a great husband, and works as a pharmaceutical researcher. Turns out that zygote daddy is gay, after all. He has a nice partner too, I hear. She loves her life and says that she would not have her life or her kids if someone had forced her to choose a 10-week fetus with no brain waves over her own future when she was a college freshman. She knows that she has nothing to be guilty about.

My husband got his first girlfriend pregnant about one month after they started having sex. He was 17, she was sixteen. Condom broke. She had a first-trimester abortion. The state required both of the girl's parents to be notified and the father just about murdered my husband, who was profoundly sad and regretful about what had happened and had never been sure that they were ready for sex. Today, he's fervently pro-choice but not because he got a free pass. It wasn't free for him. It required his first girlfriend to undergo a painful procedure and for many years thereafter made him associate sex with risk and sadness. Like most thoughtful pro-choice people I know, he realizes that every abortion involves something that shouldn't have happened. But he would never force any woman to have a life-altering pregnancy and birth, or even to face her parents' wrath.

I agree that there is too much shame surrounding abortion, and wish that anti-choicers would stop perpetuating the stereotype of irresponsible women running around getting 8. That's the minority. And folks, there's a gap in your logic--if it's so emotionally devastating, why are all us dumb chicks getting abortions like they were manicures. Make up your minds-- we're either too fragile to make our own choice and deal with it, or too callous and cruel to bother to avoid pregnancy. One or the other.

Better yet, neither.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never had one, but I know three women who had abortions, and none of them regrets it. All were very early, almost as soon as they knew that they were pregnant. One who was 18 when she had it and is now 43 has a PhD, two gorgeous kids, a great husband, and works as a pharmaceutical researcher. Turns out that zygote daddy is gay, after all. He has a nice partner too, I hear. She loves her life and says that she would not have her life or her kids if someone had forced her to choose a 10-week fetus with no brain waves over her own future when she was a college freshman. She knows that she has nothing to be guilty about.

My husband got his first girlfriend pregnant about one month after they started having sex. He was 17, she was sixteen. Condom broke. She had a first-trimester abortion. The state required both of the girl's parents to be notified and the father just about murdered my husband, who was profoundly sad and regretful about what had happened and had never been sure that they were ready for sex. Today, he's fervently pro-choice but not because he got a free pass. It wasn't free for him. It required his first girlfriend to undergo a painful procedure and for many years thereafter made him associate sex with risk and sadness. Like most thoughtful pro-choice people I know, he realizes that every abortion involves something that shouldn't have happened. But he would never force any woman to have a life-altering pregnancy and birth, or even to face her parents' wrath.

I agree that there is too much shame surrounding abortion, and wish that anti-choicers would stop perpetuating the stereotype of irresponsible women running around getting 8. That's the minority. And folks, there's a gap in your logic--if it's so emotionally devastating, why are all us dumb chicks getting abortions like they were manicures. Make up your minds-- we're either too fragile to make our own choice and deal with it, or too callous and cruel to bother to avoid pregnancy. One or the other.

Better yet, neither.

Most people I know regret having to throw out a living plant, and if at all possible will instead find a new home for it.

[Anonymous]

I would be devastated if I had to have an abortion - no matter how early on. I absolutely think the baby is alive, etc.

I am definitely pro-life.

I think it is a serious matter, is not birth control, and I imagine for many women is heartbreaking. But I absolutely think it is better for women who are not ready to have children, not to have them. And though I hope to never, ever be in this situation, if I found out my child would likely not be born alive, or die within a few months because of an abnormality like the debate going on a few weeks ago on DCUM, I would have an abortion later than the first trimester.

[Anonymous]

It's a tragic choice, but I support that choice for women in their first trimester. I support it later to save the life of the mother as well. So I guess I'm pro-choice with an asterix.

[Anonymous]

I think every woman should have the right to do what she so choses with her body and NOT be judged because of it.

When I got pregnant about 3 years ago (for the first time), I couldn't do it. I knew the dad wouldn't be there for the baby (and he isn't) and I would have to go through all of it on my own. I don't have family here, so I knew it would be tough. However, I thought that living with this in the back on my mind forever would've been even harder. So I didn't do it.

Now (I want to stress again that I still think each woman should do whatever is best for her), if I got pregnant again, right now, the way things are (single mom of a toddler) I wouldn't hesitate. If I had another baby now my DC would be the one most affected by it. I work 50h/week, have time for nothing and barely hang out with my child because I'm either at work or exhausted. I wouldn't think twice and wouldn't feel guilty about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a tragic choice, but I support that choice for women in their first trimester. I support it later to save the life of the mother as well. So I guess I'm pro-choice with an asterix.

Does anyone here (MD's included) know how an abortion can SAVE the life of the mother?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a tragic choice, but I support that choice for women in their first trimester. I support it later to save the life of the mother as well. So I guess I'm pro-choice with an asterix.

Does anyone here (MD's included) know how an abortion can SAVE the life of the mother?

My mother had to have a medical abortion in 1967 to save her life. She had a heart condition and was severely anemic. She could not carry a child to term. The abortion was performed at Suburban Hospital, where she had been a patient for 2.5 months. I still consider that child my sister/brother, but I'm not sorry that my mother's life was saved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a tragic choice, but I support that choice for women in their first trimester. I support it later to save the life of the mother as well. So I guess I'm pro-choice with an asterix.

Does anyone here (MD's included) know how an abortion can SAVE the life of the mother?

For one, in instances of severe preeclampsia / HELLP syndrome.

[Anonymous]

So, for those who don't feel anyone has the right to take a life...do you believe in the death sentence? If your beloved pet is sick, would you put them down or would you watch them suffer until they pass on their own?

I have issues with people who use abortion as family planning. However, the people who I know had one once and never again.

So let's say a child is born to a drug addicted mother and an abusive father. She did not have an abortion because the abusive husband/bf said he'd kill her if she did. That child is now better off in that family? That child which will most likely have MANY problems b/c of the mothers drug addictioin?

[Anonymous]

For one, in instances of severe preeclampsia / HELLP syndrome.

Instances of preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome are likely after 24 weeks though? Why not deliver a viable baby? Why is is necessary to first kill the baby (via potassium injection which is how it is done) and then deliver a dead baby (via induction or c/s)?
I have never understood the reasoning behind late term abortions to "save the mother's life".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For one, in instances of severe preeclampsia / HELLP syndrome.

Instances of preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome are likely after 24 weeks though? Why not deliver a viable baby? Why is is necessary to first kill the baby (via potassium injection which is how it is done) and then deliver a dead baby (via induction or c/s)?
I have never understood the reasoning behind late term abortions to "save the mother's life".

24 weeks is not viable.

And the question is not whether you see the reasoning. The question is whether the doctor, the woman, and her partner see the reasoning-- and whether in those instances the government or an electorate made up of laypeople and strangers should be able to second-guess and endanger that woman's life or health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

For one, in instances of severe preeclampsia / HELLP syndrome.

Instances of preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome are likely after 24 weeks though? Why not deliver a viable baby? Why is is necessary to first kill the baby (via potassium injection which is how it is done) and then deliver a dead baby (via induction or c/s)?
I have never understood the reasoning behind late term abortions to "save the mother's life".

24 weeks is not viable.

And the question is not whether you see the reasoning. The question is whether the doctor, the woman, and her partner see the reasoning-- and whether in those instances the government or an electorate made up of laypeople and strangers should be able to second-guess and endanger that woman's life or health.

In your opinion at what stage is the baby viable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

For one, in instances of severe preeclampsia / HELLP syndrome.

Instances of preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome are likely after 24 weeks though? Why not deliver a viable baby? Why is is necessary to first kill the baby (via potassium injection which is how it is done) and then deliver a dead baby (via induction or c/s)?
I have never understood the reasoning behind late term abortions to "save the mother's life".

24 weeks is not viable.

And the question is not whether you see the reasoning. The question is whether the doctor, the woman, and her partner see the reasoning-- and whether in those instances the government or an electorate made up of laypeople and strangers should be able to second-guess and endanger that woman's life or health.

Oh really?
http://immenseknowledge.blogspot.com/2007/09/worlds-tiniest-baby-born-at-24-weeks.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-564459/We-babies-24-week-abortion-limit--survived.html

http://preemie.info/cms/modules/news/article.php?storyid=202

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20060402/ai_n16206402/

and etc...you can find a huge number of these survival stories
Yes, 25 weeks (big 1 week jump there) is considered "viable", but obviously these amazing LIVING things are surviving earlier than that...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For one, in instances of severe preeclampsia / HELLP syndrome.

Instances of preeclampsia/HELLP syndrome are likely after 24 weeks though? Why not deliver a viable baby? Why is is necessary to first kill the baby (via potassium injection which is how it is done) and then deliver a dead baby (via induction or c/s)?
I have never understood the reasoning behind late term abortions to "save the mother's life".

They are likely after that time, but can indeed occur earlier. The case I can think of involved a woman at 22 weeks, which is pretty clearly pre-viability at this point in time. And I believe her 'abortion' involved induction of labor, with the knowledge that a child born at that point in gestation does not have a chance at survival, but I do not believe the child died in utero prior to delivery. Which was an unbelievably traumatic experience for the mother. I do not know enough about the details to know what it means for all other cases, but I do know other women where the late-term abortion meant induction of labor for a pre-viability baby.

Also - I do not believe the term 'late term abortion' is restricted to use in abortions after the point of viability. A quick wikipedia reference indicates that the terminology is variable, and can range from abortions anytime after 12 weeks to those past the point of viability.