Read Jill tolentino in the New Yorker on abortion. This will weaken privacy laws, so maybe you can hang your hat there. The US has a too-high maternal death rate, which will only skyrocket. There will be a lot of repercussions that you might consider: higher crime rate, increased taxes to support welfare initiatives, widening income gap, how population increases destroy the environment, etc.

It needs to exist as a right.

The immense majority of abortions are pill abortions that induce expulsion in very early pregnancies, well before the fetus is viable. To me that it not murder. It's women making perfectly legitimate choices for themselves.

Late-term abortions are exceedingly rare, BECAUSE THEY ARE DANGEROUS FOR THE MOTHER. No one ever wants to do a late-term abortion!!! They are done under duress when the life of the mother is at stake, or the fetus is non-viable. They can be physically and psychologically traumatic. Allowing late-term abortions will never, ever, lead to significantly increased numbers them.

So this whole abortion debacle is not about preventing the deaths of viable fetuses. It's about forcing women to miscarry naturally or have sometimes lethal or permanent complications from pregnancy or birth, and forcing them to have babies they don't want, and burdening society with families who were never meant to be. It's a crime.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I have mixed emotions. I bet most people do, OP.

Doubt it. Plenty of pro-choice people do not celebrate all the abortions. But they 100% celebrate a free society.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure I'll be crucified for posting this because emotions are running very high.
Life-long democratic woman (voted Obama x 2, Hilary, Biden and about a zillion other demographic and very progressive candidates over the years).
Very pro-gay rights, pro-strict gun control, etc. Quietly live in NW DC and indistinguishable from a zillion other progressive DC residents.

But when it comes down to it I feel fundamentally very, very conflicted. I am repulsed by the Republican party and I recoil at their hypocrisy, their treatment of the poor, minorities, women etc.
and yet I have long been deeply grieved by the issue of abortion. The fact the United States aborted 600,000 to 800,000 babies last year (I just googled for this number--it's not something I've ever looked up before) is very troubling to me.
I've never really reconciled the abortion issue in my brain. I've chosen to completely ignore it in the voting booth because I feel that there are scores of more important issues out there. I guess when the rubber hits-the-road I support abortion as a necessary evil and an important healthcare option in cases of health of mother, baby, and likely incest, rape but I'm not sure how we as a country get from this to so many terminations per year. So with this ruling I am feeling all sorts of conflicting thoughts. Mostly just sadness. Anyone else with me? I know we are out there because I've had this conversation with several very, very close, very safe friends who feel similarly since this happened yesterday.

You're pro choice, OP. I don't get why you're so "conflicted" when in about 1/2 the states women will no longer have those options.

Most people aren’t single-issue voters on this topic, which you would never know by looking through this forum

I do not have mixed emotions. My oldest child, who was wanted and loved, had all his vital organs forming outside his little body inside me. He had no chance of life and would have died in pain had the pregnancy not been terminated.

Anonymous wrote:I am against abortion. Banning them is not the way to go about it.

+1

The rich will still get them.

The poor will try them with coat hangers.

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure I'll be crucified for posting this because emotions are running very high.
Life-long democratic woman (voted Obama x 2, Hilary, Biden and about a zillion other demographic and very progressive candidates over the years).
Very pro-gay rights, pro-strict gun control, etc. Quietly live in NW DC and indistinguishable from a zillion other progressive DC residents.

But when it comes down to it I feel fundamentally very, very conflicted. I am repulsed by the Republican party and I recoil at their hypocrisy, their treatment of the poor, minorities, women etc.
and yet I have long been deeply grieved by the issue of abortion. The fact the United States aborted 600,000 to 800,000 babies last year (I just googled for this number--it's not something I've ever looked up before) is very troubling to me.
I've never really reconciled the abortion issue in my brain. I've chosen to completely ignore it in the voting booth because I feel that there are scores of more important issues out there. I guess when the rubber hits-the-road I support abortion as a necessary evil and an important healthcare option in cases of health of mother, baby, and likely incest, rape but I'm not sure how we as a country get from this to so many terminations per year. So with this ruling I am feeling all sorts of conflicting thoughts. Mostly just sadness. Anyone else with me? I know we are out there because I've had this conversation with several very, very close, very safe friends who feel similarly since this happened yesterday.

You're pro choice, OP. I don't get why you're so "conflicted" when in about 1/2 the states women will no longer have those options.

I am against abortion. Banning them is not the way to go about it.

No. You know why? Because I look at the most successful ways to decrease the rate of abortions, and both here and abroad, it's not by allowing or promoting them to be banned.

I'm all for ways to decrease the rate of abortions being sought that are actually effective. Are you?

Anonymous wrote:No. I am against abortion for myself but completely pro-choice for all other women.

+1. This is how it’s done. Although when the rubber hits the road, most people who are personally opposed to abortion won’t hesitate to get one when their oops baby at 43 will be profoundly disabled and will require extensive care they can’t afford long after they’re gone.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I have mixed emotions. I bet most people do, OP.

+1

Yes, I have mixed emotions. I bet most people do, OP.

No. I am against abortion for myself but completely pro-choice for all other women.

Wow. No. And I sincerely doubt that you have multiple friends who feel the same way because you’ve completely invented that. I’m mourning the actual women and girls who are going to get slaughtered in service to 6 peoples’ corruption and religious extremism.

I'm sure I'll be crucified for posting this because emotions are running very high.
Life-long democratic woman (voted Obama x 2, Hilary, Biden and about a zillion other demographic and very progressive candidates over the years).
Very pro-gay rights, pro-strict gun control, etc. Quietly live in NW DC and indistinguishable from a zillion other progressive DC residents.

But when it comes down to it I feel fundamentally very, very conflicted. I am repulsed by the Republican party and I recoil at their hypocrisy, their treatment of the poor, minorities, women etc.
and yet I have long been deeply grieved by the issue of abortion. The fact the United States aborted 600,000 to 800,000 babies last year (I just googled for this number--it's not something I've ever looked up before) is very troubling to me.
I've never really reconciled the abortion issue in my brain. I've chosen to completely ignore it in the voting booth because I feel that there are scores of more important issues out there. I guess when the rubber hits-the-road I support abortion as a necessary evil and an important healthcare option in cases of health of mother, baby, and likely incest, rape but I'm not sure how we as a country get from this to so many terminations per year. So with this ruling I am feeling all sorts of conflicting thoughts. Mostly just sadness. Anyone else with me? I know we are out there because I've had this conversation with several very, very close, very safe friends who feel similarly since this happened yesterday.