Anonymous wrote:NP. I had an ultrasound at 7 weeks. While I didn't see limbs flapping, I did see the heart flickering. And then I heard it beating. I could never terminate my own child and I feel sad for those babies who are terminated, but I also understand everyone has different circumstances.

I also feel that abortions after 16 weeks should be limited to those in which there is a medical reason (mother's life is endangered or baby is found to have some issue with a poor prognosis).

Many/most of us on DCUM planned to have children, TTC, researched OBs or midwives, had prenatal care, etc. But 50% of pregnancies are unintended, and at 16 weeks, they may not even know they are pregnant, or only just found out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm more pro-choice than ever. Labor and delivery is dangerous, even in a 1st world, modern hospital with all the bells and whistles. People die in childbirth, even in the US. (I almost did.)

Nobody should have the right to force someone into taking that risk on against her will. It's HER life that is on the line, and even the most low risk, healthy pregnancy can wrong at the last minute. Mine did.

Forcing a woman into carrying a child against her will is a kind of slavery. You are forcing her to submit her body and her life to the needs of other people. No. Just no.

You sound as if women become pregnant by immaculate conception.
If a woman doesn’t want to become pregnant, there are ways to avoid pregnancy.
It’s not like someone is “forcing a pregnancy.”

This is such a tired response. Sure there are ways to avoid pregnancy and in a perfect world no one would have sex if they weren't using 100% fool proof birth control.

Here in the real world, 50% of pregnancies in the US are unintended.

I think that to claim a clump of four cells is a human with the same rights as a person is the height of madness. Extreme positions like that make it impossible to find any middle ground, and is why many people like myself become very pro-choice even though we are not fans of abortion.

I was always more pro-choice than you were, OP, but being a parent has made me more so for the reasons you state. And, I would rather my underage daughter have an abortion unless I was going to be the one raising the child (we are assuming she can't or won't). I'm also an adoptive mom, so I'm pro adoption for a lot of circumstances but not necessarily in the case you are describing. I think that having kids makes me feel more strongly than ever that children deserve parents who are able to care for them in every way.

Anonymous wrote:NP. I had an ultrasound at 7 weeks. While I didn't see limbs flapping, I did see the heart flickering. And then I heard it beating. I could never terminate my own child and I feel sad for those babies who are terminated, but I also understand everyone has different circumstances.

I also feel that abortions after 16 weeks should be limited to those in which there is a medical reason (mother's life is endangered or baby is found to have some issue with a poor prognosis).

10 weeks. Could see a human being -arms, legs, jumping around. Could also see enough facial features to see what he looked like. No doubt it was a person

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I find this comment curious.
You do realize that once you are pregnant, that “little clump of cells” grows into a human being, right?
Not an amoeba, not a reptile, not an alien.
Pro lifers understand science quite well - we understand that an abortions destroys a human life.

But it's not, it's only a maybe. We don't count birthdays from conception, we don't get to claim fetuses as dependent a for tax purposes, etc. Pro-choicers rightly believe that forced pregnancy and birth can ruin an actual, existing, contributing human life.

That eliminates a huge part of our population...

NP. I had an ultrasound at 7 weeks. While I didn't see limbs flapping, I did see the heart flickering. And then I heard it beating. I could never terminate my own child and I feel sad for those babies who are terminated, but I also understand everyone has different circumstances.

I also feel that abortions after 16 weeks should be limited to those in which there is a medical reason (mother's life is endangered or baby is found to have some issue with a poor prognosis).

I became both more pro-choice and more pro-life. At a very visceral level I am more "pro-life" because I struggled with infertility for so long and my child was such a gift. At the political level, I am more pro-choice. I now believe even more strongly in reproductive rights for their own sake, and as a tool to help achieve full equality for women.

Anonymous wrote:I'm more pro-choice than ever. Labor and delivery is dangerous, even in a 1st world, modern hospital with all the bells and whistles. People die in childbirth, even in the US. (I almost did.)

Nobody should have the right to force someone into taking that risk on against her will. It's HER life that is on the line, and even the most low risk, healthy pregnancy can wrong at the last minute. Mine did.

Forcing a woman into carrying a child against her will is a kind of slavery. You are forcing her to submit her body and her life to the needs of other people. No. Just no.

You sound as if women become pregnant by immaculate conception.
If a woman doesn’t want to become pregnant, there are ways to avoid pregnancy.
It’s not like someone is “forcing a pregnancy.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm more pro-choice than ever. Labor and delivery is dangerous, even in a 1st world, modern hospital with all the bells and whistles. People die in childbirth, even in the US. (I almost did.)

Nobody should have the right to force someone into taking that risk on against her will. It's HER life that is on the line, and even the most low risk, healthy pregnancy can wrong at the last minute. Mine did.

Forcing a woman into carrying a child against her will is a kind of slavery. You are forcing her to submit her body and her life to the needs of other people. No. Just no.

+1 More pro-choice than ever

+2

Anonymous wrote:I'm more pro-choice than ever. Labor and delivery is dangerous, even in a 1st world, modern hospital with all the bells and whistles. People die in childbirth, even in the US. (I almost did.)

Nobody should have the right to force someone into taking that risk on against her will. It's HER life that is on the line, and even the most low risk, healthy pregnancy can wrong at the last minute. Mine did.

Forcing a woman into carrying a child against her will is a kind of slavery. You are forcing her to submit her body and her life to the needs of other people. No. Just no.

+1 More pro-choice than ever

I'm more pro-choice than ever. Labor and delivery is dangerous, even in a 1st world, modern hospital with all the bells and whistles. People die in childbirth, even in the US. (I almost did.)

Nobody should have the right to force someone into taking that risk on against her will. It's HER life that is on the line, and even the most low risk, healthy pregnancy can wrong at the last minute. Mine did.

Forcing a woman into carrying a child against her will is a kind of slavery. You are forcing her to submit her body and her life to the needs of other people. No. Just no.

I am more prolife. I lost my second pregnancy and had a high risk pregnancy the third time around. As a result, we had many, frequent pretty high definition scans so I was able to see her development from a very early stage. She was clearly not just a "clump of cells" at the stage that most abortions occur. It became apparent that she had limbs that would be ripped apart by a vacuum abortion or curette for a D & C. By the second trimester, we witnessed behaviors that were very much like those of a newborn. Thumb-sucking for example. It horrified me that it was legal to stab scissors in her brain stem and suction out the contents of her skull to collapse it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I experienced the opposite. I'm still pro-choice but I used to think the fetus was just a clump of cells for much longer. It was shocking to me when I saw my 8 week old fetus flapping its limbs.

Shocks me too since it didn't happen.

+1

+2- At 8 weeks the fetus looks like a jelly bean- I know this because I had to have an ultrasound at 8 weeks.

Pro lifers only sort of understand science. Just enough to get emotional about it.
Fwiw- I am pregnant right now and still feel very pro choice. Even after years of infertility and difficulty conceiving.

I find this comment curious.
You do realize that once you are pregnant, that “little clump of cells” grows into a human being, right?
Not an amoeba, not a reptile, not an alien.
Pro lifers understand science quite well - we understand that an abortions destroys a human life.

I'll say this and leave the discussion, because this always becomes a black/white religious debate - and I'm not interested. I am pregnant right now with a 38 week old fetus. This is basically a fully formed baby and could live on its own if I delivered tmw. what I am growing now is not equivalent to what I was growing at 8 weeks. Something that can become a human - is not yet a human.
Would I think it horrible for someone to take a healthy pregnancy to term and want to terminate at the end? Yes. That however is between a woman and her doctor. Not the state.
If my doctor told me today that my life was in danger if I didn't terminate - that is a medical discussion for me and my doc and no one else.

No. Just the opposite.

I'm more pro-choice than ever.

I want my kids and their girl-boyfriends to have all the rights DH and I have enjoyed.

Prochoice forever!