This comment is from Amie on Josh Bowman’s piece, Ten Things I’ve Learned From “Having” An Abortion:
“I am legitimately curious to see statistics showing men are largely behind the pro-life side of the issue. Abortion is such a hard issue for me. I do NOT condone it as birth control, at all. I do think it should be available in the first trimester for medical reasons and for rape/incest victims. But it is a truly emotional issue, and having had the privilege of working as a photographer in the NICU and labor and delivery wards, I have had the unique experience of seeing, touching, even holding babies as tiny, gestationally speaking, as 14 weeks.I can say that experience 100% changed my views on second trimester abortions, and I feel third trimester abortions are just plain wrong.
Now, personally speaking, I had my son as a teenager. His dad and I were poor, were not together, and had a volatile relationship. I worked my ass off, did the best I could, and am the mother to an intellectually gifted, bright, unique, open-minded teenager who has his sites set on Ivy League. Now, many may say the beauty of it is that I had a choice, but if you were to ask my son, I’d say he favors the life he has, imperfect as it has been, to none at all. I have also given birth to a beautiful daughter with birth defects, who ultimately died at 6 months. Again, I am guessing (though I cannot speak for a deceased baby) she preferred the 6 months of flawed life she had, to a partial birth or late 2nd trimester abortion (which was when we found out about her issues). I know each person has their own story, and I respect that fully, but just wanted to share a bit of mine.”
Photo courtesy of hudsonthego
“If you were to ask my son, I’d say….” My first reaction was to notice the giant disconnect in this quote. If I were to ask person A, then person B would answer? That really just gives me the perspective of Person B, even though I was trying to ask Person A. That’s a nice little sleight of hand, speaking for someone who can’t speak, like using another person as a puppet. Then I thought about it some more. That’s a parent speaking to the experience of her own child, speaking about what would be best for that child and… Read more »
What a stupid comment to make as a support or opposition to abortions! Of course asking a non-aborted child living a great life –with the HINDSIGHT of how everything turned out — if he’d wished he’d been aborted….Jeez! How ridiculous! The earth is vastly over-populated already and getting even worse. I’m as about “pro-life” as one can get: if we don’t reduce the rape of the earth from breeding humans, we all are going to be dead from starvation, thirst, pollution, not to mention leading what lives devoid of the quality we have come to expect. Science and technology has… Read more »
Do you have kids or are you planning on it? Or do you wish to have a vasectomy or getting your tubes tied?
P.S. ” If two people are of the age of consent, then there is consent,”
That didn’t come out right. I meant that if two people related to each other consent, then they consent. It’s the same as consensual sex between two people not related to each other. Consent is consent. Lack of consent is lack of consent.
An exception for rape/incest is in effect no real exception at all. Abortion access pretty much has to be an all-or-nothing choice in terms of consensual sex vs. rape. The “what about in cases of rape?” wrinkle is essentially a dead-end. Great rhetorical value, but in practice not a sustainable exception. I say this as someone who thinks in general that abortion access should be safe and legal. One problem with making a special exception for rape is the practicalities involved with setting up a fair burden of proof. If the only thing needed is for a pregnant woman to… Read more »
very true, in regard to burden of proof. which is why i am “more” opposed to a gestational restriction than a situational one.
I’m glad your son values the life he has, but not all children are born in to lives such as his. Not all children are born into families who want them. A person born into such as situation may regret being born in to that situation. You’ve assumed that any child will be happy to exist, but you don’t know what a child will be like or what life that child will be born into. It’s wrong to deny someone their right to do what’s best for their body and their life based upon the wants you are supposing a… Read more »
Just as you have assumed that not all children would want to live. That can be true for anyone. Even someone born into the best of situations can end up loathing life. “a nonexistent child” is not what I considered my 12 week baby when I found out I was pregnant.
Would you mind explaining why you think abortion should be available to rape/incest victims if you truly believe that the “child’s choice” should be a priority, let alone a factor, in the decision to end a pregnancy? By your own logic, wouldn’t the child of rape/incest choose to live a “flawed life” as well?
Because I have never walked in those shoes. I’ve never been raped, or molested by a relative. And again, it’s not the scenario so much, as the progression in the pregnancy that concerns me. I think if it is to be done, it should be done early. I just don’t agree with abortion as birth control. I never will.
“Though I cannot speak for a deceased baby, I’m just gonna go ahead and speak for my deceased baby.”
“Again, I am GUESSING (though I cannot speak for a deceased baby).” I held her. She smiled. She laughed. I held her hand. Tickled her. Sang to her. She may have lived a flawed life, but it was the best one I could give her. A far cry from a partial birth abortion, or late second trimester abortion if you ask me. Doesn’t take a great deal of assuming to come to this conclusion.
Smiling and laughing are not indicative of happiness. Infants are born with the instinct to smile and laugh so that mothers like you will think they are delightful and happy. I’m gonna go ahead and make a hypothetical. Forcing an 18 girl to have a child, thus ravaging her body, leaving her with permanent emotional scarring, and potentially destroying her future, so that her defected baby can have 6 months of instinctual smiling and giggling, really doesn’t add up to me.
Your comment “Forcing an 18 girl to have a child, thus ravaging her body, leaving her with permanent emotional scarring, and potentially destroying her future, so that her defected baby can have 6 months of instinctual smiling and giggling, really doesn’t add up to me.” makes no sense in regard to my situation. I was not 18, the issue wasn’t an unplanned pregnancy, it was the decision to terminate late in the second trimester based on birth defects. Your first comment does not even merit response.