ølfeen said:
Tyra, really great thoughts! But after your story about prednancy i'm starting to wish i were a man, instead of a woman)))
Sorry...Mind you, some women love being pregnant. I love my kids, and they were planned, and I was willing to put up with it for nine months just to have them for an hour. I was pregnant with one that didn't make it, and I don't regret that one either, for what it's worth. I also clean puke from carpets, crappy diapers, snotty noses and all that for them, too, so a bit of swollen ankles and 14 hours of labour is nothing, really, compared to "I love you super duper, Mamma!" in the morning. This is not to say that I am in favour of banning abortion.
So, to throw a wrench in things and to be the devil's advocate, how about these scenarios:
1. Eleven-year-old girl raped by pedophile gets pregnant in the process. Is it OK to have the baby aborted then? A pregnancy at eleven can ruin a body for the rest of someone's life, never mind all the rest of the no school, no money, mommy doesn't love baby of a rapist and all that.
2. Twentyfive-year-old woman with severe diabetes and congenital eyedefect (I actually know her, she's legally blind now) gets pregnant despite being on the pill and very careful (lives in US cannot afford sterilization, but even that is a fallible contraceptive - have had two daycarekids born to "fixed" parents). The child will inherit her eyedefect for sure, and Mother will probably die as a result of carrying a pregnancy to term. Then is it OK to abort the baby?
3. Thirtytree-year-old pregnant woman finds out from the amnio that the baby will be missing half the brain and be a vegetable if it even survives the first day. Does she then have to put up with all the ailments and pain, including labour, as listed in my post above, or will she abort and move on to make a heallthy baby?
Who gets to decide, if not the pregnant woman, and where do you draw the line, personally?