Definitely pro-choice... but I wish people were more careful/informed/responsible before it gets to that point.

It's called a rubber. You don't want kids... USE IT!

pro-abortion, anti-condom

I'd be proud to call you my unwanted son.

I don't come to this board to discuss political or moral views and I'm not preachy about it and don't intend to get in any debate but since you asked...

I can't remember the last time i went into a church for reasons other than a wedding and am not the least bit religious but I am pro-life. I am a libertarian and consider myself a staunch defender of individual rights, but an individual's rights end when they bring harm to another. What's interesting is that libertarians tend be pretty evenly split on the issue with the deciding factor being the personal view as to when life begins. If you believe that a fetus is a human life with rights of its own, you tend to be pro-life. If you think a fetus is less than a human life and doesn't possess any rights separate from its mother then you tend to be pro-choice.

That's why I personally have problems with abortion. Where do you draw the line with regard to the term of the fetus? Cells start dividing straight away from fertilization and continually do all through development. Any cut off point is completely arbitrary. When does it become a human life? When it looks human? Having studied basic Embryology (including a little neural development) I can tell you that you can see features pretty early on.

I have a little palm sized clay fetus model on my desk right now btw.

But the again, mother nature aborts a huge number of (genetically abnormal and otherwise) fetuses all the time, often with the mother not even knowing she was (breifly) pregnant.

I don't like to label myself but I will say that even though I think a woman should have the right to do what she wishes with her body I hate abortion. And I'll tell you why:

My mother was 17 when she got pregnant with me. I shudder to think what would have happened if she had easy access to an abortion like there is now.

A friend of mine had an abortion when she was 16. She confided in me a lot and came to me right after it happened. I held on to her while she cried her eyes out, repeating "I killed my baby. I killed my baby." I had no idea how to console her. Should I have told her, "It's all right. It was just a fetus"? To her it was her child growing inside her. She just realized it too late.

For these reasons I think we should do everything we can to limit abortion. Whether that includes better access to birth control, more education and counseling, or easier adoption, it has to be done.

I don't care if you disagree with me, and I don't mean to judge those who do, but I feel so strongly about this that sometimes I use harsh words.

last month cnn ran a story on a high school in ohio where 65 out of something like 450 young women were pregnant. a few of the students and their parents had the nerve-the f'ing NERVE to blame the school. these are the same parents who would completely freak out at the thought of birth control education in their kid's classrooms. freak out over student's access to free condoms. a lot of these parents are also people who never had a frank, honest and clear conversation with their kids about sex or anything having to do with the changes going on in their children's bodies as they grow from the time the are VERY SMALL CHILDREN. these conversations between parents and children should be going on way before high school.

my favorite comment on the show was from a young woman of 15 who said she thought she would never get pregnant (she used no birth control) because she wasn't one of the "bad girls."

and one more thing:
when a woman and/or her partner decide to take the step to have an abortion it is not always as light hearted a decision as most people seem to think it is. sometimes a lot of soul searching has gone into the decision and it's not an easy decision that is soon forgotten or that easy to live with after it's done.

I think a shit-ton of people on both sides of this issue have never thought about this, and it's one of the reasons that we as a society should work to reduce abortions as much as possible. Also, when I say "abortion", it is termination of the non-incest, non-life threatening, non-rape variety.

I take issue with people who fly the abortion flag as one of their core issues. It bothers me when the pro-life zealots hold up posters of bloody fetuses, and groups that are center their entire idea structure on "access to abortion and reproductive rights".

Just for context, I'll throw in a few more pros and antis.
I oppose the death penalty, except in extreme cases of multiple/serial offenders like Dahmer, Gacy, Cunanan. Those guys.

I support euthanasia/assisted suicide/"accidentally" tripping over the cord so the plug comes out of the wall.

I support emergency contraception & the morning after pill, though I'm not sure about OTC vs. BTC.

As for abortion though, I'm anti-unwanted child. There are already too many unwanted children in this world, we do not need one more clogging up traffic. It's not just foster homes or orphanages though. There are too damn many unwanted children with parents in this country.

I see them all the time, and it's really sad. I didn't see the piece on the Canton, Ohio teens, but from your reactions, ayah, I would guess they would fit in this unwanted category. I'm not even going to get off on the Father of the Year candidate I saw in Wawa two days ago, not yet.

At the same time, when an abortion of circumstances occurs, the system has broken down in someway. Maybe by way of education or responsibility and accountability. Maybe it was just dumb fucking luck, for that happens as well. I'm not saying we force the mother to carry the child to term, but are the trials the nine month gestation period more or less emotionally burdensome than the remainder of the mother's life?

I don't know from personal experience. I do know that of the handful of women whom I've considered close personal friends who have terminated a pregnancy, they have expressed strong emotional reactions well after the fact that strained or even fractured personal and romantic relationships. I don't really see that as a good thing.

The problem is, too many people want to be included, they want to be a part of something. That's more desirable than actually having an impact and initiating some sort of change. If the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice camps--as well as their tagalong lackeys--would put down their rubber swords and actually tried create, fund and nurture real programs to reduce the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies, then we all benefit.

Unfortunately, too many people have fallen in love with their own positions and refuse to budge. That's not reserved for politicians either. Someone once told me, "I can't vote for him because he's not Pro-Choice." This wasn't in reference to a wingnut like Sam Brownback either. Selling your vote to one-dimensional interests is pretty unremarkable, but there are plenty of party whores out there who are more than ready to spread, whether it be in DC or NY or Coffeyville, KS.

the fact that people may have regrets or go through the grieving process after an abortion shouldn't be viewed as a bad or good thing. it just is. it's one of those HUGE LIFE ISSUES that come up like death, euthanasia, mental illness, etc. life is messy and painful and no one leaves unscarred. it's just the TRUTH.

your friends experiences reflect the reality of what most women (and men in some cases) go through. this is not to say that there aren't people who use abortion as a method of birth control. they're irresponsible but i would not deny everyone's freedom to choose for the sake of a small percentage of dimwits.

and don't forget--this is a women's health issue. it's been going on for thousands of years. it needs to be made safe for women all over the world.

knowledge is the key.

"If the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice camps--as well as their tagalong lackeys--would put down their rubber swords and actually tried create, fund and nurture real programs to reduce the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies, then we all benefit."

You're going to love this group called 'Planned Parenthood'

[Bill Hicks]You're not a human being until you're in my phone book.[/Bill Hicks]

Totally.

I found it soooo ridiculous to listen to G. Bush go on & on in his campaign that his platform was to create a "culture of life" or some such thing.

He kept using that phrase without addressing abortion directly.

Sitting there watching it with my friends I kept saying: "Uh... so what is the alternative to that a 'culture of death'?"

Even more ridiculous given all the frickin' people he & his government have had a hand in killing. (!)

<---- Pro choice.

The most retarded aspect of this debate is the assumption that if a woman says she is pro-life it's the equivalent of saying: "Gee Wizz, I didn't use contraception... well it's off the the abortion clinic again!". Fuck man, the idea of getting an abortion is, like, pretty much one of the most traumatic and scary things I can think of.

I majorly DREAD ever having to make that decision. But... even given all of that, I still feel I should have the right to make that decision. Having kids is not something to be taken lightly: 9 months of pregnancy, and then at the least 18 years of raising the child. I also feel very strongly about kids being brought into the world under good conditions: a good, loving parent team, some vague sense of financial stability, the sense that they are 'wanted', etc.

COPS: INFANT SURVIVES TOSS BY N.J. MOM

By ED ROBINSON and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN
September 15, 2005 -- A New Jersey teen threw her newborn son down an apartment-building airshaft minutes after giving birth — and he miraculously survived the three-story plunge, police said yesterday.
And, in a startling twist, cops combing through debris in the airshaft found the mummified corpse of another infant.

The newborn escaped serious injury because his fall was cushioned by a mound of empty cigarette cartons. He suffered a skull fracture and black eye, but was listed in stable condition at Jersey City Medical Center.

The baby was found Tuesday after his cries alerted tenants in the West New York apartment building.

A short time later, police arrested Lucila Ventura, 18, a high-school junior, in her family's third-floor apartment. In light of the chilling discovery of the corpse, cops are questioning the mom to determine if there is any connection.

What Rads said + another reason to drop the "life" tag: it's way too ambiguous. Most "pro-lifers" eat meat and every one of them eat fruit and vegetables. Guess what, kids. Animals and plants are alive also. This moral argument revolves around human consciousness and the presence of a soul. The latter of these can't be defined secularly, and best guess for the former is 24 weeks based on fetal neurological development. That's enough time for a pregnant woman to choose whether she wants to continue the pregnancy or not. The frequency of the procedure disgusts and scares me (in agreement with Elvis Fu's anti-unwanted child approach), but I will still give any pregnant woman the first two trimesters to decide. After that, barring life-risking complications for the mother, one had best go the rest of the way.