Abortion: For DUers born prior to 1973

[calm_blue_ocean]

How many of you wish you had been aborted -- let's have a show of hands.

Alternatively, if you are glad you weren't aborted then why is that?

By seeing how former fetuses of the DU felt, we should be able to get a better handle on when the best interests of a fetus call for abortion. Remember, stick to discussing your own circumstances -- it is not nice to say that other people should or shouldn't have been aborted.

[chiburb]

1. A question for you...

When, in your opinion, does life start?

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. when the woman decides to be that child's mother

nt

[calm_blue_ocean]

10. I don't know

That is one reason I read the abortion threads on DU. I am searching for clear, cogent metaphysical explanations and arguments.

I will say that I agree with the Roe v. Wade court when they said that states should be allowed to give fetuses human rights at 6 months (as long as there is a life and health of the mother exception). There are DUers who disagree with this standard of protection as allowing life to be defined too early by the states.

I, however, agree with Roe v. Wade on that point and am open to the argument that human rights should be accorded even earlier in the fetushood.

[mmonk]

17. I don't look at the science of it (though I was born in 1956),

I don't believe it to be practical to ban abortion because of back alley unsanititary conditions that will threaten the lives of women seeking it and the reality that abortions won't cease if made illegal again. I don't think that those who favor abortion and try to make out that a fetus becomes a human being at some magical point and wasn't before holds any water. I don't think the arguments of being part of a woman's body or "viability" works either (because even a newborn can't survive on its own). I do believe however banning abortions isn't a solution. The world is not black and white. I support it being safe and legal. I do so even though I was adopted and am glad my natural mother chose as she did (because even though abortion was illegal, she still could have gotten one).

[calm_blue_ocean]

21. Thank you for your thoughtful and helpful response

even though it is exteremely difficult to set the line of when life begins (or ends), the law has to perform this function. As a voter, sincere explanations help me know where to tell my representatives to try to set the line.

[Mike_from_NoVa]

18. doomed to failure

I am searching for clear, cogent metaphysical explanations and arguments.

You are searching for an oxymoron.

[meegbear]

2. What about the DUers born after 1973?

Are they special?

:shrug:

[chiburb]

4. Maybe too young to have an opinion? n/t

.

[Mari333]

5. This is flamebait

dont bite.

[chiburb]

6. I agree, sorry for even posting back. n/t

.

[calm_blue_ocean]

12. Good question

In 1973, abortion became widely legal in the US.

After that point, I wouldn't expect there to be anybody who wished they had been aborted because they probably would have been aborted. However, for people born before 1973, there are likely to be lots of people who wish they were aborted because abortion wasn't available then for people who needed it. This is the segment I am most interested in talking to.

[Maddy McCall]

7. This is a complete and total inflammatory thread.

Your thread doesn't get a handle on ANYTHING, and quite frankly makes no major point. Just flamebait and fluff.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

8. Before 1973, women often died as a result of back-alley abortions

You're not dealing with the facts but rather posting irrational flamebait. You're allowing your emotions to cloud your reasoning.

[calm_blue_ocean]

15. Why is my question(s) irrelevant?

When we want to know what is in the best interests of children, we ask adults (who used to be children).

I am simply taking the same approach with fetuses. How could that possibly be irrelevant or in any way objectionable?

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. I'm sorry

But this is the dumbest question I've ever heard asked on this forum.

Ever.

:)

[judge_smales]

11. Maybe a

clear, cogent metaphysical explanation of what trolling is might be a better quest.

[Hep]

13. I was born IN 1973

And I wish the internet had been aborted.

[judge_smales]

14. ??????

Why?

And if so, why are you here?

[Hep]

16. This thread is why

And because I wouldn't have to entertain such ridiculous threads as this.

[Birthmark]

19. How many of those aborted....

...wish they hadn't been? Show of hands, please.

I was born in the 50s, six months after my parents married. Know my parents pretty well, I am nearly certain that I would have been aborted had it been legal at the time. How do I feel about that? I could not care less.

[calm_blue_ocean]

25. Interesting and helpful

follow up question: would you have minded if they had euthanized you shortly after birth (assuming that was legal)?

[Skittles]

20. OH WILL YOU JUST F***ING *STOP * IT

:puke:

[StopTheMorans]

22. thanks Skittles:)

n/t

[calm_blue_ocean]

23. Moderator, could we get post #20 deleted?

It is not helping.

[StopTheMorans]

27. this thread is not helping

it is flamebait through and through, and the whole thing should be locked IMHO.

[calm_blue_ocean]

29. Flamebait?

This thread asks two sincere and relevant questions. The thread does not take a position. The thread does not pre-suppose answers. The questions are not leading.

In view of all this, how can this thread possibly considered as flamebait?

[jonnyblitz]

33. I agree. n/t

[Skittles]

37. your whining is NAUSEATING

:puke:

[efhmc]

34. Succint and to the point as usual. Although, I hate that word.

(My personal, old lady opinion.)

[Skittles]

38. that's why I temper it with the ****

:)

[Iverson]

24. try this rephrasing

Would you rather that your birth was compelled by the state or, alternately, left to your parents' free choice?

It's all in how you construct the question.

[calm_blue_ocean]

26. I am looking for personal feelings and experiences

not political positions.

[Iverson]

28. don't kid around

Surely someone has told you that abortion is a hot-button political topic. The phrasing of your initial post certainly takes advantage of that.

Playing dumb or claiming neutral, totally apolitical intentions is ...
(drum roll)
... risible.
(cymbal crash)

[calm_blue_ocean]

32. Not playing dumb

My purposes are certainly political, but the information I am looking for in this particular thread is personal experience. The personal does inform the political, you know.

I am not kidding around.

[judge_smales]

30. No-

You're trolling. Now go away.

[efhmc]

31. Curious to know why this thread is being allowed. Also, I would not be

here to answer this asinine question and would not care. BTW, I still don't care. Millions of us probably would not be here because we came after number 2 and most educated adults would now choose not to overpopulate the world by having more than 2 children and on and on. The reasoning here is written to cause anger and condemnation and not reason and comtemplation.

[bicentennial_baby]

35. Good question

I alerted, but nothing yet. Massive flamebait, of the nth degree. Not to mention a slap in the face to any of us who have had abortions. :argh:

[Bridget Burke]

36. Oh Poster of "Undeclared" Gender

Kindly give us YOUR feelings on the matter.

[judge_smales]

39. Don't feed the trolls

and they go away.

[efhmc]

43. So true ,but don't we have moderators to deal with these types of

threads so they are killed and there is no neccessity to feed or not?

[calm_blue_ocean]

41. Gladly

If I had been flushed out of the uterus before being implanted, then that possibility doesn't really bother me.

The possibility that I could have been aborted when I was a multicellar, undifferentiated glob of cells bothers me only slightly.

The thought of being aborted at 3 or 4 months is a possibility I don't like.

The thought of being aborted at six months (unless my mother's life was at stake) troubles me a great deal.

Basically I am glad I wasn't aborted and especially glad that I wasn't aborted after the two month point.

[noonwitch]

40. My parents wanted to have me

They wanted to have another child to love, so they stopped using birth control, a blizzard hit Indianapolis and 9 months later I was born.
I'm happy to be alive. If I hadn't been born, I wouldn't have been born. Duh.

[Skinner]

42. I'm locking this thread.

It's just inflammatory.

[Liberal Classic]

44. Not flamebait, not for me anyhow

I was born well before '73 and according to my family my mom came close to getting an outlaw abortion. My mother was underage and unmarried by a man from the wrong side of the tracks, if you will. I did interfere with her plans of school and marriage later on, but needless to say I'm rather relieved that she didn't snuff me when she could have. As it turns out, I was raised by grandparents and I have no hard feelings towards my parents. They did the best they could under bad circumstances. However, I would have definately been a candidate for the clinic.

It is important to realize that we *are* talking about a life here. Many of the more strident abortion supporters tend to say things like "stay away from my uterus" or "keep your laws off my uterus" and such. However, to my knowledge no one has a problem with a woman getting a hysterectomy whenever she feels like it. There is another life in question, whether you approach it spiritually or scientifically. Haploid cells are themselves actually alive. They will die quickly and cannot reproduce on their own, but there's no question that they are living cells before sperm and ova meet despite having incomplete nuclei. Afterwards when a fertilized ovum has a complete set of genes, it begins to divide and the regular processes of cellular life continue: cell division, cell specilization, consumption of energy, and so on. So, yes, I do believe life begins at conception.

Does this mean I am a hard-liner, no aboriton even for rape and incest? No, of course not. But I do believe it is important to recognize that we're not talking about a cancerous tumor. It is a human being.