I try, with the usual very human lack of consistent success.Thank you for a thoughtful and a love-filled response to the very complex and emotional issue.
This is hard for me to say, but I honestly think that I would not have a huge problem if my government passed a law that outlawed third trimester abortions except for the most crucial of reasons, requiring independent medical consensus.I think the OP was over-the-top that painted religious people into a box. I tend to do the same to accentuate the ridiculousness of that type of OP.
But I think it unfair to just select New Mexico when the issue is that there are laws that are extreme in other states where 9 months abortions are permitted by law.
Yes, sometimes it does mean yes. But I sincerely wish you (and others) could stop always using the word "child." A few undifferentiated cells attaching themselves to the uterus is not a child. (That was hyperbole...nobody knows they're pregnant at this stage, so nobody's seeking abortion, with the possible exception of the so-called abortion pill which some use as "insurance.")That certainly is a difficult position. I don't think anybody has a problem of saving the life of the mother. Does that mean that you must extinguish the life of the child? Sometimes yes and sometimes no.
Ken, have you noticed who you are ignoring here? You are ignoring the women who were raped, and what their feeling on the matter is. That so many women who have been raped, including your own examples, have chosen to carry to term, and even to bring up the child in a loving home, is wonderful, and I applaud them with all my heart. But I cannot find it within me to fault the girl or woman who cannot do that, who cannot bring herself to face 9 months of having this "unwanted intrusion" foist upon her, only to bring it forth in pain...and then have to decide what to do with it.Yes, it is a very emotional subject and one would obviously have different viewpoints. We have a saying, however, when emotions run high, intelligence runs low.
So let's take rape... found this-- I'm sure it is not complete:
The following small list of people were conceived by force in rape. Eartha Kitt (singer). Rev. Jesse Jackson (political activist). Layne Beachley (7-time World Surfing Champion). Kelly Wright (FOX news reporter). Faith Daniels (former NBC reporter). Nell Carter (singer/actress). Janet Sheen (actress/producer & mother of Charlie Sheen & Emilio Estevez). Ethel Waters (singer/actress). Valerie Gatto (Mrs. Pennsylvania). Frederick Douglass (orator/statesman). James Robison (televangelist). Ryan Bomberger (educator).
So, is a baby birthed through rape any less of a person? I wonder if they (those who were birthed) would agree that they should have been aborted. I don't think so. Was the mothers any less able to live because they had a baby that was through a rape? Probably not. The scars are there whether they have a baby or not.
Are you sure you know enough to speak for them? Are you sure that their psychological pain is not just as real, and just as terrible, as any physical torture? I'm not, and in the end, I am forced to leave it to them to decide, not to me.
And well and good for her, that does indeed happen. I too, although no angel, am not a bad influence on those around me. But again I point out to you, this is an imperfect world, and not all outcomes are the same...and there's nothing that you or I can do about it. Therefore, there's no reason for you or I to be part of the decision.Then, we have those babies who are birthed under normal circumstance and still go through a terrible life. My wife, for an example. Yet she is now a life-impacting woman.
Ken, this is a nonsense question...it is not well thought out, and it is effectively meaningless. If I "would have preferred not being birthed," then I might very likely have committed suicide, which I have not. I am, in fact very content with the fact that I exist, and am grateful for my life.Yes... that is always a need. Life can be tough. Let me ask you a question... would you have preferred not being birthed?
But the reason that the question is nonsense is that you are asking me, an existing person, what I would think about not existing. Yet, had I been aborted, I would not exist, and there would therefore not be any me to contemplate the question, for good or ill.