Jimbo,
First, I want to say thank you for putting the pictures in their own thread rather than embedded in an existing discussion. This way I had a choice and a chance to consider before looking at the pictures (and I did spend a while thinking about it). The other way I would have been angry about shock-and-awe. For me, it was the first time seeing pictures of aborted fetuses.
With all that said, I am still in favor of choice (perhaps, you believe I am now making a more informed decision). I am also against abortions. I guess that is the part of all of this that I don't get. I have my own beliefs but I do not have the right to impose them on others. I am a man. I have never been pregnant. I have no idea how it would feel to have a life inside of me or how difficult it would be to make a decision to terminate it, especially if I was 12 or 13.
I have heard stories about women who have had abortions at a young age and then speak out years later saying that they regret it. I wonder if at the time they are speaking that they are high school graduates or college graduates or in a healthy, happy relationship. We can never know what the road untraveled would have been. How that girl's life would have turned out or how the child's life would have turned out. It is terrible that teenagers are put in that position. I have never been there and I will not choose to judge any woman who has been there.
Most importantly I will not choose to legislate it. For the moment, put the moral piece aside. If abortion is illegal, those teenagers who come from affluent homes will still get abortions. If abortion is illegal, some poor teenagers will be using coat hangars and never be able to have children later in life. If abortion is illegal, we as a society will need to completely overhaul our method of government care of children.
I'm not suggesting that the moral piece is not relevant, only that there are practical issues to consider as well. From a moral perspective, it is a question of considering a woman's personal rights vice the rights of an unborn fetus. If we decide that abortion is illegal and a woman must carry a baby to term, we are in effect placing her in prison for 9 months for a crime that only women can be guilty of. Along these lines, I would expect that the state would force health care on the mother - if we can force her to carry the baby to term, I expect the state would also force her to take care of herself as it decides is proper as well
This is probably off-topic but I'm curious because I've never heard anything about this... if it could be proven that a baby will be healthier if he/she is breast-fed, does anyone think the state should have a legal right to force a mother to breastfeed?
