An interesting Dear Prudence

Bec20

My mind is still reeling from the fact that Monkey doesn't want to criminalize people who have miscarriages, but things abortions are murder.  There is no way to legally do this... if having an abortion is murder, then you have to investigate miscarriages to make sure that they weren't purposefully caused by the woman.

Also, if a fetus is a person, how do you deal with balancing its legal rights with the woman's during pregnancy?  If a woman engages in risky behaviour during pregnancy and it results in something bad happening (not taking prenatal vitamins and having a child with neural tube defects, drinking heavily and haviWhng a child with FAS, etc) do you charge the woman with something?  Is eating sushi when pregnant going to become a cause for reckless endangerment?  Does crashing your car and miscarrying become vehicular manslaughter?  Where is the line drawn?

If abortion laws are based by state then how to you really prevent them?  If they're illegal in Michigan but legal in New York, what's to prevent everybody from going to a different state?  And if it becomes national, how do you stop people from coming to Canada to get an abortion?  How do you deal with them when they get back, because they never actually comitted a crime, since abortion is legal where they had it done?

What happens to the women who use coat hangers or bleach or who knows what else because, let's face it, abortion rates don't change much whether it's legal or not.  What happens when maternal fatality rates in pregnancy sky rocket because women are too scared to get medical treatment after inducing their own abortions?

It's all fine and dandy to say that abortions should be illegal for morality reasons, but you have no evidence to back it up.  Saying that there was no precedent for Roe v. Wade that a fetus isn't a person doesn't really make sense... if it got to the Supreme Court for the first time, there wouldn't be.  The onus is on the people who want to prove that a fetus is a person, after all.

divinemsbee

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_an-interesting-dear-prudence?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:47144c29-1f9d-41d4-8ce5-968adc8e97b0Post:3ca9cfef-fed2-47ad-be40-c888340d029e">Re: An interesting Dear Prudence</a>:
[QUOTE] <strong> I would simply criminalize doctors and clinics performing abortions.  In all reality, if this happened, a black market of abortion pills would thrive, but I still think abortion levels would go down.</strong>  You can't prevent all abortions, and I wouldn't hold women down to keep them from trying.  But I still 
Posted by monkeysip[/QUOTE]

<div>Oh, honey. I have three books I would like you to read that both deal with adoptions in the age before Roe v. Wade and books that deal with how abortions were carried out pre-1973. </div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Girls-Who-Went-Away/dp/1594200947" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/The-Girls-Who-Went-Away/dp/1594200947</a></div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Before-Roe-v-Wade-Abortion/dp/1607146711" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Before-Roe-v-Wade-Abortion/dp/1607146711</a></div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/When-Abortion-Was-Crime-1867-1973/dp/0520216571/ref=pd_sim_b_2" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/When-Abortion-Was-Crime-1867-1973/dp/0520216571/ref=pd_sim_b_2</a></div><div>
</div><div>Educate yourself. Abortifacients have been around as long as we have written or drawn history. Regardless of the legality of them. </div><div>
</div><div>I'm pretty open about this, so I thought I'd chime in. I had an abortion at 6 weeks a little over 4 years ago. I doubt that the fetus could have survived outside the womb in any way, shape or form. I wasn't in any danger, my boyfriend at the time wasn't abusive, I was 24. And I wasn't in any place to be having a baby. My birth-control failed. I had always been someone who said I was pro-choice but would never do it myself, and I will say that it's amazing what can happen if you're put in that position. I'm pro-choice, and, I'll go you one further, I'm pro-choice no matter what. I don't think I need to put limits on it like "in case of rape" or "if the mother's life is in danger." When we put limits on things like this, I feel as though it chips away at the choice, I feel as though it makes it a more dangerous line to walk. Most women who have abortions are married and already have at least one child (I'll try to find these stats, I know I've seen them somewhere). </div><div>
</div><div>Had I not had my abortion, I would have never met my FI, I would have never had the wonderful life we have now. Moreover, I'm still a practicing Catholic, and I went to Confession for it. I did my penance. And, I can safely say now that if I were to get pregnant it would be a wonderful thing for us. </div><div>
</div><div>Also, as has been previously stated, isn't about forcing abortions, it's about having the option. You know "choice." Anti-choicers (or we can say pro-life) are about the restriction of choice. </div>