Quote:
Originally Posted by Coach
It's a big issue in the past few weeks. I don't really want to get into the Alabama BS, as that's an obvious disgusting troll job to try and overturn existing law and there is plenty of room in the America Is No Good Thread for that.
There are a lot of opinions and emotions involved in this issue, and those opinions include opinions on who should even have an opinion (or at least one that actually affects policy). But it seems pretty rare that I see someone with actual experience share theirs. I'll state my own position and experience first.
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Well done. Thanks for putting your personal experience 'out there' eloquently. I am sure many men feel the same way, and it's much better to have honest discussions about the subject of abortion, than to just say 'Pro-Life' or 'Pro-Choice.' People who insist the answer is cut and dry baffle me. Everyone who faces this horrible decision goes through their own personal thought process, fears, stress, etc.
When I think of abortion, I don't think it's a choice I would make- but what other women do with their bodies is none of my business. Having said that, there are definitely some caveats in my thought process.
I remember when George Tiller was murdered, the doctor who performed partial-birth abortions for women who were up to full term in Kansas. I was living in the state at the time, and with his abortion clinic and those Westboro Baptist lunatics, it was a complete circus.
I will admit, I wasn't entirely sad that he was shot. I saw the websites and the pictures of full term dead babies, and they made me sick. I mean let's face it.. the idea that a woman's health is at stake so bad that she needs to have an abortion when her baby is viable outside the womb is pretty rare. In fact, I thought that a partial birth abortion would be more traumatic for a woman. Either way, she'd have to deliver the child, so I just didn't understand why a woman would want to make that choice. I completely understood first term abortion reasoning, and even early second term, but I didn't understand the third/full term reasoning.
But then... my ex sister-in-law got pregnant. And, she seemed to have a healthy baby. But in the beginning of her third semester, she found out her baby had some serious issues. They found out that her baby would basically be born breathing, but would be, for lack of a better term, in a permanently vegetative state.
She decided she wanted to continue with the pregnancy because 'God' told her to. I thought she was brave. And then I watched her baby grow up to be 7 years old. He was in a wheelchair is whole life that held his head in place. He made guttural sounds once in a while. He had 16 operations by the time he was 3. He died as he lived, in agony.
And while I still think she is a hero, as she loved him more than anything, I don't think I would have made that choice for myself of the child. And, I wouldn't want to begin to tell someone else in that situation what to do or think.