Back when the law was created, we didn't have all the fancy ultrasound machines that we do now. I suppose that the ignorance of the day could have been excused to some degree, but it's hard to look at today's ultrasound pictures and not think that a fetus is just as alive as a baby. I had the opportunity to go see Bodyworlds 3 last year, and they have a fetal display... it is amazing how defined a baby's features are even at 8 weeks gestation.
In the last 35 years, millions of people have been killed for various reasons. Some were raped, some were forced to by their parents, some had health problems, some didn't want to tell their parents. Whatever the reason, the way that we react to the preborn has changed over the years.
- A girl can choose to have an abortion, or she can choose to have an abortion and make the father pay child support. Over the years, the argument of father's rights has developed... why can't the father choose to renounce the rights to the baby and choose to not pay child support? We seem to think that it's "my body, my choice" but it doesn't extend to "my wallet, my choice" for the fathers. I'm against abortion, but it does seem a little unfair to the guys. If abortion wasn't available, as it used to be, there wouldn't be this argument.
- Adopting a baby is not an easy thing to do. If you want to adopt a healthy infant of the same race as you (and you happen to be white), you can get on a waiting list and hope and pray that you'll get your chance someday... after shelling out thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. I wasn't alive before the Roe v. Wade decision, but somehow I doubt that there was a dearth of healthy babies waiting to be adopted. When teen girls used to get pregnant, often they would go away to "visit an aunt" or something for several months, and come back after having the child and adopting it out.
A lot of people that are in favor of abortion use the argument that "there are so many unwanted children in the world... abortion just keeps another unwanted baby from being born." While it's true that there are many unwanted children out there, most of them are not healthy newborns, which is what a lot of the parents facing infertility are trying to adopt. Many of them can't any more, because they can't afford it.
Adoption nowadays just seems to be something that most people don't even really consider. You either want the baby and you have it, or you don't want the baby and you abort it. Not many people have the courage any more to go through with a pregnancy just to give it to some strangers that really want to have a child but can't. - Premarital sex is something that is easier to hide from your parents. The availability of birth control aside, if you get pregnant nowadays, you can just "get rid of it" by going to Planned Parenthood, and your parents never have to know in many cases.
- Babies with birth defects (or suspected birth defects) are less likely to be born. You can have tests to screen them out. Sometimes the tests are wrong, but even if the test wasn't wrong, is it right to say that you don't want a baby to live even if it is not perfect?
There are truly cases where the mother's life is in danger and there is absolutely no way that the mother can survive without an abortion. Tubal pregnancies, for example. There is no way to save the baby's life, because the pregnancy in the fallopian tubes would cause both the mom and the baby to die. But there's not much controversy surrounding that.
Neither is there much controversy on doctors using abortion procedures, the D&C, D&E, or D&X, in cases where the baby has died and there is an inevitable miscarriage. Doctors that don't perform those procedures on living babies will perform them when the mother is waiting to miscarry. It can be a lifesaving procedure in these cases (without this procedure people sometimes could bleed to death)... I happen to be one person whose life was saved twice by this procedure, even though I was hoping that I could miscarry naturally.
There is also the abortion drug out there, RU-486, which was not available 35 years ago. It's not exactly the quick fix that some doctors would let you think... but then again, it is not necessarily an evil drug, for the same reason that the D&C procedure is not always used to kill babies. Sometimes people lose their babies and are going to miscarry anyway... this drug can be used to help people in those circumstances in the same way a D&C could.
It would be nice to live in a world where abortion was outlawed once again. I'm not suggesting that we have a "too bad, so sad" attitude towards those who find themselves pregnant with an unwanted baby, I think that we should help them in any way that we could. It would be nice if more resources were diverted to pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that would help teen moms (or older moms, if needed) with resources, medical care, or even a home to stay at if their parents kick them out of the house.
I really love my babies... the one that is 5 1/2 and had her first two baby teeth removed today, and the one that likes to climb on our computer cases (and anything else he can find). It's hard to believe that they started out smaller than a poppy seed. It's hard to believe that someone would want to end the life of a baby that would eventually grow into a sweet little newborn or toddler if just fed and cared for.
I used to think that abortion was okay for some people, but not for me. But then I saw the Silent Scream video. Don't click on the link if you are a kid or are squeamish, however (there's nothing on the main page that is offensive).
Hope that we don't have another 35 years (and 35 million babies) of abortion in this country. :-(
3 comments:
Hey Brooke long time no read.
Why do you think some Christians are intent on standing up for so-called choice?
I am a Mother of adoption loss.Yes, one of 'those girls'who went sent away to one of the prisons for unwed Mothers.Just for the record we didn't want to abort our babies we wanted to do what comes naturally to women.We wanted to raise our children but indeed we were raised during the time that wasn't single mother or child friendly! Religion played a big part in helping to shame Mothers and then just so happen to have "perfect parents' to raise our children.More respect is shown towards the animal kindom and the bond of the mother and child then is shown by pretending that we were incubators for the infertile.I have heard adoptees say that rather than have a child of adopted out they had an abortion or that they felt like they were a 9 month abortion.If adoption is supposed to be for the adoptee why are so many adoptees in pain from being seperated from their natural families? Many Mothers were told to just forget and go on with their life as if they had not ever had a child.If I cut off your arm and told you to act like it had never been there could you? Also many Moms were told they would go on and "have their OWN children someday.Many Mother's didn't.And they already had a child of theirs .The NCFA is the spokeperson for the adoption industry and churches are a big part of the industry.Indeed they want to being back the good ole days when all a woman needed to lose her baby was to be poor,no family,no support system in place.Single Moms have been and still are seen as the reason the economy is doing so badly.Never mind the ENRONS of the business world.I suggest reading Wake up little Susie by Ricki Solinger and "The girls who went away.Before advocating the bringing back "The joys of adoption" one needs to understand they are advocating the return of the days that were good for mainly white men.I will go as far as to suggest that adoption has caused abortions not prevented them.Also, why are so many under the mistaken belief that adoptive parents are immune from the ills of the common people?They do lose jobs,divorce,abuse,have substance abuse issues.The churches need to understand that they need to support single Moms and their children into true fellowship instead of pushing them into the doors of Planned parenthood.Oh just in case someone is thinking about "open adoption" they need to understand that mostly the agreements aren't legally binding .80% of open adoptions are slammed shut by the adoptive parents.It is used as a lure by the adoption industry because they know it is the only way they can bring in more healthy white infants for their clients.I and many other mothers of adoption loss and adoptees will and are fighting any attempt to bring back the days before Roe V.Wade because it was a time of Women having no say over the power of Men and the adoption industry..As they have cut back on services for single mothers and their children they have created the climate that makes abortion seem the answer for Women.The shame is on them now.Many Women are one paycheck away from losing their child to adoption.I am thinking you wouldn't want one of those children to be yours.
I'm sorry that you had such a hard time. I didn't say that adoption was easy on the part of the birth mother, but we are obviously in disagreement on abortion itself, and I guess that it will stay that way.
I do believe that we should support single moms as much as we can. My brother is a new single dad (mom didn't want to be a mom any more) and my mom helps out as much as she can, helping out when the day care can't, etc. I'd do more but I live 1300 miles away and we're not exactly rolling in dough over here.
I don't think that all unmarried moms should send their kids off for adoption, and I hope that I didn't sound that way. But if the mom does not feel that motherhood is the best thing for her at the time, I think that adoption is a way better choice than abortion.
As far as Christians standing up for choice, perhaps it is too much compassion for the mother, or not enough belief that the fetus is really a baby? I don't know if there is such a thing as too much compassion, but I think that there's a balance between showing caring towards an individual and telling them to suck it up, that's life. I make my little girl do school and clean her room... yes I have compassion on her and I feel for her that she doesn't want it, but that's life. If she accidentally breaks something I have compassion on her that she broke it, but she's going to do something to try to make up for it.
I used to be pro-choice to some degree, as I mentioned in my post... perhaps it was because I wasn't shown anything to convince me to believe otherwise? Just like I used to believe that God created the Earth through the process of evolution until I started learning about creation science and that convinced me otherwise.
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