Suspense Surrounds Obama Team's Abortion Plan

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Dear Jennifer:
I agree that abortion should be part of the human-rights issue. And so, you must agree that the baby within any woman's body is HUMAM. Science tells us that every human is totally unique as the DNA forms a new human life.
Some activists call for the removal of land mines that maim the children of war torn countries. Some activists decry the pain and suffering of fur bearing animals.
Other activists demand the "right of choice". The right to choose the end of another human's life.
Contraception, and Choice, and Poverty, and Common Ground are all red herrings.
The issue is HUMAN RIGHTS for all, no matter how weak and defenseless or under represented by our political system.

Ed of NH 8:21PM June 18, 2009

To say that teens act irresponsibly and have sex "no matter what you say or do" paints teens incorrectly. Everyone who wants to has sex!! And the teen pregnancy rate has dropped considerably in the last few years. The percentage of abortions obtained by teens under 18 is only 7%! That is the same percentage as women over 35. So stop talking about this as though it's a teen problem.
Another statistic that for some reason is not well known is that fewer than 1% of pregnancies end in adoption. Regardless of how much more acceptable carrying a pregnancy and then giving it up becomes, most women do not want to go that route. And for good reason! They fear everything from not being able to give up the baby after carrying it for nine months to the baby suffering from having spent its prenatal life in an environment that was preparing itself for loss, therefore not emotionally connected. Many think that babies sense this. Adoption is a fine thing for those women who choose it, but it is not for everyone and there are very good reasons why so few women do.
Women are never going to accept being told by others what they "ought" to do when an unintended pregnancy occurs. The woman herself is the one to evaluate her situation, her health, her finances, her support and decide what is best. Women are moral creatures who carefully assess their own situations before choosing either to continue the pregnancy or not. Sadness and grief are often an outcome just as they can be with divorce or other losses in life.

Clare of PA 2:24PM June 18, 2009

Abortion is a human rights issue: simply put, human beings at a very early stage of life are killed legally in this country. That is what abortion does -- it ends a human life -- and no matter what euphemisms are used to describe it, that is what makes compromise impossible. A pregnant woman who does not want to be pregnant should be helped in every way possible not only to carry her child to term, but to put her life back in order after that child is born, whether that involves abortion, or grants to support her child, etc., etc. But to say that one human life is expendable because its existence will thwart some aspect of another's life (her/his mother's)is to treat that life as "property," just as black people were treated during slavery.
That is what makes compromise impossible on the core issue: a human life in jeopardy, one that our Constitution says has a "right to life, etc." And for those who think that birth control is the answer: 1) most medicines and many procedures to accomplish birth control prevent the pregnance by actually ending the child's life; 2) birth control involves using the woman as "property" as well, e.g., here you are my dear,I want to have sex with you now and don't respect you enough to wait for a better time, so just pour these chemicals into your body so that I can have my way with you and not suffer any consequences -- only you will suffer the consequences! How is that respecting women?

Aggie of NH 9:28AM June 17, 2009

IF the pro-life movement truly wants to reduce the number of abortions all they have to do is the following:
1- Stop promoting abstinence-only education and start advocating for thorough sex-education.
2- Lobby to make access to condoms, birth control, and other forms of contraceptives readily available. INCLUDING emergency contraception.
And 3rd, in the case of an already in-progress unwanted pregnancy, make EARLY first term abortion safe and available to women of ALL ages.
People (ESPECIALLY teens) if they are going to have sex, are going to do it no matter what you say or do. This is a fact. If the pro-life movement truly wants to make abortion and late term abortion as rare as possible, they are going to have to stop ignoring the facts. Of course there is not one visible or proactive pro-life group like this out there. Why? Because they've MADE abortion a religious issue. If it was treated like a human rights issue, the pro-life movement would look a whole lot more like the pro-choice movement - where the mother is considered as a human life with rights in the equation as well.
I really, truly wish the need for abortion didn't exist. I really wish people always practiced safe-sex and that women and children weren't raped or that all families were in a position to care for a child, and that babies were never born with deformities. I wish all of this as much as the overwhelming majority of the pro-life movement wishes that if they keep telling their kids not to have sex they wont, but it's never going to happen (unless you create a totalitarian theocracy,) and wishing will never make it so. So I live in the real world, and I deal with that real-world's issues, as horrible as they may be. I wish the pro-life movement did too because then maybe we'd actually see a reduction in the abortion rate.

Jennifer of NY 6:22AM June 17, 2009

Ratzan: "You're creating the possibility that the religious views of some are going to be imposed on others." Ugh. I am so sick of hearing people say they are pro-choice because they don't want to force "religious beliefs" on people. Gay marriage = religious issue. Abortion = human rights issue. The right to life, or restrictions on murder, are human rights issues, not simply religious issues. You do not have to be religious at all to be pro-life. I am continually frustrated by people who do not seem to see this.

Jennie of CA 9:14PM June 16, 2009

You make a list of ideas on how to help women avoid getting unexpectedly pregnant at all. You ask for volunteers to help arrange adoptions from women who choose to deliver babies they cannot or will not keep. And you make perfectly clear that the "choice" of what to do always belongs to each individual woman, not to "society", not to a legislature, not to a court, and not to a bureaucrat.
Personally, I hope the plan is heavy on sex education, heavy on "Plan B" availability (with no hoops or strings) and that it contains an innovative cultural initiative aimed at men and boys to not be the "cause" of abortions.

Muser of NM 8:16PM June 16, 2009