On principle
Better today. Ah, the cleansing properties of the meltdown.
So I read in New York Magazine about how New York is a destination for abortion seekers--especially late-term abortion seekers. The right to abortion, like the barbaric qualities and effect of the death penalty, is something I feel strongly about but can only defend if I exclude myself from the moral equation: if it were me at the end of my rope, I'd choose adoption; if it were my child Tookie had gunned down, you can bet I'd kill the guy with my own hands. But that's not the point. We make laws about these things to counter human emotion and mob thinking and the impulses of revenge; we make them to protect the ones with the fewest options and privileges among us.
In New York there's a group called Haven--about 100 volunteers, mostly women--who offer up a spare bed or a couch to women who travel to the city for late-term abortions. Late-term abortions are a two-day procedure: the cervix is softened and the baby--er, fetus--given medication to stop its heart on day one, and on day two delivery is induced. I read it--and granted, I was in a bad mood already, standing on the train on the way home--and suddenly thought of Camus' essay on death by guillotine, in which he notes that when death penalty advocates watch a man's head tumble into the bin, they lose their principle along with their lunch. Somebody tell me--because I'm a good liberal and I want to know: what on earth are we doing stopping the hearts of babies at 26 or 28 weeks' gestation?
The writer, a Haven volunteer herself, notes that all the volunteers wonder, "Why'd you wait so long?" And none of them ever ask. Me? I'd ask.
posted by I n g e r @ Saturday, December 10, 2005
10 Comments:
what helps me see the reasoning for abortion at any point in pregnancy, is to look around at all the neglected, abused, forgotten children in this so-called great land.
is it better to have the child and treat it like shit, in a myriad of ways?
i would venture a guess and say that fear is a primary factory in "waiting so long." also, stupidity. so, would that person make a good, caring parent? sure, there's adoption. but far too many kids end up in foster care, and then the juvenile justice system, and then prison. not all are as lucky as your son, or rosie's adopted kids.
just my 2 cents. because i am a mother, and a woman. i have experienced abortion personally, long ago. i am not ashamed of that fact. just grateful that i had the legal right to do so. it is a sad, painful choice to make. but it should remain a choice.
Ms. Liberal....I am not a big fan of late term abortions. To me that is to much like killing and I know babies that have survived being born at 28 weeks. Truly, I don't understand waiting that long except for maybe being scared or not so smart....
I agree with Annie about the kids who end up in Foster care and are neglected. Let's just be happy that we have the option as woman and mother's of daughters.
Adoption is a wonderful alternative but I have a friend who wants a child badly enough to be on a waiting list for a "white" child but not enough to abopt a child of a different color. It is this attitude that troubles me also. Of course, I love my "brownie" as she refers to herself sometimes. I would adopted another child in a heart beat if I could afford it.
Love ya,
it's hackneyed, of course, to say that freedom always and only comes with responsibility. it is also true. responsibility entails decision-making, and in the cases of an unwanted pregnancy, one would hope that decision would be made before 24 weeks.
of course i defend a woman's right to choose. i also reserve the right to say that women who wait until they're as big as houses to abort are shortsighted, stupid, and, never having gotten through the first trimester myself while i very much wanted to, mean.
being "non-judgmental" is lately lauded as a virtue. i see it as part and parcel of a general reluctance to commit, to ruffle feathers. it seems more than reasonable to ask a woman -- if she does indeed want to be regarded as fully rational subject complete with all the rights and responisibilities--what the fuck she was thinking in waiting so long. it seems patently ridiculous not to ask.
right on, inger.
you said :
"The right to abortion, like the barbaric qualities and effect of the death penalty, is something I feel strongly about but can only defend if I exclude myself from the moral equation"
I guess I fee the same. I say that I support a womans right to choose.. and I try to mean it.. but always, I think of the child. I know that I could never have made that decision.. I could not have lived with myself ..
( I shoo flies and carry spiders out the door on bits of paper.. I don't believe I could ever chosse abortion of my own "fetus" which I believe is a baby)
When I identify myself as a liberal.. this always comes to my mind. As for late term abortion... partial birth abortion.. and to be brutally honest with you, my stranger friend.. any abortion..
my sould retracts in horror and I think of being that baby and being scraped out of a womb.. or sucked out or brutalized in some manner to make the problem of me go away.. and I am horrorfied.
Do I have an answer? No
It is true that there are so many children with no homes and families and I know this.. it is too big a problem for my only human brain..
If there were a big white haired god-guy sitting on a cloud.. it would, I think be his problem..
( his? because I wonder if a Her would let this problem happen)
But I know that makes no more sense than my saying that I am a liberal , yet not believing in abortion
Shades of grey.. all things are shades of grey for me..
I wonder if black and white even exists, oustide of certain ( and I think small ) minds.
Tookie.. again.. ditto what you said..
Death penalty.. well.. an eye for an eye?
Can anything he has done make up for the lives taken.. and the lives destoryed? Murder.. gangs..
I just don't know..
heavy topics for an early morning ..
hope all is well with you..
wishing you happy..
Me, I'd ask as well.
Might it have something to do with lack of education, lack of respect for the reproductive cycle, lack of respect for ones fellow humans?
I don't know.
I would however still respect a woman's right.
everyone here has very valid points...i think annie is right, and that fear is a major factor in waiting so long...also "magical thinking" plays a part as well, i believe...these women may imagine an entirely different scenario than what is happening in their reality...
i, too, have personnaly experienced abortion, at a very young age...it smacked me right into reality about birth control, and for that i am grateful...i am not for abortion, but i am for the right of a woman to have a choice...i am so eternally grasteful that i had that ccoice...but in the meantime there needs to be an explosion of birth control education...if pregnancy doesn't occur in the first place, there won't be a need for abortion...and abstinance is not a form of birth control...and abortion should not be used as a form of borth control...and late term abortions are barbaric and should be outlawed...
just my 2 cents...
peace...
As a crazy "middle" winger, I would HAVE to ask. A lot of good points.
I've never had one, but thought about it when pregnant with Ashley. I'm glad I have the right to choose
This really is a tough issue for all pro-choice advocates to deal with. I personally don't know what I would do if I found out I was pregnant today, but I like knowing that I have a choice.
As for the late-term abortions, I don't get them either. I personally think that abortion is okay and that the fetus isn't a baby as long as it couldn't survive out of the mother. But with a late-term abortion (as I'm defining it), the fetus could survive once delivered and that's what I have a problem with too.
I think the only reasons why late-term abortions should be performed are if the mother's life is at risk (that is for a doctor to decide) and/or if you just found out that the baby is severely handicapped. I'm not saying that I need to have a perfect child, but if you know that the quality of life isn't going to be there, I think the mother should have the choice.
The death penalty is another hard one. When my aunt was murdered, I was all for it because we knew with 100% certainty who did it. But the more you read about it, the more you find out that in this country it has more to do with race and class than with the crime committed and I think that is just wrong. As for the eye for an eye theory, I'm still trying to make up my mind on that one too.
I too respect a woman's right.
And I'm an open-minded liberal woman. But some things cross the line.
My first born was 8 1/2 weeks early.
My twin nieces were born even earlier.
I spent a lot of time in the neo-natal ICU. I watched famlies holding their little 1 and 2 pound babies ...
They were babies. People. And they have rights. In this day and age, when the possibilities of saving a child born at 26 weeks gestation is a reality....how can we allow that child to be killed? I don't get it.
There are thousands of families who wish to adopt. Especially newborns. I feel like the women in this situation need help....need someone to offer them an alternative...a safe option...medical coverage for the birth of the child....an reputable adoption counselor. And maybe people are there to do that already. I just don't hear about it. I'm certain that it is never a decision made lightly...but I can't understand it.
The women in my life who have had an abortion have suffered so much on so many levels since going through that process. No one ever talks about that. But I'd imagine that a late term abortion would cause that internal suffering to be extreme. :(
There has to be an alternative for the child...and for the woman.
I just heard a story about abortion the other day. I don't know....from my perspective I think that outside pressure more than anything causes a woman to abort, not necessarily her own selfishness. I think it is an act like suicide, an act of desperation. But maybe I don't know. I don't agree with it, but I have feared having a baby before.
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