I would like to know how you feel about abortion?

Question

Also if you dont mind state your age I want to see if there is a difference between older and younger peoples opinion.

Answer 1

I am pro choice and I am 43.  

Answer 2

Wife 18, Husband 22, My Dad 41, My Grandmother 79

All against abortion...

Answer 3

38.

I have thought about this quite a bit over the years. The wide spread of opinions is incredible, matched only by the passion of the activists on all sides. This is an issue that few people are even able to have a civilized discussion about. Complicating it further is that there are few that hold a black-and-white view of the issue. The majority of people in the US see abortion as a giant grey area with varying degrees of abortion considered acceptable. Very few people hold the position of unlimited abortion access or no abortion under any circumstances. Below is the process I went through to come up with my position on the matter.

First, I asked myself the question at what point does a human being obtain "personhood" and as such gain all the legal and moral protections that status entitles them to? There are some who say that the point of personhood is 28 days AFTER birth, at which point you still should be allowed to abort. In fact, there is a professor of ethics at Princeton University that actively advocates this position. Others say up to the point of birth. These folks, such as Barak Obama, would hold that this type of infanticide as well as partial birth abortion is a reasonable procedure. This is the position that spurred “Born Alive” legislation that says if a woman attempts an abortion and the baby survives, that doctors cannot withhold care and let the baby die on the operating table. Or perhaps just before birth while the mother is in labor. Or 6 months of gestation or 3 months or three weeks. I wrestled with this for a long time.

Then I looked at the issue a different way. Does human life have an imputed value or an intrinsic one? If we say that it is imputed, meaning the value is derived from something else, some outside criteria, then any one of the above positions would be equally valid. We as a society would decide what criteria to select. My problem with this is what criteria do you use? On what basis is a baby at 6 weeks more valuable than a baby at 5 weeks? Is a baby that has not yet developed a heart still a baby? This hit really hard on my wife and I when we lost one of our children. Lynne had a miscarriage a few years ago. When people with strong pro-choice sentiments gave us their condolences, they referred to the fetus as a child, even though she (we named her Grace, even though we do not know for sure if she was a she or a he. It made it easier to explain to the other children what happened and easier for Lynne and I to grieve our loss) was at the same gestational point, 9 weeks, that they believed abortion was merely removing some unwanted tissue of the mother. So, the criteria used is whether or not a child is wanted? If that is so, then why? The characteristics of an object of any sort are not contingent on another person’s belief or perception.

By similar logic, if the value of human life is imputed, it can also be taken away, depending on what some person or group of persons believe that life is worth. So if you happen to be mentally retarded or black or Jewish, it would be perfectly reasonable for you to be killed off for the good of the community if the majority of them believe it. I have a friend who is paralyzed from the neck down and constantly in pain. There are some in the world who would look at her and say that she has no quality of life or that the money and effort to support her would be better used on others. They would have her die due to her handicap. But knowing her the way I do I find the notion that she is without a quality of life to be ridiculous on its face. She is a writer, a painter, and heads up an international charity. I’d call that a pretty good quality of life. So would her husband who married her years after her accident put her in the wheelchair. Thus, the imputed value logic is shown to me to be completely arbitrary. Following any of the “prior to this point it is not human but at this one on it is” positions is likewise arbitrary and is not able to answer the question of personhood.

But consider the proposition that human life has an intrinsic value. That it is valuable simply because it is human life and no other reason. No measure or quantification of the value of it, it is and that is enough. It is sort of like gold. Gold is valuable because it is gold, not because we as a society stood up one day and said, “we are going to make gold valuable”. Gold has an intrinsic value as opposed to an imputed value, such as paper currency. Paper currency is worthless in and of itself. It has value only because we say it has a certain value.

This position then would support a clear line between human life and not human life. With this position, you are a human at the point that you have a unique genetic code. In other words, at conception. Prior to that, there was no “you”. The male and female reproductive components in and of themselves are not a unique genetic code, but merely parts of the donors. It is only when they combine to create new life do “you” begin to be a person.

The notion of intrinsic value also carries forward throughout life. My mother-in-law was on dialysis for several months before diabetes finally took her life. There are many who would have said that she should just die and not burden the rest of us. If those persons held the position that human life has imputed value, I can understand. I however, believe that human life is intrinsically valuable and worth preserving and protecting for as long as possible. Thus, we should protect life at the beginning and at the end and at all points in between. That is why we continued to get her to dialysis until the day she finally passed away.

So, we come full circle back to the question of abortion. Should it be outlawed? My answer, since I believe in the intrinsic value of human life, is that for the most part it should. Why only “for the most part”? Because there are times when you have to weigh the life of two humans and pick one to live and one to die. My sister-in-law faced such a problem once. She got pregnant from her husband and it turned out to be a tubal pregnancy. Had the child been allowed to grow inside of her, it would have killed her before the baby would have been able to survive on its own. Thus, in weighing these two lives, one would have to conclude that the baby would have to die in order to save the mother’s life. What about cases of rape or incest? I have 5 daughters (yes, that was no typo) and the thought of one of them being raped is always lurking in the back of my mind. Statistically speaking, at least one of them will be before they graduate from college. If one of them should get pregnant as a result, the hard decision would be to let that child live. Pregnancy is not the extremely dangerous event of the past. Rarely do people die from giving birth. Many more die as a result of complications after an abortion. But the bottom line is that the child is innocent of any crime, so why punish it? It is a human being of intrinsic value. I’m not saying it is an easy choice and I can certainly sympathize with those who have had to make it. Perhaps they even made the wrong choice. But, God is a loving and forgiving God, who can even forgive the taking of a human life. Which is what abortion is.

Answer 4

I am 27 and pro choice all the way.  However, if a girl has had multiple abortions I find that disturbing.  After once the person should have learnt from the mistake and started to use birth control.  I know a girl who has had four abortions and that is disgusting.  

Answer 5

I'm pro-choice and I'm 19

Answer 6

I am 21 And Pro life.

In instances where it is rape or health compromise to the mother than those cases can be looked at other wise I believe it is an awful form of birth control.

FYI  only 1.9% of abortions are done because of rape or because the pregnancy would compromise a woman's health.

Answer 7

I'm 20 and I am completely pro choice

Answer 8

i am 41 - Abortion is legalized murder. I FEEL like the country thinks it's okay because we're all having s*x and some do not want the inconvenience of raising a child or dealing with responsibilities. A lot of parents also believe that if their teenage daughter get pregnant, they will not have the life they should. (In the case of abortion, the baby definitely doesn't get the life they deserve!)

Answer 9

24... AS LONG AS IT'S NOT ABUSED OR USED AS A FORM OF BIRTH CONTROL, I THINK ITS A WOMANS RIGHT TO CHOOSE IF SHE WANTS TO BE PREGNANT OR NOT.... ALSO, I THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE MORE CLEAR ABOUT WHAT THEY WANT TO DO, AND NOT ABORT WHEN THEY ARE PAST THE FIRST  6 WEEKS...IT'S SAD AT ANY STAGE, BUT THE FURTHER U ARE, THE SADDER IT IS I THINK... GIRLS NEED TO USE PROTECTION AND AVOID THESE SITUATIONS WHENEVER POSSIBLE...

Answer 10

I am 32 and pro choice but I would prefer if women carried the child until delivery then gave it up for adoption.  Now if there is a genetic disorder that would make the child die a painful death shortly after birth then abort. I am not talking about down syndrome but there are other disorders that are fatal and painfully so for the child. In these cases I would advise abortion or if the mother's life is at risk early on in the pregnancy.

Answer 11

I'm against it, and i'm 23.

There are other methods of birth control and honestly, if the woman willing had s*x, then she can deal with the consequences!

Why do people feel that choosing s*x shouldn't have a consequence!?

I'm gonna get a lot of thumbs down for that, but i'm entitled to an opinion just like they are!

Answer 12

I am 24yrs old and my opinion on abortion is not a set in stone yes or no.  I feel that a woman should have a chioce but I would prefer that she carry it and put baby up for adoption.  I think the only way that would work though is if she actually plans to take care of herself while baby is growing.  I feel that a woman who was raped and could not take it to carry the baby for 40weeks should be able to terminate.  It is just so hard because I see how wonderful my kids are and I could not imagine terminating such a thing but I feel that every situation and decision for doing it is different.