What are your beliefs on abortion?Is it morally wrong?

Question

I think the only time it's acceptable is when the girl is raped and really young. I know in the bible it says no human is born by mistake but I don't know. I"m catholic but I still think that's the only time it's ok to have an abortion.What are your ideas about abortion?

Answer 1

OK in the first trimester. The fetus is as alive a malignent tumor at that point.

Answer 2

I'll start by saying I'm pro-choice.  Not pro-abortion, but pro-CHOICE.  First and foremost, I will always defend the privatization of my body.  No government should pass laws telling me what choices I must make in regards to my body.

Second, I respect those that are pro-life.  But those that are pro-life are usually taking the stance from a religious viewpoint, and must understand that we have the separation of church and state for a reason (to protect the nation from fundamentalists!)  And those that are taking a religious stance - I can never understand why they don't follow one of the biggest commandments:  Thou Shalt Not Judge.

Answer 3

i think its acceptable in some cases, not all!!

1. if the woman has been raped and the child is conceived then...or conceived by force

2. if the baby will bring risk to the mothers health

3. if the father has abandoned the mother and the mother can not afford the baby

4. if the mother has to face social pressure, for example, honnor killing ( ya, its still practiced in rural saudi arab, india, pakistan ...!!)

5. if she will be disowned by her family

6. if she knows for sure that the baby is infected with deadly disease, such as aids, or cancer.( if the mother has aids/ cancer, the baby in the womb can have it too).

7. if the mother is really young.....under 16 !!

...............these are the main reasons i think a woman can get an abortion without consulting others, as it is her life and she will conceive the baby after all. but simple reasons like, i have two kids already and the third one makes it nuisance...is not my way for abortion, call that murder. :)

Answer 4

I think it's ok in first trimester..and it's not murder..Women have right to do it.

Answer 5

I believe morally it is wrong. I believe life starts at conception. Think of this -- if you have to stop it, it has already started. As for whether or not it should be illegal, that should be up to the individual states, which it was before Roe vs. Wade and the Supremes unconstitutionally made it legal everywhere. The individual states are supposed to decide these types of cases, not the Federal government. Remember, a government big enough to give you everything is also big enough to take it all away.

Answer 6

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. This is the position that spurred “Born Alive” legislation that says if a woman has an abortion and the baby survives, that doctors cannot withhold care and let the baby die on the operating table. 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. Or perhaps just before 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 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 persons belief for 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 they 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, a social worker, 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 does not 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  

Answer 7

I believe it is murder

Answer 8

your body, your choice.

Answer 9

i was raped by my first cousin when i when i was 15 but i didnt have an abortion... i gave birth to my son when i was 24 and 1/2 weeks pregnant and he was still considered a fetus. i think abortion is an excuse for many people and it is just wrong... my initial reaction was to give him up for adoption but when i took that first look at his sweet face i couldnt help it. i loved him. hes 4yrs old now and he is my world.

Answer 10

There is no excuse for abortion,That baby might turn out to a great American leader,

Answer 11

It is a woman's right to choose to have a baby ripped apart and destroyed.  **** the rights of the baby.

fs

Answer 12

I believe it is WRONG, MURDER.

There are ways to prevent the pregnancy.

Answer 13

Abortion as a form of birth control is just sick.  And that is all it is in most cases.

Answer 14

I'm pro choice and will always be pro choice.   now with your argument only rape or the very young can have an abortion.  Did you know there are thousands of unreported rapes in this country?  and how do you determine that a woman was raped or if she wasn't.  What if some woman walks in the clinic and says i was raped 3 months ago and now I'm pregnant and i want an abortion.  How are you going to prove she wasn't.  OK you say ..only reported rape victims can get abortion i go back to my original statement there are thousands of unreported rapes what do we do about them?   "well you didn't report it so now you are going to have to be pregnant with your rapists child"  too bad.  So your statement on only rape victims are allowed abortion doesn't fly.  

Now yes i am pro choice and i will aways be pro choice.   I don't feel the government or anyone else has the right to tell me something that's private and not anyones business what i can do or shouldn't do.  It's between the woman and her god.  No one else's.  

Answer 15

i think it is considered murder all the time, if you really dont want the child you should give it up for adoption, there are so many married families that are unable to have children and i'm sure that they would love to take care of the child. The point is abortion is wrong and cruel and so many other things.

Answer 16

Genesis 2:7 (NIV), "Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

Notice: the Breath of Life was not given while He was forming Man, but after He FORMED Man. AFTER BIRTH. As it was with Adam, so it is with all mankind.

Exodus 21:22 (NIV), "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she miscarries, but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows."

If life began at conception, the men fighting would have been stoned as murderers.  An unborn child has value, but it is treated as a property crime, not a homicide.  "Thou Shalt Not Kill", from the previous chapter, clearly does not apply before birth.

Other favorites of the hypocritical anti-abortion crowd:  Psalm 51 is David crying after getting caught with Bath-sheba, words from an adulterer, not from God.  Psalm 139 is more of David waxing poetic, not words from God.  Jeremiah 1 is specific to Jeremiah only, not for all mankind.  Read it in context, and you will see that it DOES NOT APPLY to abortion.  Job 3 is Job's lamentation of his losses, again read it in context.

The Bible clearly states that Life begins at birth. Only those who stand to gain political power (at the risk of their souls) would bear false witness against the Word of God and say "the Bible says Life begins at conception".