Should a Woman Have the Right to Abortion?

what country are you from? I'm just curious, I didn't know there were that many places other than Central America that still have laws against abortion. What is the punishment for having an abortion where you are? Is a jail time, a fine, what? I'm really curious.

You'd be surprised how many countries outlaw abortion. It's illegal throughout South America, Africa, the Middle East, and a fair amount of East Asia. In Europe most countries allow it, but the laws vary and some countries have strict laws regarding when and why you can get abortions. Not every country has it on demand like in the US.

I have heard this before but if a girl is raped and gets pregnant then why should she have to live with a pregnancy not of her choosing that constantly reminded her of the crime against her. A crime inflicted just because she is female.

I agree with you completely trruk1. I don't know of any other situation in our society where people believe that they have the right to dictate the choices women make. I realize that this is more serious and, like you, I also wish that we lived in a world where there were no reasons for a woman to decide to terminate a pregnancy, but no one walks in anyone else's shoes. A woman who really wants/needs to terminate a pregnancy will find a way and she shouldn't have to risk her life in the process.

"Making it illegal will not serve those people or their fetuses/future children." There won't be any future children if they have abortions. Sure, it can still happen if it's illegal, but it certainly would happen a lot less.

Yeh, I surprise a lot of people. You don't see many "right wing" pagans, we're out there, we're just usually a lot more quiet about it. The "right wing" of society looks at us as devil worshipers...and the pagan community has a hard time understanding how we can be so "conservative, though I have found pagans a lot more tolerant of any belief than the other side of the fence seems to be. I'm not deeply religious, I'm not a heavily practicing Pagan, but it is the religion I identify and align myself with.

to be honest, X, though I never had abortion, and have always hoped I'd never have to face the issue head-on, I always though that it should be a woman's choice because having a baby is such a major thing, it changes the woman's life, and it didn't seem right that it should be forced on someone. But after reading this article, I mean, it talks about doctors pulling out arms and legs -- it's pretty hard to support that. I never thought it was really that developed. But the article says there's thousands of abortions every year after the first trimester, and they are usually done for reasons other than the woman's health. That just seems barbaric to me, and even in the first trimester, the pregnancy is a lot more developed than I thought it was. Youd think with going to high school and college I would've known more about the way a fetus develops, but I guess I never really thought about it. I would have a lot of doubts about the article, but the references were so detailed, and I followed one of the links to one of the quotes and it was the correct link -- the article really said what the author said it would. it's pretty shocking. It seems to me that adoption would be the best answer most of the time. I've heard women say they could never put a baby up for adoption because they would miss the baby, and yes, I do feel, I still feel, a little uncomfortable about forcing a woman to go through the birth process -- but as someone said, there is birth control, the birth control sometimes fails, that's the problem. still, it's not the fault of the baby, it didn't ask to be created. I really have to reconsider my position. I think I'm going to do more research about the reasons why women have abortions and about different alternatives. BTW, I never knew you were Pagan. that's really interesting. I don't think I know any pro-life pagans.

President Obama has supported third trimester abortions, and abortions after the baby has been born (albeit prematurely) in the past. Here's a pretty good article explaining the situation and quoting the president from the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee (granted from a conservative source): http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28926

Why would I want to read that and what does Obama's support of third trimester abortions have to do with this discussion?

You brought up partial-birth abortions. I said the wrong thing, it's about partial-birth, not third trimester. Just thought you'd want to know what our president's stance on this issue is. Duly noted that you do not care.

I'm curious...what unborn animal babies have more rights than unborn humans? My neighbor recently had his dog spayed after a male had gotten to her while she was in heat. He paid extra because she was already pregnant.

Whales, turtles, pandas, tigers, eagles, strange little fish or an odd mouse found on a farmer's property, just about anything man decides is important enough to keep. In Florida, our private beach was closed down because the turtles laid their eggs. We couldn't turn on lights that might be seen from the beach to protect the little ones from straying from the water. Whole crews of people protected those eggs from being disturbed in any way. Yet, if a girl gets pregnant, she can get an abortion without her parents even being aware of her pregnancy. The farmer loses the right to farm because he might destroy the fish or mouse's rights to survive. Of course, the farm may be his family's sole source of income, but they're only human, so they don't count.

P.S. Once we make animals our pets, they get the same treatment as human babies - no say so in what happens to them.

I agree. I do not like abortion but I would never tell someone that she has no right to choose that path just because I do not like it.