A woman should be permitted to have an abortion at any time in her pregnancy up to viability (6-7 months, the point in which a fetus can survive outside of the womb). I am absolutely shocked every time I hear a man say he thinks abortion should be illegal. It's really easy to say you're against abortion when you could never become pregnant and face the anguish of an unwanted pregnancy.
IMO, a fetus (yes, a fetus, not a baby, its not a baby until its born) is a parasite if unwanted. It lives off of an unwilling host.
It disgusts me that people value a clump of cells, a POTENTIAL life, over the life and rights of a BORN, living woman.
But hey, a woman deserves to be forced to give birth to a baby because she had unprotected sex, or the condom broke, or she took the wrong antibiotic while on the pill, right? I mean, she was so damned irresponsible and spread her legs, so lets punish her by forcing her to give birth to a baby she doesn't want, that will go into the foster system and probably lead a miserable life. Or better yet, maybe she'll KEEP the baby and raise it... I'm sure that a pregnant 15 year old would have the resources to care for and raise a baby in an excellent enviornment... I mean, that baby could be the next Einstein you know... she owes it to the world to birth him.
But wait! There are sooooo many couples waiting to adopt, right? She owes it to those couples that can't conceive! Its not fair that they can't have a baby and that irresponsible teenager can! That baby will get a home right away! Of course, only if it's a healthy white baby. No one really wants a crack-addicted or disabled kid, they can go straight to the foster homes.
And that pregnant teen who bleeds to death trying to perform an abortion on herself rather than face the shame of telling her parents about her pregnancy, well she just deserves it for getting pregnant in the first place, doesn't she?
Pro-choice. Abortion on demand up to viability, after that, legal, safe abortion if the mothers life is endangered or the fetus is determined to be not compatible with life.
I'm just really surprised no one has posted links to the bs pro-life sites with doctored pictures and altered videos yet.
ABORTION STATS (from cdc.gov):
In 1999, 861,789 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC by 48 reporting areas. This total represents a 2.5 percent decrease from the 884,273 legal induced abortions reported by these same reporting areas for 1998.
The abortion ratio for 1999 is the lowest reported since 1975. The ratio was 256 legal induced abortions per 1,000 live births, compared to 264 in 1998.
For 1997 through 1999, the abortion rate was 17 per 1,000 women aged 15- 44 years.
Most abortions were obtained by white women, unmarried women, and women under 25 years of age. As in previous years, about one-fifth of women who had abortions were 19 years old or younger. Of the women who had an abortion, 41 percent were known to have had no previous live births.
For 1999, 25 areas reported a total of 6,278 medical (nonsurgical) procedures. This figure reflects an increase of 28% from the 4,899 medical abortions reported by 22 reporting areas for 1998.
As in previous years, more than half (58 percent) of reported legal induced abortions were performed during the first 8 weeks of pregnancy; 88 percent were performed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
For 1998 (the most recent data available on maternal deaths), nine maternal deaths related to legal induced abortion were reported. Overall, the number of such deaths was highest before the 1980s
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