Diatribune - abortion rights - Comments

The list of issues the Dems

epppie — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:23:27 -0600

The list of issues the Dems aren't pushing is so long.

Indeed Faithful! I'm also

Joanne — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:38:00 -0600

Indeed Faithful! I'm also encouraged by Senator Barack Obama statement. He's pretty smart! ;-)

Finance Articles

I can't assume to speak for

frsumd@aol.com — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:57:08 -0600

I can't assume to speak for epppie, but I know many who are pro-choice who would not choose abortion as an option for themselves. Thus making them "against abortion" but understanding the need for it to be an individual decision and not interfering with another's decision.

Thank you. I understand that, but I wonder if that is what is generally heard when the phrase "against abortion" is uttered, and I think it further stigmatizes abortion rights to feel it necessary to specify that disclaimer every time an opinion about abortion rights is expressed.

I can't assume to speak for

mommasfrontporch — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:42:36 -0600

I can't assume to speak for epppie, but I know many who are pro-choice who would not choose abortion as an option for themselves. Thus making them "against abortion" but understanding the need for it to be an individual decision and not interfering with anothers decision.

When I first found out I was pregnant, my ex-husband wanted me to have an abortion. For me, this was out of the question at the time. I wanted my baby. However, I would gladly go with a friend to a local clinic, when she had decided to have an abortion.

I do believe we need to

frsumd@aol.com — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:38:39 -0600

I do believe we need to continue to fight for access in the meantime but the debate really needs to be changed and focused on what the real problem is.

Kerry, maybe I agree and don't agree. I agree that changing and refocusing the "debate", or better eliminating it entirely, is needed and if changed in the way you suggest would be a more realistic and appropriate focus and a vast improvement. However, straining my tired, old brain as much as I can, I just can't see how that is likely to happen.

There will always be a need for abortion. Consider this arithmetic: For a million sexually active women using the best contraceptive available with a 99% success rate in preventing pregnancy (none can claim a better success rate), there is still that 1% failure rate - and that means 10,000 unintended pregnancies annually - and that's a real problem.

My wish is that political leaders would provide leadership in clearly acknowledging and championing the need for and positive aspects of abortion rights rather than hiding behind slogans like "Safe, legal, and rare," which is to my mind at best an evasion and at worst codespeak for "none" (by means of restricting access and availability or outlawing completely).

I suggest to any who might be interested the DKos diary by "moiv," "The Hidden TRAP Behind 'Safe, Legal, and Rare.'"

I didn't mean to imply that

kerry — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:08:35 -0600

I didn't mean to imply that we should not fight for the right of access. My point was that this "debate" has been going on for over thirty years since Roe and the Christian right has always framed the debate their way. We need to change the debate completely because abortion should be a non-issue. Only when it becomes a non-issue will it be guaranteed to all woman. I do believe we need to continue to fight for access in the meantime but the debate really needs to be changed and focused on what the real problem is.

Well, yes, but . . . It

frsumd@aol.com — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:59:07 -0600

Well, yes, but . . .

It ain't gonna happen - certainly not for a long, long, long, long time. What do we do until "Dr. Utopia" arrives? Just sit back and avoid and ignore until abortion rights are so undermined by irrational and unreasonable restrictions and regulations that millions of women and teenage girls, of course predominantly the economically disadvantaged who can least afford children or more children, are denied access?

We are well on our way to just that. I see women NOW, on a daily basis, direly in need of abortion, including those with life-threatening pregnancies, who simply can't get one due to ridiculous state regulations (TRAP laws) and are thrown into despair, some resorting NOW to misguided and dangerous attempts to abort by everything from street drugs or trying instrument their wombs with probes (in close proximity to large, engorged blood vessels from which one can bleed to death in minutes) to throwing themselves down stairs or having their friends hit them in the abdomen with baseball bats.

It is just getting worse. At an accelerating speed.

I always felt that abortion

kerry — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:27:48 -0600

I always felt that abortion was a non-issue. It is something religious conservatives use to expand their influence in the public debate. Their so called right to life argument always begins and ends with the fetus. As soon as the child is born his or her "right" to life ends, which is why these people aren't out protesting the death penalty or the wars we are currently waging, or deaths due to aids, genocide, etc. We need to end the abortion debate and start focusing on eliminating unwanted pregnancies, the one thing the religious right refuses to discuss because you can't talk about pregnancy without talking about sex. We need to develop a comprehensive sex education program that starts sometime in grade school and continues though high school then we can sit back and watch as abortions in this country decrease dramatically.

Thank you for your comment.

frsumd@aol.com — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:04:08 -0600

Thank you for your comment. You seem quite aware of the basics of abortion politics and the perils presented by the willfully ignorant millions of religiously indoctrinated sheeple pushing for no less than transformation of our system of government into their naive "ideal" of theocracy.

I'm perplexed, in light of your apparent understanding of the importance of abortion rights and other essential human rights threatened by misguided religious intolerance, that you are "against abortion."

Very moving. I am against

epppie — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:11:46 -0600

Very moving. I am against abortion, but I am also against using the political system to force this point of view on women. The way I see it, the authority of the government MUST stop outside an individual's body and mind. It cannot extend into a woman's body. It cannot tell her what to do with the inside of her body.

I agree too about the infantile ways of thinking involved in some of the fanatical religious anti-abortion belief and activism. I've seen it close up - the absolute inability to see beyond one's own perspective, the quick regression into anger and even violence at the slightest opposition or disagreement. The equating of tolerance with the 'evil' of 'relativism' - the inability to countenance perceptions that might seem to contradict in some way.

Above all, sometimes, I think of the tragedy of all the energy and money and effort that has gone into anti-abortion politics, that COULD have gone into humble preaching and teaching about abortion and into addressing those conditions of life that sometimes unnecessarily promote abortions. It makes me want to scream "STOP USING POLITICS TO ENFORCE YOUR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS and start using the techniques and means that pertain to religous belief, such as religious persuasion and dialogue, and works of charity and assistance!"

I used to get letters constantly from Priests for Life. It makes me sick to think about how much money and effort they seem to pour into politicizing an issue that is inherently nonpolitical.

I marvel at the possibility . . .

Betsy L. Angert — Sun, 13 May 2007 21:13:35 -0600

a life choice might be considered "simple."

Can any issue be broken down to one option or another?

I cannot and will not choose for you. You decide.

Chilling comment

Feral Cat — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 11:13:39 -0600

Ã¢â‚¬Å“the government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman.Ã¢â‚¬Â

This is the crux of the matter. Women are disposable. Women are not be be allowed to "make mistakes." Thought we were over the patriarchy deal, but not really.

abortion

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:41:12 -0600

The numbers on the abortion poll only add up to 89%.

Are we to assume that 11% that women should die rather than have an abortion?

strip size

stormbear — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:09:41 -0600

I have resized the strip back to its usual size. Sorry for the disruption.