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P.S. Starr, I appreciate your thoughts on my comment but actually this is Editormum's blog. Yes, it is a very thought out and well expressed post.
posted by
Katray2
on April 5, 2005 at 9:18 AM
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I know there are many who feel as you do Starr and I respect those views, though I do disagree. Removing a seed from it's nurturing soil disrupts the growing process and results in death, but the "process" is life itself - albeit a beginning stage, but life nonetheless. What else describes the energy that propels development or growth to the finished result - a plant, flower or infant? Maybe not the best analogy, but my belief.
posted by
Katray2
on April 5, 2005 at 9:13 AM
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Also, sorry if doesn't make much sense. No sleep last night and the kids are wide awake!
posted by
starr4all
on April 5, 2005 at 9:02 AM
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Katray,
I disagree with what you say on the following:
"if left alone that tiny embryo, in most cases, grows into a being capable of sustaining life outside the womb."
Myself, I don't consider the embryo "living" until that organism can live outside of the body. If you take the embryo/fetus out of the body there is no way it could survive without all kinds of medical intervention if at all.
The rest of your post I agree with.
Otherwise, I may not agree with all of what you say in your blog but I thought it was well thought out and written.
posted by
starr4all
on April 5, 2005 at 9:01 AM
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You are so right.
I, too, feel that abortion is very wrong. Every single time I hear about women having abortions, it pains me to know that they are murdering an innocent life. It especially pains me when the pregnancy was just inconvenient. People say that it should be up the woman to decide what to do with her body. Well, it isn't her body she's murdering.
posted by
RAME
on April 5, 2005 at 8:58 AM
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I hate the thought of abortion also. Life does begin at conception in my view. After all, if left alone that tiny embryo, in most cases, grows into a being capable of sustaining life outside the womb. That said, I think in some circumstances, abortion sadly is the only answer. What about a very young girl, 13 or 14 being raped and impregnated? Incest? In those cases, a child's mental and possibly physical well being could be at grave risk by continuing the pregnancy. If such a horror befell my own daughter, I would choose to save her. The problem with your idea I think is money. Who should fund such services? Who would? There are too many politicians that yell "Save the Fetus!" yet they will not entertain thoughts of providing assistance for poor single mothers, infants and children. If only they would be willing to put money where their ideals and beliefs reside. And adoption alone is not the answer. At some point, supply would overcome demand. Good, thought provoking post.
posted by
Katray2
on April 5, 2005 at 7:08 AM
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I am a little confused by a couple of your facts..
only 3% of rape victims become pregnant? Does this mean victims of a one time rape? Victims of repeated abuse by someone don't count then? I find it hard to believe that it is that low when there are so many women/girls abused by husbands, stepfathers, fathers, mothers' boyfriends etc.
And who doesn't suspect they are pregnant when they have been raped and miss their first period?? That would be something I would very much pay attention to! At Week 5 of Pregnancy which is a week after the missed period and is capable of being detected by the over the counter pregnancy test with accuracy, this is the description from pregnancyguideonline.com
The developing embryo has three layers. In the top layer (ectoderm), the neural tube will form which will further develop into the nervous system (brain, spinal cord, skin and hair). In the middle layer (mesoderm), the heart and circulatory system, bones, muscles, kidneys and reproductive organs will develop - eventually. At this stage, however, the heart and primitive circulatory system will rapidly form. In fact, the circulatory system is the first organ system to function. In the inner layer (endoderm), a simple tube will develop into the intestines, liver, pancreas and bladder
That is far, far from being a baby. That is layers of cells. There is no brain. Even the most basic system is not present.
I cannot imagine being forced to carry a child I can't care for who was the spawn of some evil cretin who forced himself on me. Jeez the rape itself is cause for suicidal thoughts and a lifetime of nightmares. How would _you_ really feel?
I have never had an abortion. But if I were raped I do not know whether I would want to raise a child caused by the event or force my husband/kids to accept it either. There are many lives affected, not just the potential life of the cells in my uterus. Would you make your whole family miserable for the sake of some child that someone dropped off on your doorstep in a basket one day?? If so, you should adopt one of the children that were born but are not wanted already.
Sorry- got long- I did not realize I had so much to say 
posted by
FactorFiction
on April 5, 2005 at 6:45 AM
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Actually, the employment option...
was an attempt to handle the problem of women who want out of their regular sphere so that they do not have to deal with awkward questions about their condition while they carry the child. Certainly no amount of money could repay them for the pain and suffering that a rape would cause, and no amount of money would adequately repay a woman who died giving birth.
(Although I reiterate that rape victims and mothers whose life is endangered make up less than 3% of all abortion-seekers. You are "majoring on a minor" segment of the population, and we should never set policy based on extremely rare exceptions. It's like a drug company being disallowed to market a new drug because 1% of human testers developed serious side effects ---- we'd never get any drugs approved at that rate. Once a general policy is set, exceptions can be examined on a case-by-case basis. We could, for example, say that abortion is generally disallowed, but that extreme situations will be considered for termination based on X number of specialized medical opinions, or something like that. Perhaps this sounds harsh, but I truly think that it is crucial for a society to affirm its commitment to the sanctity of each individual life if it is to remain a viable and civilised society. Otherwise, we are no better than the Romans who left unwanted babies out on the mountainside to die of exposure.)
But one of the things that my rape-victim friend said was the hardest to deal with was the comments and looks from her coworkers, several of whom asked her why she didn't just do away with the pregnancy ... she was not comfortable with these comments or with the pitying looks that she was subjected to, and she ended up taking a 6-month leave of absence (her maternity leave plus some extra time).
So my employment idea was simply to make it possible for a woman like me, with no leave time accrued and unable to afford even a couple of days off from work, to "get away" from her regular sphere and yet still be able to support herself. Not to mention that there are many women who find lack of regular, meaningful work to be stultifying and unpleasant --- they prefer the daily interaction with other people and the fulfillment of important tasks to a life of leisure and self-indgulence.
posted by
editormum
on April 5, 2005 at 6:37 AM
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Employment option?
I think that the suggestion that you could pay a rape victim or a woman's whose life is endangered by her pregnancy to remain pregnant is not only flawed, it's offensive to women. You're essentially saying that money matters so much to them that they can overcome any trauma, even accept the fact that they will probably die if they know that they're getting money for it.
Yes, there are rape victims who are emotionally strong enough to bring the baby to term and to cope with the after-effects, yes there are cases in which a mother's life can be saved when it is at risk, but there are still others where this is not the case and women should not be forced to sacrifice their lives either physically or emotionally due to circumstances forced upon them.
As I mentioned in my own post, we can by measures both scientific and social strive to reduce the number of abortions, but we must accept, at least for the present, that some of them are unavoidable.
posted by
amfish
on April 5, 2005 at 12:02 AM
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The problem with that is that there are already so many children in the system that people don't want. That would be adding to the problem.
posted by
starr4all
on April 4, 2005 at 12:34 PM
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