Abortion

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Tman127182's picture
Abortion

What is your stance on abortion rights?

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James's picture
First of all, I think that

First of all, I think that peple that are sexually active should use birth control unless they want a child....
My stance on abortion rights is: pregnancy may be terminated if it:
1-puts the life of the pregnant woman at risk
2-poses a risk to the mental and physical health of the pregnant woman
3-poses a risk to the mental and physical health of the fetus
4-shows there is evidence of extreme fetal abnormality i.e. the child would be seriously physically or mentally handicapped after birth and during life
5-is consequence of rape or abuse.

damanar's picture
I am pro choice.

I am pro choice.

Tom Sarbeck's picture
A pregnant woman may

A pregnant woman may terminate her pregnancy for any reason she wishes.

SammyShazaam's picture
Agreed. I do believe that on

Agreed. I do believe that on an individual level there may be some considerations for the morality of the choice. However, morality is not the concern of the American government beyond giving every individual the opportunity to exercise their own moral choice freely. I wish people would just *stop* confusing ethics with morality in the political arena.

Besides, given that a large percentage of our personalities are derived from genetic influences... if a woman wants to abort her viable 6month old fetus because she has a cruise planned, what kind of kid would she be having anyway? I'm fine with her decision.

mysticrose's picture
I don't agree with abortion

I don't agree with abortion unless having the child can really be life-threatening to the pregnant woman. As for other reasons such as rape and possible abnormalities, I think the baby still have the right to live and it wasn't it's fault to be conceive unlikely. There are institutions who are willing to support pregnant women under those circumstances and to help their babies have a better life with or without their parents.

damanar's picture
When people are desperate

When people are desperate they will ignore the law anyway. I would much rather have abortions legal and accessible than have thousands of women dying from back alley abortions. A fetus cannot live outside the womb up to a certain point. Who is the government to tell anyone what to do with their own body?

mysticrose's picture
The government should focus

The government should focus on programs for orphans too. People who doesn't want their child can just give it to the government who will settle good future and homes for poor unwanted children. So abortion will no longer an option for those who just can provide good future for their children.

James's picture
any drugstore sell birth

any drugstore sell birth control and everybody knows that having sex can lead to pregnancy, so we all should be responsible for our actions.

Matty Arnold's picture
Firstly, birth control isn't

Firstly, birth control isn't 100% reliable. It's close, but it isn't 100%. Therefore we cannot say that abortion isn't to be allowed because we should take control of our actions. Plus, this ignores doing what's best for both the parent and child. Even if you believe that they should take control of their actions, you're essentially punishing the parent for not being careful. But if the parent resents having the child, that's a poor environment to be brought up in, and ultimately this punishes the child, too.

Abortions should be allowed under all circumstances. If a parent wants an abortion, then they DO NOT WANT a child. Just imagine how awful your childhood would have been if your parents didn't want you...

Now to deal with the two counterarguments here.

'The fetus has rights'. Well, you might not want to hear this, but no it doesn't. Why should it? Consider what a fetus actually is - it's a clump of cells. Why should a clump of cells have rights? A fetus has no experiences, no thoughts, no feelings, no emotions. Technically it's alive, but for all intents and purposes, it hasn't LIVED. There is nothing special about a fetus, for example the fusion of the gametes which some people regard as the beginning of life and therefore the rights to life. In some ways it is the right to life, but it's only a chemical reaction like any other. If I haven't encroached in why you think that a fetus should have rights, then please let me know.

'The baby can be put up for adoption'. This should never be made the norm. There are already thousands of children put up for adoption who struggle to find families, and putting more unnecessary pressure on the government is something to be avoided.

In terms of abortions, we need to consider the well being of the child, and I'm sure this is also in the mind of pro-life people. I think that in your mind, if you are against abortion, then the two choices (abort or don't abort) amount to either a possibly unhappy child, or a killed child, and of course an unhappy child sounds like the lesser of two evils. But in reality, abortion isn't killing a child, it's prematurely avoiding one being born, and there's a huge difference.

Following the logic that every fetus has the right to life, and that an abortion takes away this right, we must assume that every sperm and egg also have these rights as potentially these could also be children. But there are tens of millions of sperm present as every conception, but only one (usually) becomes a child. What makes that one so special as to get the right to life? By this logic, there is no difference between and abortion and refusing sex (they both result in an egg/sperm not becoming a child) and clearly you should be allowed to refuse sex. Thus, you should be allowed an abortion.

James's picture
I have heard cases of couples

I have heard cases of couples using birth control and getting pregnant; in this kind of cases i agree with having abortions, like you said there are more than enough kids for adoption. im not prolife or profetus for that matter but i think we should all be responsible for our actions.

DarkLight's picture
I agree that before birth

I agree that before birth there is no actual life. If the fetus is less than 3 months old then it would be ridiculous to even think that it feels or thinks anything in a concious way.

mysticrose's picture
A fetus is already conscious

A fetus is already conscious after 3 months so it means it already has life. From conception up to 3 months it's not conscious but it doesn't mean that it has no life.
Do we consider a man on a vegetative state dead? Of course not, even a brain-dead man is not yet dead.
Any form of taking one's life is a form of killing no matter what form that life may appear.

droyce's picture
I'm of the opinion that if

I'm of the opinion that if the fetus has grown to the point that it's nervous system has developed and it's become self aware through its conscious or subconscious it should not be terminated. I know many argue the point that life begins is birth and others a heartbeat but I think the only real moral standard we can look to is pain and suffering. Does the fetus feel pain and will it suffer from the abortion process?

I'd like to point out that having a memory of pain and being conscious of pain are different, of course we do not remember birth or the first few years of life, but we are conscious of pain during that time.

Matty Arnold's picture
I'm totally with Droyce. At

I'm totally with Droyce. At the point where the baby has a developed nervous system and would be aware of pain, abortion may not be appropriate.

Mysticrose, any form of taking a life is indeed killing, but you have to forget all of the negative connotations of killing when referring to a fetus. Killing a fetus isn't a bad thing as I discussed in my post above. To answer about brain-dead adults, if we know that they aren't going to come out of the coma then we switch off the life support machine. So even though we do consider them alive, it seems that hospitals regard then the same as fetuses - they should be allowed to die.

If you feel like any form of taking a life is killing, then do you never go outside for fear of stepping on ants? Don't you cook your food so as to let the bacteria live?

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