All Dressed Up, and Nowhere To Go...

This whole entry started with me being curious as to what a Partial birth Abortion was, and the lovely informative Google.

I decided to fill out the "survey" attached at the end of one website rather "pro-life" website, and along with questions like "which political party do you associate yourself with?" (the answer is democratic, or liberal, if I have to...) and what's my opinion on Gun Control (For, Duh.) and the Death Penalty (No definite Answer, it depends on circumstance.) it had a segment on where I could write my own "additional comments." I wrote and toiled and laboured on this, and finally, happy with my decision, clicked "submit" even sacrificing my valid email address, only to be greeted on the subsequent page with "Error... Error... My limbs are flailing wildly... Error, Will Robinson. Must kill Robinson Family... Destroy, destroy..."

Well, Fuck. I hit the back button, copy and pasted it into notepad, and here I am. Pissed that I wrote a pretty sharp arguement, and had nowhere to put it. It was all dressed up, and had nowhere to go.

So, I decide to post, in a rather more open forum, and hope I'm not going to kick myself in the ass because there are people out there who LOVE to argue and argue and argue this point until death. I decided "Here we go, Linds, let's piss some people off, because they disagree with my opinion... I'm probably inviting the vampires right into my humble abode by doing so.

Just remember, boys and girls, I'm TRYING to maintain a rather neutral standpoint. I CAN see it from both perspectives, I just choose to not agree as much with one over the other. I know you fuckers are going to bitch at me for it. Just refrain from saying stupid stuff like "why is it that you whining liberals always have to.. ..." into my comments box, please. I don't reply to assholes. Play nice with the commie pinko, okay? I promise I'll play nice with you, too, if you keep your discussion nice and mature, rather than cheap shots at the fat chick who writes on a website that only 12 people come to a day.

Without further Ado...

Let me start with saying that I have read your website from front to back, excluding the page that is quotations from the bible and religious officials, which being non-religious in any aspect, did not hold much relevance for me. Sorry if that seems close-minded but I honestly don't feel that it would have changed my opinion either way.

While I am still pro-choice regarding the right for a woman to choose abortion, I personally do agree in first trimester abortion, and do not agree in abortion after the first trimester. I definitely do not agree with the notion of Partial Birth Abortions. This is only my opinion however, and here is my reasoning.

If you haven't made up your mind that you're going to keep your baby or not within two months (most women do not know if they are pregnant until they miss a period, usually 1 month after conception and into their first trimester) then there are methods to go about to give a baby a safe home via adoption. I fully embrace adoption as a viable option for a woman to make. It is not an easy decision, but it is one that when taken into consideration and well thought out, can prove to be beneficial for all parties involved. Mother, baby and adoptive parents.

I consider a fetus a human being. I do not consider a fetus a person. To me personally, there are differences.

A HUMAN BEING is someone who is created from two human beings. You are human from conception. Yes, Human from conception! Man and Woman are human, therefore creating human offspring. That's it. Male dogs and female dogs make puppies. Male cats and Female cats make kittens. It's simple species definition. They bump uglies, sperm and ovum do a little tango, and zygotes happen.

A PERSON, is someone who has had experiences and a life outside of the one that is inside the womb. A person has an established identity, a name, a place in the world, and a life outside of being concieved and the symbiotic relationship with the mother. It may seem cold and scientific, but it, at least to me, is relevant and accurate.

I've sat next to my best friend while she had an abortion 2 years after having her first son, and now is pregant with her third, (and planned pregnancy with her husband,) and it was a complicated and intense situation, that no woman should take lightly. She felt no regrets regarding her decision, and knew that it was not yet time for her to have her second child. Now she has a happy, healthy 7 year old and a new baby on the way. It's all a matter of circumstance, and to blanket judgment an entire countries decisions based on what quite possibly might be the majority of the populace who does NOT believe in abortion, does not make this country a democracy, it makes it a dictatorship.

To make abortion illegal DOES take away the rights of women to make a choice. Not all women that find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy choose abortion, and that is what makes me the saddest about this debate. I think that women should be counselled regarding the options available, but sadly from my own personal experiences, most "counselling" is very biased, either in one direction or another, which is not the way it should be.

My personal experiences with the Pregnancy Crisis Center left me with a woman who sniped at me that I was an "angry little girl", (I was 20, terrified, pregant for first time, and I found this rather insulting, and completely unhelpful in any situation...) and who threw pamphlets at me when I had informed her of my leaning toward, but not fully decided to have an abortion, when I had arrived there for advice and hopefully, answers. The stress from this along with the confusion and nervousness caused me to miscarry a day later, a month and a half into my pregancy, thus negating the need to make a decision, but leaving a very sour taste in my mouth regarding the supposed "methods" of the Crisis Pregancy Centers.

The same center, when helping the previously mentioned friend who had decided to keep her first baby, treated her like a gem, and supplied her with many things. I found the responses from the "counsellors" in these centers very biased and negative. I was not decided if I was ready to have a child, and she was, therefore I get treated like dirt, and she gets treated like royalty? Support should be given regardless of decisions. They are both difficult and hard to make when a pregancy is unexpected and would be hard to care for after the baby was born.

I do not think religion and politics should play a role in a difficult, very personal decision like this. Women should be given the correct, unbiased facts and let them make their own educated decisions, regardless of the personal leanings of the "counsellors" involved. It is a disgustingly cutthroat society that would terrify and bully a scared, single woman when all she is asking for is help and advice.

I am not one of the raving, "bra burning" uber feminists out there, but I believe that when you take the rights of women away and safer methods of removing "problems" or "unwanted" pregancies from her, you are opening the doors for "coathanger" abortions in dirty, unsanitary places, and while yes, infections, deaths and the like DO happen ocassionally from legal, supposed "safe" abortions gone awry, it is a safer place when women are not trapped and terrified when they miss a period, that the time they are going through at that moment is going to change their life forever when they are not ready for it. (and even just getting pregnant is a life changing thing, wanted or not) Children born to parent(s) that are more prepared socially, economically, or emotionally to raise children, do better jobs and give those children better lives.