Letters to the Editor
-
So Syoung
" I vastly prefer them to the type of sentimental nonsense that imprisons people, forces them to be in relationships with people they don't want to be with, forces them to give birth to children they don't want, and forces everybody to live a lie of obligation piled upon obligation"
You'd support the right of non-custodial parents to not pay child support for the 'parasite'?
-
Anonymous 12:30 on page 2
You asked "Where the $()*$ are the FATHERS?" I ask "Where the #($& are the JOBS for the fathers." If there were livable-wage manufacturing-type jobs for the fathers and it weren't so hard to make a living I think you'd see more proud fathers stepping up. I live in an area that fortunately has a better econony than Mississippi (I have lived in Mississippi too) and there are still jobs to be found and you see families pulling together, living maybe two or three generations to a house but all helping each other, with three or four incomes coming in to the household, and it's doable. For now. Maybe the right-wingers haven't heard about our little shangri-la yet where there are still a few jobs to be had.
-
Part of the problem...
Most OB/GYNs refuse to see patients to confirm pregnancy before 10-12 weeks. I am a newly pregnant woman with a high risk multiple pregnancy (confirmed by the doctor who performed my fertility treatments), I sought prenatal care immediately, and was told that it was not standard practice, even in high risk pregnancies, to see a prenatal patient before 12 weeks.
I can only imagine how this compounds the situation for women unwillingly pregnant.
-
Reply to syoung2007
Your theory that a fetus is, medically speaking, a parasite is rather alarming. I hope that if you ever become pregnant, a remote possibility I should think, you would consult an obstetrician rather than a parasitologist.
Yes, I know there can be complications of pregnancy. My mother had severe pre-eclampsia when expecting me and nearly died. Fortunately for both of us, she survived, had three more children, and lived for another 52 years before expiring from a stroke, like her father before her. She also worked for many years as a midwife.
Treatment and monitoring of complications of pregnancy these days is greatly improved, especially in the developed nations, so pregnancy is not the death sentence it used to be for many women, nor does it mean that they are disgraced and cast out from society.
You talk about women being forced to undergo involuntary pregnancies as if they were being strapped down and inseminated, but that is not quite the case as far as this article is concerned. I would not be surprised if women in the Muslim world ARE forced to undergo pregnancy (if I am wrong perhaps some imam reading this will correct me), but here in the US most pregnant women have contributed to their own downfall. I think there is a good case for abortion to be allowed, indeed provided, in cases of rape
Of course human beings are not logical creatures. Whatever made you jump to that conclusion? We are driven by evolutionary needs to perpetuate our genes and for our species to compete for survival against others. If we were in our right minds, we would never reproduce at all.
However, I am just telling you what ordinary people think and why they oppose abortion. In a democracy the majority does not have to be rational. It just has to be a majority.
And if you think you can persuade people that their children are parasites, then good luck to you. They will just give you a flea in your ear.
-
too many generalizations
Both Syoung and Amerigo could be the same person. Each deals in absolutes. Amerigo thinks anyone who had an abortion will someday regret it, while Syoung believes that any woman that regrets an abortion is an idiot. I regret an abortion I had many years ago, but I remain firmly pro-choice. I realize that my experience was my own, as every woman's choice about terminating a pregnancy should be own her. The only idiots here are the people like Syoung and Amerigo who make assumptions about people and circumstances they know absolutely nothing about.
-
New Yorker
I didn't say I thought any one who had an abortion would regret it. I said that many people feel that way and that they therefore support laws that don't allow for unlimited abortion on demand. I was offering this as an alternative to the theory that people who oppose abortion are all fascists or religious nuts.
No doubt there are lots of elderly people whose only regret is that they did not abort their children. I know a few of them too!
-
Your own experience does not qualify you to speak for others.
<<I think there is a good case for abortion to be allowed, indeed provided, in cases of rape>>
But not otherwise? This is frightening; what qualifies anyone to decide the circumstances under which someone else should be allowed an abortion? Where can you draw that line for someone you don't know in secret and horrifying circumstances that you can't even imagine? This belongs to a category that I don't think syoung made quite explicit enough: Those who CANNOT trust women to know themselves and their values, assess their circumstances, and use their own judgement. Though I suppose they could be a sub-category of the neo-Victorians.
It says that women can't possibly know enough to be afraid of the right things.
To be fair and clear, I'm against abortion. I think it's awful. I believe as a matter of my faith that every potential life is valuable not only to God but to the rest of us. But it won't work to legislate it away. I want to see the day when this country truly values life as it claims to, when an elective abortion would be near-unthinkable because a woman with an unplanned pregnancy would have no cause to doubt that she would be supported by her community, would be able to earn a decent living, and that her child would be unconditionally wanted and valued.
But that isn't what most current anti-abortion really want. As syoung articulated in a way that hadn't really struck me before, what they want is an underclass of people to devalue, manipulate, and scapegoat. They need it in order to reassure themselves of their own righteousness. They don't value these unborn children, they value their ability to make the rules and as far as they're concerned, speak for God.
So I can disagree and morally object to abortion till I'm blue, but I can't judge a girl who's in a situation I could never imagine. I know other religious liberals who believe the same--that abortion is wrong, but the current consequences to the most vulnerable girls and women of outlawing it are far more wrong.