As a surgeon, I really don’t want the courts telling me what kind of procedures that I perform. We already have the most regulated business in the world – medicine.
As far as a women’s right, it is exactly that, a women’s right. The Supreme Court with 8 men and 5 Catholics decided to uphold the federal ban on “partial birth” abortion. There is a lot of confusion and mis-information that surrounds this procedure. The bottom-line is a woman should have the right to decide what is best for her as long as the fetus in not viable. If the fetus is viable the woman should be able to choose between adoption and parenthood.
You should not be able to regulate what I do with my body. Sure there are some exceptions. Until anyone can come up with a definition of when human live begins, we should agree to disagree. The “pro-life” folks will have none of this. They want to impose their religious beliefs on everyone. They will not stop until there are no legal abortions performed anywhere.
The full Supreme Court decision is here.
Question – Are the Democrats ready for a knockdown drag out fight with the Republicans? This is a federal law. Congress can change the law but the president would have to sign the legislation. This will never happen. The next question is can Congress override a veto? I think that the answer is No. For now, the Democrats will have to work toward getting a more liberal Congress and a democratic President.
Elections have consequences. Great post by The Carpetbagger and Think Progress.
The main problem with “It’s my body” is that FAR too many women don’t act on that reality until after they’ve conceived a child.
IF women are committed to taking care of their bodies and having full control of them, why then are there so many “unplanned” pregnancies? If you’re pregnant when you don’t want to be, in a very huge majority of cases, it’s because you didn’t do anything to prevent that pregnancy.
Why don’t women absolutely plan NOT to become pregnant? Because they talk and talk and rant and politicize, but they are not committed to their statements beyond making them.
In North America and most of Europe, people have almost unlimited access to information and to all sorts of birth control, yet there are still millions of “unplanned,” read: unprevented pregnancies annually. Why is that?
Secondly, if a person has the right to control their body, do they not also have a responsibility to protect that right by doing exactly that: controlling their body?
Finally, what about the conceived child? Does that child not also have the right to control its body? Anyone who says the foetus is not a person or a human or a child is just skirting the issue and using semantics to distance themselves from reality. Humans cannot conceive anything other than other humans. Yes, that small human may not have fully developed nervous and circulatory systems or a functional brain or memories, but it is unquestionably human.
The issue of whether a human is a human is beside the point. That discussion takes the focus of the main issue, which is WHY are women NOT controlling the bodies they’ve fought to have rights over for what? 50 years? Because they’re mostly all talk and, when it comes down to reality, they’re not action. The level of hypocrisy on all sides of this argument is astounding.
The bottom line is this. Women cannot have it both ways. If they say their bodies are theirs to control then they better be putting some teeth in that assertion and ACTING on it. There is, in all but the most remote places in Canada and the US, full access to preventative options. Even the most grotty service station bathroom often has condoms in a dispenser.
I make these comments from the point of view of someone who did NOT act on my right to prevent a pregnancy, who was subjected to seven months of stress, duress and lack of family support but who chose not to terminate. That “pregnancy” is now my wonderful, brilliant, successful daughter.
My response to my unplanned pregnancy was to acknowledge that the person I’d conceived was not disposable because they were going to greatly alter my life.
I agree that no person has the right to direct how another person takes care of their body but people can’t have it both ways: you either act on your rights and protect your body in ALL cases or you’ve basically dishonoured your right to do so.
I have to agree with Writer on some counts, the court did not say she could not have an abortion but the way the procedure is to be done. There are several circumstances where there are great deformanties found later in term in the unborn child that the child would not live past a few months. If the child is born then it would be hooked up to extremely costly medical support systems for which the parents can not pay for and no chance for that child to survive. If they choose to terminate the pregnancy past a certain date they still can. But it is a matter of how it is to be done. If a woman can deal with herself on this issue is a personal choice. I could not choose this myself I am too much for advertising for adoption. But I will not tell other people what they should do either. I would like more facilities like Time Magazine wrote about in Ashville for the programs to assist people in carrying the babies to term. Then assisting them to give the babies up for adoption or helping them to keep the babies. The pro life people need to help them through the whole process. The court just eliminated a particular process. Not the abortion. I wish the pro-life people would spend their money advertising and promoting adoption instead. I never see an advertisment for adoption but you see all kinds of advertisment for dead fetuses.
WriterWriter –
Thanks for your comments.
Don’t the vast majority of women take control? The number of women taking birth control of one form or another is huge. So, balance this against the relatively small number of unwanted pregnancies. I think that women are taking control.
You don’t seem to have any sympathy for women who can’t take BCP’s or have side effects that are undesirable. Of course, the number of women using other methods of birth control is very high also.
I will not judge a woman who gets pregnant. Just as I try not to judge someone who rides a motorcycle without a helmet. They both are risky behavior.
thanks again for your comments.
WriterWriter –
Why is all your anger and blame directed towards women? Women don’t impregnate themselves. Funny how you never once mention MEN taking responsibility for birth control and preventing unwanted pregnancy. Then again, men don’t have to carry the baby. Men can just walk away from the whole situation. Sure, you can sue for child support, but let’s face it, pregnancy effects women in a far greater way. And yet it is men, five to be exact, who decided to put their political/moral agenda over the health of women. It certainly is not a medical agenda, as they completely disregarded medical testimony.
I think that is great you had your child. I think it is even greater that you had her by choice. Your choice.
Hollie –
Thanks for your comments. They are right on point.
E