Abortion: Public Issue or Private Decision?
In a recent Zogby Interactive survey of adults nationwide, respondents were asked to choose a statement that comes closest to their beliefs on the issue of abortion. Almost two-thirds (64%) of the sample strongly or somewhat agrees that abortion is a private decision between a woman and her doctor, while over one-fourth (27%) of the respondents strongly or somewhat agree that abortion is not a private decision between a woman and her doctor. About 7% of the sample does not agree with either of the statements.
About 58% of Christians (including both Catholics and Protestants) agree that abortion is a private decision, compared to 87% of the respondents with no religious affiliations. Among Christians who attend religious services more than once a week, 32% agree that abortion is a private decision, compared to 76% of Christians who never or rarely attend religious services.
Where do you stand on the issue of abortion? Do you think that a woman should be able to decide what happens to her own body? Or do you think that the state has a compelling interest in protecting prenatal life?
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Once the child has been conceived — then there is another body involved (other than just the woman) and the woman no longer has the right to choose if that child lives or dies. If she wants to make decisions about her own body and she is not ready to have children — then she should make the decision to NOT have unprotected sex.
First, I think women already have the decision of what happens to their body. The issue is when another life comes into that decision. It’s not just her life now; it’s an unborn baby’s life as well. So now she’s making decisions for two lives’. Even if she’s the one carrying the fetus / unborn baby, it should not mean that she can whatever she wants to another life because it’s in her body still. That’s just my opinion.
If the state decided that she should have all authority even when another life is involved then so be it. If people make enough presence to show that killing fetuses is not just morally wrong but also unethical and reverse this law I also support that. I am pro-life and believe there are other alternatives than just removing a fetus as if it were not there or as if it less human because of the stage of life it is in, regardless of the woman’s situation. Nobody said the right thing to do is an easy thing to do.
“…abortion is a private decision between a woman and her doctor…” What about the father? Surely he should have more say in this than just being a sperm supplier. He definitely should have more of a voice than the “doctor” whose oath includes, “I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.”
At least we have gone beyond the questions, “is the unborn baby human?” and “when does life begin?” Even those most adamant about the right to abort the unborn must concede, “yes, the unborn embryo or fetus is most definitely human and alive.” So, now the target question shifts: is the unborn one a “person” as defined by the state, with the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” If the answer is “no,” then the state has no compelling interest and the decision is left up to the mother. But, if the answer is “yes,” then the unborn has the right to be protected by the state, even in the womb. And “personhood” is a political/sociological question, not a biological one. As for me, if I must err in the discussion, it will be on the side of protecting rather than disposing, while we as American adults debate the issue.
Agree that an unborn baby is a human but a collection of several undifferentiated cells is not a baby.
The so-called “partial birth abortion” is homicide!
Abortion should be a private decision of the woman, but significant counseling should also accompany the matter. I wish that the laws would be changed to allow adoption to be easier in the US. With the cost and all of the hoops a family has to jump trhough it is no wonder why people go to other countries to adopt while thousands of children here in the US live in the children services system.
While I support that abortion should be one of the “choices” a woman has the criteria of when the abortion should be allowed to be performed needs to be re-evaluated. Back when Roe v Wade was decided it was common that a child could not live if born up to six months of gestation. Now that number has come down significantly as medical procedures and care has evolved over the last 30 years. We might be approaching the time when after 5 months abortion is akin to terminating a fetus that could survive if born premature.
Finally, this is not a matter for the congress to decide, but for the courts. It is a legal matter and not a political or ideological one.
To everyone who is opposed to each woman deciding based on considerations of her doctor’s advice and her partner’s wishes (except for her rapist if this is the situation that made her pregnant)whether or not to abort her pregnancy, I ask: are you as concerned about the chld’s life after it is born as you are for the embryo or fetus?
If so, I want to see you anti-choice people (males and females) stepping up to provide foster homes and adoptions for unwanted, uncared for, abused children–and to be sure the pregnant mother has all she needs to care for herself and the child. Children are starving, malnourished, neglected, abused right in your own states and communities.