Finally replying to this thread!
Even though I am a woman, I am opposed to abortion, especially as a form of birth control, as many of you have already expressed. Contraception in this country is for the most part cheap, widely available, and legal, and in my mind the possible consequences of not using protection unless you're trying to conceive are as widely known and understood as the dangers of smoking nicotine. I really have no sympathy for teenagers who engage in unprotected sex and get knocked up, when they should know better and have protected themselves in the first place. In addition, if you're older and even married, but you don't feel that you are financially or otherwise able to raise a child, then you also should be using protection. That part of it is just common sense. If you don't get that then in my opinion you shouldn't be doing the deed.
I do know, however, that accidents happen sometimes and people do get pregnant even when they take precaution against it. I have a good friend who, as she puts it, is the "result of birth control and a condom". Even the most careful people can get pregnant, though if you're protecting yourself properly the chances of it happening are extremely slim. In situations like that, though it is difficult, my answer is to give the child up for adoption. The friend I was talking about is one of those children who was adopted out at birth, and I know her parents were overjoyed to be able to have the opportunity to have a child, even if it wasn't one of their own biologically.
The only situations for me as to whether the option of abortion should even be on the table are in instances of rape or for the health of the mother. I'm inclined to say that for rape victims, they should be able to have access to an easier adoption, but I've never been raped, let alone been impregnated by a rapist and "forced" to carry that child to term and give birth to it, so I can't really say how someone in that situation "should" or is most likely to feel about having a baby that they, unlike those who voluntarily engage in sexual intercourse without protection, had no control or say in creating.
As far as the health of the mother is concerned, again this issue involves a bit of religious faith and belief for me. From my perspective, as I've said before, everything happens to us for a reason, and though it may sound cruel, I don't necessarily think it's okay to play God as I've said before and make that decision as to whose life is more important and worth saving, the baby or the mother. I'm inclined in those situations to just say let nature take its course, but at the same time I don't think every woman feels the same way I do about this (even though I'm not completely sure how I feel myself) and if there's a chance that aborting one baby who has no chance of survival anyway will give the mother the chance to live and hopefully produce more children, then maybe the baby should be aborted to save the life of the mother.
As a person who is short in stature, I know that any pregnancy I have, if I am able to carry a child to term at all, will be extremely risky, and klinkman and I have discussed what we would do if this kind of situation happened to us, where the presence of the growing baby inside me endangered the lives of both of us somehow. We're both pro-life, but he has said that in this situation he'd ultimately leave the decision up to me, as I'd be the one pregnant with the baby. I'm still not sure what my decision would be, but it is for these reasons that I don't think abortion *as a medical procedure only, not birth control* should be made illegal.
A couple final, smaller points. Firstly, I know that some of my own personal views on abortion are somewhat based on a belief in God who values human life, but I don't think that these views should be taken into account when a doctor who is legally able to perform an abortion is faced with a patient seeking the procedure for what I feel to likely be legitimate reasons, even if that person is not of the age of majority. I read a news story the other day about how Alabama I believe is seeking to tighten its restrictions on abortions, and one rule they are considering implementing is that a doctor can legally refuse to perform an abortion on a religious or personally moral basis. I really don't think that is right at all. Secondly, as I have stated before, I am also against the death penalty, and I am really irked by the hypocrisy of many anti-death penalty advocates who at the same time support abortion, and are often pro-choice, which I define as supporting the use of abortion as birth control or "family planning". Even if someone explains the difference to me as they see it, I'm not sure that I'll ever get it. So call me weird if you want, but at the end of the day I am opposed to abortion.
