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Originally written by Thuryl:

To be perfectly honest, I don't see a huge difference between having a child and then killing it compared to never conceiving it at all. In both cases, the result is the same: no baby. I'm not sure how it's possible to argue that the former is wrong without arguing that the latter is wrong too.

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Originally written by Overwhelming:

If you see the bioethics principles, you'll see that there are ethical abortions, example: when only one can survive, the baby or mother, the mother can choose. (And generally they choose to sapre their babies' life... Hard choices...).

And please, don't come with the argument that "if abortions are illegal, women will be getting unsafe non-professional abortions that put their lives at risk".

Risk? The baby, in that case, would have no risk: he would be killed. And he can't defend himself!

That's like saying: hey, thieves will always exist, let's legalize thievery, so that they don't have to put their lives at risk.

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Yesterday, I failed to give you my car. Should I be arrested? :P

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Seriously, I can see how that's a logical stance from a certain point of view, but do you really believe it?

Heck, from a strictly logical viewpoint, it's impossible to say there is such a thing as right and wrong.

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Originally written by Ash Lael:

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Originally written by wz. arsenic:

I don't believe a fetus in the first trimester can be considered a human being with the same right to well-being as, say, a 17-year old girl.

Personally, I think the woman's right to do with her own body as she chooses trumps the right of the unborn fetus every time.

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What seperates the two that gives one greater right to live?

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Who Has Abortions?

Abortion is the most frequent surgical operation (National Center for Health Statistics)
Roughly 42% of all baby girls and 25% of all baby boys are aborted. - (Planned Parenthood)
40% of women who have abortions will have more than one (AG Institute)
50% of women who have abortions use it as their sole means of birth control (AG Institute)

From an American survey of 1900 women who have had abortions

Age

<15yrs - 3%
15-19 - 42%
20-24 - 33%
25-29 - 14%
>30 - 8%

Completed Education
<12yrs - 6%
High School - 39%
13-14 years - 26%
Bachelors - 19%
Masters - 4%
PHD - 1%

Number of Children

0 - 73%
1 - 14%
2 - 9%
3 - 4%
>3 - 1%

Race

African-American - 35%
White - 33%
Hispanic - 15%
Other - 17%
(CDC 1995)

Reason for abortion

Mother's Health - 3%
Baby has possible health problem - 3%
Rape or Incest - 1%
Couldn't Afford Baby - 21%
Not ready for the Responsibility - 21%
Concerned how child would change lives - 16%
A relationship problem - 12%
Not mature enough - 11%
Had all the children they wanted - 8%
Other - 4%

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In September, 1993, Brenda Pratt Shafer, a registered nurse with thirteen years or experience, was assigned by her nursing agency to an abortion clinic. Since Nurse Shafer considered herself "very pro-choice," she didn't think this assignment would be a problem. She was wrong. This is what Nurse Shafer saw:

" I stood at the doctor's side and watched him perform a partial-birth abortion on a woman who was six months pregnant. The baby's heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. The doctor delivered the baby's body and arms, everything but his little head. The baby's body was moving. His little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. The doctor took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head, and the baby's arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall. Then the doctor opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out. Now the baby was completely limp. I never went back to the clinic. But I am still haunted by the face of that little boy. It was the most perfect, angelic face I have ever seen."

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Originally written by Kelandon:

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Originally written by Jewels of the Forest
Roughly 42% of all baby girls and 25% of all baby boys are aborted. - (Planned Parenthood)
...
50% of women who have abortions use it as their sole means of birth control (AG Institute)

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I feel reasonably confident that these two statistics are lies and don't actually come from the sources you cited.

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Originally written by Ash Lael:

Even though women that don't use contraceptives are more likely to get pregnant, that doesn't change the fact that almost half the women who get abortions didn't do anything to try to stop getting pregnant.

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