| stof said: I'm a feminist and a supporter of a woman's control over her body. |
It's not her damn body she'd destroying. The body that is destroyed has a completely different set of DNA than her own, and is by every medical and scientific definition, not her body, and not part of her body. Because the baby is, by every scientific definition, a separate human being, it should be given the same rights as the mother, and her right to her body cannot override her baby's right to live. The baby responds to stimuli and can feel pain very early on in the pregnancy, so killing this person is very cruel.
The baby is dependant on the mother in the womb, but is it's own separate individual. If we are allowd to abort a baby up until it is born because it is dependant on the mother, the same (twisted) logic should state that it's ok to kill a child once it's born, since it's still dependent on it's caregiver. Is it legal for a mother to bash a child's head in with a hammer then dump it in the trash the day after it's born if she doesn't want it?? No! Than why is it legal the day before the child's born for the physician to kill the child??? It makes no sense. This is not about the rights of the mother, she had the right to choose what she did with her body, and she chose to have unprotected sex. She knew the risks, but took them anyway, there's absolutely no reason why her child should have to pay with his/her life for their mother's mistake.
If you are indeed a feminist, maybe you should study the effects that abortion has on the mother. Mother's have a natural maternal instinct, and having an abortion goes against that natural instinct. This choice to kill one's baby leads to horrible guilt in many cases, scarring the mother for life. It is a well documented fact that suicide cases in women who've had abortions is significantly higher than those who have not. Cases of depression and other mental illness increase as well. As an anecdotal piece of evidence, one of my Aunts had an abortion when she was in her early 20's. The reasons seemed good at the time, but she has spent many years in therapy, on anti-depressants, and even on suicide watch as a direct result of her guilt. She is now in her mid 50s, has a son, and still suffers from guilt and still occasionally has nightmares about 'what she did'. She is now one of the staunchest pro-life supporters I've ever met. By the way, she's still very much a feminist, she just thinks feminism got this one very wrong.
Link regarding suicide rate: http://www.afterabortion.org/news/suicide205.html
Abortion and mental illness: http://www.afterabortion.org/psychol.html
Physical complications of Abortion: http://www.afterabortion.org/physica.html
If you really believe in women's rights, the first step would be to require doctor's to better educate women on the risks of Abortion. Abortion is one of the least regulated medical procedures as far as patient education, and many doctor's don't even bother to review the risks of abortion to the patient. Women should have a right to know what this procedure can do to them.
