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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!eagle!harpo!jrl
From: jrl@harpo.UUCP (jrl)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: right to life vs. reality
Message-ID: <2253@harpo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Mar-84 15:42:19 EST
Article-I.D.: harpo.2253
Posted: Fri Mar 23 15:42:19 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 08:47:16 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany
Lines: 67


Egnough of this horsechips. Let's get down to some basics.

    1) A human being does not exist until it is able to draw its
       own breath. 

    2) We live in an advanced society with many tools. Abortion is one
       of them. YOU choose to use or ignore this tool.

    3) People who are forced to have children (by whatever means) will
       never forget it and hence their child will know it.

    4) Most pro-lifers are affluent middle class WASPS, who never
       stop to realize the emotional and economic inpact of raising
       a unwanted child. 

 Now let me pose some questions to all pro-lifers:

      1) if your mate had medical complications in pregnancy and there
         was a chance that she would die in labor, would you allow the
         pregnancy to continue ? I for one would choose abortion since
         I could never accept a child that caused the death of my mate
         due to anti-abortion laws

      2) If pre-natal screening showed a good chance of severe birth
         defects would you choose abortion ? Let us face the facts that
         this society basically has no use for non-productive people.
         Forcing the birth of a child with severe defects is very cruel
         to the parents, and most of all the child. A couple that I know
         had such a child and it is still alive at the age of 28 in a
         State home. He mentally is the equivalent of a 10 month old
         infant. Is this life ?

      3) Would you move from your home to low income housing because
         of economic pressures due to the birth of an unwanted child.
         Children are very expensive. It now costs about 95,000 to raise
         a child thru 2 years of college. It took me a long time to
         get the material things that I wanted and I will not drop my
         standard of living if I have a choice. (I would prefer to marry 
         a woman who could not have children, and adopt one if we felt
         that a child is necessary to the realize the full meaning of
         life)

  On the points of poor women not being able to afford an abortion.

        1) A poor woman can get an abortion thru most states welfare
           system. The reason that they don't is that each child born
           means an increase in the AFDC payments and hence it is not
           too uncommon here in New York for a 20 year old to have 5
           children at home and one in the belly. 

           Actually they treat their children most of the times like
           shit and should not have them until they can afford the
           economic and mental means to give them a good chance to
           realize a full life. Some countries cut benefits to people
           on the dole who breed like rabbits. In our great land
           of liberals this would be decalred unconstitutional. If I
           have to practice birth control because of economic problems,
           then people on the dole should be forced to use them also.

If the pro-lifers are so damn concerned about human life, how come none
of them suggest the banning of tobacco products, nuclear weapons and 
dumping of industrial waste in residental neighborhoods, or that all
capital spent on weapons research be redirected towards agriculture
and medical inprovements in third world countries. Does it make sense
to develop weapons that they hope will never be used ?