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From: liz@umcp-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: abortion decisions
Message-ID: <6558@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Apr-84 01:42:11 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.6558
Posted: Mon Apr 16 01:42:11 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Apr-84 08:13:30 EST
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Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept.
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Alan Silverstein says:

	No one is trying to force any woman to have an abortion
	she doesn't want.  Some of us merely want to prevent fanatics
	from forcing their morals on others.

In practice, that's not true.  There are parents who tell their
daughter that if she doesn't get an abortion she will have to move
out of her house, etc.  There are also boyfriends who exert undue
pressure on girl friends to have abortions promising love only
conditionally on that.  (I know this happens because I've talked
to women in such situations... who need housing desperately in
order to keep their baby.)  Fortunately, the majority of crisis
pregnancies do not fall into this category.  However, a large number
of abortions occur because of a more subtle form of the same thing.

No woman really wants an abortion but would rather they had never
become pregnant in the first place -- pretty obvious...  For a lot
of women, it's bad timing -- usually too soon ("We have talked
about marriage and could see it maybe in a few years, but right
now, we're not ready for it -- we need to finish school", etc.).
They want a child, but often (to my surprise) they view it as
selfish to have the child because of the burden the child will be
for those around them.  They wind up feeling that the "right" thing
to do is to abort even though they don't want to.  Upon reflection,
I now wonder if this reasoning is really rationalizing the decision
because they're not comfortable saying that the pregnancy was simply
inconvenient, but I still think that women in crisis pregnancy are
influenced too strongly towards getting an abortion from various
facets of our society.

[Note:  In the last paragraph, I'm drawing here from two sources
of information: my experience in working at a crisis pregnancy
center and from reading a book by Carol Gilligan, "In a Different
Voice".  That book was recommended on net.women a while back, and
I've been reading it -- a lot of what she says makes a lot of sense
to me and I recommend that book to anyone interested in women's
psychology.  The part that I'm drawing on here is a study she did
in learning about how women make decisions and she chose the abortion
decision as a focus.  She appears to be pro-choice and I disagree
with that, but I still recommend the book because she seems to have
a lot insights on the main subject of the book.]

There's something else I'd like to bring up here that has bothered
me off and on for quite a while.  At the center, I talk to a lot
of women who think initially that abortion is the only answer for
them.  After talking to them for a while (telling them about what
is involved in abortion, risks, the developing baby and help
available to them), most of the women in their 20's will reconsider
and (frequently) will decide against abortion once provided with
a viable alternative.  On the other hand, the teenagers frequently
refuse to consider anything other than abortion.  One gets the
impression from talking to them that they figure since someone made
it legal, then that someone must have already thought through
everything, and it must be ok.  A woman who thinks through the
alternatives and decides on abortion knowing what she's doing is
one thing, but I feel like these teens are really not ready to make
this kind of decision when they refuse to really think about it
for themselves.  I feel like they're being taken advantage of or
something...

There do seem to be more women taking a more conservative view
towards "free" sex.  I hope that trend continues long enough to
change the pressure encouraging teens to experiment with sex into
one that emphasizes the results of irresponsible sex and enourages
them to wait until they are really ready to cope with the possibility
of children.  Though not so long that sex is painted as evil!  (As
the pendulum swings...)

Quoting again from Alan Silverstein:

	The right answer, if there is one, is not all at clear.
	Those of you who would deny others' rights, can't you see
	that?  This is not a clear cut issue, on which the vast
	majority of sane adults can agree.  The one simple, obvious
	conclusion you CAN draw immediately, given that state of
	affairs, is that you fanatics should back off.  Stop
	threatening the rest of us by trying to make us live by
	your ethics.

But who is denying who their rights?  There are *two* rights being
weighed against each other:  the woman's right to choose and the
fetus's right to live.  If you don't believe the fetus is human,
you conclude that the woman's right is more important.  But what
if the fetus *is* human?  Look at a picture of a fetus sometime.
Can you come back and tell me that it's not a baby???  At 8 weeks
from conception it has fingers and toes and has had detectable
brain waves for two weeks...

About the clear cutness.  It's funny, but this used to be quite
clear cut.  Even Planned Parenthood as recently as 1963 or so used
to warn women about getting abortions and how it could effect their
future reproductive health.  (I know they were dealing with illegal
abortions, but even so it was a strong statement.)  Medical textbooks
routinely stated that life began at conception -- I remember learning
that in both biology and sex ed when I was in school and it wasn't
really that long ago.  A lot of sane adults *did* agree that abortion
was wrong then...  (I could tell you some of the more interesting
and even dishonest politics that went into reversing the abortion
laws, but I don't have time now...)

Sorrowfully wondering what the result for our society will be
because of abortion...

				-Liz Allen
-- 
Univ of Maryland, College Park MD	
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