Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site tove.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!tove!liz
From: liz@tove.UUCP (Liz Allen)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: abortion decision
Message-ID: <282@tove.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Jul-85 23:30:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: tove.282
Posted: Tue Jul 23 23:30:03 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 21:04:45 EDT
References: <2022@ut-ngp.UTEXAS> <1296@mnetor.UUCP>
Reply-To: liz@tove.UUCP (Liz Allen)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD
Lines: 45

In article <1296@mnetor.UUCP> sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) writes:
>
>Pro-choice means that the *mother* decides whether or not to have an
>abortion.

I wish that were really true.  I have talked to more than one woman
who has been pressured by parents, boyfriend, even friends to have
an abortion even though they believed that abortion was wrong --
and these people knew it.  I know of at least two who would have
very likely had an abortion if pro-lifers had not been able to help
them by providing or offering to provide things like housing.  I
have heard of teenagers who have been told that they either had to
get an abortion or move out of the house.  I have talked to a girl
and her parents about an abortion decision where neither the girl
or her mother wanted the girl to get an abortion -- but the father
made the decision to have an abortion and the girl had it.  Is this
pro-choice?

(I know this doesn't prove that abortion is wrong in general, and I
know that having laws against abortion is not at all pro-choice.  I
just want to point out that things aren't quite that simple with
abortion being legal.)


On another subject:

>However, whenever any surgery is indicated, there is also a
>potential conflict of interest.  There is a lot of unnecessary surgery
>performed, the most common of which is probably the C-section that
>seems to be so popular nowadays.  Let's face it, a lot of doctors will
>try to bleed their custommers for as much as possible, so it is up to
>the astute consummer to decide whether a particular intervention is
>necessary or not.

One reason that C-sections are so popular now (and I agree that
too many are done) is that OB's are afraid of being sued if anything
goes wrong.  An OB can be sued for mal-practice up until the time
the child is 18 years old -- that's why their insurance rates are
sky-rocketing.  Something needs to be done here -- though I'm not
at all sure what...
-- 
Liz Allen    U of Maryland   ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz   liz@tove.ARPA

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you:  God
 is light; in him there is no darkness at all" -- 1 John 1:5