Abortion
Read more about: Health 
It seems abortion has been put back into the public domain after a survey claimed 60% support abortion in some cases, which the pro-life groups have said:
Given the way the questions were framed, the results are not at all surprising. The question dealing with abortion, for example, makes no distinction between ethical interventions in pregnancy to save the life of the mother and induced abortion where the life of the unborn child is directly targeted. By ignoring such crucial distinctions the survey is effectively meaningless
Which, considering how poorly some survey questions are phrase, may well be true. The abortion debate was debated already on the Irish Blogosphere and you can follow the posts below, including my own, which makes no sense. Also included are the results from a poll I had on my own blog on the topic. If there are any broken links or links to add, let me know.
For
- Fiona de Londras: Abortion Should be legal
- Where’s me country
- Tom Cosgrave
- Fiona a little more on Abortion
- Me
- El Matador: All-Ireland Abortion Policy Needed
- Sarah Carey: Life and death decision our leaders can’t face
Against
- Auds: The Next Big Thing – Abortion Debate
- Balrog: Abortionists demand legalisation of murder
- Michael Larkin of Disillusioned Lefty
- Tuathal: Run for cover, it’s debate on abortion
- Auds: just another little bit more about
- In Fact, Ah: In opposition to abortion on demand
- Auds: Abortion – Kid Rock, Reasons for, Men and Adoption
- Rinceoir
- Plain of Pillars: Sarah Carey and abortion
- Plain of Pillars: Abortion
Poll Results
Yes: 20 people (55.6%)
Yes in extremes: 8 people (22.2%)
No: 8 people (22.2%)
I never said in that post that’s linked to my blog that I was for abortion.
Sorry about that Damian. I took it from an old list on my blog not sure why it was there.
i can’t believe we still have an irish solution to an irish problem. Stciking heads in the sand and pretending that abortion doesn’t exist is a basic attack on womens rights to bodily self-determination.
Thing is Bucky it is not really about “womens rights to bodily self-determination” it is about whether a foetus is a life and thus deserves it’s own bodily self-determination.
All to often the debate just turns into a shouting match which really achieves feck all. In the end of the day it is a scientific question not moral in my opinion.
It is all about a womens rights to bodily self-determination. The idea athat the state has the right to force a women to be pregnant against her will is barbaric. The right of a women to control her own body is paramount to that of a foetus incabable of independent life. Abortion does exist in Ireland, for those that can afford to travel abroad. Having state-funded abortion with full counseling would reduce the number of late-term abortions as well as helping the mother deal with the emotional aspect.
It’s just not that simple.
If the right of a prenatal human is negated by the fact that it cannot live independently, then what does that say of people hooked up to life support machines? What does it say of aids victims who lack viability? If the inability to live independently negates one’s right to life, then what does that say of neonates, who let’s face it, wouldn’t exactly prosper if you dropped them in a jungle. And what will happen in the next couple of decades when work on artificial wombs has been completed? Do advances in medical technology somehow mean that humans become more worthy of a right to life at an earlier stage?
And while the idea that a woman would have to go through with a pregnancy she did not want is disturbing, the notion that one individual’s right to life supersedes another individual’s right to happiness is untenable. Just because I make you miserable, should not mean that you get to kill me, however much you deserve happiness.
The idea athat the state has the right to force a women to be pregnant against her will is barbaric.
Other then in case of rape. She is not been forced against her will. She willing agreed to have sex. She made that choice and just like someone getting an STD by chossing not to use a condom they live with the consquences of their choice. So really the abortion arguement about forcing her to have the baby is not valid if the foetus is a life as she did have a choice.
Abortion is a sensitive and divisive issue. I don’t agree with Simon that agreeing to have sex is agreeing to become pregnant. No form of contraceptive is fullproof. Irish women are forced, by law, to remain pregnant against their wills in this state. Women are not walking wombs. Cells capable of life should never take precedence over the will of a fully developed human.
The issueof when life begins and how late terminations should be allowed in a pregnancy is a secondary issue because abortion does exist for a t least 6,000 Iriah women a year.Whether you agree or not, women having to resort to travelling to England, using anti-ulcer drugs such as Cytocec and backstreet abortion clinics ( http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=65902) is not the way to deal with the issue.
Free, legal abortion would reduce the number of women having late term abortions, reduce the associated medical prblems that can arise from late term abortions and full post-abortion counselling would help women deal with the emotional impact.
I respect pro-life views but simply stating that abortion is murder does nothing to address the current situation. Abortion is a reality for thousands of womenwhether people agree with it or not. Free, legal abortion would reduce the possible negative aspects for the women. Having to go to England only increases the chances of foetues ( being at a stage which people believe they are capabale of life) being terminated.
Something for Pro-choicers and Pro-lifers to concider…..
World estimations of the number of terminations carried out each year is somewhere between 20 and 88 million.
3,500 per day / 1.3 million per year in America alone.
50% of that 1.3 million claimed failed birth control was to blame.
A further 48% had failed to use any birth control at all.
And 2% had medical reasons.
That means a stagering 98% may have been avoided had an effective birth control been used.
I am a 98% pro-lifer, 2% Pro-choicer, who has no religious convictions at all . I didn’t need the fear of god or anything else to come to my decision, just a good sense of what is right and wrong.
You see we were all once a fetus. Is it beyond the realm of possibilities that when your mother first learned she was carrying you, she may have considered her options? What if she had decided to terminate? Would that have been OK?
You would not exist, if you have children they would not exist, and your (husband or wife) would be married to someone else. You would have been deprived of all your experiences and memories. In this day and age with terminations being so readily available and so many being carried out, if you make it to full term you can consider yourself lucky.
Lucky you had a mother that made the choice of life for you.
Don’t you think they all deserve the same basic human right, LIFE?
At the point of conception is when life began for you. This was the start of your existence. Your own personal big bang. Three weeks after conception heart started to beat. First brain waves recorded at six weeks after conception. Seen sucking thumb at seven weeks after conception.
I am convinced that in the not too distant future, people will look back at many of the practices of today with disbelief and horror.
mmm, is it safe to assume that the anti abotion comments above are from men who were never in a the position of being pregnant when they had not planned to be? and simon, is abortion ok if one was raped?