From a Couple of Sources...
Nov. 19th, 2005 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookofmirrorsIf you agree with this statement, post it in your journal/edit as needed:
I am pro choice/pro family and I would:
-have an abortion
-help a person receive an abortion, no questions asked
-help women have access to abortions should it ever become illegal
Choice is sacred.
I left the above statements are they were, in order to preserve the integrity of the original. However, I'm not 100% in agreement with it as it's written.
I am pro choice. I am pro family.
With the understanding that I won't TRULY know unless I'm ever placed in that situation, I don't think I *could* ever have an abortion. Not because I think it's wrong, or sinful, or anything like that. But because I love children with all my heart, and if, in spite of my careful precautions, I were to be gifted with one, I would cherish it. I think the only thing that would change that would be if my own health were VERY threatened, or maybe if the pregnancy were a result of rape. I don't think this contradicts a pro choice standpoint, though. Pro choice means advocating the right to make ANY choice when it comes to a pregnancy. This is mine. Others' choices belong to them.
Would I help someone get an abortion if they wanted one, and it were within my power? Absolutely. But I wouldn't do it indiscriminately, and I certainly wouldn't do it with no questions asked. The choice to have an abortion, just like the choice to have a child SHOULD be questioned. It should be questioned a LOT. There are a lot of factors involved in a pregnancy, and there are many choices possible. Each person, and each situation, is different. A person should be encouraged to think all the options through, and should be helped to look at the hard questions, evaluate the answer to each as it applies to them and THEN make the choice. (Note I don't use the feminine pronoun here. Whenever possible, I think all parties involved should have a voice in this.) The questioning should be non-judgemental, however. The questioner's role in this is NOT to push their own agenda, but to help the person thinking about abortion find their OWN agenda, and help them have the courage to follow their own convictions.
That being said, however, I would reserve the right to gently send them to someone else if something about their reasons didn't ring true to me. Lots of people do things for the wrong reasons. I might not be right all the time about when this happens, but if I think I see it happening, I have an obligation to myself to not be a party to something that feels wrong to me. Again, that's not necessarily related to abortion. I could see many scenarios where I might not agree with someone having a child, either. Bottom line is, I'd listen, I'd help them follow threads of information to make their own decision, but I'd have to follow my own heart, too. Which isn't to say I'd abandon or judge someone who made a decision that felt "wrong" to me. I might or might not. It all depends on the situation.
As far as helping someone do it illegally... in theory, yes. In reality... that's a medical procedure, and I'm a nurse. My license could be on the line. Again, each situation would be different. I'd have to evaluate how much I could safely do, and still keep my own life intact. I remember in high school, someone (I think it was a teacher, in fact... probably couldn't get away with that nowadays, although it was outside of class) said that, regardless of one's personal opinion on abortion, it should be kept legal, so that they could always be SAFE. Coat hanger abortions should never be a thing of reality.
As an aside, and somewhat related, I remember reading a story in a magazine when I was younger. It was told as a true story, and it has stuck to me to this day. It was about a woman who had recurring nightmares of someone she loved being ripped from her arms, and always had a feeling of being incomplete and alone. She found out from her mother, years later, that her mother had given herself a home abortion, and had aborted what turned out to be her twin. I find this sad, both from the perspective of the great loss of one half of a twin set (I've always been fascinated by twins, and very disappointed to find out for sure from Nano that I wasn't one), and also because a real doctor would not have been as likely to make this mistake. (I Googled "abortion twin" and found several references to this happening, even with a real doctor, so maybe the legality doesn't make that much of a difference... even so...)
Anyway, I've made enough posts about rejection in the womb (and will make another one soon, since my homework on the schizoid structure in Core is LONG overdue, and the main cause of a schizoid defense is rejection in the womb) to have made my thoughts clear on that.
I am pro choice/pro family and I would:
-have an abortion
-help a person receive an abortion, no questions asked
-help women have access to abortions should it ever become illegal
Choice is sacred.
I left the above statements are they were, in order to preserve the integrity of the original. However, I'm not 100% in agreement with it as it's written.
I am pro choice. I am pro family.
With the understanding that I won't TRULY know unless I'm ever placed in that situation, I don't think I *could* ever have an abortion. Not because I think it's wrong, or sinful, or anything like that. But because I love children with all my heart, and if, in spite of my careful precautions, I were to be gifted with one, I would cherish it. I think the only thing that would change that would be if my own health were VERY threatened, or maybe if the pregnancy were a result of rape. I don't think this contradicts a pro choice standpoint, though. Pro choice means advocating the right to make ANY choice when it comes to a pregnancy. This is mine. Others' choices belong to them.
Would I help someone get an abortion if they wanted one, and it were within my power? Absolutely. But I wouldn't do it indiscriminately, and I certainly wouldn't do it with no questions asked. The choice to have an abortion, just like the choice to have a child SHOULD be questioned. It should be questioned a LOT. There are a lot of factors involved in a pregnancy, and there are many choices possible. Each person, and each situation, is different. A person should be encouraged to think all the options through, and should be helped to look at the hard questions, evaluate the answer to each as it applies to them and THEN make the choice. (Note I don't use the feminine pronoun here. Whenever possible, I think all parties involved should have a voice in this.) The questioning should be non-judgemental, however. The questioner's role in this is NOT to push their own agenda, but to help the person thinking about abortion find their OWN agenda, and help them have the courage to follow their own convictions.
That being said, however, I would reserve the right to gently send them to someone else if something about their reasons didn't ring true to me. Lots of people do things for the wrong reasons. I might not be right all the time about when this happens, but if I think I see it happening, I have an obligation to myself to not be a party to something that feels wrong to me. Again, that's not necessarily related to abortion. I could see many scenarios where I might not agree with someone having a child, either. Bottom line is, I'd listen, I'd help them follow threads of information to make their own decision, but I'd have to follow my own heart, too. Which isn't to say I'd abandon or judge someone who made a decision that felt "wrong" to me. I might or might not. It all depends on the situation.
As far as helping someone do it illegally... in theory, yes. In reality... that's a medical procedure, and I'm a nurse. My license could be on the line. Again, each situation would be different. I'd have to evaluate how much I could safely do, and still keep my own life intact. I remember in high school, someone (I think it was a teacher, in fact... probably couldn't get away with that nowadays, although it was outside of class) said that, regardless of one's personal opinion on abortion, it should be kept legal, so that they could always be SAFE. Coat hanger abortions should never be a thing of reality.
As an aside, and somewhat related, I remember reading a story in a magazine when I was younger. It was told as a true story, and it has stuck to me to this day. It was about a woman who had recurring nightmares of someone she loved being ripped from her arms, and always had a feeling of being incomplete and alone. She found out from her mother, years later, that her mother had given herself a home abortion, and had aborted what turned out to be her twin. I find this sad, both from the perspective of the great loss of one half of a twin set (I've always been fascinated by twins, and very disappointed to find out for sure from Nano that I wasn't one), and also because a real doctor would not have been as likely to make this mistake. (I Googled "abortion twin" and found several references to this happening, even with a real doctor, so maybe the legality doesn't make that much of a difference... even so...)
Anyway, I've made enough posts about rejection in the womb (and will make another one soon, since my homework on the schizoid structure in Core is LONG overdue, and the main cause of a schizoid defense is rejection in the womb) to have made my thoughts clear on that.
