In addition to my last post, I look forward to the day when medical science enables an embryo to be transplanted to a different human host. All those right-to-lifers will then be able to save an unwanted embryo by bringing it to term in their own bodies. My guess is that not a single one will step up to the plate that they so passionately believe everyone else should stand on.

The decision to have an abortion should be the woman’s. No man has a right to make that decision however if a woman chooses to carry a baby to term that the father doesn’t want and is willing to pay for the abortion she should be responsible for the expense of raising that child. I get very upset with religous extremist who want to force a woman to have the child of a rapist in the name of religion.

Thank you so much for sharing a very brave post. In Ireland this week we are, well I can't, voting to repeal the amendment that makes abortion illegal, under all circumstances and carries a 14 year jail term. As you have said, the pro-lifers are going to town on the Monster angle. Your post clearly shows the real face of the heart aching reality. In Ireland today, if no fetal,heartbeat is found, if there are severe abnormalities, if the mothers life is in danger......there is nothing you can do. This is criminal, not being able to offer safe, informed, supported health care to women in a life changing situation. May 25th, watch the news from
Ireland.

Lots to learn in that post... for anyone, male or female. Thanks for telling the story.

I remember very well in the summer of 1984 when the "Christian Coalition" showed up to my Republican Party Precinct Convention. This was in the only congressional district in 1964 to carry Goldwater in Texas, in not the entire nation.
Well, it started out that I was the youngest one there.
One lady who worked as a volunteer at my old grade school told us that when I attended it, 30% of the school lunches were subsidized. Now it was 70% were subsidized.
For the next 20 minutes the conversation was on what "we could do to help"..
It ended up with, "what can we do to help the teachers."
The two from the Christian Coalition just sat there like bumps on a stump.
We we started and when it came time for the two "Christians" they said they wanted:

1. To stop abortion.
2. Put prayer back in the schools
3. Take away "Gay" rights...
   Well most of the women in there were Depression Era kids and WWII era generation. The lines were drawn.
   Back when they were young women there weren't birth control pills. Abortion? Well there might be that doctor in the next town....or they went if they had the money...to say Cuba....
   The backlash caught the "Christians" off guard...I guess they thought everyone was like them.
   No...
   Sorry.
   Then it came to prayer in school. They wanted it back.
   I'm like this was settled in the 60's and abortion in the 70's Why are you wanting to fight this?
   Well, one women suggested if they wanted to pray, they could stay after school...
   OH NO!...EVERYONE WILL PRAY....EVERY...ONE....WILL....PRAY!....not the thing to say, especially to that women. That was my mother. I found out when she had passed that at one time mother had been a Sunday School teacher...
   But it gets better. You see her mother died when she was about 2. She was raised by her aunt and uncle who never had children.
   Seems her uncle...was a direct decedent of the Pilgrims...You know...the Mayflower. Myles Standish in fact.
   So she grew up with stories handed down generation to generation about why they left to come to the wilds of the New World.
   Well...then she hit them with, "Why can't they pray at home before they come to school?"
   THEY LITERALLY HAD NO RESPONSE TO THAT...
   NADA
   Then came their, "We want America to be a Fundamental Christian country..."
   Mother's response...."IF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN A RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTAL COUNTRY MOVE TO IRAN...."
   They had the deer in the headlights look.....
   When they did respond they said, "Well our preacher says...." Well your preacher doesn't know what he is talking about...and DIDN'T....
   Well we fought them back in 1984
   We tied them in 1988 but lost to them in 1992. The GOP found out these groups had PACs with wads of money and their preachers told them how to vote. The GOP went down hill afterwards.
   I know women who have had an abortion.
   None of them had the attitude of, "Oh it's 2...hey..I'm going to go have an abortion....I'll met you for Happy Hour..."
   And yes, I am PRO CHOICE...
   I have a few reasons why. One is, you cannot stop abortion if you make it a crime. It existed long before it was legal.
   Another is, I want a women to go to a nice safe clean regulated clinic with trained professionals to help her.
   Not some damn back ally.
   I'm am also for easy access to birth control.
   AND MANDATORY SEX EDUCATION STARTING IN JUNIOR HIGH. With follow up in High School.
   Not "getting any" is just plain stupid with a nice dose of ignorance sprinkled on.
   I'll stop here...
   Thanks for you personal story.

Imagine.

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Pro choice also means pro choosing to have a baby even if it's not the best time or situation. Pro choice means that if you don't choose to have an abortion, you shouldn't be slut shamed for having a baby. I read somewhere that abortion can be a deeply maternal act: not having a baby you are not prepared to mother. Also preserving resources for the children you already have or will someday have. I too only had to live through a couple of what if experiences, but it made me empathetic. Bottom line, someone else's abortion is none of my business.

I am glad you are here and that you are OK....I also have to say that more women than you will ever imagine underwent an abortion...many after finding themselves in situations similar to the one you described here.
There are many reasons to abort a fetus...all valid...and nobody has the right to criticize the woman.

Thank you for sharing. I certainly can’t have personal knowledge of these circumstances, it helps me gain perspective. On the surface I feel these decisions are personal and most of the time a lot more complex than bystanders are willing to consider. Deep down I have an opinion, of course, that unborn aren’t just cells clumping together. Thank You again for sharing your experience

I think the biggest problem to humanity has been, Legislating Morality. Branding other humans such as African and Native Americans, as Animals, Because their moral values are different and converting to the conqueror's religion.

Thank you for sharing this part of yours and your family's journey with us.

The idea of anyone interfering to prevent a medical procedure of another is insanity.

Religion is way out of control in this country.

I call the insane incompetent religious criminal theocrats who would force you to stay pregnant TAMPON TERRORISTS. ...IOWA law just made 6 WEEK ABORTIONS illegal. ....of course our lawyers are filing lawsuits against the criminal female Governor who is betraying all women's rights. ....I block all who interfere with women's rights protecting my 2 daughters thereby 43&24

Looks like a win for the pro choice brigade. Exit polls suggest 69% Yes vote to repeal the act.

My mother tried to force an abortion on me. I married the father, which only lasted 11 yrs. but my 39 yr old son, is priceless to me. most women would rather not have an abortion. but for those women who do, the procedure should be safe and legal.

Firstly let me say thank you for sharing. Secondly I completely agree with a womans right to choose. May I also give you another view. My ex had had an abortion in her teens but she also worked as a maternity nurse for the NHS in the UK. She told of one girl who was on her 3rd abortion at 15! She had access to free contraceptives and so many talks from midwives, doctors and social workers etc. but still was using it as contraception

This mornings Irish Times. such a powerful message from our Taoiseach.
[irishtimes.com]

You are brave & I'm glad things turned out well for you. Thank you for sharing.

Poignant testimony.

Moral (or ethical) absolutism teaches that there are behaviors, actions, conducts, etc. that are absolutely wrong, that is, those conducts are wrong always and in every context or situation. “Under no circumstance”, says a moral absolutist, “X” could be right or permissible”. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, and many Fundamentalists, teach and defend this philosophical theory. Relativism, on the other hand, teaches that conducts are not good or bad in themselves, but that a given action’s morality depends on the circumstances, the situation, the “context”. [For a good example, cf. “Situation Ethics; The New Morality”, by Joseph Fletcher. It is an old book, but I am an old man.] A person who says that abortion is ALWAYS wrong is an absolutist.
Interestingly, a person who says that abortion is ALWAYS right is an absolutist, too!!
Abortion, per se, is neither right nor wrong. In some circumstances it can be wrong, in others it will be the right and moral thing to do.
But it worries me to find in this Forum many moral absolutists, who cannot, and will not see that in Ethics, religion and morality there are no absolutes. When an ignorant priest preaches that “abortion is always a sin”, I protest against his absolutism; But I also protest against those “freethinkers absolutists” (an oxymoron) who in an equally dogmatic fashion insist that “abortion is ALWAYS right”. Words like “any reason”, “any interference”, etc, shows adherence to absolutism. If I believed in absolutes, I would join another Forum, like vatican.org, fundamentalists.com, or alahuakbar.org.!!

“I will warn you in advance, this is a deeply personal post and I will not tolerate any negative or inappropriate comments on this post.”

Does this mean you don’t want people to have their own opinion and post it here?

Adorkable...((((HUGS))))

As someone who works at Planned Parenthood, may I hug you and say...OF COURSE an IUD can remove itself! We had a patient return six months after her IUD was implanted...pregnant, too! It's rare but it happens and nobody should EVER judge you for your decisions!

Back in the dawn of time, when abortion was illegal in this country, I had to fly to Mexico City...by myself...and stand on a corner, waiting for a man I didn't know to pull up and tell me to "GET INTO THE CAR!" I don't think my heart has ever pounded that hard again! But I was lucky...it was a good, safe abortion and I was fine afterward. (Took a walking tour of the pyramids later!) I'd been UNlucky because my diaphragm had failed me.

We become unhappily pregnant when (1) contraceptives fail us...and they do. (2) men fail us...we love them but, we all know, sometimes they fail us. (3) WE get carried away in a heated moment and fail ourselves.

NOBODY should be forced into unwanted motherhood because of failures like these. NOBODY.

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Says it all really. And the video of everyone shouting Savita' s name in the courtyard at Dublin Castle had me in tears.

Hugs brave lady

Just out of curiosity why couldn't your husband have just gotten a vasectomy