i figured i might as well weigh in too. i'm pro-choice. i won't say that in a similar situation, i'd get an abortion, but i respect the fact that each woman should be able to choose. in a country built on allowing so many freedoms, i think this is just another one.
true, i don't think it'd be right for a girl who sleeps around, insisting on never using a condom (i've encountered several women like this, one of which did get pregnant), and getting pregnant to turn around and have an abortion - to undo her oops! but, legal is legal, and if abortions are legal, women will then be allowed to have them, regardless of her reasons.
adoption is always an option, but i dunno. i look at it this way: there's already so many children in orphanages, waiting to be adopted, why add more? however, again, i respect a woman's decision to not abort her baby, and to put it up for adoption. again, it's great that a woman who gets pregnant but does not want her baby has many choices to choose from.
also, what about teenagers who get pregnant? so many view it that when a woman gets pregnant and knows she doesn't want to keep the child (as in raise it as her own), then adoption's easy! no it's not. a 16 year old girl who gets pregnant then gets yanked out of school. she has to be pregnant for nine long months. schools here have a rule where a pregnant woman can only stay in school for so long before she has to get home schooled. is that fair for her? she runs the risk of being a drop-out almost as much as a 16 year old who raises her baby. not to mention what happens when she sees her baby after it's born.
how would you feel if you saw your little baby you just gave birth to, for the first and only time. i know many women then change their minds and want to keep it. i know i probably would. to see this tiny little creature, knowing it was a part of me for nine long months, and will always be a part of me, i don't think i could bear giving it up. essentially, i think for teenagers, more than any demographic, legal abortions are most essential to them.
also, since i saw people bring up euthanasia, i thought i'd touch on it as well. i don't see the point in having a person live their entire life in pain if they don't want to. personally, i'd make it legal, but with several stipulations. for example, it could only be up to the person to decide, and they'd have to be of sound mind and body to declare they'd want this for themselves (essentially, it would have to be in their will or some other legal document, so not anyone can decide to pull the plug, or have someone delirious with pain and be "oh sure, kill me, fine" and not necessarily mean it.) beforehand. maybe in rare cases, like if they were in some freak accident or something, and never had the opportunity to speak up, a family member could decide. i dunno.
in the case of euthanasia, sure, i'd do it. for myself, that is. if something ever happened to me and i was despondent and would be that way for the rest of my life, i'd want doctors to try whatever they could, and when everything was exhausted, leave it up to my loved ones to decide if and when to pull the plug. i wouldn't want to be a burden to people (especially financially, i don't see the point in spending thousands a year keeping me alive when i don't even know i am), i'd want to let them decide if there's a point in keeping me alive.
in the case of abortion, i don't know. i don't know if i could ever go through with it. especially knowing how many times my mother tried to get pregnant and how many miscarriages she had, i don't think it'd be right to turn around and almost rub that in her face, like "look how hard it was for you to get pregnant, and how easy it is for me! and look how much easier it is for me to get unpregnant! ha!" i know it's only my decision and i shouldn't let outside influences pressure me, but even disregarding that, i just don't think i'd have the guts to do it. but i like knowing i could get one if i had to, and not have to get some shady person to ram a coat hanger up there and abort the baby. i like having that choice, if i needed it.
i look at abortion and euthanasia the same way in some cases. what i mean is, what if a mother was told their child, if born, would be essentially a vegetable? never being able to do anything for themselves, and being brain dead? they wouldn't even be aware of their surroundings or know they're even alive. what kind of life is that? i don't know if i would be able to handle knowing my child would live such a horrible life. i just don't think it'd be fair for the child.
essentially, both come down to the person's decision. not some doctor or nurse, or the annoyed daughter sick of taking care of their grandmother with alzheimer's, but the person themselves. with abortion, the mother should think for herself and her child, and with euthanasia, it should be up to the person in question. no one else.
oh, and pax is right. i've only recently gotten my health insurance back. i've been paying through the nose for my birth control without any insurance. $30 a month! the shots are MUCH easier (and cheaper, it's only a little more for three months' worth, and no remembering to take a pill, but it wreacked havoc on my health and livelihood.) to take. now there's even the patch. i can only get birth control for free if it's shown that i need it for health reasons. it worked back when i was single, because that's why i was taking it. now that i'm married, they won't touch it. how is this fair? it disgusts me that people will impose their opinions and beliefs on others, like only unprotected sex is okay. condoms aren't free (or cheap), and neither is any other form of birth control. all this because a government not based on religion at all thinks it's immoral for a woman to use any form of birth control.
