WIcruizer said:
Most Pro Choice people would not agree with your determination. They support the right of abortion to term...
Not to beat a dead horse, but I'd like to comment on this. I don't know about "most" pro-choice people, leaders of the movement or not, but I know that after much debate and introspection on the matter, I am moving farther and farther toward this extreme.
First of all, I have to say that the thought of aborting an otherwise healthy, viable infant makes me sick to my stomach. I would hope that anyone who feels she cannot be pregnant anymore with such an infant would induce labor and allow that baby to be adopted, rather than abort it. But I do know that late-term abortions are done primarily for medical reasons.
In a perfect world, there would be no need for any abortion, but in reality, my "ideal" would be to allow abortion before viability for any reason; and only in extreme circumstances post-viability. But the more I think of it, the harder those post-viability exclusions are to define. Certainly for the life or health of the mother, and in cases of severe disability, especially pain and suffering for the baby. But then I realized, who is going to define "health of the mother", "severe disability" or "pain and suffering"? I don't want the government or the courts to define that, I think that should be between the pregnant woman and her doctor. There are other reasons, too, like the 12yo who was raped and in denial until post-viability, whose body is not mature enough to continue the pregnancy without damaging her future fertility. Again, I don't think the government should be the one determining the parameters. How about rape in general? An exception for rape is often cited by both sides. What about date-rape? IMO, no different from stranger-jumping-out-of-the-bushes-rape, but where does that end? Is it rape only when the rapist physically forces her, or slips a little GHB into her drink? What if he mixes her a stronger cocktail than she realizes? What if she knowingly gets drunk, and he "takes advantage"? How does a woman prove she was raped? Who is going to judge her particular facts and circumstances? There is far too much gray area IMO, to come up with a hard and fast set of rules. It depends on the individual facts and circumstances of each case. IMO, it cannot be legislated.
For this reason, as much as I hate it, I think I'm in favor of no governmental limits on abortion rights even up to term. I think it should be between a woman and her doctor, and I think it would be self-regulating. No one will convince me that there are a significant number of women out there deciding at 36 weeks that they don't want the baby anymore and aborting healthy fetuses. Even if that is a woman's decision, I don't believe it will be easy for her to find a doctor willing to abort such a baby, either. Late-term abortions are almost always due to medical reasons, whether the woman's or the baby's. Unfortunately, since I believe in letting the woman and her doctor make these decisions, certainly there will be cases in which I might abhor the decision made. But those cases aren't about me, they are about them, and isn't that the whole point of being pro-choice? Letting others decide for themselves, without my, or anyone else's intervention?