I'm kind of a weird conservative. Here's my thoughts on abortion (which I RARELY share with anyone, so read 'em now, cuz I won't likely do this again for a long long time).
Someone very close to me had a very early abortion when she was very young. She was young, single, in love with the father--but he was not a very responsible kind of guy and he wanted nothing to do with having a baby. She was pressured by him, and certain members of her own family to abort.
So, she did. At 8 weeks. I watched her downhill slide mentally afterwards in complete horror.
A horror story about a woman who engaged in an unwanted abortion, and was obviously dealing with a lot of power and control with her family, on top of it all. What a surprise. We don't advocate for forced abortions, just like we do not believe people should be advocating for forced births. There is no real difference in horror stories you get there, either.
Prior to the procedure she was a very happy, secure and contented person. Afterwards, she was angry, withdrawn, and she drank. A LOT. And often alone. She pushed people she loved away, including me.....someone she'd been very close to her entire life. At one point she was suicidal because (in her words) "I killed my child and I'm going to hell for it".
It took her years and years to recover emotionally. Lots of therapy and lots of work to forgive herself.
I think that you have it backwards.. She was pushed into it, by her whole family. They pushed her away. Sounds like she needed to get out of a bad situation. I am actually relieved that there was no baby and stroller and crib and 20 extra boxes of clothes and toys and bottles to hold her back longer. Her family probably brainwashed her into thinking all of this anyways. When abused women are forced into doing things they don't want to do, and they call someone out on it, that abuser will inevitably turn it around on the victim, as if no abuse occurred whatsoever. It's called crazymaking, and it is a form of psychological abuse. Even YOU think that she
needed to forgive herself, even though she was pretty much psychologically forced into it by her family. This was not HER choice, but her FAMILY's. Do differentiate, please.
She's OK now....she moved on and even has children now. But the anniversary day of the procedure, even 25 years down the road, still haunts her. It's something she dreads every year and a day she just barely manages to push through. My heart breaks for her, as I have lost children to miscarriage and I know the pain too well.
I am sure it is really hard for her.. Any time a pregnancy is lost and that is not a wanted event to happen, it is emotionally devastating.
She always calls me that day and we always share a prayer and have a memorial for her lost little one over the phone, privately just the two of us. She used to take a single red rose to the clinic and leave it on the front stoop with a card reading, "I'm SO sorry, please forgive me. Love Mommy", but the building was torn down years ago to make way for a highway and she obviously can't do that now.
OK I am starting to think you are full of shit here, or that you truly want everyone to believe that she should have felt as bad as she did, or done the things she did to make amends, etc. Honestly, this is a load, in some way. The family decided that she was aborting. She did not. Why she would feel bad about it at all, is ridiculous. Has nobody explained to her that she was being psychologically abused and controlled before and after finding out she was pregnant and aborting?? Good Grief!!
While I disagree with the choice she made, it was hers to make. I wish she could have known how her choice would affect her before that awful day, but hindsight is 20/20 and she didn't have that benefit.
Of course, here is where you show us that you are so full of shit that your eyes are brown. It obviously was NOT her choice. It was her family's choice. Just because she physically signed and agreed to it, in person, etc, does not mean that it was a decision she made for herself.
Even her experience was so horrible, I think abortion should be legal---but with SEVERE limits.
I think people who coerce or force young women into aborting should be imprisoned also. I certainly do not think that anything should change for those of us who are ready and willing to get one.
Such as:
1. Abortion available only up until 8-12 weeks gestational age, after that it would be illegal. As in criminal consequences for obtaining and/or performing an abortion after that cut-off.
Your horror story was 8 weeks pregnant, so where the fuck do you get these gestational weeks from? Oh that's right. Your friend who calls you every year who you pray with etc, who you think made the wrong decision, etc- actually whose family made a decision for her- in reality did something that you would like to remain legal. So much for limiting things severely.
2. REAL psychological counseling for the mother to make sure she really really understands what she is getting into. Complete with attending a post-abortion grief counseling meeting--so she can see the REAL consequences of having an abortion.
Oh yeah sure. Let's do that for all the people we prescribe pain killers to, also. Send them to an NA meeting, before they can fill the prescription, just in case they have a tendency to abuse the drugs. Great fucking idea. Jesus. /sarcasm
3. She must visit an adoption agency to explore that option, as well as visiting an unwed mother's home to explore that option (ie, carrying to term at the home and getting back on her feet with their assistance).
For Christ sakes, you do realize that these people have fucking JOBS to go to, and most of them have kids to take care of already, too, do you not?? By the time she finished all of your Big Brother bullshit, she would be in labor!!! Get REAL.
4. Only after doing all of the above, would the abortion be made available to her.
I hope, then, that you would become a little more open minded to late term abortion, because
nobody who had to fulfill all these requirements would be able to abort in the first trimester, and probably not in the second either.
5. PARTIAL DELIVERY Abortion would NEVER EVER be legal at any gestational age and there would be FELONY criminal consequences for those who obtain, perform or assist such a procedure.
That is not a type of abortion. The Supreme Court labeled it "partial birth abortion", but that is not at all the case, in reality. In any event, the fetus has to be delivered out. If it is not breathing air, then it is not a person, so I really don't give a rat's ass if the head is pulled halfway out and it is stabbed in the neck with a sharp object. Besides, this is the only way it will be able to be done, with all of your fucking big brother standards anyways. Get over it. Stop trying to run everyone else's life!!!
Those are just a few of the restrictions/requirements I would put in place if I were in charge.
LMAO!! You really WISH you were in charge, don't you.
And that, my friends is THIS conservative person's opinion on abortion. Sling mud if you wish.
Sling mud? Sorry but you started this whole diatribe out, saying that the young girl was pushed into the abortion, and then you turn around and claim it was her own decision, and freely admit that you enable her to believe that is is her fault, etc. Who is slinging mud here? No wonder why she almost killed herself. Nobody cared about her. Do you tell her while you are praying that you use her story as a little added propaganda in abortion debates on a public forum, and still blame her for the decisions her boyfriend and her family made for her??