Carlene

It is tough, Missy - even when abortion is not part of the equation. My youngest son has a child that was born out of wedlock. The baby's mother called off the wedding shortly after she found out she was pregnant. My son filed suit to force her to put his name on the birth certificate, allow him visitation, etc. He won, but it has been an on-going struggle for almost 13 years. I will say, however, that every time they go before the judge, he remarks on how most men would be delighted if they were given the chance to walk away with no child support, etc. So I'm guessing that a dad who even wants his rights as a parent is a rare thing.

My mother-in-law admits that she abused her two sons, both physically and emotionally. My DH and his brother agree. They have told me that other children would not come to their house out of genuine fear of my MIL. She once threw something at my husband, but hit a neighbor's child by mistake. However, you will not find two more productive, well-adjusted, loving men. They both are retired from long, stable careers (my BIL with the US Dept of Defense). Neither drinks nor smokes and they have never done drugs or been arrested. Just because a woman "might" abuse her child does not make it okay to abort it. She "might" abuse her elderly parents too, but killing them off before she gets the chance is hardly a good solution. Pro-life supporters believe they are called to protect the rights of unborn children, much as you would feel compelled to protect a child who has already been born, but was in danger of being killed. It's not about preventing the abortion...it's about saving the baby.

Everyone who has given birth to an unplanned (unwanted) baby, raise your hand. :wave:

Most of the women having elective abortions are Caucasian.

Child abuse is VERY serious. And I have not suggested that people should be forced to raise children they do not want. I think I said give them to someone who would consider it a blessing to raise a child and that way, everyone wins....and no one has to die. I realize that carrying a child to term when you do not want to be a parent is not an attractive option. But it's still, in most cases, the right thing to do. When did we, as a society, lose sight of that? Just do the right thing, and you will seldom be wrong.

Unfortunately, you can't separate the legal from the moral issues in this instance. To give the baby its moral right to life would, at the same time, do much damage to the mother's rights, both legally AND morally. I think fathers' rights begin at birth, not conception, because the father may be involved, prior to, but he's not really committed.

You are going to be surprised at how many people say "yes" to your question. Even Hospice would agree that it was okay. That's why I changed my mind about getting help from Hospice when my late husband was ill (with Cancer). He was getting nothing but pain meds via injection and glucose in an IV, and they wanted me to discontinue the IV. The worker's exact words were, "This will go a lot faster if you disconnect that IV." I was not going to try and prolong his life, but I wasn't in a hurry to end it, either.

People raise kids they "don't want" all the time. Why, I don't know...but they do. It has nothing to do with abortion. Those people generally had access to abortion and chose not to terminate the pregnancy. People abuse kids all the time. That has nothing to do with abortion either. Obviously, aborted children are never abused (well...not after the abortion, anyway), but that doesn't mean that, had they lived, they would have been abused. Common sense does not mean killing your children because you don't want them to grow up unwanted. Give them to someone who will appreciate the blessing that is a child. That way, everyone wins.....and no one dies.

I don't think a woman can be legally forced to carry a man's child to term so that he can raise the child.

I said that there is a SHORTAGE of babies to adopt here, so people go overseas to adopt. That's true. I have a friend who fosters all kinds of babies and young children - drug babies and multi-racial babies and special needs children. They have all been adopted. It's the older kids - the ones who are made available for adoption later - who have a hard time being adopted. Babies are a commodity in very short supply.

My church doesn't open the casket during the funeral, so that's a little off-putting for me, too. About the picture thing... My first husband's family was big on taking casket photos. And I've always had an interest in photography and have owned really good camera equipment, taken college level classes in photography, etc. So they used to call me when there was a funeral scheduled and ask me to bring my camera. I made my husband NUTS! He HATED it! And he made me promise that I wouldn't let anyone take pictures of him after he died. Sadly, he was killed in an accident at 28 years old. His grandmother and I had a huge fight at the funeral home over whether or not anyone was going to take pictures of him. I said absolutely not. It was hard for them to accept this, since I had photographed so many corpses for them myself. It wouldn't have mattered to me, but a promise is a promise.

The "laundry room" was just a place to put them until they died. You can't dispose of a living, breathing body once it's born - even a fetus. They call that murder.

For me personally? No...I would not have an abortion - period. As for other people, I would not help someone obtain an abortion. I would not loan them money, take them to the clinic, etc. Neither would I attempt to block their way in, carry signs in protest, hand out anti-abortion literature, etc. I think that for many people, it isn't an easy decision. But I can't possibly know the depth of their feelings, nor can I measure the purity of their motives. I would be much more comfortable with pro-choice legislation that did not permit abortion on demand. I think there needs to be some degree of responsibility involved. And I think that partial birth and "salting out" abortions are absolutely barbaric and anyone doctor who performs them is absolutely committing child abuse of the worst imaginable sort.

I was, indeed, being sarcastic about aborting my only daughter retroactively. I love her more than my own life, believe me. She just makes me CRAZY sometimes!

I did adopt "a kid", thank you very much. His name is Tommy and he is now a responsible adult, a wonderful husband, and a devoted father. Had he been aborted, which he surely would have been if it had been legal at the time, it would have been a huge loss to the world. My biological, much-wanted daughter, on the other hand, is a mess. If abortion were retroactive, I might consider it. But people ARE willing to adopt crack babies, abused kids, etc. In fact, there aren't enough of them to satisfy the demand, so US couples are going to China and Russia to adopt.

Alexandra...The "Soiled Linen Room" Scenario is the norm. Any facility that performs abortions has to deal with this complication (live births instead of dead fetuses). Unless there is a public hue and cry, they aren't likely to expend any money or effort to "pretty up" the whole issue. I know you don't want to believe this, but it's true. I have family in the medical field and one cousin who quit nursing and is now a librarian because she just could not deal with this (and other) realities. The apple is well polished by the time it gets to the public.

The institution is Christ's Hospital in Chicago. What agenda could they possibly have? On the contrary, they set up the room after two of their nursing staff testified before Congress that babies who survived abortions were being left to die in a Soiled Linen Room.

If you signed up for an abortion, then neither nature nor God killed your baby. Sorry to tell you, but that's a fact.

They set up the so-called Comfort Room after two of their nurses testified during Congressional hearings that living (aborted) fetuses were taken to a Soiled Linen Room, covered with dirty towels, and left to die. That was not an image that the hospital wanted the public to have, so a group of PR geniuses came up with the concept of this special room and some committee obviously went nuts with it. No one, evidently, bothered to see the irony....offering comfort and beautiful surroundings, not to mention souvenirs, to babies nobody wanted in the first place, and the parents who meant to kill them, but failed.

No....because she was an aborted fetus. She was not born a person - not legally, anyway. It was much later that the doctor who performed the abortion was asked to sign her birth certificate. I wonder if that weirded him out a little bit.

Sunta... I agree with you about Wal Mart and about gay rights, too. And I also admire the posters who have shared their personal stories regarding abortion. They have the strength of their convictions, and that is GREAT. To thine own self be true.

Abortion is rarely about anyone's survival - except the baby's, of course. Women who would die without an abortion are virtually non-existent in this day and age.

Grieving for what???? They ABORTED these babies!!! That means they chose to KILL them!!! If someone kills your child, would you think it appropriate if they showed up at the funeral to "grieve" your baby's death?

More about the "comfort room"....this still defies logic, in my mind. If these are just "blobs of tissue", why do they require comfort care? And if they respond, as human beings, to "comfort", isn't it wrong to kill them in the first place? And what kind of person makes the decision to abort, then rocks/comforts the dead/dying child....the same one they've just participated in killing? Am I the only one who finds this VERY creepy? When asked about Stanek's story, Christ Hospital's spokesman referred the question to its parent company, Advocate Health Care. A spokesman for Advocate Health Care did not return repeated calls from HUMAN EVENTS. But on March 31, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, "A spokesman for Christ Hospital's parent, Advocate Health Care, said it provides `compassionate care' for its patients and estimated that between 10% and 20% of fetuses with genetic defects that are aborted survive for short periods outside the womb. `This is a legal and approved process.' At the request of Stanek and Karen Hayes (the Illinois state director for Concerned Women of America) the office of Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan conducted an investigation of the practices at Christ Hospital. In a July 17, 2000 letter to Hayes, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Carole Doris wrote, “We have concluded that there is no basis for legal action by this office against the hospital or its employees, agents or staff at this time.” “The hospital has never denied that they do this,” said Hayes last week. “Its chaplain wrote a letter to the [Chicago] Tribune saying that they do it.”

A true "complication" of abortion story....Is Gianna a person, or not? Gianna Jessen (born April 6, 1977 in Los Angeles, California) is a pro-life advocate, symbol and a Christian recording artist. Jessen was born over a month premature after a failed saline abortion. The doctor who had carried out the abortion was not present at the moment that Jessen was born alive, and the nurse called an ambulance and had the two-pound baby taken to hospital. Because of damage done during the abortion, Jessen now lives with physical disabilities and cerebral palsy. Doctors predicted that she would be blind, in a persistent vegetative state, or disabled for life — never walking. According to Jessen, some even suggested that she would not want to live in such a condition. However, she views her condition with humor and acceptance, once saying, "Sometimes I'll be walking up steps, and I'll just fall right over." Jessen's biological parents, who were both seventeen, put her up for adoption. When she learned from her adoptive mother the truth behind her premature birth, she became an advocate against abortion. She begins her speeches with this statement, "I was aborted and did not die." She is a Christian, and credits Jesus with preserving her life. Gianna: Aborted...and Lived to Tell About It by Jessica Shaver gives a more detailed story of her life. Jessen testified before the United States Congress on April 22, 1996 against partial-birth abortions and again in 2000 in support of the Born Alive Infant Act. She has said, "My biological mother thought she was making a decision affecting only her. If abortion is merely about women's rights, then what were mine?" Despite her physical handicaps, she has trained to become a marathon runner. In 2005, she ran one in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, and in 2006 she entered the London Marathon.