Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Follow up on previous post.

I really can't stop thinking about this... it keeps me up at night, so as I am up 2 hours early and thought I would clear my mind. Most of these thoughts are really in response to comments made by Tammy.... thanks for being willing to talk about this with me.

I understand that when speaking of abortion often the extreme cases as brought up in defense. These being rape, incest and some cases of medical conditions where the mother would not survive if the pregnancy went to live birth. I can understand why a women would question her desire and ability to carry a child that came from such a traumatizing and cruel event as rape or incest.

The reason I posted statistics for the reasons given by women was to show that the majority of abortions preformed (in Minnesota) are not from the above mentioned cases. Here are the numbers:

58 cases were rape
17 cases were incest
42 cases life threatening/ health complications

These numbers are still high in my opinion. And in the cases of rape and incest almost make me feel as if penalties for rape and incest need to be a little bit more intense. Like maybe we should be removing testicals or some other type of castration for people found guilty of such crimes. I think that would send a powerful message. Because these numbers are only portraying the women that became pregnant from such crimes, it is apparent that there were many more cases of rape and incest that occurred in the state of Minnesota not reported here.

(Ok so I just had to look it up... 1,709 rape cases reported in 2009 for Minnesota we were ranked 21 out of the country. Number one, California with over 9,000).

HOWEVER, this only amounts to 117 of the 12,388 abortions (that's only 0.94%). I think that even though these extreme cases exist abortion should NOT BE AN OPTION for the population at large. It is obviously being used as birth control (7,906 reported having unprotected sex at time of conception).

I also understand that there are some babies who are born into REALLY BAD conditions like parents who abuse substances and are abusive. Yet it just seems like Life is still the better option. I know many people who grew up in really horrible circumstances of abuse and neglect yet have grown up to overcome these challenges and are really incredible people for what they have been through. These people become chain breakers in long lines of abuse, addiction and hurt... they end the "traditions of their fathers." On the other hand there are others who fall into the same family patterns and never seem to rise above it, yet there is still hope that next generations and new life in that family can have a profound impact.

It's like Gianna Jessen the abortion survivor. I would say she is have an amazing impact in the world.

I watched an interview from President Obama's campaign where he said he is pro choice because he trusts women to make the decision themselves. How can we trust women to do the right thing with statistics like these?

3 comments:

tammy said...

Thanks for sharing that video. It was truly inspiring and I think I will post it on my blog. So I hope that spreading this information will help others to change their views or thoughts.

I was one time having a debate with someone about abortion and he was pro abortion because he said that if we don't provide a humane way to abort babies then there will just be black market abortions with really horrific ways of killing babies. But I don't think that our ways of aborting babies is humane anyways.
The numbers are staggering and depressing.
I wish people would just use adoption.
I think it is important to use your voice and speak your mind on the topic and don't be afraid of upsetting people.
The truth hurts people to the very core and that's why a lot of people get upset about this topic.
Thanks for sharing this information. It is all about educating people and you are doing that.

tammy said...

I was stating that argument as another example of the debate pro but again I am against abortion and I think that argument is weak. Our government should not support abortion.

The Atomic Mom said...

elective abortion = apples. Medically necessary abortion = oranges.

Those who are pro-choice always use oranges when they talk about apples, to shut down the debate and to "prove" their cause.

I've long felt that if the women who are "liberated" and consider themselves feminists, if they are all for freedom of choice, then they need to be for freedom of responsibility as well. The choice is not to abort or keep a baby. Once you choose to engage in sex, which creates life, that is where your choice ends. So, choose to use contraception, choose to absitain, but abortion should not be a choice. I'm sorry. If you want to be sexually "free", (and I put that in quoteies because the only true freedom is by keeping the law of chastity) then take charge, and be responsible. You never here them talk about that except when they're trying to get condoms in public schools.

The other thing is this, there are plenty of families that would take any unwanted child from any circumstance. There is no need to abort, when there is adoption. Having been thru the hellfires of infertility and having several of my very best friends adopt, I say that with great seriousness. There are people that will take your baby.

In the end, be responsible. There is no need for abortion if we are being responsible.