Well Rhys, until men start carrying foetuses - and I don't think that is all that improbable in the near future (it might cahnge the dynamics of same-sex marriage) - whether or not to terminate is a woman's business. Period. It's her body, not yours or mine.

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,
If the unborn child is no business of the man who fathered it then why is the born child his business? It appears to be double standard when men are expected to support eh children they father yet have no say in whether or not the mother can kill those children prior to birth.

Yabby refers to the people scrounging a living on the manila rubbish tips. Perhaps abortion is justified for them but I don't see a lot of Australians scrounging on rubbish tips. We are a wealthy country with a birth rate less than that required to replace our numbers. Every child should be valued in Australia. That is not necessarily the case in other less fortunate countries who have real problems with population growth and poverty.

mightior says "as the father of two girls and the husband of a lady, if any of the three females in my life were raped and fell pregnant as a result, I certainly would not be celebrating the event and would regard this deplorable act as more than an inconvenience."
Only a very tiny percentage of abortions occur due to a pregnancy caused by a rape. The vast majority, in Australia at least, are aborted for convenience.
However, as a father of a young woman myself, I too would be highly distraught if my daughter was raped. That doesn't mean I would wish to kill the unborn child which was innocent of any wrong doing. It is the rapist who should pay the price.

Rhys, you remain confused. If it hasn't been born, it's not a child.
It becomes a child at birth.

So what is it before it has a human brain, which is around week 22?
It's not a person either. It's a fetus.

It is really up to the mother to decide if she wants to have a baby
or not. The circumstances of every woman are different and you
simply can't walk in their shoes, so have no right to be so judgemental.

Most abortions in Australia take place in the first trimester, a long
way before a functioning human brain has formed.

If people had children that were wanted and loved, we would have
a lot less misery and suffering in our community.

Why on earth you'd want to force unwanted children on people, makes
not a scrap of sense.

Rhys, you just don't seem to be able to see the decision from the woman's point of view. When you say " However, as a father of a young woman myself, I too would be highly distraught if my daughter was raped. That doesn't mean I would wish to kill the unborn child which was innocent of any wrong doing. It is the rapist who should pay the price" you are implying the decision would be yours, it would not be yours it would be your daughters.

However your view point is one of the two valid viewpoints in this debate, you either stand against abortions regardless of the circumstances because every fertilised egg is a child, a view i totally reject, or you accept that the fetus is not a child, it is an extension of the females body and has no viability if removed from the females body before approximately 22 weeks. Therefore the decision to terminate before this period of the pregnancy is not killing an unborn child, because it's not a child.

And thank God Australia has matured beyond the USA and we no longer need to fall back generations and revisit these social issues that were decided by sensible representatives many years ago. Like the debate on Gay marriage, this to will sensibly be resolved in time when the community leaders realise that the community has matured to the inevitable position.

I just hope that today in the USA, many millions of woman stand up for their rights and vote for Obama, as the cult member Romney with his born into wealth buddy, the liar Ryan, will wind back woman's rights many decades. Hell one stupid Tea Party female was calling for men to make all decisions, hey why not remove females right to vote because they are so victim to their emotions! - When will they grow up?

Guys remeber the church's position is that not only should the raped women not have an abortion she should marry the rapist least she be an adultress!