>>The net result would be that about 100,000 babies per year would be brought to term and born alive. I think that would be a good outcome.<<

No they won't. History has shown us over and over again that prohibiting things doesn't stop people from doing them: it just drives them underground. Women will still have abortions - just like they did when it was illegal - but they will not be carried out by doctors in sterile clinics with proper equipment. Women will die. I think that would be a bad outcome.

Given that women will have abortions regardless of its legality isn't it best that they do so as safely and with as little trauma involved as possible? Medical abortions might carry health risks but they're minuscule compared to backyard abortions.

Those pushing for the criminalization of abortion might as well stand outside abortion clinics saying 'Jesus loves you: please take a free coathanger' for all the genuine compassion they display for women.

Cheers,

Tony

Maybe I'd better understand opinions centred on no distinction between 'something' and 'someone' if they also argued for funeral or memorial services in all cases of miscarriage, including such things as blighted ovum and hydatidiform molar pregnancy – though being aware of the up to 50% of human conceptions that fail from blastocyst through the pre-implementation development is problematic.

Plus, if there is any consistency to concepts of 'individual human rights', then babies should be held accountable and probably charged with assault causing serious injury in all cases of complications from pregnancy or delivery.

It would be difficult to prove intent in the case of death or life threatening emergency for the mother during childbirth – and to call it manslaughter sounds silly under the circumstances, so our laws should be extended to encompass foetal matricide or attempted matricide.

I take comfort in three things:

Knowing I'll not have to cope with the personal choice the potential tragedy every unplanned and unwanted pregnancy represents…

That there are appropriate support systems available for whatever that personal choice is,

and that such a fraught topic appears to have received commenters' consensus that
'prevention is better than curette'.

@divine_msn
"Scripture seems to consider a baby a 'person' when it is born live .."
Disagree, passages like Gen 25:21-23 says the unborn are children - meaning persons already.

@Tony Lavis
"No they won't. History has shown us over and over again that prohibiting things doesn't stop people from doing them: it just drives them underground."
True, but then why do we bother trying to outlaw female genital mutilation and honour killings of women, particularly when there are people, groups and cultures that find them acceptable and will carry them out regardless of illegality. Should we eventually legalise these activities as well?

@WmTrevor
"Maybe I'd better understand opinions centred on no distinction between 'something' and 'someone'..."
Possibly, but where does this leave ethicists arguing that newborns shouldn't be considered persons either and can be killed off as well?
http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2012/03/01/medethics-2011-100411.full

We seem to have got back to the basic dilemma facing our society i.e. a woman has the "right" of "choice" even if the unborn is a baby a living and breathing human being.

The "right" of "choice" overrides the baby's right to live.

The present state of public opinion is this: 80% of people say that a woman has the "right" of "choice" but 80% of people say that the unborn are living human beings as much as born human beings. There are many eminent doctors, theologians, ethicists and so on with impeccable qualifications who will attest that there is no difference between the two categories and that to sanction "choice" is to sanction killing of living human beings.

I put it to you that to advocate "choice" is to advocate murder.It's really that simple.

>>The net result would be that about 100,000 babies per year would be brought to term and born alive. I think that would be a good outcome.<<

Would that be a good outcome? Since the greatest environmental problem is the destruction of the ecosystem by uncontrolled population growth 100,000 babies more a year exacerbates the problem.

Unwanted pregnancies going to term result in harassed women with large numbers of children being more harassed. Women who been raped must look at a child and be aware that the child’s father is a rapist. Teenagers who got pregnant at a wild party must curtail their plans for university or other avenues of fulfilling their life. Maybe a new Hitler is born.

It is reasonable to ask what are the results of these additional births. One result appears to be evident in the US crime statistics. About 16 years after the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade, legalising abortion the crime rate started decreasing in the US. We cannot be sure why, but possibly the court decision tells us. Women who were aware that they would have problems at that stage in their life in rearing a child had their pregnancy aborted. Children whose mother is not equipped to raise them properly are more likely to grow up to become thieves or engage in other antisocial activities. The pregnant women who chose to have an abortion benefited themselves and society.

I think that any unwanted child being born is a tragedy. I think those 100,000 additional babies can be 100,000 additional tragedies accompanied by additional social problems.

One of my co-workers was a Christian who was opposed to abortion. However, I respected him. If his group persuaded a pregnant woman who wanted an abortion to carry to term, they obligated themselves to care for mother and child. How many of you who harass pregnant women going to an abortion clinic are willing to take the consequences of your acts as he did? Damn few if any!

Don’t go back to the Dark Ages of coathanger, butcher, suicide and unwanted children.

The net result would be 100,000 happy mothers and babies. Very often abortions occur at the behest of the male partner who doesn't want any financial obligations. Women are pushed into abortions that they don't want.

People can adapt to financial obligations that they were not expecting. Where there is a will there is a way. BABIES BRING HAPPINESS NOT MISERY.