Are you suggesting Debbie that when a Doctor recommends termination of pregnancy for the reason of grave danger to the health of the mother - such as the discovery of an aggressive neoplasm or in the case of a foetal condition not compatible with life - such as anencephaly - he/she is "pressuring" the patient?

In case it has somehow eluded you in your seemingly tunnel visioned quest to eliminate the scourge of surgical abortion from the face of the earth, medical professionals are obligated to provide their patients with full disclosure regarding their condition, all choices available to them and the likely consequences of each choice based on knowledge, experience and results of investigative procedures. He/she may express an opinion as to the most favourable course/s of treatment but ultimately the final decision - and responsibility for the outcome, rests with the patient.

No Doctor is likely to EVER ask a healthy pregnant woman if she wants a termination unless the patient is obviously distressed about her condition and discussion leads down that path. Whether that Doctor has a personal pro or anti choice stance is too bad. He/she has a professional obligation to leave the choice with the patient without attempting to pressure her - as you yourself point out.

So in your efforts to make the world a better one for all women - is there a place for termination of pregnancy at all? I'm sure a lot of women who have been in situations where it's been the best, in fact their only choice for survival, and those who faced the prospect otherwise of carrying a baby to term to give birth to a stillborn or watch it die within hours or days and their families would like to know.

DearMe

‘Said he couldn't cope (they only had a 4 year old at the time) she was gutted and went through with the termination to please him. That's not choice!’

Yes, it is. Abortion is not just about the woman. Men are mostly left out of the pregnancy/abortion equation. If a man wants a woman to have an abortion, he’s personified as a selfish bully, even downright evil, when he is probably just a man who feels he is not ready for fatherhood or extended fatherhood. Why should a woman force a man to take on a fatherhood he doesn’t want and feels unprepared for?

I doubt if your friend went through with the abortion simply ‘to please him’. I’m sure that much of her decision was based on doing the right thing for all concerned. Regardless of her later regret and resentment, her decision to terminate showed maturity.

Of course, if you see every foetus as sacred (and I don't just mean in the religious sense), then any choice other than proceeding with an unwanted pregnancy, regardless of how either the father or mother feels, is the WRONG thing.

So to summarise, for many many years, women were not given a choice whether or not to continue their pregnancy, and were undeniably pressured by society to take their pregnancy to term.

Women now have the right to chose to continue the pregnancy or not. However now these pressures exist for both choices. There are those like the author and others that will pressure a women to keep the baby, and others that may pressure a women to have an abortion. These are facts I accept.

What I don't accept is that women are somehow irrational, utterly dependent people who are incapable of making important life decisions. As others mention, no woman who wants to have a child will decide to have an abortion if someone presents this as an option. Perhaps the authors attitude on this is influenced by her experiences successfully pressuring women who want an abortion to not have one.

I personally support any women that makes either decision. Do you Debbie?

Killarney, Stezza great posts.

R0bert

What the author appears to want is women to have the choice to have or not have a child free of the consequences of their decision.

Babies are wonderful when they are wanted, but require lots of money time, and attention, and a first year student without a huge support network is unlikely to be able to complete her degree, or follow the career path she wanted.

The boyfriend, parents etc also have the choice to provide that support or not. All these factors need to be considered by the woman in making her decision. This is not coercion, this is real life.

@divine_msn Doctors DO ask healthy, happily pregnant women if they want a termination all the time. Ask women. With 96% of all abortions occurring on healthy women and babies, your use of the rarest examples is a way of changing the subject. This is a case of your ideology, not my own. Having nursed women who have lovingly cared for their 'less than perfect' babies even when they lived briefly, I can assure you none of them wished they had not had the chance to meet and love them.

@killarney. Men have no legal right to a say about abortion. How is it a sign of maturity for a woman to succumb to another person's pressure to abort when she wants the child?

@stezza. I have never pressured a woman into continuing a pregnancy. I am working with a young desperate woman right now who very much wants her baby and is facing withdrawal of support from her parents if she does. Coercion much? We are putting supports, both practical and financial in place for her so that she can make the choice SHE wants. That is not pressure. It is responding to her stated need.

@Shadow Minister, I would suggest that every decision we make in life comes with consequences. It is comments like yours that women are 'unlikely to be able to' do something that undermine the rational, independent decisions that I believe women are capable of (and that stezza makes reference to above). What on earth is the problem with providing a support network around women or men for that matter? We are social beings and nobody should be isolated and told they have to manage on their own, or not at all.