A girl or woman suffering horrendously from rape or incest finds herself pregnant.

Is the ongoing suffering from such an attack, such violation, to be unconscionably magnified and multiplied by forcing this individual to take such a pregnancy to full term?

Who in God's universe is so lacking in compassion, so bereft of 'humanity' as to force such an imposition, such torture on another?

And face it, even if the child is whipped away upon its birth, the 'mother' will have carried the reminder of her misfortune day in and day out for months, and will still be left with the knowledge that, though unwillingly, she has enabled the progeny of a criminal, an animal, to be brought into the world - to do who knows what.

For shame!

There are those who revere human birth as something just so special - because the product is a 'human being', a product of God.
But, if God is taken out of the equation, then the worship of birth is the worship of one's procreation, of one's 'genes'. Self love!

A meaningful birth should be the result of love, and not self-love, but the love of one's chosen partner, in a life bond, accompanied by assurance and determination to ensure the wellbeing of the child.
Selfless, humanitarian, virtuous.

Take God out of the equation and human birth is commonplace. All manner of creatures have been successfully perpetuating their species for eons - pigs have been doing it, and frogs, dragon flies and even apes.

Getting a girl pregnant to boost one's self esteem, or because it is 'the done thing', is bestial and utterly devoid of merit or virtue.

Should girls and women be demeaned, even 'sacrificed', by being forced to carry an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy?
I think not.

Who do 'men' think they are? Disciples of 'truth' or 'wisdom'?

Take a pill and get over yourself.

'Runner,

Do you mean 'embryo' ?'

use whatever words you like Joe. You have a very sick narrative in redefining or calling unborn babies a different name and makes no difference to the barbaric act of butchering human life.

Pope Francis' proclamation of the 'evil' of abortion seals it for me, and I imagine for very many others.

Call this humanity? Placing the worth of an embryo or foetus above the worth and value of a female human, and above her wellbeing and very life, is not only narrow-minded in the extreme but is so lacking in compassion and love for the woman as to be diametrically opposed to the recorded values of the originator of Christianity.

The banning of contraceptives - ill advised at the least.

The banning of the termination of an unwanted or ill-advised pregnancy, irrespective of 'circumstance', is an outright slap in the face.

Bad enough that some supposed 'holy' men have not been able to keep it in their pants, but now the treatment of women as mere 'vessels' can only lead to a conclusion that men, including the Pope, are the real problem, not only with the Church and with Religion, but with humankind at large.

Could this be 'the straw', the final nail, which reveals the full scope of the removal of 'faith' from realistic relevance to the lives of ordinary people.

Doctrines of love for one's 'fellow man' may have continued relevance in pursuit of commendable social mores, as ethics, integrity, virtue, honour and universal morality, but any claimed 'aura' of any fundamental 'wisdom', regarding the best interests of humankind, is now so tarnished, so worn and disheveled as to no longer have any value or merit.

Man against Man is bad enough; Man against Woman is death.

.

Dear Runner,

.

A baby does not remain a baby all its life. As it develops, we usually say it’s a little boy or a little girl or, simply, a child. As it develops further, we might say it’s a youngster. When it reaches puberty, we tend to call it a teenager. At the age of majority, we say it’s a young man or a young woman. After that, it may become a mother or a father or a middle-aged bachelor or spinster, before becoming a senior. Then, perhaps, a grandfather or grandmother, a great grandfather or great grandmother … a very elderly person, and, finally, … an ancestor.

A baby is no longer a baby when it can stand on its own two feet and begins to speak coherently. We do not usually continue to refer to it as a baby after that. It’s a bit silly to do so as it gets older.

But, as you know, life does not begin at birth, when it becomes a baby.

Life is not a single event. It is a process. It began on earth about 4.28 billion years ago. It has constantly been relayed from generation to generation since then through the process of fertilization produced by the fusion of a male sperm with a female ovum.

The fusion of sperm and ovum produces an entirely new cell called a zygote (a fertilized egg) which develops into an embryo that later becomes a fetus before ultimately being ejected from the womb as a baby.

I suppose you could say we are all zygotes or fertilized eggs if you like, but we are only that at the commencement of our existence as individuals – the initial phase of our development as human beings. Or you could say we are all babies. But that too is just another phase of our development. A baby is not a zygote anymore than it is a teenager or a grandfather or a grandmother.

We change our appellation according to the stage of our development – before the cradle and after the grave !

.

'A baby does not remain a baby all its life. As it develops, we usually say it’s a little boy or a little girl or, simply, a child. '

yes Banjo if its fortunate enough not to be butchered.

'Life is not a single event. It is a process. It began on earth about 4.28 billion years ago. ' sure Banjo. You can believe your little fairytales.

To Saltpetre, and Alan B.

Do either of you know how an abortion procedure takes place? There's enough philosophizing to defend abortions, but do either of you know how it's done? It really is barbaric.

Regarding the article. It makes a good point about judicial activism. In Australia you can say that abortion was voted on. Perhaps the laws for abortion and when it is and isn't allowed can also be up to the people, instead of removed from your legislative process. That's not the case in the US.