Littel[dis]AgreeabbleBuddy,

How many high school kids are you regularly in contact with? Have you read Dolly magazine lately? About 66% of 18 years have had sexual intercourse, and only those girls whose parents have their heads firmly in the sand are not on contraception. Just becuase daghter is a ugly or a dorky, nerd that's no guarantee that she isn't going to be very active when a fella notices her.

if the woman miscarries that's not abortion and doesn't entail a death certificate or funeral. The death of an person under 12 months is infanticide and that's dealt with differently to murder.

Meg1 I have only heard of doctors giving lethal injections to full term babies in China under the one-child policy. It doesn't happen in Australia.

I have seen children who were born at 24 weeks gestation and they look like there's a kangaroo lose in the top paddock, but no responsible health professional in Australia wants to perform abortions after 12 weeks.

So fellas and Meg1 if you do not like abortion then do not have sexual intercourse.

Meg1 and LAB - I just found this "CELL LEADER, INTERN TRAINING" manual on the tram and I wondered which stage you were stuck in?
exploration - no
transition - no
communnity - no
outreach - encourage members to make interaction with unbelievers as way of life - yes

Laurie,

You already made the 'decision' when you had sexual intercourse. Becoming pregnant is a natural consequence of having sex. Sorry love, but it isn't your body there's a human being inside of you and it is just as alive at the 3-4 month mark than it is at the 6 month mark. Here's some advice, treat other people the way you would like to be treated and that includes the UNBORN, because they are alive even if they are inside of you.

Hi all

Rex (post 3:25:33 PM 8/3/06)

Thanks for a good posting - free of emotive, mud-slinging abuse. I'm nonetheless opposed to abortion because it destroys the foetus - murder.

Recent medical research suggests that:
(1) "electrical activity in the brain of a foetus can be detected at 5 weeks";
(2) the heart beats before 10-weeks;
(3) "fingerprints are there at 7 weeks";
(4) at 10-weeks the foetuss blood-group is distinct - separate from the mother's;
(5) "pain receptors are operating at 9 weeks";
(6) et alii.

In several countries they have apparently recently passed a law(s) making it mandatory to anaesthesise the unborn prior to aborting it. Why, if the foetus isn't a feeling/thinking entity?

In NSW, if the foetus of a woman injured in a motor vehicle accident is killed, the culpable driver may be charged with manslaughter. Why is abortion any different?

The link which you gave is indeed a balanced text - provided one accepts that abortion is not murder.

I am concerned about the unmonitored risks & likely deaths of RU-486. Risk impacts when one's own loved-one dies.
(9/3/06)

billie (post 11:42:26 AM 9/3/06)

I could probably try to insult you, by distorting your name, too. But I won't lower to your standard.

Teenagers are part of my life. Dolly Magazine shouldn't dictate the thinking of Australian youth. Whatsmore, the editorial staff aren't teenagers.

A high proportion of 15-year olds are sexually active. That doesn't make it right - nor does it signify maturity. To the contrary. [The memoirs of my sexually-active 13-year old niece are disturbing. Permissive parents. Dysfunctional child.]

You wrongly assume (from your inference) that I'm almost a "sheltered individual". My background as a relatively well-known musician would dispell that thought.

Who said that infanticide isn't murder? Look up the definition of murder. The law is reflected by the surrounding culture. The law isn't necessarily right.

10-week old foetuses are pretty clearly human. A kangaroo at 24-weeks? Do you use hallucinogens?
(10/3/06)

maker (post 7:17:38 PM 9/3/06)

Good, simple, honest, factual comments.

The reality is: the foetus IS living.
(10/3/06)

Cheers all

I'm sorry maker but I disagree. I believe there are shades of grey, that life has shades of grey where something may be live and have potentiality but is not yet 'human'.

I agree Laurie.

If only life was just so simple, so black and white.....

Unfortunately life means making decisions, often very difficult ones. There are many instances where we must be cruel to be kind. I attended the euthanasia of my elderly cat not so long ago when he suddenly developed throat cancer. It was inoperable, the best I could do was rest his head in my hand as the vet administered that final sleep. This was a more peaceful death than choking to death which was the alternative.

We all see things differently and there are those who believe that foetuses are more important than the well being of women and more important than the environment into which they may be born. I find this view difficult to understand. The simple fact is sometimes a choice has to be made and it is best that that choice be available, safe and timely.

As a species, humans are already overpopulating the environment while exterminating other plants and animals, yet the anti-abortionists care not about any of this. Very strange. Very sad.

Laurie, an unborn child is not a potential human being, but a human being with potential - just as we all are. Embryo, foetus, infant, child, adolescent, adult and geriatric are just names we give to human life at different stages of development. There are no shades of grey in this, whatever you may prefer to think. The unborn child does not suddenly become human at say 6 months when you concede it may have some rights. If that were so, what was he or she beforehand - animal, mineral or vegetable? No, the scientific fact is that from the time of conception the unborn child has 46 chromosomes and is therefore human - needing only time, nutrition, oxygen and shelter to develop into a unique and precious individual such as you or me.

Maracas, abortion is not a religious issue, as it is not a matter of faith or doctrine. Just because churches have policies on social issues such as abortion or Aboriginal affairs does not make these religious issues. Abortion is a human rights and women's health issue.

Billie, you say that of the people you know who have had an abortion, none has expressed regret. You should read the moving book "Giving Sorrow Words" by Melinda Tankard Reist, containing the stories in their own words of 14 Australian women who had abortions. There is a psychological price to be paid by every women who has an abortion. Although the initial reaction of many post-abortive women is relief, remorse often follows - sometimes years later.

With every abortion, the toll is one dead, one wounded. This is why pro-life pregnancy counselling services also offer post-abortion counselling.

To be pro-woman is to be pro-life