I think parents on the anti-termination side should take a step back and think :

Would your daughter/granddaughter if unexpectedly pregnant

1. Be in a position to talk to you knowing your hard held views?
2. Get the true love & compassion that this situation needs?
3. Feel confident enough to express her own views without fear of you bombarding her with your view?
4. Be confident of all options being discussed reasonably in a calm and loving manner?
5. Be confident that you would support independent councelling with all choices openly explained?
6. Be confident of you not disowning them, withdrawing your love or forever making them feel guilty if they had the nerve to make a different choice to your view?

OR would it just be YOUR way or the Highway?

Seems to me that if you hold a very strong anti-termination view your child could be more likely to terminate a pregnancy behind your backs without you ever being told. Afterall, what you don't know, won't hurt you!

How could they approach you? - you espouse loudly that you know what's best for everyone in society already! Your view to your pregnant child therefore becomes irrelevent.

Stewart Glass - Q: If you don't murder or kill a fetus, what do you call it when you stop it living via an abortion?

Uterine evacuation is one of the medical terms, and that pretty much suits me. As I don’t believe the fetus to be human, it exists as any living organism might. Do you call harvesting vegetables murder? If you do, then you’re silly.

Mark Richardson – “Franzy, the reason I assumed you were female is that you write like someone who's doing an arts or humanities PhD, and such people are overwhelmingly female.

It's not easy to get the mind so far into intellectual modernism and so far away from normal modes of thought - it takes long exposure to the academy.”

I’m not really sure what point your trying to make here MR. Is it that humanities students in general are irrational and illogical, or that women in these fields are more likely to be lefty pinko feminists as a result of this irrational school of academia? You’re confusing me…but I AM just a girl after all.

(cont)

Gadget - “whilst the ‘host’ is able to interpret through some unknown, (or at least un-reavealed) medium, that the glorious child within is, perhaps, unworthy…”

I’ve revealed the medium over and over Gadget. As the woman carrying said fetus, I know it’s not a ‘glorious child’. I can feel it. Nothing I say will convince you otherwise. Other women may feel it is. That’s perfectly their right and I wish them well. I forgot to mention it before, but your ridiculous idea of a lottery falls down on the basic fact that it was the woman chosen to die, the fetus would go down too. Because. It. Is. Reliant. On. Her. To. Survive.

“Apple, you do not yet live in a communist nation.” Thank Dumbledore for that. I suppose you assumed I must be a communist because I’m a feminist baby killer.

“I have the right to freedom of speech.” Yes, unfortunately this is true.

“Nothing you can think, say or do can stop me from providing hardcore evidence of the incorrect thought behind withchcrafted foeticide.” - No, your own inability to provide such evidence works quite well enough actually.

Mykah – “How do you think the public would respond if some lunatic wilfully killed the foetus of some endangered mammal, or destroyed the eggs of some endangered reptile or bird?” – Hopefully they would be as outraged as if someone wilfully destroyed the fetus of a woman who hadn’t given them permission to do so, much like the animals in your hypothetical. It’s not as if abortionists are running through the streets kicking pregnant women in the stomachs silly.

It’s been lovely chatting with all of you judgemental males, but it’s probably time I went back to writing about how communism will save the world for my humanities PhD before heading out with the cocktail club to kill a few more glorious children while drunk on cosmopolitans. Until then, I ask that you read this link:

http://www.sapphireblue.com/25years/

Peace out

Parents cannot be laissez faire in raising children; they must be proactive, give guidance and take the leadership role. It would never be adequate to just stand back and be 'supportive'. However if it comes to termination then sure the woman (and the man) should be supported through and beyond that too.

My parents always assured me that if there ever was an accident there was no such things as a 'surplus' child and 'one more baby' was always welcome in our family. That was the family's experience in the past too, where children were raised by grandparents and elsewhere in the extended family. There were cases and probably will be more in the future where a late teen and her child were both parented through a bit of cooperation (and non-judgemental behaviour).

There was also a teen father taken in and helped. That couple parted some fifteen years later without rancour.

Of course there are some women and men who would want to keep the child but cannot see any practical means of doing so. Although governments of all political persuasions say they support families, when it comes down to practical things, such as housing, transport and extended parental leave, they very soon duck for cover. Government spends huge sums on migration but is parsimonious in assisting young families.

In summary I don’t think my first reaction could ever be, “Sweetie, if you want an abortion that is fine by me”. Wherever possible the first assurance should be that the child is wanted if she wants to go through with it and she can count on me and the family for full support which could be me raising the child as parent. However I am sure enough that in the unfortunate event that the mother is very young that the wear and tear on her body should be prevented.

Seings how the pro-Lifers are despised by the pro-Foeticideists: and they find our wishes to abort this unsavoury practice unthinkable, perhaps the satanic death cultists would find this more tasteful:

http://poetry.rotten.com/infantiphagia/taboo1.html

Gadget thanks for the link to the picture of the dismembered Chinese baby. Every one knows that China conducted a strict one child policy.

What is its relevance to Australia and this debate?