There seems to be a few people commenting on this article who seem very quick to judge the author. However, apart from the few small pieces of information she has deemed relvant to the article, very few details are given. I can't blame her for wanting to protect her privacy, but several posters seem to think they have enough knowledge of the situation to pass judgement. Other seem to think, that with NO knowledge of this womans situation, that they know what was the best course of action to take.

Comments such as "You are like every other person free to copulate with any one you please" seem to indicate that the commentor knows more about the situation that the author was in than is presented in the article.

Other comments suggesting that she is selfish, and a "worst example of middle class, egocentric, consumerist culture", indicate a personal knowledge of the womans situation.

How do you how the conception took place? How do you know that the author is so egocentric, and selfish without knowing the full details of her situation? To criticise the actions of others, without having any knowledge of the situation is foolish.

Take a leaf from Atticus Finch. Before critising others actions, climb into their skin and walk around in it for a while. Try to empathise. And before launching an attack, ask yourself "do I know enough about the situation to comment on it?"

Perhaps this young woman was in real trouble. I leave it to her to make the best possible descion for herself in a situation I know (almost) nothing about.

Now, a hypothetical. From the tone of the article, it seems as though this woman was very determined to terminate the pregancy. Would it be a reasonable assumption to say she would go ahead with it, regardless of the access to safe, medical abortion? If so, ask yourself, would you rather she have a safe abortion, or risk going to a "back yard butcher"? For me, the choice is obvious.

Gents, imagine your lady friend is pregnant and asks if you will marry her to provide for her and the foetus until the child is school age and she can earn her own living. And she expects you to provide for that child until it is 25.
If you decline her hand in marriage then gents you really have no say in whether the pregnancy continues.

Another scenario, imagine the mother discovers that the longed for baby is severely disabled and will require lifelong care for as long as it lives, say the next 30 years. The doctors strongly suggest termination, would you condemn a parent that aborts in these circumstances? Would you be happy for the child to receive lifelong non-means tested invalid pension and its mother to recieve lifelong carers pension also not means tested and you are willing to provide 3 months per year respite care for the child. If your answer is no then again butt out.

Are you happy to extend these same generous conditions to teenage petrol sniffing aboriginal mothers or fully cloaked muslims?

"Iain Hall your comments are just ludicrous./Snip/ Year 8 biology."
Your distinctions are purely semantic and my point is that wether you call an unborn child at conception +1 day one thing and at full term another. It is still a child that is being killed. People like the distinctions that you use to dehumanize the child so it is easier to have a clear conscience after the killing.

"I get quite confused about why some men persist with the idea that men have a stake in another persons medical procedure that they them selves will never have."
I draw breath and I am a human being so why should my gender preclude me have an interest the killing of my fellow humans because I am a male and that human being is as yet unborn?

"The decision is the woman’s and the issue is entirely between an individual woman and her doctor."
Well that is the legal position in this country and I am not advocating a change in the law. However I think that there is nothing wrong with me, or anyone else reminding every one that an abortion is not some minor medical procedure like having a mole removed it is the killing of a child.

"By “rare” I think you mean you get to choose who is worthy enough to access an abortion and who is not."
No my statement is so simple that any one can understand it; Abortion is sometimes justifiable but that it is something that is not to be undertaken under the misapprehension that it is NOT the killing of a human being. Take it as my advocating that there be true informed consent on the part of the woman involved, not the delusional denials of the humanity of an unborn child based upon some arbitrary distinction of its age since conception.

" Your further comments about the author are just disgusting and reveal, I think, a disturbed mind."
My mind is entirely cogent I just think that one does not call something a manual-digging implement when it is clearly a spade

Audrey,

If you knew absolutely (by some gift of the universe) that the baby was a living human, like you or me, would you still support abortion?

I'm a mother of two and have had the privilege of being pregnant. Yes, ladies, it is a privilege.

I am not anti-abortion. I am not anti-choice. But I do not think abortion should be touted as a lifestyle saving procedure. Abortion is not a form of birth control.

Women should be entitled to have freedom over their bodies. But for those of us who have carried a child, those of us who have desperately tried to fall pregnant, those of us who have gone in for a 6 week ultrasound check to look for a heart beat - a fetus is a living, feeling, amazing miraculous soul. Don't dare tell us otherwise.

Billie – your hypotheticals were excellent examples. Often the underlying aggression of particularly male pro-lifers is directed at woman wanting to avoid their motherly duties.

Iain Hall – I’ve got a hypothetical for you: You have a daughter. Beautiful, intelligent, extremely intelligent. Gets into law. Studies her brains out. Passes with honours. Does clerkships. Kisses major arse, works 60 hour weeks and finally gets a foothold in a large, successful firm. She’s going to run the place within a decade or two. The boss calls her in. Says he’s very pleased with her work and she’ll go far, as long as she puts in the hours for the company and doesn’t do anything dumb like get herself knocked up. His exact words. Bosses can be turds, can’t they? Anyway, she falls pregnant. The guy buggers off. If she continues the pregnancy, the job’s gone. The other clerks she studied and worked with will get her job while she’ll be experiencing the joys of single parenthood, probably for the next five to ten years. She wants to get an abortion. Would you presume to tell her not to?