I have always thought as abortion as a money making exercise for abortion clinics, and abortion is also used as a symbol of women’s rights by feminists, similar to the sickle and hammer.

So no real efforts are being made to reduce abortion, as it could take away the flag.

Instead we have the same mantra of “women’s rights” = “abortion.”

How about feminists allow some decent studies into abortion, to find out why so much occurs, and then to work from there to reduce it.

Or maybe its not really “women’s rights” after all, but more to do with “feminist’s rights”

Its about the right to choose. Pure and simple. Its about the right to receive objective advise without any special interest group sticking its oar in, whether its pro or anti.

james purser wrote "Its about the right to choose. Pure and simple. Its about the right to receive objective advise without any special interest group sticking its oar in, whether its pro or anti."

On reasoning your comment...the first question arising is 'who will be looking after the rights of the unborn human when their interests is in conflict with the mothers'...as is the usual in these situations...

Sam

Why not come right out and say it Lesley - you want it to be possible for a woman to be able to abort a healthy baby the day before full-term if she simply says that is what she wants. Right?

After all, who are you to say what a woman should do with her own body? (It is a curious thing though that during pregnancy a woman grows an extra head (and sometimes two or three more!), not to mention extra arms and legs, and half the time she becomes both male and female along with all the male genitalia and then amazingly she reverts to being only one-headed and just female after birth! - hmmmmm.)

You say that there is "shame" and "a stigma" about abortion. If there is nothing problematic about abortion why is this so?

Just imagine if there were people protesting outside dentists saying things like 'Save the teeth!', 'Pulling teeth is wrong!'. Would people feel shame or have a stigma about visiting the dentist? Of course not.

It doesn't matter how much you and others try to pretend that there is no baby that is killed in every abortion, it does not change reality.

Women will continue to have abortions whatever anyone says or does. They always have, they always will. They do this not because they are morally retarded or irrational but because they absolutely understand that there is a great deal more to being a mother than simpy giving birth. Quite rightly, women who get pregnant without planning to always assess carefully just how well they are going to be able to parent the child they are bearing. If they decide they are not able to do the right thing by the child, they terminate the pregnancy. This is not simply a rational decision, it is a moral one. There are much worse things than not being born and love cannot be turned on and off like a tap. I chose not to continue with an unplanned pregnancy when I was young because I knew I was not emotionally or psychologically prepared to be a mother. I have not regretted it for one minute. How could I? Had I had that child I would not then have gone on to have the two much loved and wanted children I now have. That is the thing the anti-choice people never consider, that the birth of any child always also prevents other potential children from also being born - that's life.
Women do not want to simply be portals through which other human beings enter the world, they want to be good and loving parents. We cannot create loving families for children if we force women to have children they do not want.
You can make abortion legal or illegal, women will still refuse to birth children they know they will not love the way every child should be loved. Its simply some of the women will die too, if you make it unsafe.

Excellent article. Decriminalising abortion while adding restrictions to abortion under the Health Act will not be any improvement to the current situation and could very easily by used by politicians as an avenue to further reduce access to safe abortion. I doubt that the right wing conservatives would be able to help themselves and could certainly push to add even more regulations to the Health Act.

HRS, abortion is no more a "money making exercise" than is dentistry, general practice, optometry, or any private medical service.

GP, Leslie is not saying what women should do with their bodies but it seems that you are! In theory, if aborting a full term fetus was necessary to save the life of the woman, then yes, it should be a legal option of last resort. Even if a fetus did have legal rights as you imply, why would you think that the rights of an embryo or fetus should outweigh the rights of a woman who it is dependent on? This misogynistic attitude is typical of those who share your viewpoint.