The way i see it the pregnant person cannot have an abortion for a no good reason, and then it takes 2 doctors to agree. So if the fotus is going to be incapacitated at birth due to disease or drug use or wat ever else society gets into these days, it would be advisable to abort, and save the majority of straight people the burden of supporting a dimwit for years to come.

Yes 3000 citizens were murdered in the USA on one day by people whose brain was addled by religious indoctrination. But nearly ten times that number of children die each day from malnutritian and poor health care in underdeveloped countries. How much better would the world be if the money being wasted in Iraq had been spent on health care and education where it was most needed.
Every healthy woman in this country has up to about 350 chances in her lifetime to become pregnant yet the average use of that opportunity is about twice. Surely if a woman is satisfied that a later pregnancy is preferable to a present pregnancy it would seldom have any effect on the total number of her offspring.
I agree 24 weeks seems a long time to make up your mind but the figures seem to indicate late terminations are largely due to some determined deficiency in the foetus.
And, runner, this country already appears to be getting what you think it deserves. It is being held back by religious indoctrination of children and nonsense from fundamentalists.

Pro-lifers are the 21st century mind police who pray for unlimited authority to persecute those who wish to exercise their rights of women to determine what they should do to enhance the quality of the life of their families and determine their own freedoms.They seek to perpetuate poverty and suffering.They seek the denial of individuals reaching their fullpotential by condemning them to a life oif such penury that self-realisation is impossible.All that is certain is penury and begging and possibly a life of crime to get out of the trap they have fallen into. In return these poor devils are offered prayers to help them through their life of perpetual hardship and denial of fulfilment. If you want proof go and visit communities in South America and the Philippines for openers.

Sanctimonius frauds fattened on delusion wearing comic opera dresses and scattering whiffs of incense and wafer gods cater to the "spiritual" needs of those they have afflicted.

socratease

I tend to agree with Banjo and SJF and find discomfort in the idea of a 24 week abortion unless of course it is under exceptional circumstances such as in the case of JL Deland's friend.

With modern medicine many premature babies survive at this age and the foetus is more than a group of cells.

We can talk about Rights but we also have to ask at what point do we confer rights to an unborn child. Rights are man-made they are not a 'given' and as a society we need to determine and weigh up those rights for all parties based on some agreed criteria with obvious medical exceptions.

It won't ever be easy to satisfy all parties on the subject of abortion but a 24 week old foetus is a viable 'person' and I would hope that most abortions at this stage of development would be conducted reasons other than convenience.

Anyone else notice the gendered voting pattern in the conscience vote on abortion in Victorian parliament?

The overall vote was 47 in favour and 35 against. But the female MPs voted 19-6 while the fellers voted 28-29.

What interpretation would OLO readers put on this distinctive pattern?

Many millions have been deemed “not wanted” or “not suitable”, and have been aborted through mass extermination.

From Australian Aborigines to Cambodians to Chinese to Ugandans to Russian Muslims to Jews.

Another slippery slope has started.

Step 1/ Ignore wide scale abortion
Step 2/ Decriminalize abortion
Step 3/ Allow any type of abortion.
Step 4/ Encourage abortion.
Step 5/ Carry out abortion on people who have been born.