Col Rouge
It was found that when certain female celebrities had babies, the abortion rate in parts of the world declined.

If there were lots of pictures in the media of female celebrities holding babies, the abortion rate declined. That is how easily people are swayed by propaganda and the media, and the majority of women having abortions are not at risk at all from the pregnancy.

With the decriminalization of abortion, it opens the way for certain groups in society to begin to brainwash women into having abortions.

We are not talking about abortion on demand. It is abortion after 2 doctors agree.

Last week, I commented here that a friend had a late term abortion, when faced with an inevitable tragic outcome. I've been thinking that maybe that was a bit 'easy'. Except for the hardcore 'right to lifers' who would have had her suffer till the end, her right to terminate and try again, was pretty clear. (I use a different name here, to my normal name so nobody's privacy is at risk, including my own).

I absolutely agree that the whole debate about late term abortions is a red herring. The actual numbers of late term abortions is minimal. Women don't front and say, 'give me an abortion, I've just realised the bump is going to ruin my ski season' at this stage. If they need an abortion it's for hard thought through reasons.

If the same friend had fronted me and said she wanted an abortion at this late stage because she had been pressured into it by a violent partner who was now removed from her life, I would absolutely stand by her and her intelligence. If she said though, having previously indicated that she dearly wanted the child, that she now wanted an abortion because she thought the child was the 'devil', and she was behaving oddly, I'd want an urgent talk with her doctor and pyschologist to avoid a tragedy. I think a little discretion in these things is okay.

(to be continued)

My own reproductive history maybe gives me a little bit of a background in this field. It seems that a lot of people commenting here, haven't dived in yet. I had a stillbirth at 28 weeks where the baby died and I almost did. Then a miscarriage. Then twelve months later I had a successful birth where the baby was admitted back at a month for a lifesaving operation and I was rushed back to hospital with complications for a operation two weeks after the birth - that month with sick child and sick Mum, trying to get attention don't rate as one of mine finest.

Number two child, special needs, doing fine, but will need his parents attention for a while yet.

Number three child, special needs, life threatening, life long condition.

Each time after giving birth too, I ended up with concerned nurses injecting and clucking around me, which doesn't inspire confidence in me if I was to go down that path one more time.

Our income in the meantime, went from two incomes, to one. I sold my piano and books to pay the bills and our babies got used to a bland diet there for a while. In the end, it's worked out fine, though the work is continuing. But tell some woman that she should grit her teeth get on with it if she was absolutely against it, and has no support - No.

Thre are also over 10,000 children in foster care in NSW alone. Maybe they should feature more.

JL Deland.. reading your post I realize why I am pro-choice (and more so than many, it would seem).

The difficulties of your pregnancies and the subsequent development of your children brings to mind one of the most important things which should be at the forefront of anybodies thoughts in their consideration of this matter

“There but for the grace of God go I.”

My ex-wifes pregnancies were fine, delivery was a little difficult for the first but nothing on the scale you experienced and both girls are now adults and never had any “special needs”.

I would never want to be someone who would satisfy any personal sense of Christian or secular “righteousness” by insisting you should do anything other than that which you chose for yourself.

Like you said “But tell some woman that she should grit her teeth get on with it if she was absolutely against it, and has no support - No.”

I recall tales of premature babies being delivered who then survived the early weeks of birth but who suffered serious defects.

In years past when the medical profession and their tools were less “skilled”, these babies would not have survived and that just might have best for them and the family who were then responsible for trying to come to terms and deal with the, often extensive, demands of their upbringing for maybe the next 40 years (or so).

HRS says that "when certain female celebrities had babies, the abortion rate in parts of the world declined." I've done a quick Google search and can't find any reference. Have you got a link HRS?

Olly, I think you'll find it is abortion on demand up to 24 weeks. 2 doctors have to agree after 24 weeks.

Interesting to note that abortion rates are on the decline and "less than five per cent of women born in the 1980s have had an abortion - a significant drop from the 14 per cent seen in women 10 years older." http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23403616-421,00.html

What can be done to reduce abortion rates? Better sex education would be a good start. Better public hospital pre-natal care would also help. Government-sponsored maternity leave and cheap child-care for single parents and low-income couples might also have an effect. Plenty of good programmes could be funded instead of the useless baby bonus (bribe), which too often is wasted by those who might benefit from better-targetted funding.

As the parent of a child with disabilities I heartily agree with JL Deland's post. As a parent you sign on for life, but a bit of support from others doesn't go astray.