RObert, it's my view that abortion is legal because it is a woman's own (pregnant) body, and is her choice whether or not she wants to carry on with a pregnancy.

I never thought that the pregnant human female had anything else growing inside her other than a human baby, so I guess you should be in the anti-choice camp?

To my mind, forcing a woman to continue with an unwanted (early) pregnancy would also be assault .

I have the law on my side in that abortion is legal, and assaulting a pregnant woman and causing her to lose her baby is a crime. I'm obviously not alone in my views, and it isn't just women who believe this either.

Late term abortions are very rare and should be performed only if there is a non-viable fetus, or for the mothers health.

No one else knows the reasons for an abortion unless the parents choose to tell, and it is no one else's business...

While I myself would be unlikely to have an abortion, I doubt any sane Government would ever take away a woman's right to choose in this country.

Banjo, I've not tried recently but some years ago there was a push to ty and get stats on some CSA/family law related figures. Typically those stats were not available.

In particular there was a push to try and get stats that might give some indication of suicide rates amongst people dealing with the family law system.

It should not have been too hard to determine the number of CSA cases which terminated early because if the death of a parent (and the gender and age of those parents). Not a clear correlation to suicide but mapped against community death rates for gender/age brackets it should have provided some info on the impact of our disfunctional family law system.

I'd also like to see some analysis of the amounts paid/received via CSA with some demographic breakdown and that kind of data does not seem to be readily available (although the underlying data is clearly collected). Very hard to prove systematic and structural bias without the number to back it up.

In my case I was required to pay so called child support when my son was with his mum at more than 20 times the rate my ex is now required to pay regardless of the actual financial situation of the two homes. Some of the relevant figures are not collected, net family income and wealth are numbers CSA would not have but which would be important to a meaningful discussion on the CSA formula and how it works in practice.

R0bert

Dear RObert,

The murder charge applies in Florida because it falls
under a rarely used Federal Statute known as the
"Protection of Unborn Children Act." And in Florida
this law still applies. Also the rights of the mother
outweigh those of the father. You may think this is
nonsense but that's the way it is in that state.
We can argue backwards and forwards about "rights."
However, the law remains in place. And change can only
be brought about by changing the laws.

Abortion will continue to remain a controversial issue.

RObert,
Yes it is hard to understand why some stats are not available when all it would take is a click as the info is already collected and stored electronicly.

In the case of abortion info, it is all on record and in the case of FGM the birthplace of patients about to give birth is on record so is the fact that she has had FGM. There is anedotal evidence that those women that had FGM here years ago are now having their own daughters 'done'.

I think it is simply the 'mushroom treatment' and only continued presure will incover the stats to be made known.

My group is considering FOI applications to see if we can get what we want.

Lexi its clear that the law is in place otherwise there would not be charges. Not much point to any of our discussions involving the law if the fact that the law is there is taken as an end point. We routinely argue the merits of laws existing and proposed.

Not a local law in this instance but I wonder how such a case would be handled here.

The nonsence is about the idea that it is on the one hand considered a human being and on the other hand is allowed to be killed if the mother wants it to be killed.

If it's credibly human early term then abortion should have very serious restrictions around it - genuine life threatening situations that can't be handled any other way.

If it is a fetus not yet human and just part of the mothers body at that stage (which is routinely argued by the pro-choice lobby) then what's alleged to have occurred is an assault, not murder regardless of what a dodgy law says.

The law looks like a tactic by the anti choice lobby to get a fetus recognised in law as human, supported by those opposed to abortion and those who've not considered the implications.There are plenty of ways of dealing with assault without doing whats been done there.

R0bert

Suz, sorry fir late reply, but how can one be murdered, when they have not yet been born?

They are born at age zero, not nine months.