Josephus,

Your use of the word 'killing' is well-advised, because that's what abortion is. The fact that the unwanted child is not actually grasped by the ankles and it's skull smashed against a rock but surgically aborted, doesn't alter the fact.

ttbn,

That’s what they call a fallacious appeal to emotion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_emotion

What your emotive and gory language fails to consider is the impact that forcing women to continue with unwanted pregnancies has on both individuals and societies.

Unfortunately gory language doesn't address such issues.

Would you like to give it another crack?

What gets me about the whole question of abortion is 'why the need?'

I see the need for abortion on genuine medical grounds, but with so many differing contraceptive methods available one would think there is little need for so many abortions. I believe it is estimated that there are some 82000 abortions annually in Aus.

With that sort of number it can only be that some women are using abortion as a birth control method. Why this is so is a good question. Is it easier to get an abortion than to take a pill daily or get an injection each few months. Even if she is really slack, she can get a 'morning after' pill.

while I admit that the oral pill is not as simple as I once believed, it still should not be so onerous that one would prefer having an abortion. There must be solutions.

Banjo,

An abortion costs around $800, requires a couple of days off work, and a couple of days to arrange. So to suggest that abortion is a lazy form of contraception for some is insane. Particularly given how frequently a sexually active woman would need to go through one.

In fact, suggesting that it is being used as a form of contraception at all is absurd. It would be far more rational to assume that a lot of people are just being careless.

Either way, this is a side issue. Society simply cannot force women to go through pregnancies they don’t want. We already know how devastating consequences of that are. It doesn’t matter how awful the thought of an abortion is.

AJ,
I looked back, the subject of abortion was discussed a few months ago. I did not see your name there so you may have missed it.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=7613&page=1

Some interesting views there which you may wish to consider before saying that it is absurd to think some women would use abortion as a means of contraception,

I do not know about the cost of abortion, but maybe some can arrange it that Medicare covers the costs. In any case it appears it will be an ongoing issue.

I notice that you did not put forward a reason as to why there are so many abortions.

Banjo,

I don't have the time to read through an entire thread, sorry.

But I do vaguely remember that discussion, and I certainly don't remember anyone providing a rational reason to suspect that some women are spending hundreds of dollars and skipping a couple of days of work, every month or so, simply because they're too lazy to use contraception.

Now that WOULD be something that I would have thought I'd remember, if they did. After all, using abortion as a means of contraception would be anything but lazy. Such a person would have to be pretty rich too.

<<I notice that you did not put forward a reason as to why there are so many abortions.>>

I did, actually: carelessness.

Either way, I don't need to because it's a side issue. I mean, it's interesting, and certainly worth looking into, but ultimately it's irrelevant to the question of whether or not abortion should be allowed outside of medical reasons and in cases of rape. At least until it can be shown how stripping women of their bodily autonomy is the lesser of the two evils.