Whoa! Hold up! Jump back!!!

[GalvestonDuck]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100713,00.html

Have I been under a rock or something????? There is NO ban in place right now? You mean to tell me, second- and third-term abortions as well as partial birth abortions are currently LEGAL???? I could have sworn that late-terms abortions (which I suppose would include partial birth) weren't allowed at all. Only first trimester abortions are legal.

Someone please tell me I'm dreaming and that this is total bull! A hoax! A myth! A scam! Say it isn't so!

[Lindaloo]

It is illegal in the state of MS to have a partial birth abortion. I suppose it is up to each state to decide whether or not it is banned.

In know in Texas they used to abort a baby when a Mother is in her 5th month. Alot of states who perform abortions will not abort after 3 months.

[GalvestonDuck]

Ah, okay...a state thing. I get it now. Thanks, Lindaloo.

[Lindaloo]

Not a problem. If this new law takes affect however, ALL states will have to ban partial birth abortions. It will no longer be up to state legislation to make that type decision.

[rainstorm]

late term abortions are murder, pure and simple

[Lindaloo]

That was not the issue here or what this thread was about Helen.

[ColdFront77]

late term abortions are murder, pure and simple

Abortion at any term of a mother's pregnancy is murder, pure and simple.

[GalvestonDuck]

I was a 27-week baby and that was 35 years ago. Modern prenatal medicine has come along way since then. It's my belief that the "It (baby, fetus, whatever term one uses) is not viable until X number of weeks" argument is weak, since many preemies like me can be real fighters. For that reason (among others), I'm pro-life.

But I didn't post this to start an abortion debate. Let's not go there since there's already a nicely heated, albeit civil, war debate going on. I was just surprised that I wasn't aware of partial-birth abortions being legal in some states.

[sunnyday]

I agree that abortion is murder from day one. When are people going to realize that and quit saying it's the woman's choice to do what she wants with her body? The choice is before she sleeps with a man, not after a precious life is on the way!!!!

[streetsoldier]

Consider THIS!

My mother, a devout Catholic, was told that she had until 5:00 pm to deliver me, or the doctor would crush my skull to save her life (this was in 1951, folks), as she was having a very tough delivery and I was a "preemie", not expected to survive anyway.

I was born at 4:45 pm on 11 DEC 1951, yellow-jaundiced and with the umbilical cord tightly wrapped around my neck; birth weight was 5 lb. 8 oz. I was kept in an incubator for two months, and the doctor told my parents to "take (me) home and love (me), because he'll never be normal." They feared that the potential loss of oxygen must have damaged my brain, I guess.

They were "right", but in the wrong way...reading at 18 months, drawing 3-D pictures at 3...you get the idea.

Had I been born in ANY other time than that (including NOW, when life is being held ever so cheaply for unborn infants), I'd never have survived infancy.

NOW, somebody PLEASE tell me I wasn't a "viable life in the womb"...and that my very existence is an "unfortunate accident". Please...

[coriolis]

Bill, thank God you're here.

Now about the "normal" part........

[vbhoutex]

Bill, thank God you're here.

Now about the "normal" part........

Ya beat me to it!!! J/K Bill!!!!

I was a 5lb. 10 oz. birthweight on August 26, 1951, but I wasn't kept in the hospital for any length of time past the normal. I wonder why the big difference?? Well, at least I know where all my smarts went!!!! :o

[Miss Mary]

Ed - you beat me to it too!!! Yes, Bill about that normal part......

IMHO, abortion at any stage is murder, pure and simple.

On my very first date with Jim (we had been friends for a year or more), we must have felt very comfortable with eachother. We got onto some very serious topics. One was abortion, of all things. He said he was dead set against it, I said I was also. Then I explained that you could look at an IUD birth control method as an early abortion too. He seemed confused - picture a first date here - so I explained how any object in the uterus to a fetus is considered a foreign object. And sometimes the fetus is expelled but the conception time was so short if any occurred, many people don't even look at this method as a possible abortion, each month. So I said I was against IUD's too. Not birth control (pill, diaphragm) in general. But definitely not the morning after pill! He then said very quietly, an old g/f of his had an IUD. We both got very quiet at that point. I think we both knew then and there we were going somewhere.

I just can't imagine being in any operating room, where an abortion is taking place. Especially a late term one, with the baby crying. Breaks my heart, it truly does.

Mary

[GalvestonDuck]

Hmmm...and to think, I was worried that I'd inadvertantly started a debate.

It appears we're all on the same side.

I'll reiterate -- I was simply surprised that a ban wasn't already in place since it seems that a large majority of people, even some pro-choice advocates, are opposed to late-term abortions. I asked for clarification and I got it from Linda. Thanks, Linda.

Gosh, I didn't mean to get everyone emotional.

[JCT777]

Yes, see what you started Shawn? And I will throw in my 2 cents. IMO - late term, early term or any other abortion is bad.

[Stephanie]

I agree that abortion is murder from day one. When are people going to realize that and quit saying it's the woman's choice to do what she wants with her body? The choice is before she sleeps with a man, not after a precious life is on the way!!!!

It's NOT her choice when she is raped by a man...

I'm pro-choice but I have a real problem with late term abortions and partial birth abortions. By that time a woman has accepted that a child is developing. It is POSSIBLE for a fetus in the later stages of the pregnancy to live with help. I don't understand the need for those EXCEPT for the cases when the woman's life is in danger.

[Lindaloo]

You're welcome Shawn.

[Amanzi]

Ok... im 20 weeks pregnant right now, and have just started to feel those little feet giving me the karate kick. My heart breaks for woman who are put in the place to even consider having an abortion. As parents we need to instill in our kids the value of life, the need for abstinance, and the need to be responsible for our actions.

I feel many people are just plain un-informed as to the fact that life begins at conception... Any kind of abortion in my eyes is wrong ( a friend of mine had one in the early 60's and I have seen the pain she went through and the greiving she had to do as well) At my 11 week ultrasound I saw that little heart beating and those little legs moving.. no doubt in my mind that is a little human being!


Some interesting facts.

Day 1 - conception takes place.
7 days - tiny human implants in mother’s uterus.
10 days - mother’s menses stop.
18 days - heart begins to beat.
21 days - pumps own blood through separate closed circulatory system with own blood type.
28 days - eye, ear and respiratory system begin to form.
42 days - brain waves recorded, skeleton complete, reflexes present.
7 weeks - photo of thumbsucking.
8 weeks - all body systems present.
9 weeks - squints, swallows, moves tongue, makes fist.
11 weeks - spontaneous breathing movements, has fingernails, all body systems working.
12 weeks - weighs one ounce.
16 weeks - genital organs clearly differentiated, grasps with hands, swims, kicks, turns, somersaults, (still not felt by the mother.)
18 weeks - vocal cords work – can cry.
20 weeks - has hair on head, weighs one pound, 12 inches long.
23 weeks - 15% chance of viability outside of womb if birth premature.*
24 weeks - 56% of babies survive premature birth.*
25 weeks - 79% of babies survive premature birth.*

[Stephanie]

Thanks for sharing those Bron.

[stormchazer]

Abortion as a form of birth control is pure murder. I agree in the case of rape or in the case of imminent threat to the mother that abortion has to be an option. Nothing is black and white.