Women's Right to Choose

Nurses General Nursing

Published

You are reading page 5 of Women's Right to Choose

PeakRN

547 Posts

Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.

Wow. What a constorsion of reality so that people can justify their opinion.

The vast majority of abortions are elective. Very few are the result of rape or incest, and yet you would think that it was the primary reason to seek one out from the arguments. While the numbers are hard to pin down far less than 1 percent of those who had an abortion reported the reason as rape, and more than 95% were completely elective or because they felt they could not afford to have a child.

It is interesting how men are polarized as wanting to control women, however if you look at the gallop polls that argument is far less strong than the pro choice advocates would have you believe. Depending on the year roughly 50 percent of men are pro life and 45 are pro choice. The women aren't that far off either where 50 percent are pro choice but 40 percent pro life. While this does support the notion that men are more likely to be pro life, it isn't quite the sexist domination some would like you to believe.

While resources certainly vary by locality there is no shortage of support available for those who are disadvantaged and carry a pregnancy. Housing, financial, and medical care are all available here to pregnant women and children, so I'm not quite sure where the argument about prolife advocates not caring for children is coming from. The majority of this is secular and without any push towards some religious belief.

Men are also held accountable financially. There are legal mandates for financial support and a variety of criminal and civil repercussions for not following court mandates. While this does carry a burden on the mother to appeal to the courts the option is there.

Women can place up their infant for adoption. I know countless families who wait for years trying to adopt both locally and internationally. I'm always amazed how how this always escapes the abortion conversation, the options aren't only to either have an abortion or to raise a child.

Personally I'm very prolife. This does extend beyond the issue of abortion. I'm against the death penalty. I don't support pointless wars. I very much support social services not only supporting pregnant women but also the care for children. I support better access to contraceptives and real education about reproductive health (and better education in general).

I also get quite irritated at the generalization that the men are the problem or don't care about women. I (at the time being a single man with no other children) raised one of my family members kids from birth because neither she nor the child's father were willing to do so but she wanted to carry out her pregnancy.

I also find myself frustrated at how little education is offered by the clinics locally that offer abortion. I'm not talking about some effort to dissuade women from having an abortion but rather simple post care. I've had many women come into the ED either septic, in uncontrolled pain, or with significant hemorrhage who received little or no education about the risks or when to seek follow up care.

Roe v Wade came into place because botched abortions became a public health crisis. Regardless of my personal beliefs, I can see that denying access to abortions wouldn't stop abortions. It will make abortions less safe and likely lead to women (and their unborn children) dying or the babies being born with significant disfigurement. What I really would love to see is more access to birth control and education on sexual health and birth control for young people along with help for young parents to allow them to excel to their highest potential.

We could debate all day about if abortion is ethically or morally right or wrong, but we've all heard the arguments before and probably won't change our minds on the base issue.

Specializes in CTICU.
19 minutes ago, PeakRN said:

Wow. What a constorsion of reality so that people can justify their opinion.

The vast majority of abortions are elective. Very few are the result of rape or incest, and yet you would think that it was the primary reason to seek one out from the arguments. While the numbers are hard to pin down far less than 1 percent of those who had an abortion reported the reason as rape, and more than 95% were completely elective or because they felt they could not afford to have a child.

It is interesting how men are polarized as wanting to control women, however if you look at the gallop polls that argument is far less strong than the pro choice advocates would have you believe. Depending on the year roughly 50 percent of men are pro life and 45 are pro choice. The women aren't that far off either where 50 percent are pro choice but 40 percent pro life. While this does support the notion that men are more likely to be pro life, it isn't quite the sexist domination some would like you to believe.

While resources certainly vary by locality there is no shortage of support available for those who are disadvantaged and carry a pregnancy. Housing, financial, and medical care are all available here to pregnant women and children, so I'm not quite sure where the argument about prolife advocates not caring for children is coming from. The majority of this is secular and without any push towards some religious belief.

Men are also held accountable financially. There are legal mandates for financial support and a variety of criminal and civil repercussions for not following court mandates. While this does carry a burden on the mother to appeal to the courts the option is there.

Women can place up their infant for adoption. I know countless families who wait for years trying to adopt both locally and internationally. I'm always amazed how how this always escapes the abortion conversation, the options aren't only to either have an abortion or to raise a child.

Personally I'm very prolife. This does extend beyond the issue of abortion. I'm against the death penalty. I don't support pointless wars. I very much support social services not only supporting pregnant women but also the care for children. I support better access to contraceptives and real education about reproductive health (and better education in general).

I also get quite irritated at the generalization that the men are the problem or don't care about women. I (at the time being a single man with no other children) raised one of my family members kids from birth because neither she nor the child's father were willing to do so but she wanted to carry out her pregnancy.

I also find myself frustrated at how little education is offered by the clinics locally that offer abortion. I'm not talking about some effort to dissuade women from having an abortion but rather simple post care. I've had many women come into the ED either septic, in uncontrolled pain, or with significant hemorrhage who received little or no education about the risks or when to seek follow up care.

Let’s keep this simple: some people don’t want to be pregnant, and your opinion doesn’t matter to them. It’s not up to you or anyone else and never should be.

Specializes in CTICU.
8 minutes ago, BiscuitRN said:

What I really would love to see is more access to birth control and education on sexual health and birth control for young people along with help for young parents to allow them to excel to their highest potential.

This is something i think most can probably agree on ?

this is what places like planned parenthood are for, but because people view it through a prism instead of a lens they think it’s an abortion clinic. Places like PP need funding expanded if we ever hope to increase education to prevent pregnancies from ever occurring.

NightNerd, MSN, RN

1,130 Posts

Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.
25 minutes ago, PeakRN said:

Women can place up their infant for adoption. I know countless families who wait for years trying to adopt both locally and internationally. I'm always amazed how how this always escapes the abortion conversation, the options aren't only to either have an abortion or to raise a child.

I hear this argument, but it just doesn't ring true to me thinking of all the older children and sibling groups who languish in foster care until they age out of the system and have yo go it alone. Of course it is desirable to adopt an infant; they're little, they're cute, they haven't had time to develop huge behavioral issues, you can spend their whole childhood with them. But older children and sibling groups desperately need families too, and are much harder to place. Why aren't more families welcoming these kids into their homes? Our society needs to start valuing and investing much more heavily in THIS population. I'm not hating on infants and fetuses, but it's heartbreaking to me to think of all the children who are rejected by these potential loving families because they're too old and more complicated to bond with than infants.

PeakRN

547 Posts

Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.
6 minutes ago, sarolarn said:

Let’s keep this simple: some people don’t want to be pregnant, and your opinion doesn’t matter to them. It’s not up to you or anyone else and never should be.

I disagree. I believe that the unborn child has rights.

You don't have to like my opinion. I'm still allowed to have one. You don't see me telling anyone else they can't voice their opinion.

JadedCPN, BSN, RN

1,476 Posts

Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
4 minutes ago, PeakRN said:

I disagree. I believe that the unborn child has rights.

You don't have to like my opinion. I'm still allowed to have one. You don't see me telling anyone else they can't voice their opinion.

Of course everyone is allowed to have an opinion, and I respect yours even if I don’t agree with it.

But your opinion (or anyone else’s) should not trump my opinion when the body in question is mine. And the only male opinion that should even be slightly considered is that of my husband. And his opinion still wouldn’t trump mine since it is my body. Period.

Ruby Vee, BSN

17 Articles; 14,030 Posts

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
45 minutes ago, sarolarn said:

Let’s keep this simple: some people don’t want to be pregnant, and your opinion doesn’t matter to them. It’s not up to you or anyone else and never should be.

YAY!

Suppose someone wanted you to donate a kidney. You're pro-life, so you're in favor of all life, right? There's a new procedure where you can grow a kidney for them in YOUR abdomen, and when it's fully grown, a simple abdominal surgery will remove the new kidney and implant it into the other person. Win/Win, right? Except there are some side effects. You'll be nauseated much of the time, have strong reactions to smells, be dizzy occasionally, get swollen ankles and fatigue easily. You can't drink alcohol or caffeine and strangers feel entitled to feel your belly at all times. Plus your abdomen will grow and grow. It's a small cost to pay to save someone's life, right? Everyone should do it. You should do it. Nevermind that you're training for a triathlon, and you have a good chance of winning, but this stupid kidney thing is slowing you down significantly. Nevermind that this kidney thing is forcing lifestyle changes upon you that you don't want. And you don't get paid for the kidney -- you get to pay for the privilege of growing it. And you don't have health insurance.

Some people don't want to grow kidneys for other people. It's not up to you whether they do so or not.

Ruby Vee, BSN

17 Articles; 14,030 Posts

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
25 minutes ago, PeakRN said:

I disagree. I believe that the unborn child has rights.

You don't have to like my opinion. I'm still allowed to have one. You don't see me telling anyone else they can't voice their opinion.

The unborn child's rights do not trump the rights of the person upon whom it is a parasite. You can believe all you want in the rights of the unborn child, and your absolutely have a right to an opinion. You just don't have the right to inflict YOUR opinion on someone else's body.

Ruby Vee, BSN

17 Articles; 14,030 Posts

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
1 hour ago, PeakRN said:

Women can place up their infant for adoption. I know countless families who wait for years trying to adopt both locally and internationally. I'm always amazed how how this always escapes the abortion conversation, the options aren't only to either have an abortion or to raise a child.

That supposes that those very same women want to be pregnant for nine months. That supposes that they want to go through labor, deliver an infant, and then give that infant to someone else to raise. That supposes they want swollen ankles and hemorrhoids and a swollen belly. That supposes they have enough extra energy to deal with the nausea, the fatigue, the back pain . . . and so forth.

I'm always amazed how this always escapes the abortion conversation -- it should be the choice of the person who is pregnant whether or not she wants to be pregnant.

Specializes in CTICU.
40 minutes ago, PeakRN said:

I disagree. I believe that the unborn child has rights.

You don't have to like my opinion. I'm still allowed to have one. You don't see me telling anyone else they can't voice their opinion.

You can have your opinion, everyone does. I respect your argument and we DO share some things that we agree on such as that education and prevention are priority. Your opinion of whether someone else stays pregnant is for you to keep to yourself, though. Your opinion shouldn’t be forced on anyone else, and no law should be in place that forces people who don’t want to be pregnant to stay pregnant. No amount of social supports will make someone who doesn’t want to be pregnant embrace their circumstances, tragic or otherwise; and it shouldn’t be up to anyone but the person who is pregnant to make decisions about it. Whether you or I would ever get an abortion is null.

PeakRN

547 Posts

Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.

In regards to the who gets to control what goes into someone's body stances, the reality is that we live in a society that collectively decides the rules by which we live. In the United States that means either through direct democracy or as a democratic republic we vote on legislation or legislators to enact these laws.

We decide which and at what age people can put drugs in their bodies. We regulate which body modifications people can make and how they can go about this. We legislate that it is not legal to sell organs. From a legal basis, there is precedence to decide who gets to do what including what people can do to their own bodies. The morality we can debate, but then that is the whole basis of the disagreement anyway.

I'm curious how those here who are pro-choice feel about parents who circumcise their infants or children. Certainly the same value of autonomy remains, right? Why is there no national push to make circumcision illegal? We know that there is very little medical benefit for elective circumcisions, and certainly not enough to justify it as a routine procedure.

+ Add a Comment