Comments on Chocolate on my Cranium: Wordfull Wednesday: Abortion

Good on you for doing something so brave as to sta...

2009-03-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Good on you for doing something so brave as to stand up against abortion.

sorry, I did not realize Courtney already added my...

2008-11-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

sorry, I did not realize Courtney already added my blog to your link. So sorry! -becky R in NJ

HI! I just posted about my own abortion on my blog...

2008-11-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

HI! I just posted about my own abortion on my blog (I linked to it.) I am now pro life as I know the consequences of an abortion on one's life. Please go read my story and see why it does matter! Thanks! -Becky R in NJ

Excellent post. I cannot agree more. I have writte...

2008-11-04T05:12:00.000-08:00

Excellent post. I cannot agree more.

I have written on this topic several times now. They are not wednesday posts, but I will leave a link anyway.

Thanks for your post - I am Pro-life as well and l...

2008-10-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks for your post - I am Pro-life as well and loved the quote from John Calvin - but that could be because I am a of the Reformed faith. I also think that adoption should be the option of choice - it took me a long time to carry to full term - and miscarrying was very painful - we fortunately were finally able to have children, but adoption was on the list - if things were not going to work out.
Thanks for you honest post.

wonderfully done. i hadn't read that article yet, ...

2008-10-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

wonderfully done. i hadn't read that article yet, as my ensign subscription lapsed during the month of october. (oops.) powerful. i think it is so sad the way that the world has twisted this to sound like a wonderful thing to most people. they call evil good and good evil.

I am from Fallon and saw your blog on Sariah's...I...

2008-10-30T17:28:00.001-07:00

I am from Fallon and saw your blog on Sariah's...I HAD to comment on this issue because it is so dear to my heart as well! I just put a post on my blog about this, but didn't have near the amount of feedback.

I am an adoptive mother. I think that abortion should NEVER be an option because of my own personal beliefs. And, if the reason that they abort is because they can't raise a child, do the selfless thing and let them be raised by someone who CAN give them all that they deserve. There are literally millions of couples waiting and wanting and willing to adopt at all times. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for bringing up this issue, especially since it's so close to the elections.

Great post! I absolutely agree with your feelings...

2008-10-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

Great post! I absolutely agree with your feelings about abortion and about it being decided on a state level. I just have one question,

Are we counting on the Republicans to remedy the abortion issue? Because they had 6 years of control (rep President and rep majority in Congress) and what did they do?

Well said, Cocoa. Life and adoption!~Jody

2008-10-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well said, Cocoa. Life and adoption!

~Jody

I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts on the var...

2008-10-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts on the various topics. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the abortion topic. Great dialog going on in the comments section.

I was not able to participate yesterday...crazy, hectic week and no computer time until today.

one more thing. i think palin tried to make some e...

2008-10-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

one more thing. i think palin tried to make some effort in discussing abortion by allowing more women to look at adoption.

well said--both in your post and in your comments!...

2008-10-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

well said--both in your post and in your comments! i will have to disagree about polemics though being the thing that hurts this country (i could name worse things). that to me is an sorry excuse for fence sitting between two strong point of views and waiting for someone to say something soothing for the soul. not to say that we don't have politicians that are polarizing but polemics was part of what got this great nation on its feet--the freedom to making arguments for and against. could you imagine the founding fathers doing that with the king. not on their life.

Well said, Cocoa! I appreciated Elder Nelson's ana...

2008-10-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well said, Cocoa! I appreciated Elder Nelson's analogy. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I have a feeling that this article was both easy a...

2008-10-30T06:10:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling that this article was both easy and difficult to write. Thanks for your perspective and for the quotes/ links. I have long thought that the choice part was whether or not to indulge in the act...once you're heading down the path, you have to take all that comes your way. I have never miscarried, but I came close twice. Why would anyone willingly destroy that beauty?

Fairyflutters and Rachel, I'm so glad you left a c...

2008-10-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

Fairyflutters and Rachel,

I'm so glad you left a comment!

Though I think abortion, except in very rare cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother is in jeopardy, is wrong I do not think it should be outlawed. I do think it should be a state issue, allowing voters to decided if it is legal for their state or not.

Abortion is one of the few issues that politicians seem to stay away from. They don't want to meet and find a middle ground. As Calandria pointed out in her Wordfull Wednesday post, "Liberals don't want to give the impression to voters that they favor restricting abortion rights in any way. Conservatives don't want to give the impression that they are committed to anything "less" than an overturn. Liberals are stuck on defending Roe v. Wade and conservatives on attacking it. This is what hurts our country: polemics." More needs to be done on both sides to reduce the number of abortions but because politicians aren't even willing to discuss it without "giving something up" it gets put aside and never changed.

When we start to judge another's (potential) quality of life we begin to run into trouble. To deny a child a life because they would be born with a disability (physically or environmentally, ie poor) is just a step away from telling those already living with such disabilities, or those who are inconvenient to us, that their life should be terminated to. We each judge quality of life differently so to judge another's using our own standards and telling them they don't deserve to live wouldn't be right or fair to that person or child.

Thanks for commenting and leaving your views. It rounds out the discussion so it not so one sided.

It took me all day, but I finally got around to th...

2008-10-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

It took me all day, but I finally got around to this. Thanks for your thoughts.

I am pro-choice, and I am not pro-abortion. I beli...

2008-10-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

I am pro-choice, and I am not pro-abortion. I believe it should be available to women as an option, but as many pro-choice people have said, "safe, legal, and rare." Historical work on abortion when it was criminalized shows that the law disproportionately cracked down on poor women while wealthy could access (safer) abortions undercover.

More importantly, having worked as a patient advocate in an abortion clinic, I can attest that the vast majority of women who came through our doors took the decision seriously, not lightly. I admire and applaud the women who recognized that they did not have the means to support a (another) child for I find the idea of bringing a child into the world for which one knows one cannot care (for physical, emotional, financial, or other reasons) far more reprehensible than abortion. The decision to abort in these cases is, to me, selfless not selfish. Every child should have access to a caring family, good health care, good education, and all the tools that provide the opportunity to grow up healthily. As a nation, we do not provide these opportunities equally and there are far more children in the foster care system than there should be -- often because they are not adoptable for one reason or another (race, health, disabilities, etc).

I'm not sure the debate around abortion can ever be reconciled as people differ on the core issue of when life begins. I come from a tradition that debates whether life begins with breathing on one's own or not. I don't see a fetus as the equivalent (moral or otherwise) of a person outside the womb. But I know many disagree with me on this point.

Yet this said, I don't find arguments that burden any woman with a child for whom she can't care or condemning a child to a life without the building blocks of opportunity acceptable, and I think anti-abortion positions do this. I would find anti-abortion positions more compelling if they were tied to increasing funding for pre-natal care, early childhood education, and quality health services for all. Until this happens, I the anti-abortion position promotes quantity of lives over quality of lives.

But again, we may have to agree to disagree.

I think there was an article in Octobers New era, ...

2008-10-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

I think there was an article in Octobers New era, which my children all read and we discussed it. I am currently 5 months pregnant and we had some good talks about it all, they can't understand why someone would want to have an abortion - I think it is only legal in 2 States in Australia, one allowing it to happen up to 20 weeks!!!

Too many people use it as a form of contraception, they don't protect themselves, and they can fall back on the *morning after pill* and an abortion. A sad sad mess i think.

I am grateful to have found the gospel and be able to teach my children to honor & respect their bodies.

This is such an interesting topic, it can go on an...

2008-10-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

This is such an interesting topic, it can go on and on I think. I know a couple of women who have had abortions, one became LDS and regrets it to this day, one is not LDS and doesn't think about it.
There will always be legitimate reasons to get an abortion, such as serious illness or rape. I wouldn't consider those as "selfish" reasons to abort a baby, especially if you have other children to care for. The bretheren have told us to consider these situations carefully. That is why I feel that we still need to have a choice.

Gotta love Pres. Monson. I love "the right choice...

2008-10-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Gotta love Pres. Monson. I love "the right choice—not simply for choice as a method." that is so eloquently put. You put this whole post very eloquently. Good job.

I have so many thoughts on this, most of them not ...

2008-10-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have so many thoughts on this, most of them not PC. To my mind an abortion is an act of selfishness (even when your health is in danger you are still choosing yourself over the life of another - so technically, still selfish).

People say it (abortion) is about tolerance for a woman's right to choose, when really it is about intolerance for a woman's potential inconvenience.

I better stop there or this will turn into a post of it's own. Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.

I finally participated in Wordfull Wednesday! (bee...

2008-10-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

I finally participated in Wordfull Wednesday! (been meaning to for a long time.) Thanks for your thoughts on this, Cocoa.

I had not seen that clip before and it made me sic...

2008-10-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

I had not seen that clip before and it made me sick. I agree 100% with everything you said.

Hi Cocoa, Just wanted to say how much I liked thi...

2008-10-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Cocoa, Just wanted to say how much I liked this post. I'm going to try and choose a topic today. We'll see if I get to it!

I loved that that article in the Ensign was so bol...

2008-10-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

I loved that that article in the Ensign was so bold and informative.

I also think as a mother it is very hard not to get so emotional about this issue. The idea of terminating the life of a baby absolutely makes me sick.