What right does a person have to have an abortion?

I am not talking about supreme court ruling says so. I am not talking about worst case scenarios of rape, incest, etc. induced pregnancies.

I want to know why a hypothetical woman of any age who is not raped by any definition of the word, who is not drunk, not high, no condoms were broken or even used, she is not on any contraceptive of her own, knows the potential consequences of unprotected sex, but decides to go ahead and do it anyway. When she finds out she is pregnant, for whatever reason, she does not wish to carry the pregnancy to term. This pregnancy that came as a result of choices she made out of her own free will.

Why she should be able to legally get an abortion? I am interested to hear opinions, and hoping for something little more detailed than just my body my choice. If you honestly belief she should not be able to please feel free to chime in as well, but please at least a little more than just the catch phrase response.

2013-09-11T23:16:14Z

Fair point, each person goes through a live in their own personal upbringing so trotting out a defense without knowing an individuals perspective can lead to many misconceptions. No one really lives a life in a vacuum so theories only take us so far.

However, when a society decides things are right or wrong we do so at the abstract level. We set stealing is wrong and make it law that it is so. We do not say unless he is starving/has starving kids to feed/etc. We look at the potential good and bad of making an action legal/illegal and balance view points on a metaphorical scale and come to a decision. Sure their are times when misinformation or fear play a bigger role then facts and sound judgement but we slowly try as a society to fix mistakes and find what is right and make that legal, and find what is wrong and make that illegal. So we are left at the abstract woman and why she should have a right.

2013-09-11T23:18:25Z

@Papito do you really think every woman who chooses to have an abortion likes abortions?

2013-09-11T23:20:25Z

@ Bob the is the most well argued and thought out response. well said.

2013-09-11T23:26:29Z

@Lash why does the mother's free will trump the rights of a fetus, if a fetus has no rights then at what point does it gain them? When it is born? When it can survive on its own? When it has 2 eyes and 10 fingers and toes? When it hits puberty?

2013-09-11T23:52:15Z

My personal view is that no one should ever be forced to be intimate with someone/thing without their consent. Sorry about pronoun use but since only women have the ability to get pregnant it makes things simple. She consented to be intimate with the guy, that does not give implied consent to the guy's friend/brother/stranger who walked in on the situation, fetus to be intimate with her. She does not even give implied consent to guy to be intimate with him at a future time, or even for him to finish if she says she wants to stop then it should stop. Never for any amount of time should a person be forced to be intimate with another.

Being pregnant is the most intimate thing a person can do with another being, and therefore I do believe that she should be able to get an abortion if she so chooses. A fetus that can only survive by being intimate with a mother has no rights of survival if the mother does not consent to be intimate with the fetus. The mother has the right to consent o

2013-09-11T23:56:08Z

I had more but seem to have met my 5,000 letter more details response. Mostly rambling on about how a person has a right to decide who they are intimate with.

2013-09-12T00:04:13Z

@xpat The constitution is a living document that changes in interpretation over time. That is a flawed stance to take since the constitution says, has been interpreted to say completely contradictory things over time. I am not going to ask for a quote that gives a right for an abortion since there is none, and I am not going to pull the whole constitution does math that makes 5 black people equal 3 people, because that part of the constitution is out of date. If a person only has a right that is given to them in the constitution then what rights do native americans have as they are not even counted at all for census purposes and therefore have no representation.

Bob B2013-09-11T23:17:33Z

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It is indeed a woman's right to decide what happens to her body. The fact that she didn't necessarily take every possible step to prevent a pregnancy does not abrogate this right, and I don't see any reason why it should, especially if she's willing to pay for it.

Just because someone does something out of free will that leads to a particular outcome does not somehow force them to stick with that outcome and not be allowed to take any efforts to change it. One could equally argue that someone who has an accident while driving their car should not be entitled to any medical treatment, as it was their own free will to drive it and they should have known there was a risk of crashing (and they could have always bought a car with more airbags if they'd wanted to drive without getting hurt, right?).

I also don't see how the fact that a foetus develops in someone automatically obliges them to allow it to remain there for 9 months. Women are not "baby machines", they're human beings with their own lives and free will.

wendy c2013-09-12T07:00:35Z

Your personal view is yours, and you have every right to YOUR OPINION. That is what this country is about. Knowing where your opinion starts/ends and where mine starts and ends.
There is ONE PERSON who chooses their personal convictions as to when life starts and when an abortion might be moral or not. That is the mother. I personally could not have an abortion.. but I know that it is immoral to impose MY view on another woman.
That is the concept that is disputed..and whether you like it or not, it is the dispute that the legal rulings are based on.
It really is no more detailed than that, unless you choose to go into the religious or ethical arguments. Unfortunately, too many persons think that their convictions or beliefs are superior to those of other persons.

Lashelle2013-09-12T06:16:19Z

Well as you stated her pregnancy came as a result of choices she made of her OWN FREE WILL. Well her getting an abortion is also a choice she makes out of her OWN FREE WILL. Its kinda like with adoption, why should she be able to give a child up for adoption when the baby is a choice she made out of her OWN FREE WILL. Why not make her keep that child?? When its all said and done its HER BODY!

Drixnot2013-09-12T06:17:05Z

Because its HER body.

You can drink alcohol, get a tattoo, shave your head, get cosmetic surgery done, go bungee jumping.... on and on. I really don't see how you can't understand the concept of controlling the one thing that belongs 100% to you.

scott b2013-09-12T06:07:28Z

Maybe if you'd stop thinking of women as "hypothetical", you'd have an easier time coming up with an answer.

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