Horrified by Alabama Abortion law

If it were my granddaughter, I'd be suggesting that she get some counselling. I'd also be telling her these are her options:

-she keeps the baby and raises it with help
-Granddad and I will raise the baby
-she places it for adoption

The baby is already here. It's just a question of who is going to raise it.

Believing that rape shouldn't mean a death sentence for an unborn baby who was not at fault is not the same thing as saying rape is acceptable.

There are parents who abuse their children. Does that mean that we should take all infants off their parents at birth and have them raised by an institution to be sure that none of them will ever be abused?

maryeliza54 that's a really well expressed post. Absolutely gets to the crux of the matter

It has nothing to do with controlling women.

Incidentally, more people in the pro-life movement are women than men.

Abortion tells women that they can't do it and that they shouldn't try. It's actually extremely anti-woman. In at least one study, 60% of women seeking an abortion said they were doing so because of pressure from someone else.

"There are about estimated 36 couples waiting to adopt every 1 baby placed for adoption."

Just because there are people wanting to adopt (although that doesn't explain the number of children in orphanages) doesn't mean a woman should be forced to go through with a pregnancy and childbirth.

Agnurse is clearly a deluded and very troubled person. I think we should ignore her posts - most of what says is utterly ridiculous.

Please don't encourage her by taking her seriously and responding!

Several other groupings throughout the world hold the same beliefs as her. Eg the Taleban. Just saying...

Beckett

Many of those children aren't even available for adoption. Actually less than half of them are.

I shall wait for agnurse to reply. It is a simple question. One thing I think is getting lost, as it often does when such extremes as the Alabama law are contemplated. Those who support abortion are not so extreme. The vast majority only support it up to the point that the foetus would be sustainable outside the womb. This, in itself, makes for difficult decisions but is considerably more thought through than the extreme anti-abortionists views.

You know there are pro-life atheists?

At present 22 weeks is the lower limit of viability.

What if that eventually was decreased to 6 weeks? Would you still believe abortion should be legal? If so, it's not really about bodily autonomy, is it?

Not to mention that some women don't know they are pregnant until well past viability. If such a woman doesn't want a baby or doesn't want to be pregnant, what should we do then?

*Maggie" you are, of course, right but it is hard for those of us who remember the bad old days when women were treated as second class citizens and are worried those days may return. As I have said I would never have had an abortion but that doesn't mean I, or anyone, should be allowed to dictate to other women

MaggieTulliver We do not know if Agnurse is either of the things you suggest. She is almost certainly echoing the views of many of the people of Alabama who agree with the change in the law. I'm not at all sure where you think ignoring such views will get us. Perhaps to having the same laws imposed in our country?

"Many of those children aren't even available for adoption. Actually less than half of them are"

Really! Why would they not be "available"

Crickets. Can’t hear anything but crickets. What about everyone else?

Also what I think we could all do is donate to Planned Parenthood and support our American sisters

Beckett

Their parents still have their parental rights. They haven't relinquished them. A child can't be placed for adoption unless the parents relinquish their rights.

Less than half of children in foster care are able to be placed for adoption because the parents still have their rights.

I'm horrified - it's dreadful. So the women's movement was all for nothing, was it? Like going back a hundred years. Why Alabama? Isn't it also one of the poorest places in the US? I can't see why this is considered an improvement to women's lives.
The women there will have to protest very strongly about this. I'd be fuming if I lived there.

What's ironic is that you claim that I support rape, when in fact Planned Parenthood has documented cases of failing to report rape and incest.

It will almost certainly go lower Agnurse, and we will have to deal with that.

You haven't yet answered my question about whether you believe pregnant women lack capacity in the same way that someone who wants their body eaten does. It was a very strange comparison and I do think we deserve your justification on this.

I think thought must also given to those women closer to home in NI.

Perhaps it is more possible in our remit to challenge something that is taking place in our Kingdom.?

I never said those women lack capacity.

My point is that there are limits on bodily autonomy.

Agnurse - your suggestion that all children be placed in institutions to prevent them from abuse is possibly the daftest thing I've seen you write. The reason residential care is the last resort, and then not in the huge institutions that existed previously, is because those places fostered abuse of the children being 'cared for'.

I think we must challenge religious zealots who impose misogynistic and religious laws on women threatning their autonomy wherever in the world they happen to be. I think an international outcry and funding will help the women in Alabama. The religious and nationalistic far right is growing worldwide, we must join together to stomp it out.