Anne Robinson and the law on abortion

suedonin Could you just repeat your last post for Grandmama regarding the number of teenage pregnancies "these days"

Just seen your post Sparklefizz Your poor daughter.
There does seem to be such a lack of compassion in the people that are against abortion.

Quite agree Sparklefizz. It must be very hard to decide to have an abortion. My first baby was initially not wanted, I was devastated to find I was pregnant (contraception failed), but that baby was the best thing to ever happen to me. I fully support the woman's right to choose - isn't that one of the things we women have been fighting centuries for? Banning abortion would drive it underground and we would be back to non-sterile conditions/back street abortions. An ancestor of mine was desperate not to have more children as they had no money. She bled to death, her family was destroyed. Please do not let us go back there.

I fully support the woman's right to choose - isn't that one of the things we women have been fighting centuries for? Banning abortion would drive it underground and we would be back to non-sterile conditions/back street abortions. An ancestor of mine was desperate not to have more children as they had no money. She bled to death, her family was destroyed. Please do not let us go back there.
Morgana I quite agree with what you said above. There has been abortion since ancient times and banning it would drive it underground.

Ilovecheese, I'll just put the link stating that teenage pregnancies are at their lowest recorded level.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35761826

Sparkle my understanding is that annie thinks all abortion is wrong. I think you could conclude that those of us that think it’s a personal choice would be very sad about your dd’s particular circumstances but would support her right to make such a devastating decision - unlike people like JRM and a whole swathe of so called Christians

Just asking the question; it's been stated that in law we don't have abortion on demand, but I have never, ever heard of a woman whose request for an abortion has been denied, has anyone?
I do know, both personally and professionally, of women who have had a surprising (to me) number of successive abortions. The latest figures say thirty eight per cent of abortions in 2016 were to women who had had one or more previous abortions.

anniebach You commented that the man in the programme simply wanted to save the life of his baby.

I was suspicious of his reasoning in this matter and his motivation.

Firstly, he said that he had been pro-choice but when it came to HIS baby he changed his mind.

He then elaborated on his idea as to how such a contentious situation might be dealt with. He suggested some sort of panel be appointed to listen to the views of the man and the woman in dispute regarding a pregnancy and then decide whether they would allow the woman to have an abortion. When questioned, he said that the same process should apply if the man did not wish to be a father and therefore did not wish to pregnancy to continue. Some shock was naturally expressed at his view which seemed to advocate that a woman should, in such circumstances, be actually forced to have an abortion.

That didn't sound much to me like a man who believes in the sanctity of life or even in the sanctity of his own child's life, but just a man who was annoyed at being unable to impose his wishes on his partner - whatever those wishes might be.

Really .eleothan, to me it was a man struggling with the death of his child,

Completely agree with you grannytotwins.

My mother had tremendous difficulties giving birth to my sister who is five years' my senior. Both of them came close to death. She miscarried a son a couple of years after my sister's birth – a cause of great grief to both my mother and father. Both parents were thrilled when I was expected in 1950. Everything started to go wrong as the due date approached and an emergency C-section was the plan. Before it happened, my father was called into a private room and asked which one of he wanted saved – his wife or his child – as it seemed likely that one of us would die. I do not know his answer, although I hope it was his wife, but no man should be presented with such a terrible decision at such a time or, indeed, any time.

My parents wanted another child – even it it turned out to be me – but they did use contraception the rest of the time. Contraception was fairly unreliable and fairly unpleasant to use in those days. If my parents had been told of the terrible risks in advance – which were known and in her medical records following the immensely long labour and traumatic birth five years earlier, they would have avoided another pregnancy. If it had happened inadvertently and legal abortion was available, I think they would jointly and sadly have chosen that route and I would never have been born. They would have been absolutely right.

I'm with bibbity on this...if you don't want an abortion, don't have one. I, personally, would not, and have had to think about that choice, but I would defend any woman's choice to do what they feel they should with their body. You will always get people who abuse the system, but I believe most women give the problem great thought.

suedonin: In my post I was referring to so many unwanted pregnancies when contraception is freely available. I know it fails sometimes but the number of times it fails must be far smaller than the number of abortions of unwanted babies, unborn babies that are perfectly healthy as opposed to babies with serious defects that parents take agonising decisions to abort. I did not write about a huge number of teenage pregnancies. I know that the number of teenage pregnancies has dropped.

anniebach What did you think about his idea that a panel of "judges" - taking into account both the woman's and the man's wishes and views - should decide whether the woman should either be forced to continue with the pregnancy or forced to end it?

I know a woman who get pregnant after an affair ,her husband said he was "preparedto forgive her if she gave the baby for adoption" even though she told him about the pregnancy at a very early stage,he didn't want her to have a termination.She carried to full term,visited the baby in the nursery until it was adopted and went back to her husband.He walked out six weeks later.He was just punishing her by making her go through with the pregnancy and birth and adoption.I dont think a man has the right to lay down the law over abortion...in any case

My mother's first baby died within half an hour of Birth. Her second baby was born alive and well within the year and a few months later she was pregnant again. Her doctor offered a quick abortion as he believed that 3 pregnancies within 3 years was too much for her, My DM was horrified at the idea, carried on with the pregnancy - and here I am.

With this in mind, I thought that I would never have an abortion myself, although I was fully supportive of a 'woman's right to choose' - Until - when I was in my early 40's, working full + part-time to support both DDs who were at University, my Doctor decided that I had been on the contraceptive pill for too long and must stop immediately. She suggested either traditional contraceptives or perhaps sterilisation!

This gave me pause for thought, especially as it took a couple of months for my periods to resume after coming off the pill. I had to revisit my previous stance and found that priorities had changed, that a pregnancy at my age and with my family responsibilities, would be a disaster.

Thankfully, I never had to make that decision for real (we were very careful) but my mind was firmly made up that if necessary, my choice would have been an abortion, as soon as possible and with no-one told about it other than my DH.

When I decided my family was complete I discussed sterilization with my husband as being the only near foolproof method of ensuring there would be no further pregnancies. I had it done asap after my last baby; keyhole surgery and one night in hospital. I don't want to put anybody on the spot, but I just wonder why many more older women (many of whom have multiple abortions) don't choose this method.

paddy planned or not there is never ever an excuse to kill an um born child

it is barbaric and I find it extremely difficult to comprehend that a doctor that has studied for up to 8 years to save lives is quite happy to perform an abortion = to take a life

Serkeen women have a reason to abort their foetus not an excuse. Doctors are not ‘happy’ to perform abortions - what a ridiculous comment. We live in an imperfect world with imlerfect people - thank goodness that in this country we have the humanity to not punish women for being raped, for growing a dreadfully disabled foetus, for not being capable of carrying a pregnancy to term without risking her own life, for making a mistake, for being stupid , for being in a relationship with a man who couldn’t care less about her, for having a one night stand, for being drunk, for being overcome by lust: what a dreadful dreadful world yours would be - devoid of love, compassion, humanity - and still there would be abortions with those who could afford it having “procedures”and the poor dying, being disabled or having children they neither want nor can afford. You would be ‘happy’ to have this world? Or have you a magic formula to make us all perfect?

I can’t imagine any circumstances when I was of child-bearing age when I’d ever have even contemplated having an abortion, but I totally accept every woman has the right to choose for herself.

nor can I Anya but I realise theres a need for it and accept that it is not MY choice that counts.We should feel lucky to never have had circumstances where we HAD to make the choice

MARY Really!! you think its ok to kill a baby because you had a one night stand!!!!!

DONT HAVE ONE NIGHT STAND if you can not deal with the consequences

It is NOT OK to kill a baby

IF THE UNBORN BABY COULD TALK AND HAD SOME KIND OF POWER HE SHE WOULD OPT FOR LIFE

True or Not

also you say for making a mistake so just because you made a mistake the result should be that an in born baby should loose their lives HEAVY price to pay for that in born child

I am actually going to opt out of this conversation now because what some people are posting is annoying me to the max simply because some posts DO NOT TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION AT ALL THE FEELINGS OR POSSIBLE WISHES OF THE UNBORN CHILD JUST BECAUSE THEY UNFORTUNATLEY FOR THEM HAVE NO VOICE!!

People are imperfect. They do ridiculously stupid things which they ought not to. They smoke, drink, and have unprotected sex, despite knowing the consequences. Its unpleasant, but that's how it is, and probably how it will always be. There isn't any need for those who dont agree with abortion to ever have one.
That's all an objector can do.

at the time of termination its NOT a viable life serkeen ,Your attitude astounds me.If I'd thought otherwise I would never have got over the multipe miscarriages I had and I'm quite sure thats why MOST abortions are carried out within the first few weeks .Late abortions are only carried out in the most extreme circumstances where NECESSARY