there is a waiting period for handguns. there is quite a debate about what part of a woman’s body the fetus/baby is, it is by no means as obvious as an arm, skin, organ, etc. An alarming amount of abortions are done under pressure, without all options and risks presented, to women already feeling unsupported, and many of them mis- or under-informed. 3 days is hardly the ‘nine months’ the cartoon exaggerates it into. I also don’t think that it constitutes an ‘anti-woman’ law. Who is really gonna change their minds in 3 days except women who may have felt pressured into the decision in the first place? People have rights to plastic surgery too, but isn’t there a lot of psychological evaluation considered when people want to do something life-altering?

Calling it a “medical procedure” and a choice a woman has about her “own body” is ignoring the fact that the fetus is another life and has his or her own body. The argument is really between whose rights are more important: the mother or the baby. It’s a serious decision and should take some forethought. And not all women are making “informed medical decisions.” A lot of them are just scared and don’t want to take responsibility for their actions. I agree that there are a lot of “what ifs,” but “what if I have sex without using protection?” shouldn’t be one that can be answered with, “Well, I’ll just have an abortion.”

if they want to make this a law they shouldn’t be sending these women to a CRISIS pregnancy center, whose main goal is to talk the woman out of having an abortion. and once that baby is born, they walk-out on the momma/family and she’s left with a kid to raise until 18, ALL ALONE! You can’t be pro-life and anti-welfare the two go hand in hand. If they want abortion to be illegal than we need the welfare program to be a 100x better. Plus whatever, happened to separation of church and state? The lies these young girls/even older women will be told. Maybe Pro-Choice people will rally outside the crisis pregnancy clinics or better yet, offer to drive the young girl to a clinic across state lines.

Whose rights (to the woman’s body) are more important, the fetus or the woman? Very simple…the woman. Even if you want to pretend that a fetus at 11 weeks (90% of abortions are performed in the first trimester) is a “person,” it’s totally irrelevant. There is no other circumstance whereby one person can legally be compelled to give over the use of their body or any other part of it to another person. Even if it is to save the life of that person. Even if they caused the need.
Why then, do people feel comfortable forcing a pregnant woman to do this? Please try to formulate an answer that does not imply that pregnancy is an acceptable punishment for having sex.

The three-day waiting period is such an insult to women – it assumes that women who choose abortion just haven’t thought about it enough. Um, guys… if there’s only one abortion provider in your state, you’re going to have to wait one way or another, which gives you PLENTY of time to think. These people think that women are stupid and irresponsible. If a new women’s movement doesn’t rise up in the US to smack down these misogynistic laws, our daughters are going to live in a country with legislation that basically says, “You’re stupid – let us make decisions for you.” Ugh.
Oh and: how is it that these folks think that women are too dumb to make a decision about abortion… but are competent to be mothers? Apparently they think that being a mom is simple, brainless work that any monkey could do. So-called pro-lifers hate women. Female pro-lifers hate other women. And they hate mothers. It’s disgraceful.

Since when do we have the right to make decisions without having to accept the consequences? That is ignorant and selfish. Women DO have a choice. You CHOOSE to have sex or not. If you choose to have sex, you are ACCEPTING the possible outcome of pregnancy. Yes, even if you use contraceptives, because they are not 100% effective. (This of course excludes rare instances of rape-related pregnancies). It blows my mind that people think they have the right to have sex and then have the right to end another innocent human being’s life because of their own poor decisions. That is just sad.

I am pro choice…. you choose to have sex, or you choose to abstain.

And for all the other “pro-choice”ers out there… it’s too bad your mothers didn’t share your views, or we wouldn’t have to deal with your warped sense of women’s rights.

Consenting to sex is not consenting to pregnancy?

Therein lies the problem.

You cannot say you have the right to make a decision while not consenting to ALL possible outcomes of that decision.

You must be living in quite the fantasy world if you think you should only receive the positive results from your actions. This might surprise you, but the decisions you make have potentially positive OR negative outcomes. In today’s self-centered, “all about me” society, we only care about ourselves. “As long as I get what I want, to hell with others.” It may be your body, but it’s also the body of your child: the result of your decision to participate in an act that resulted in their creation. Why should they not have a voice simply because they are unable to speak?

And as for my final comment, I should have have the words “might not” in there, as in we “might not” have had to deal with your warped views.

“This might surprise you, but the decisions you make have potentially positive OR negative outcomes.”
Negative outcomes, eh? You don’t like babies much, do you?
Every child deserves to be born into a family that wants and loves it, and is prepared to care for it in the best way possible. Love kids? Support choice.

@KC – You can feel free to gestate and give away a child if that is what you would like to do, but you cannot expect others to do the same. Adoption is not the best choice, or a valid choice for all people.
Because people may not be able to have children, does not mean more unwanted children should be put into the system, there is already an overflowing of children currently available for adoption in the foster care system, far over 165,000 to be exact. How about we work on getting loving homes for all the born children first?

As for your opinion, you may find abortion to be a selfish choice, just as some people would find adoption, or gestation and parenthood to be a selfish choice. Just don’t have an abortion yourself, if you don’t agree with them.

“Negative outcomes in the perspective of the person in the situation, not in my personal opinion.”
Then why do you, and other so-called pro-lifers, frame pregnancy and birth as punishment for behavior you disapprove of?

Teenagers’ brains literally lack the maturity to always make good decisions – they’re guaranteed to do foolish things occasionally, no matter how well they’re raised. Aside from locking your teen in the basement, there’s no foolproof way to keep teens from experimenting with sex. And teens that make dumb decisions about sex are definitely NOT good candidates for parenthood at that point in their lives.

You’re right, so let’s let them be as promisuous as they want and if they get pregnant, you can “bail them out” with an abortion. Sounds like a great plan!

If people don’t ever have to face the consequences of their actions, then they will continue to make poor decisions. That is the only true way you learn from your mistakes.

@BunnyTwenty – it’s not “punishment,” it’s simply dealing with the outcome of their actions. THEY are the ones that view pregnancy as something negative, obviously, or abortion would not be an issue. If it’s a “punishment,” it would only be because they feel it is.

Arguing back and forth will only make us all more certain of our own opinions, so this really is pointless. I can only hope that legislation will continue to push for the rights of the innocent.

@KC – I don’t think any parents out there “allow” their children to make bad choices just to bail them out and do it over again.

Um, “consenting to sex is not consenting to pregnancy” is crap. If someone thinks they are mature enough for sex, then they have to be prepared for that possibility. If I consent to eat a cake and then gain weight, or I consent to drinking alcohol, and get drunk, or smoking weed, and getting high…I didn’t consent to gaining weight/getting drunk/getting high. Those are just possible consequences. Like u tweeted, I just feel the opposite. Arguing with prochoicers is like slamming your head into a wall. You just don’t get that the main reason prolifers fight for tougher abortion laws and hopefully the overturning of roe v wade someday is that the fetus is LIVING. It has a heartbeat, it is an innocent LIFE that should not be punished because of someone elses behaviors.

The casualties of war, no, when its military people from either side because its what they signed up to do. The animals, yes. I am a vegetarian and find it disgusting how animals are treated in these huge farms.

In response to the very lively discussion, I have to wonder why the anti-abortion side seems to treat this like a modern day problem. Forms of birth control have been around for thousands of years, we have been trying to get away with having sex without getting pregnant for a very long time. It’s not our modern “me, me, me” attitude, it’s our human nature. We have science now that prevents babies and mothers from dying during gestation and child birth, but by the same token, we also have science that provides for a safe termination of an unwanted pregnancy. There are many reasons for unwanted pregnancies and to only focus on one reason to support your argument is foolish. Also, equating sex and pregnancy to smoking marijuana and getting high is faulty logic. You smoke marijuana to get high, not everyone has sex to get pregnant. Danielle, I agree with you, if you don’t agree with abortion then don’t have one. Like Bunny Twenty, I think there are so many other issues that are affecting living BREATHING people that I wish people would devote half as much passion to.

@ KC

adoption is a good thing, there are several kids who are not babies that needed adopted, they should want those children. I mean those children are already breathing and want someone to love them. Don’t they deserve to be adopted? I don’t see people lining up to adopt a kid in the system who would do anything for a parent.

Instituting a 3 day waiting period is hardly a major move against anyone’s personal rights. It simply allows the opportunity for one to educate themselves and be thoughtful about a process which is a lifelong decision and potentially dangerous choice. It also allows for a child who may be in the opposite situation – a child being pressured to abort against her own will to think about things, and potenitally act, too.

Not everyone comes from a supported situation where they are allowed to have personal opinions considered. Even short amounts of time allow someone in a desperate situation that wants to seek out help the ability to do so outside of the home. It also allows a parent or support person to be thoughtful about all associated risks, as well as the opportunity to educate and support the person considering the procedure. If you are going to advocate for the rights of the young women, please consider ALL circumstances before assuming it’s a worst-case scenario.

@MomofTwo – The Republican proposals to budget cuts have already shown how little they care about these citizens. Biggest cuts were proposed to medicaid programs, and health clinics where most of these low income families get their medical care, as well as WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) which helps to ensure healthy eating options for these same families.
They want their cake, and they want to eat it too, but they can’t have it both ways.

@Danielle – But they certainly love rich people and corporations, don’t they? No help or handouts, unless you already have enough money so that you don’t really need them. Makes total sense to me! ;)

@Blondiegirl – Saying that abortion is safer than childbirth because it is performed less is not accurate. When these statistics are calculated, these factors are included in the numbers. Therefore your assumption is inaccurate.

you can’t be pro-life and anti-welfare and sadly most republicans and tea-parties are anti-welfare. Everyone always says, oh the baby can be adopted that is the problem. Everyone wants a baby, why not a teenager? If we are able to financially afford to adopt, we’ll adopt a kid no one wants. ’cause they need a mommy/daddy and are living outside the womb…The problem is they are sending the girls to a crisis pregnancy center where I bet those ladies/men don’t hold the right licence to be counseling women on their decision. .

“While I have two sons at this point, they are never going to have to have a law or someone with an agenda tell them they can’t pick and choose a medical procedure which may be the best option for them.”

This statement also applies to the simple right to be able to give birth the way a woman chooses. Hospital policies and making midwives illegal has to stop and women’s rights groups need to start being more vocal about letting lawyers and hospital policy makers (as well as the ACOG) decide what’s in the so-called best interest of a birthing woman. It seems like women’s rights are up in arms about the right to choose to have a baby or not, but once that choice is made to have the baby, they are happy to hand a woman’s body over to a more controlling and cynical world of Obstetrics.

As a child, I grew up with another student who had no legs or arms. When we were high school, I had the pleasure of knowing her better and learning her story. She was a botched abortion. They cut her legs and arms off to make it easier to pull her out of her mother’s womb. When they went in to sever her brain stem, they missed without knowing and pulled her out into the world, alive.

Meeting this incredible person and listening to her story… how positive and strong she was for knowing that her mother wanted to kill her… it formed my opinion on abortion on the spot.

There needs to be more than a waiting period. I know this is a touchy subject and I don’t want to get into a battle… but it’s more than a “medical procedure” and more than a “choice;” it’s a life.

@Faith – I am not sure who you are addressing, but I don’t see anyone here promoting abortion. Myself, the author of this article, has never had, or would consider abortion for myself, so your comment really has nothing to do with this at all.