Abortion - Legal or not?

[Cactus Jack]

Abortion is one of the most emotive issues of our times.

To many, abortion is murder, to others it is undesirable but necessary. What your opinion is really seems to depend on when you believe human life begins to have some kind of inherent value. Some believe that life begins at conception, while others believe that a fetus only has rights when it can be born alive.

What do you believe and why? Should abortion be legal or not? If it should be legal, should it stop being legal at a particular point in gestation? First trimester? Second trimester? Third trimester?

Vote in the poll and share your views with us all!

[ladyunicornejg]

I've decided I'm very undecided on the issue. I used to think it should be legal, mostly because I don't like people taking decisions out of our hands... but looking through all I've gone through and all I've witnessed, I have to wonder if maybe SOME parents (or parents to be) don't need to be forced to do what they should...

Anyway, nonsense aside... making it illegal just causes the expectant mothers to find other means of having an abortion or getting rid of the baby. Is it better for the baby to die before birth, or to be born into an abusive household and scared out of doing anything about it for years only to grow up permanently scarred and never successful? Is it better to kill the baby or the mother? There are a lot questions related to this that I just can't answer and as such I can't definitively say "yes it should be legal" or "no it should not" or if it should part of the time, what determines when it should and when it shouldn't. As such, I tend to say it should be legal, but people should be better educated (and more caring). Good luck with that though...

[Cactus Jack]

I think you should have the first trimester and then that's it. If you cannot decide whether you want to have the baby or not within 12 weeks then you've really missed the boat.

I think there's really needs to be a focus on birth control and preventing pregnancies in the first place, particularly in high schools. Sure, teach abstinence, but teach them about contraception as well because some teenagers will have sex anyway and they deserve to have access to this information to protect themselves.

The morning after pill should also be widely available so that it doesn't get to the point of having to go and have an abortion at a clinic if your contraception fails or you forget! People aren't perfect and accidents do happen.

Abortion will always be with us so I think we should do everything we can to reduce the number of them:

• Comprehensive sex education at high school
• Availability and promotion of contraceptive use
• Availability of morning after pill (RU486)
• Counselling and support available for women considering abortion