I don't have a dog in this fight, but...

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Sundae

The woman I was there with would not have been swayed in her decision (due to individual circumstances) but would have been too embarrassed and proud to say anything, and instead gone along with the role of prospective mother, and died a bit inside otherwise.

Heh... interesting choice of phrase, there. [/going to hell]

Originally Posted by Sundae

Perhaps seeing a foetal heartbeat would be an excellent means to prevent a termination.

It does convince a fair few to change their minds. Each person can never predict how they'll feel until they're living it. Long ago I got into a heated argument with a friend, because some doctor had written an editorial at the time saying that all female patients should be given basic education on prenatal health and encouraged to take a prenatal vitamin every day, even if they had no intention of ever having children. Because healthier eggs means less chance of birth defects, just in case one happened to meet a rogue sperm even against its creator's wishes.

She was full of righteous anger about how she "shouldn't be defined by her ability to procreate," and that it was "typical patriarchal condescension to assume that a woman who found herself accidentally pregnant would suddenly be changing her mind," as if we're all "controlled by uterine hormones and aren't capable of rational thought."

I didn't bother telling her that yes, I think all of us are controlled by chemical processes far more than we'd like to believe; I just stuck with the insistence that when 50% of the births in this country are unplanned, obviously someone out there is changing their minds. Three years ago, that same friend got accidentally pregnant, and they decided to keep it. I asked her if she remembered our conversation from back in college, and she laughed and said, "Yeah, but this is different now." Uh huh. Sure it is. (Would have been even more ironic if her kid were born with a birth defect, but he wasn't.)


But I do agree that it's a rather abhorrent position, to claim that it is that important to make sure every gamete grows to term, yet cut off any type of support to those children as soon as they've drawn breath.