A risky topic
A few blog ideas bumbling around my sleep deprived brain currently but I didn't feel I could let this moment pass without a thought for the twin boys who were aborted in Australia for being the wrong gender.
I would definitely consider myself to be pro-life so this would come as no surprise to those that know me. But I do think that this goes beyond a simple pro-life argument.
Currently most places that have laws particular to abortion say that abortion can be granted if there are health risks, including psychiatric health, to the mother, or if the fetus/baby has serious health problems. (obviously there are great variations across the world, but this is I would say a simple catch all).
So where does aborting babies because they are the wrong gender fit into that?
The parents had incredibly sadly lost a baby girl in the past and as a mother I can only begin to imagine their heartbreak. They have 3 other sons and when they found out they were pregnant with twin boys through IVF treatment, they aborted them because they want a girl.
They are quick to stress that they don't want a girl to replace the girl they lost but seriously... do they honestly believe that? Would having more boys cause her to develop psychiatric problems?
In my previous life as a youth worker, a girl told me that she could get an abortion by telling the doctor that she'd kill herself if she couldn't abort the fetus. Thus to avoid the endangerment of the mother, an abortion would be granted. She told me this is the 'best way' to get an abortion.
This Australian woman already has 3 boys. No one could tell me that she would be considered a suicide risk if she was to have those babies. She surely wouldn't leave them. The article went on to quote the father as saying its their right to have the exact baby they want. But is it anyone's right to have a baby?
I know that pro-choice advocates believe that a woman has the right to do whatever she sees fit with her body, and that includes aborting as she wishes but surely there has to be some line? A line that says that choosing a baby based on gender is no different to discriminating on any basis.
Perhaps I'm flogging a dead horse, afterall I do know that a fundamental part of the pro-choice argument is that the baby isn't a life of its own until it is born, that up to that point it is a part of the mother, but I do feel that this is no real reason to abort babies.
I can see and even understand the reasoning behind abortions following rape, incest, too young mothers, severe health issues on the part of the mother or child, in fact my husband has always said that in that situation ie, my pregnancy put my life at risk, that he'd choose me. Abortion was envisioned as a kind if protection I guess when it was legalized. So I get it, I'm not that tunnel visioned, but this, I don't get.
Those baby boys were discarded simply because they were not girls. I feel sad that this is the point the human race has got to. 1000's of people across the world are desperate for children, they don't care about the gender because the gender really doesn't matter. We want children because we want children.
I think I've run myself out if steam on this, I am very tired, but more than that, I feel helpless. I can't help the feeling that those babies didn't need to die, pro-choice, pro-life aside.
I think I'll choose a more cheerful topic next time.
I would definitely consider myself to be pro-life so this would come as no surprise to those that know me. But I do think that this goes beyond a simple pro-life argument.
Currently most places that have laws particular to abortion say that abortion can be granted if there are health risks, including psychiatric health, to the mother, or if the fetus/baby has serious health problems. (obviously there are great variations across the world, but this is I would say a simple catch all).
So where does aborting babies because they are the wrong gender fit into that?
The parents had incredibly sadly lost a baby girl in the past and as a mother I can only begin to imagine their heartbreak. They have 3 other sons and when they found out they were pregnant with twin boys through IVF treatment, they aborted them because they want a girl.
They are quick to stress that they don't want a girl to replace the girl they lost but seriously... do they honestly believe that? Would having more boys cause her to develop psychiatric problems?
In my previous life as a youth worker, a girl told me that she could get an abortion by telling the doctor that she'd kill herself if she couldn't abort the fetus. Thus to avoid the endangerment of the mother, an abortion would be granted. She told me this is the 'best way' to get an abortion.
This Australian woman already has 3 boys. No one could tell me that she would be considered a suicide risk if she was to have those babies. She surely wouldn't leave them. The article went on to quote the father as saying its their right to have the exact baby they want. But is it anyone's right to have a baby?
I know that pro-choice advocates believe that a woman has the right to do whatever she sees fit with her body, and that includes aborting as she wishes but surely there has to be some line? A line that says that choosing a baby based on gender is no different to discriminating on any basis.
Perhaps I'm flogging a dead horse, afterall I do know that a fundamental part of the pro-choice argument is that the baby isn't a life of its own until it is born, that up to that point it is a part of the mother, but I do feel that this is no real reason to abort babies.
I can see and even understand the reasoning behind abortions following rape, incest, too young mothers, severe health issues on the part of the mother or child, in fact my husband has always said that in that situation ie, my pregnancy put my life at risk, that he'd choose me. Abortion was envisioned as a kind if protection I guess when it was legalized. So I get it, I'm not that tunnel visioned, but this, I don't get.
Those baby boys were discarded simply because they were not girls. I feel sad that this is the point the human race has got to. 1000's of people across the world are desperate for children, they don't care about the gender because the gender really doesn't matter. We want children because we want children.
I think I've run myself out if steam on this, I am very tired, but more than that, I feel helpless. I can't help the feeling that those babies didn't need to die, pro-choice, pro-life aside.
I think I'll choose a more cheerful topic next time.
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