liz@tove.UUCP (Liz Allen) (07/24/85)
In article <1296@mnetor.UUCP> sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) writes: > >Pro-choice means that the *mother* decides whether or not to have an >abortion. I wish that were really true. I have talked to more than one woman who has been pressured by parents, boyfriend, even friends to have an abortion even though they believed that abortion was wrong -- and these people knew it. I know of at least two who would have very likely had an abortion if pro-lifers had not been able to help them by providing or offering to provide things like housing. I have heard of teenagers who have been told that they either had to get an abortion or move out of the house. I have talked to a girl and her parents about an abortion decision where neither the girl or her mother wanted the girl to get an abortion -- but the father made the decision to have an abortion and the girl had it. Is this pro-choice? (I know this doesn't prove that abortion is wrong in general, and I know that having laws against abortion is not at all pro-choice. I just want to point out that things aren't quite that simple with abortion being legal.) On another subject: >However, whenever any surgery is indicated, there is also a >potential conflict of interest. There is a lot of unnecessary surgery >performed, the most common of which is probably the C-section that >seems to be so popular nowadays. Let's face it, a lot of doctors will >try to bleed their custommers for as much as possible, so it is up to >the astute consummer to decide whether a particular intervention is >necessary or not. One reason that C-sections are so popular now (and I agree that too many are done) is that OB's are afraid of being sued if anything goes wrong. An OB can be sued for mal-practice up until the time the child is 18 years old -- that's why their insurance rates are sky-rocketing. Something needs to be done here -- though I'm not at all sure what... -- Liz Allen U of Maryland ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz liz@tove.ARPA "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" -- 1 John 1:5