thoma@reed.UUCP (Ann Muir Thomas) (05/22/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Well, as I expected, Mr. Noah found my first article (the one that should have been in net.flame). He raises some good points, but ignores the issue which I have raised (or tried to)-- the _woman's_ choice. Starting at the end of his posting, he completely ignored the overpopulation issue. The United States is not overpopulated, but most of the rest of the world (the Third and Fourth World in particular) is. If I ever have enough money to support a child as well as myself, I would rather donate it to feeding a hungry child in another country (or even adopting that child) than carryinga a fetus that has been conceived in my body to term. (That might not be true forever; it's just how I feel right now.) In other words, I care about the children who are already born. As pointed out in "The New Our Bodies, Ourselves", many (but certainly not all) pro-lifers are only interested in preventing a woman from having an abortion. Once her child is born, it doesn't matter that it might be hungry, or abused, or anything else. They are only concerned with keeping that woman from making a responsible choice about the fate of her unwanted child. As I pointed out in a later posting, I'll use the best method of birth control available _every_ time I have intercourse, including abstention if nothing's available. But I want to know that if my birth control method fails, I will be able to get a safe, legal abortion if I want to. And I don't condemn those women who choose not to have an abortion, those women who go to Birthright and similar organizations. In fact _I_ might make that choice someday too. Right now, however, I'd get an abortion if I was pregnant. That is my choice, not yours, or "god's". To be continued.... ann muir-thomas