Pro-Life, eh?  Exactly *whose* life?

Today, got into it with pro-lifers as a result of a really smarmy, emotionally manipulative pro-life post on facebook.  Summary:  woman with a 2yr old discovers she's pregnant again, goes to the doctor for an abortion bec she can't handle two babies at once, dr suggests she instead kill the baby she already has so she can have a nice rest before the next one arrives [because naturally pregnancy is such a restful, relaxing time of life!].  of course the woman is horrified and the doctor pats himself on the back and no doubt faps to his own saintly image in the bathroom mirror after she leaves).

My view is that if you want to be pro-life for yourself, knock yourself out, more power to you, good on you, kudos, and all the rest of that congratulatory crap.

But KEEP it to yourself.  

You have no right to guilt, manipulate, blackmail, or otherwise frighten women and girls into keeping babies they don't want.

And what if your little emotional blackmail works really well and the woman can't bear to give the baby up for adoption and keeps it - are you doing to be there when it's 2am and she is so stressed out that she'd like nothing better than to slam it through the drywall and it's only because she's taken herself out to the backyard to chainsmoke half a pack until the infant has cried itself to sleep from exhaustion that she hasn't done so?  Are you going to top up her income so she can afford the basic necessities that aren't covered on social assistance or because she gave in to the monkey on her back?  Are you going to babysit the child so she can keep up her university studies or will you make the student loan payments she can't meet because she had to drop out because of the baby?

"Adoption is an option" - unless you have a legally binding offer in hand, you can't say that.  How can you possibly make a promise on behalf of some unknown random person that they will adopt the baby?  What if the child is born with the consequences of drug or alchohol abuse?  Have you seen the statistics detailing the number of disabled and handicapped kids languishing in care waiting for someone to get sick and tired of waiting for the perfect blonde, blue-eyed baby to show up?

For that matter, why should ppl who can't have kids be obligated to take a disabled child because it's the only one going?

"Oh, she smiles when she sees the sun on her face" - the child was in her early teens, blind, deaf, and with a mental age of approximately 9 months.  She had frequent seizures and the feeding port in her stomach often got infected.  Every penny the father got from his very well-paid job was sunk into keeping her alive while the house rotted down around his, his wife's, and their other two children's ears.  The other two kids were gifted - son, a brilliant athlete; daughter, gifted academically and musically, and was a very good artist.

So the parents are sinking everything into keeping the disabled child smiling in her wheelchair while the other two kids have no hope at all of a future because their education funds had to be cashed in.  When the parents die, they will have to assume care of their sister.

Why is the disabled child's right to smile in a wheelchair when she feels the sun on her face more important than the other two kids' right to develop to their full potential?

How is it benefiting society for that child to just sit in the chair while her two siblings grow up to flip burgers and sell used cars, get married, have kids, get divorced because of the stress of looking after the handicapped girl?

I find it curious that the parents didn't believe in abortion - they knew what was going to happen, the problem was detected during pregnancy by amniocentesis - but they sure had no problem throwing two healthy kids who would've benefited society and maybe even humanity under the bus!

There should be a law that anybody who counsels someone out of getting an abortion should be held liable for what happens afterward - for good or ill.

The states have this sick law requiring pregnant women to listen to the baby's heart and watch it on an ultrasound before an abortion will be approved (and naturally, any woman who does that and goes ahead with it will be judges as basically being a psychopath who is probably unfit to have children anyway).  I think it should cut both ways:  anybody who counsels a woman out of getting an abortion should be required to visit her every month and see how things are going.  Maybe once they see the consequences of their action, they won't be so quick to flap their yaps.