Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:16 PM
Kath2 (2,791 posts)
Why am I pro-choice?
Because faced with a pregnancy scare at 19, I knew that I had to have an abortion. As soon as possible or my life would be a wreck.
All those years of Catholic doctrine and teaching went right out the window when my own ass was on the line. Thankfully, I was not pregnant. But that experience taught me a lot. I was in the other person's shoes. Been an ex-catholic and very pro-choice ever since.
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30 replies, 3788 views
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Author | Time | Post |
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Kath2 | Nov 2017 | OP |
roamer65 | Nov 2017 | #1 | |
shraby | Nov 2017 | #2 | |
Hayduke Bomgarte | Nov 2017 | #16 | |
BigmanPigman | Nov 2017 | #3 | |
roamer65 | Nov 2017 | #5 | |
CrispyQ | Nov 2017 | #25 | |
lastlib | Nov 2017 | #28 | |
FakeNoose | Nov 2017 | #4 | |
Kath2 | Nov 2017 | #11 | |
PoindexterOglethorpe | Nov 2017 | #17 | |
dubyadiprecession | Nov 2017 | #6 | |
Takket | Nov 2017 | #7 | |
Kath2 | Nov 2017 | #9 | |
Takket | Nov 2017 | #14 | |
Kath2 | Nov 2017 | #15 | |
FakeNoose | Nov 2017 | #21 | |
herding cats | Nov 2017 | #8 | |
Kath2 | Nov 2017 | #10 | |
herding cats | Nov 2017 | #12 | |
Kath2 | Nov 2017 | #13 | |
keithbvadu2 | Nov 2017 | #18 | |
FakeNoose | Nov 2017 | #22 | |
stopwastingmymoney | Nov 2017 | #19 | |
MurrayDelph | Nov 2017 | #20 | |
Bettie | Nov 2017 | #23 | |
keithbvadu2 | Nov 2017 | #24 | |
Bettie | Nov 2017 | #29 | |
CrispyQ | Nov 2017 | #26 | |
still_one | Nov 2017 | #27 | |
MineralMan | Nov 2017 | #30 |
Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:20 PM
roamer65 (33,417 posts)
1. Im pro-choice...
Because every woman has a right to privacy in her personal decisions. The choice is hers and hers alone.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. |
Response to roamer65 (Reply #1)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:22 PM
shraby (21,946 posts)
2. What you said. Grade A
Response to roamer65 (Reply #1)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 10:17 PM
Hayduke Bomgarte (1,965 posts)
16. Yes
This!
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Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:28 PM
BigmanPigman (48,391 posts)
3. I know many EX Catholics and only one who still is.
Catholicism has made many people abandon religion completely. I am one of them. Those communion wafers are YUMMY though. I ordered some a few years ago on line and served them with dip at a party...ooooohhhhh noooooo...I guess this Atheist won't be seeing any Pearly Gates in her future (ha ha).
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Response to BigmanPigman (Reply #3)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:33 PM
roamer65 (33,417 posts)
5. You rebel, you.
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Response to BigmanPigman (Reply #3)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 11:09 AM
CrispyQ (33,466 posts)
25. I cracked up when my friend told me she got a new web client that sells church stuff.
"Did you know they have gluten free Communion wafers?" she asked me. We laughed at that for the rest of our hike.
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Response to BigmanPigman (Reply #3)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 11:32 AM
lastlib (20,048 posts)
28. You're my kind of lady!
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Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:32 PM
FakeNoose (27,599 posts)
4. Similar experience for me
I was raised Catholic, and got pregnant at 19. Faced with a difficult decision, it would have been heart-breaking either way. Long story short, I decided not to get an abortion, and got married instead. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, but I recognize that it could have just as easily gone the other way.
Every woman has to decide for herself whether she is ready to be a mother, or if she even wants motherhood. It should never be forced, because the results will be terrible for the mother and child. A woman needs to know that a safe, private abortion is available to her if the need arises. I believe that adoption can be suggested and considered, but never pushed, on the single pregnant woman. It must be her decision and hers alone. ![]() |
Response to FakeNoose (Reply #4)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:53 PM
Kath2 (2,791 posts)
11. Thank you.
My niece had an abortion, after agonizing over it.
I took her to the clinic and supported her. |
Response to FakeNoose (Reply #4)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 10:42 PM
PoindexterOglethorpe (23,979 posts)
17. And your experience is EXACTLY what choice is all about.
The very fact that you could seriously consider an abortion made your decision to get married a strong one, not just something you were forced into.
There was a time when the phrase "She had to get married" was relatively common, and referred to the young lady in question getting pregnant, and with abortion almost totally unobtainable, the only choices were to get married or to slink off somewhere to have the baby in secret shame and give it up for adoption. I recently read The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler, and the stories are heartbreaking, because almost every single one of those women were pressured into letting their babies be adopted. They were given no choice in the matter, and it seems that most of them never got over it. Women absolutely need to make their own decisions about such things, and no one else should judge the woman for her decision. Ever. |
Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:36 PM
dubyadiprecession (4,884 posts)
6. Don't worry about it.
Many pro life people i know, don't always practice what they preach, and like to have all the options on the table for any life changing matter.
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Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:37 PM
Takket (18,245 posts)
7. i'm pro-choice because it is absolutely none of my damn business
what a woman discusses with her doctor and what she decides is right for her and her body and beliefs.
i'm a man BTW. never going to be pregnant, and completely unqualified to be injecting myself into the privacy of someone elses's doctor's appointments. her body her business her choice |
Response to Takket (Reply #7)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:48 PM
Kath2 (2,791 posts)
9. Thank you.
Wish more men would understand.
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Response to Kath2 (Reply #9)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 10:02 PM
Takket (18,245 posts)
14. i cetainly don't want people i've never known or will ever know
making decisions about what i can and can't do with my body. Everyone deserves that understanding.
I didn't always understand by the way........ i was, for a time.... pro-life.... what changed? Educating myself, reading, forming opinions based on facts, actually LISTENING to women and why this matters so much to them. DU was a major influence. I was actually pro-choice in my youth, but got married to a pro-life woman. Her belief was based on religious dogma. Now we are both pro-choice and proud to say we've passed that on to our daughter as well. I bettered myself and learned I was wrong......... What a world we would live in if everyone did that. |
Response to Takket (Reply #14)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 10:05 PM
Kath2 (2,791 posts)
15. I love this.
I am divorced. But I was married to a devout Catholic. We never agreed on that issue.
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Response to Takket (Reply #7)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 07:06 AM
FakeNoose (27,599 posts)
21. When a woman decides on motherhood
... she's dedicating the next 20 or so years of her life to nurturing and caring for that child. Not every woman understands this or is ready to make the decision at 19 (or whatever) years of age. In my case as I told my story above, I had to quit my college early and I never did get the chance for a degree. But my husband didn't have to sacrifice his education. When we got married I was 19 and he was 21 with still one year to finish his degree.
There are many trade-offs and future benefits when a woman decides on motherhood. However the sacrifices cannot be avoided or abrogated. Giving up my chance for a college degree has affected my earning capacity for the balance of my working life. What bothers me about the religious fundamentalists (and the Catholic Church) is how do they think legislation of abortion would ever improve the quality of motherhood? It's such a personal and individual decision to make. ![]() |
Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:48 PM
herding cats (18,870 posts)
8. I'm pro choice because it's not up to me to tell someone their options should be limited.
That's a choice every single person should have to make individually based on their circumstances.
Oh, and I'd be dead if the pro life crowd had its wildest fantasy of, "let God decide" the fate of the mother. It wasn't Gods will that my spontaneously aborting fetus should mean my death. It was however, the medical intervention of a rebel catholic doctor who did my life saving DNC that kept me alive. The radical "pro life" crowd would have happily let me die. |
Response to herding cats (Reply #8)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:49 PM
Kath2 (2,791 posts)
10. I am very glad you are alive!
Response to Kath2 (Reply #10)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:56 PM
herding cats (18,870 posts)
12. Thanks!
My family is, too. They'd be lost without me and they love me dearly. I'm the glue that keeps them all together during hard times they say. That stuff falls outside of the scope of the "anti choice" crowd, though. They can't see the forest for the trees.
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Response to herding cats (Reply #12)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 09:59 PM
Kath2 (2,791 posts)
13. Very well-said.
Love your avatar, by the way. I am as anti-Trump as I am pro-choice. Which is VERY.
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Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sat Nov 25, 2017, 11:40 PM
keithbvadu2 (30,106 posts)
18. The Church is anti-choice because the priests want a supply of kids to prey over.
The Church is anti-choice because the priests want a supply of kids to prey over.
Yeah, the pun is deliberate. |
Response to keithbvadu2 (Reply #18)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 07:16 AM
FakeNoose (27,599 posts)
22. It didn't start out that way
... but sadly it seems to have ended up exactly the way you say.
The type of men who are attracted to the life of priesthood are unfortunately likely to have that tendency. The Church wasn't careful enough to weed those men out when they had the chance (i.e. during their seminary years.) It's a sad situation because the Cardinals who are making decisions now are protecting their own careers and also the predators. I believe this will change though because it has to. If women were allowed into the priesthood, we'd see so many changes in so many areas. ![]() |
Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 12:54 AM
stopwastingmymoney (1,773 posts)
19. I am pro choice
Because a woman who cannot make her own personal decisions is not free
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Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 01:50 AM
MurrayDelph (4,982 posts)
20. I'm pro-choice because when I was a teenager
I saw my father have to tell his best friend that he had just taken the friend's teenaged daughter to the hospital for complications of a botched back-alley abortion.
Getting rid of legal abortions would just put hundreds of thousands of young (and not-so-young) women back at the mercy of these butchers, so as a middle-aged man (with no children of my own, but with many friends who have daughters of various ages), I believe that abortion should be safe, legal, and none of my damned business. |
Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 08:10 AM
Bettie (14,562 posts)
23. I'm pro-choice for a lot of reasons
When I was a young girl, my father decided that it was OK to have sex with me on a regular basis. I tried several times to stop it, but had no ability to do so as he was in complete control of my life and no one believed me. So, I saved my money from babysitting and made a plan, just in case the worst happened. When I was 18, I went to college and never looked back.
But the other point is that abortion has always been with us, it always will be there and it can be safe and legal or unsafe and illegal. If it is going to happen one way or another, it should be widely available, legal, and safe. If you don't believe in abortion, don't have one, but your religious beliefs should never have any legal rights over what I do with my body. (You/me etc. all meant in the general sense, obviously). |
Response to Bettie (Reply #23)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 10:48 AM
keithbvadu2 (30,106 posts)
24. Religious freedom? ...
Religious freedom? ...
Cool: I must / cannot do it because of my religious beliefs. ..... I decide for myself. Cool?: You must / cannot do it because of my religious beliefs. ..... I decide for you. Uncool?: I must / cannot do it because of your religious beliefs. ..... You decide for me? |
Response to keithbvadu2 (Reply #24)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 01:26 PM
Bettie (14,562 posts)
29. For me religious freedom means
answer A only.
I decide for me, you decide for you, Joe decides for Joe, Sally decides for Sally and so on. Even though I do believe that religion is probably the most toxic thing humanity has come up with...it creates far more problems than it solves. |
Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 11:11 AM
CrispyQ (33,466 posts)
26. The most important decision a woman can make, isn't yours.
I use that all the time, but the die hard religious folks don't care. They honestly believe they have the right to tell others how to live.
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Response to Kath2 (Original post)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 11:17 AM
still_one (86,900 posts)
27. The key is CHOICE, a WOMAN'S CHOICE, not a mans.
Response to still_one (Reply #27)
Sun Nov 26, 2017, 01:36 PM
MineralMan (144,939 posts)
30. Men make reproductive choices, too.
I chose not to impregnate anyone during my lifetime. At age 72, it appears that my choice will succeed.
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