Thread: Legitimate grounds for having an abortion?

Originally Posted by Susan

Thank you. It was my first pregnancy and I was 10 weeks so it was a heartbeat one week, and nothing the next. The point I was trying to make was that my SIL considered a D&C an abortion and preferred to let nature take it's course. Although, I didn't agree with that, and we never discussed it. I always wondered what she thought about what I did.

I don't see how a D&C can be considered an abortion if the baby has died. I had a D&C after a miscarriage at 17 weeks. I had already "birthed" the baby, so the D&C was to make sure that nothing remained. The doctor told me that she had apparently died a week before. If I had gone to the Doctor for a scheduled visit the day before the miscarriage came on they would have induced labor, and honestly, I don't see that as an abortion whatsoever.





Now...all that to say...after seeing and holding my 17 week old fetus, gathering of cells, or whatever term the Pro-life people want to call my precious little girl, I cannot advocate abortion. And yet, I still would have to do so if I got pregnant again...because we would both die. Am I limiting God? Maybe. BUT do we allow ourselves to be put into a position of Christian scientist where we say we are trusting God, and not trusting the doctors? If a Doctor told me I would surely die if I didn't have a procedure done for anything else, wouldn't I do that?

I want to also say that "abortion" due to medical complications is FEW and far between.

Originally Posted by Lista

I don't see how a D&C can be considered an abortion if the baby has died. I had a D&C after a miscarriage at 17 weeks. I had already "birthed" the baby, so the D&C was to make sure that nothing remained. The doctor told me that she had apparently died a week before. If I had gone to the Doctor for a scheduled visit the day before the miscarriage came on they would have induced labor, and honestly, I don't see that as an abortion whatsoever.





Now...all that to say...after seeing and holding my 17 week old fetus, gathering of cells, or whatever term the Pro-life people want to call my precious little girl, I cannot advocate abortion. And yet, I still would have to do so if I got pregnant again...because we would both die. Am I limiting God? Maybe. BUT do we allow ourselves to be put into a position of Christian scientist where we say we are trusting God, and not trusting the doctors? If a Doctor told me I would surely die if I didn't have a procedure done for anything else, wouldn't I do that?

As Colonel said, that would be your choice to make..I do believe that God wants to work in our lives so that we don't have to make any choices that would destroy innocent life..when doctors say no hope they are not lying per se because there is none as far as they are concerned....but with God there is hope and power...we are not limited to man's opinion no matter how educated...the same is true of cancer and any other disease...None of these are beyond God's ability to remedy.

I don't believe it is His will for us to have to chose who lives and who dies...I don't believe it is His will for either to die...for me, there is no other things to consider...
But everyone must reach their own conclusion...

Originally Posted by Lista

I want to also say that "abortion" due to medical complications is FEW and far between.

This is true...I think I read that it's less than 2% and .5% for rape incest and other...so about 97% are convenience...

Here is an other scenario that I find more difficult than the other scenarios discussed. What to do with pregnant rape victims. I'm talking about people who were genuinely raped as in assaulted.

The rule of the thumb with abortion is that you have to have sex to get pregnant. Some might complain that they were trying hard not to get pregnant by it but there was that chance and they knew about that in advance. So having to give birth to the resulting child is a simple matter of being responsible for one's actions. But this is not the case with rape. It gets even worse when the one raped is a child. Many children have their first period before they are 10 years old these days.

What now ? Well as with every other case the mother should be allowed to give birth to the child, she should receive thorough counselling, the option of having the baby adopted and so forth. But in this case I think it should be legal to have the baby aborted, and it should be found generally acceptable. The main reason why is that the pregnancy has the potential to compound the rape trauma enormously, making it last at least nine months. People's reactions vary enormously though. This is something that can be exploited so in my opinion it should require that the rape is reported immediately so that the pregnancy doesn't become the cause of the rape report. Meaning it is made a criminal matter with the police being involved, with medical doctors doing a physical examination, parents getting involved if it is a minor etc. I know this isn't fundamentally a matter of saving the mother's life but those nine months can in some cases amount to sheer psychological torture and in this case with no responsibility on the part of the mother.

Originally Posted by Quest

This is true...I think I read that it's less than 2% and .5% for rape incest and other...so about 97% are convenience...

That still leaves us with about 1 million cases per year worldwide and 25,000 per year in the US that don't involve convenience.

In 1980 My wife was 3 months pregnant when she was diagnosed with a tubular pregnancy. They did an ultrasound then wanted to do emergency surgery to remove the baby, tube and part of an ovary. I asked if there was the possibility for it to move from the tube to the womb and was told it was impossible. We consented to the surgery the next morning under the condition that they do another ultrasound prior to the surgery. I called every pastor Pentecostal and Charismatic that I knew in town and none would come out to the hospital to pray! They each said "Sometimes this is just how God works"! I had just gotten out of Bible School 2 years prior and that was not what I was taught. So we prayed that night and when I got home I stayed on my knees till the wee hours of the morning until I felt a release in my spirit. So the next morning as I walked into her room, they were shaving her abdomen for surgery, the ultrasound had already been done. The Dr walked in, felt her womb, said "Folks, I don't know what happened by the baby is now in the womb" She went on to have a healthy girl who is now 34 years old and is a CT tech at UCSF Medical center in San Fransisco

Susan, I guess because the thread started off as legitimate grounds for abortion, even though the immediate posts on that page were about the life of the mother, I just spoke about the Down's people. I have read many times of abortion being suggested when it had been determined the baby would be born alive but with particular birth defects. (no threat to the life of the mother expected)

Sorry for the confusion.

Originally Posted by curly sue

Susan, I guess because the thread started off as legitimate grounds for abortion, even though the immediate posts on that page were about the life of the mother, I just spoke about the Down's people. I have read many times of abortion being suggested when it had been determined the baby would be born alive but with particular birth defects. (no threat to the life of the mother expected)

Sorry for the confusion.

Downs abortions are to prosperous people what third-child-abortions are to poorer people. Just convenience. The prosperous can afford another child including one with Downs but there is more effort involved and some stigma. In India they kill their girl babies, both before and after they are born, to avoid paying a huge dowry when the girl grows up, there is also less status with having a girl. Some people in the Western world can't stomach having a child that isn't perfect and will abort anything else. Which is perhaps an omen for the future. Moonraker (the James Bond movie) may not be that far off, in some or other form.

Originally Posted by Lcash

In 1980 My wife was 3 months pregnant when she was diagnosed with a tubular pregnancy. They did an ultrasound then wanted to do emergency surgery to remove the baby, tube and part of an ovary. I asked if there was the possibility for it to move from the tube to the womb and was told it was impossible. We consented to the surgery the next morning under the condition that they do another ultrasound prior to the surgery. I called every pastor Pentecostal and Charismatic that I knew in town and none would come out to the hospital to pray! They each said "Sometimes this is just how God works"! I had just gotten out of Bible School 2 years prior and that was not what I was taught. So we prayed that night and when I got home I stayed on my knees till the wee hours of the morning until I felt a release in my spirit. So the next morning as I walked into her room, they were shaving her abdomen for surgery, the ultrasound had already been done. The Dr walked in, felt her womb, said "Folks, I don't know what happened by the baby is now in the womb" She went on to have a healthy girl who is now 34 years old and is a CT tech at UCSF Medical center in San Fransisco

That is beautiful...thank you for sharing.