was closed to debate today. Thank you Kaileyeinstein for bringing the topic out.
Your thoughts/opinions? Take a global perspective on this by comparing Canada's policy vs. other nations. Another angle to take is stem cell research / cloning. This is a huge topic with massive global ramifications, so please be sure to check your references carefully because I will be. (i.e. no "People" magazine).
This is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts on this are very one sided. I can attempt to view the side of the conservatives however I do feel very strongly along the lines that women do not deserve to have their rights on whether to bring a child into this world or not, striped away. The main issue that we have been discussing this whole unit has been over population. If this turns into striping the rights of women to have abortions, what will our population turn into next? Our country has always been told that we are free to do as we please. We always have the right to peaceful protest which in turn gives us the right to get that in which we feel is deserving. Looking into the abortion side of this whole dispute, a child is not seen as a human as the egg immediately is fertilized. Within the first trimester is when abortions are now legal. There is a massive difference in the way of looking at things and saying that we are murdering children by having an abortion. In turn if our right to get abortions is taken away, how many illegal abortions might begin to take place? Thousands of women will die of illegal abortions. Which shows us signs of murder more, killing a fetus which is not yet seen as human and alive, or killing the young woman who knows that she might not be fit to raise a child in this world. In Canada we always are making it aware that we care about our citizens, however, what if we end up as not having the rights of abortion. In Kenya, abortion is legally restricted and is only allowed when trying to save the mothers lives. Unsafe abortions is the leading cause to morbidity in the country with 3000 deaths due to these. Within Australia however, abortion is legal in Victoria. Any woman of any age can attend a clinic and receive and abortion until the baby is 24 weeks old. After the 24 weeks, the procedure becomes illegal. Our world is within two massive opposites. One side of the world has no abortions and because of this, has a high mortality rate of young women. The other part of our world is doing exactly as we have, giving the rights to women and letting them decide what is best for them. Canada has always been considered a land of free, why would we change that now?
*http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/09/21/pol-when-life-begins-debate.html?cmp=rss
*http://ca.news.yahoo.com/motion-study-life-begins-faces-long-odds-212355258.html
*http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Abortion_in_Australia
*http://www.abortionresearchconsortium.org/
This is my weekly post.
ReplyDeleteRecently, it feels as though the Canadian government has been subtly stripping our rights. They've taken away teachers' right to protest, and now they are attempting to take away women's right to child birth. Just because a woman becomes pregnant does not mean she intends to have that child. Condoms can break, accidents can happen, and even worse; rape can happen. In the case of a woman being raped, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy, what makes the government believe she wants to bare this child? In some cases, sure, maybe the woman will decide to keep the baby, but what if she doesn't want the baby? What if the baby is only a reminder of her traumatic experience?
In agreement to Mimi, I must concur that in this unit we have learned overpopulation is a problem. Although on the large scale, Canada doesn't contribute to the overpopulation, one needs to take into consideration that our country allows contraceptives to be used. It is apparent that population is incredibly high in countries that don't allow contraceptives, such as Kenya. And in Kenya, many woman become pregnant though don't want to birth their child, however they don't have a choice. Because they do not have the right to choose whether or not they will have the baby, they result to self-aborting which in many cases lead to their own death as well. (1) However, since Thailand introduced contraceptives and family planning, their population and birth rate have decreased significantly. (2)
Taking away the right of abortion will not only leave many women in Canada with unwanted children, but it will only add to the overpopulation problem.
1. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/IB_UnsafeAbortionKenya.pdf
2. http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Family_Planning_Fact_Sheets_thailand.pdf
My thoughts of this disagree greatly with my fellow two classmates. I feel like there should be limits on abortion, and that life begins before birth. In an ultrasound a heartbeat can be seen around six or seven weeks, and to me that means the baby is alive. I do not think a woman's right to choose should be 100% taken away, but I do feel after 12 weeks it should not be allowed. Not only does the baby have a heart beat by then, but at 12 weeks the baby is fully formed and just needs time to mature origins such as their heart and lungs. Above Mimi said that in Australia abortion is legal until 24 weeks, which in my opinion is wrong. The mother would already be halfway through their pregnancy by then, and I cannot see any benefit to that. Even for the mother the procedure becomes dangerous that far along, and risks for serious problems increase drastically.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the overpopulation issue, I believe there could be a way to prevent the issue from getting worse. If we were to educate woman more on how to properly use contraceptives, like condoms and birth control, and provide those contraceptives to them I believe population and abortion rates would go down. Also, yes accidents happen, but so many people become pregnant because they choose not to use anything, or ignore the steps to using them properly. Lastly, I feel that people keep forgetting that there is a third choice a woman has when she becomes pregnant. If a woman does not want to raise her child, she could always give the baby up for adoption. So many families all over the world cannot have children and would love for a chance to be parents.
All in all, do I think abortion should be 100% illegal? No, but I do think it should be limited to the first trimester only, and not be allowed over 12 weeks. Educating woman about using contraceptives, and supply them with the contraceptives would cut down on unwanted pregnancies and population. If an accident does happen, the woman could always look into adoption so she is not left raising a child she does not want.
I think that the current timing of 12 weeks is a good time for abortions to be allowed during. I think that reducing this time will not allow for enough time for a fair decision to be made, especially in cases of rape where the woman might not even be aware of her pregnancy. Our current policy on abortion seems to be fair and functioning well.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is my weekly post. In my opinion the debate over whether or not abortion should be legal really shouldn’t be up for debate at all. Each Canadian citizen is entitled to their right of “security of person.” This basically means that they are entitled safety to their person and full control over what happens to their body. By making abortion illegal, women will be stripped of one of their basic charter rights. Just because women are the ones who bring children into this world, does not mean that they should have less rights to their bodies than men do. How would a man feel if he were forced for example to get a tattoo? An area of his skin permanently scarred with ink that he did not want. A tattoo is forever, so is a child. If a woman feels as though she is unfit to have a child whether it be due to age, financial status, or health concerns, she should not be forced to. The end result would be that you are in fact also making the newly born child a victim. He or she now has the potential of being raised in poverty, perhaps abandoned by a young mother, or having to say goodbye to an ill parent at an early age.
ReplyDeleteAbortion basically provides women a safe and sanitary health option to stop their bodies from producing a child. Just because abortion is made illegal in Canada does not mean abortions will stop; women will just look to more barbaric, unsanitary and ultimately unsafe ways in which to “unpregnate” themselves. Does no one remember the years of coat hangers and purposeful falls down stairs? Now, as to the matter of discussing when a fetus can be declared a person, there is already a restriction on abortion that in my opinion is more than reasonable. It is not like women are ridding themselves of an eight month, developed baby. No. The law already states that all abortions must be performed within the first trimester: at this point, the fetus has no cognitive function, feelings or emotion; it is really just a growing cell.
Take a country like Afghanistan for example. In Afghanistan, women are only able to receive an abortion if they will die from giving birth to the child. However, if the woman becomes impregnated by cause of rape, she is not eligible to receive an abortion. That child will be a constant reminder to that woman of the horror of what its father put her through and will most likely be rejected by its mother. In Chile, abortion was completely illegal, no exception. Women were also not well educated on contraceptives. “Concern over high maternal mortality rates resulting from illegal abortion lead the Chilean government to launch a publicly-funded family planning program in 1964.Deaths due to illegal abortions dropped from 118 to 24 per 100,000 live births between 1964 and 1979.” This small change already has saved many lives. I believe that Canadian woman should reserve the complete rights to making their own decisions pertaining to their bodies. “Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.” - Edward Abbey
-http://www.pregnantpause.org/lex/world02.htm
-http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/09/21/pol-when-life-begins-debate.html?cmp=rss
This is my weekly post: As a brother of 4 sisters I am very one sided on this issue, I feel that it is against human rights to tell a women that if she is pregnant she has to have that baby. If you look at the latest rape and sexual assault statistics in Canada, 1,397 sexual assaults happen per day, most of those sexual assaults lead to rape!So your telling me if even half of those women or girls raped get pregnant your going to deny them the choice to abort that baby or keep it?You here on the news now that "the ghettos are getting bigger because people do to not enough money to support there children so they have to live in low priced houses in bad areas".So if you were to make a law stating that women have to keep that baby because it would be murder to abort it is just ridiculous. Imagine a 17 year old gets raped,lets say she ends up getting pregnant and doesn't have enough money or knowledge to support that baby,what chance does that child and "child-mother" have in life?They will probably end up moving to a bad,high crime area in the city because it is cheap, the mother will most likely get a bad job most likely get into prostitution or other criminal related job and open herself to many STI's,health concerns,and crime issues.The child will probably end up getting into drugs because he/she will be growing up in a bad atmosphere. You here every politician say "oh we have to fix up the bad parts of the cities,we have to educate young children about sex ed, drugs, and get them a good education". Your not going to accomplish that if you do not let women have the right to abort or keep a baby. People say it is murder if the baby is aborted,most of these people are religious,but many religious people such as a Catholic like myself who's religion is against abortion,believe that the women should have the right to abort or keep the baby. I know if this were to ever occur to a close friend or one of my sisters I would hope they would abort it because,they are not able to support that baby's many needs and support themselves at the same time. There is no question the woman should have the choice to make their own decision on keeping or aborting.It is not Murder it is saving her life and that child's life,so when she is ready to have a child she can support that baby and raise it like it needs to be.
ReplyDeleteSources:
1)www.fsacc.ca/content/45357
2)www.sexassault.ca/statistics.htm
This is my post for the week...
ReplyDeleteThere will always be people who abuse their rights (ie. the Westboro Baptist Church constantly abuses their freedom of speech). The right to one's body SHOULD be a given, but it isn't always. If you seriously think you can dictate the way somebody else lives their life, or what they do with their body, then you are a severely deluded individual. The whole idea that women are "murdering their children" when they have an abortion is an exceptionally barbaric and ignorant thought. The debate here is when life begins. My belief is when a child is born then they start living. I don't remember being in my mother's womb. I didn't feel anything when they pulled the amniotic fluid through a needle from my mum's womb. I don't celebrate my "conception day" I celebrate my birthday because that's the day I was born and my life started. While in your mother's womb, you don't live independently. You are literally connected to her life source. This debate SHOULD be about the woman CHOOSING, not about the child. It's a debate that's never going to be over but hopefully our species can evolve and finally realize that people, especially women, deserve the right to their own body.