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Hello, first let me say that I used to be adamantly pro-abortion. I could have told you all the lines: ?It?s MY body?; ?it isn?t a human being if it isn?t viable outside the womb?; ?it is just a blob of cells?. I encouraged a friend to have an abortion (I am so glad she didn?t listen to me).
And then when I was 22, I had an abortion. At first I was relieved and even joked about it. But I kept thinking about it; was it a boy or a girl? What would it have been like to have a baby? About 6 months later I had a major bout of depression over it. Over the years I tried not to think about it, but it popped up in my head over and over, and I can say the only good thing about what I did is that it forced me to reexamine my beliefs. And even though I am a very politically liberal person (I am an environmentalist, I support human rights, I support gay rights, I support legalizing marijuana, etc.), I now part company with most of my friends regarding abortion.
It was not only ?my? body; I created another life that was dependent on my body. It is not a ?blob of cells?, it is a Developing Human Being. As for the ?not human unless viable?, well, there?s a lame argument. Were babies born at 28 weeks say, 75 years ago, (that had no chance of survival), not human, but today, when nearly all babies are viable at that age; what, suddenly they are human? How about babies born at 24 weeks? Some survive and some don?t. Are some of them human and the others not? As medical science advances, the survival rate of very premature babies increases.
About two years ago, a baby was born in Florida (and is still alive & well) after less than 22 weeks in the womb. She was conceived through in-vitro, so they knew the exact date of conception. You can readily get an abortion in America at well past that date. How can that possibly be ?ok?? How can you say that a baby that is 21 weeks and 3 days is just a ?fetus/blob of cells?, and the very next day, when one has survived, it is a human? How absurd.
We have a national schizophrenia here: We spend millions and millions of dollars saving premature babies in this country, because human life is precious and valuable. But then we allow the killing of babies the same age as the premature ones.
How about:
Abortions for the ?wrong? sex. We all know what the ?wrong? sex is: It is the one without a penis. How do ?pro-choicers? reconcile selectively killing millions of girls on this planet, because they are girls?
Abortions for disabilities. Should disabled people not be born? Should Stephen Hawkings have been aborted? I read in the newspaper about a woman who herself had been born with an extra finger, and had 2 abortions when ultrasounds revealed the same (easily fixed, non-life-threatening) disability in her in-utero children! Get rid of all deaf people? Blind people? Should anyone less than perfect not be allowed to live? (The Nazis would be so proud of this ?pro-choice? eugenics).
If you support abortion ?rights?, you support the rights of women to have abortions of viable babies, of girls, of the disabled. And that is a fact. If you have had a child and seen ultrasound images of your child, heard your child?s heartbeat while you were pregnant, I ask you: At what point would it have been ?ok? to end your child?s life?
As I stated, I support human rights, and to me the most basic human right is the right to be born.
If you support abortion, I ask you to have the COURAGE to go on-line and look at aborted fetuses. Know what it is you really support, not just an abstract ?I?m a liberal so I support abortion rights?. Know that there is a heartbeat at 3 or 4 weeks, and measurable brain waves at 6 weeks. Take a look! Even take a look at books in the library or on-line that show not aborted fetuses, but just fetal development. Those ?blobs of cells? look pretty human quite early on. I found some good info on fetal development at: pregnancy.org. But there are lots and lots of sites with nice in-utero baby picts. Also interesting?when I was looking up the gestation period of the baby girl in Florida, I came across www.clinicquotes.com/california.htm which has transcripts from court proceedings that include some of the most frank testimonials of ?partial birth? abortions from the doctors who provide them.
Why is an unplanned pregnancy viewed as something so terrible and fearful? Probably half the people you know weren?t ?planned?. So what. Take responsibility for your sexuality and take responsibility for your child. You don?t want a baby? Find a person or couple who shares your values and find a new home for your child. If you would like to keep in touch with your child, arrange an open adoption. I certainly wish I had. I thought I was taking the easy way out. But thirty years later, I can see having a child and finding a loving home for that child would have been so much easier ~ and loving, peaceful and humane.

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
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Regarding your moderator's concern that baby boomers are going to use up all of "her" Social Security money: Guess what? WE PAID IN and that is OUR MONEY! Blame the government. If they invested the money that we ALL pay into Social Security, even with simple interest, we would be in fine shape for retirement. The problem is the government SPENDS our Social Security money! By the way I am 51 and my husband is 61, and considering the pathetic SS money we'll be getting, we figure we are on the "work til we drop" program anyway. AnneMarie

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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Hi! Last year and this year, my son?s teachers suggested that he should be in the school?s TAG program. My 9 year old son really wanted to be in TAG, because his friends are in it (And because who doesn?t want to be regarded as ?special?, right?).
I was going to let him, but after I thought it over, I decided against it. TAG bothers me.
First, there is the name itself. If these kids are ?talented and gifted?, you are automatically labeling all the rest of the kids in a school as ?UNtalented and UNgifted? (I wonder if the parents of the majority of the children in schools realize their children are being ?tagged? as losers). I don?t see that it benefits either group to be labeling them in that way, even if it isn?t overt.
Second, all the TAG kids in my son?s school that I know of are white (in a school that is 30% Hispanic), with college-educated parents, with a stay-at-home mom or a mom who is employed part-time. These are the type of parents who value education, and teach their children at home. It does not make their children ?smarter? or ?better? than every other child in school! If you took any of the other kids in the school and put them in homes that make a point of teaching and learning, they would be just as ?gifted?.
Third, you could do a report on what constitutes intelligence in the contemporary world. As far as I know, TAG programs use a 1950?s IQ test! Think of how much more we know about the brain since the 1950?s!
There are many ?gifts?. Many of those ?30% Hispanic? kids have parents who do not speak English. Many are not read to at home, are not taught their ?abc?s?, etc. All their education and learning stimulation comes from school. That these kids are bilingual and many are testing at grade level suggests to me that they are pretty ?talented and gifted?.
Another thought: TAG is a nice ego boost for the parents; it is so nice to think your genes produced a little ?genius? who is so superior to all the other children!
Finally, I totally support having all the children in schools being kept challenged. And the schools should always be working towards that goal. But I don?t think an elitist program like TAG is what is needed.
~Anne

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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