I was a fetus once.

[GeorgeGist]

I had no choice.
I don't know if my parents made the right choice.
But I'm pro-choice anyway.
Are the pro-lifers happy that I wasn't aborted?

[Maddy McCall]

1. I was a fetus once. My mother put me up for adoption when...

I was three days old.

I am pro-choice.

[Jo March]

2. I was a fetus once.

I am a rape survivor.
I am pro-choice.

[Ilsa]

3. I was a fetus once.

I am a rape survivor.
The scariest wait was over whether I could be pregnant.
I am the mother of a child with a lifelong disability, and it's a hard, hard, expensive life, for me, my husband and both my kids.
I am pro-choice.

[npincus]

4. I wish Barbara Bush had considered it.

[eridani]

12. Barbara Bush's uterus--

--should be declared a Superfund Cleanup Site.

[Maraya1969]

13. Oh LOL!

:rofl: Seriously, think how many lives it would have saved.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

5. I was a fetus once

and my mother had no choice so here I am.

[megatherium]

6. On what grounds do we determine if or when a fetus is a human life?

One interesting suggestion I saw on C-SPAN long ago was to make the dividing line at the point when the embryo becomes a fetus, which happens 10 weeks into the pregnancy. The woman making this proposal said that this is when the central nervous system forms and becomes active. She called her criterion for human life "brain birth," to mirror the familiar criterion for end of life, brain death. She explained that her criterion wouldn't be welcomed by pro-life forces, who believe that a human life begins with the fertilization of the egg; and it wouldn't be accepted by pro-choice people either because the criterion is too early in the pregnancy. (The Supreme Court, of course, used the criterion of viability; and created the familiar scheme of trimesters.)

On edit: It occurred to me to consult Google. I find that other writers put "brain birth" at 22 - 36 weeks of gestation.

[BOSSHOG]

7. The answer to your question

Pro-lifers may be happy that you weren't aborted but they sure have not cared about you since you were born.

[eleonora]

9. that's what pisses me off about all the pro-lifers

They don't give a rat's ass WHY women want to abort, like women will abort for fun. Why bring a baby into this world if you are unfit to take care of it? And why bring it into the world to see it taken from you by another couple when you could have ended it before the child came into existence? I just don't get them, they're the most callous people trying to pass for saviors. They're saving NOTHING. Not the baby or the mother.

[lukasahero]

8. I was a fetus once

My mother almost died having me.
She had no choice.
I am pro-choice.

[jbnow]

10. I was a fetus too but

before that I was an embryo, now those were the good old days. It felt good not to be just a multi-celled blastocyst anymore. Still I look back on my short time earlier as a zygote fondly. Back when I was a couple of gametes I just didn't know if I'd ever get together. People called me haploid then. Well I showed them and became diploid.

Even with all that I went through, all those names, those damn cellular divisions it took to get here, I believe in choice.

To those who it matters to, who speaks for the gametes? Month after month we let women just waste those in their cycle but even worse we don't imprison men who have wet dreams or masturbate and waste MILLIONS. MILLIONS of precious, unique gametes.

[unblock]

11. i was never a fetus.

there are stories my parents tell about their dreams of having kids, their trials and tribulations, their eventual decision to adopt a 6 week old baby who eventually became my older brother, and the surprise arrival of a baby who eventually became me, as well as my younger brother.

but i feel no great connection to such stories and babies and fetuses. because as far as i'm concerned, *I* did not come into existence until i was aware of my surroundings enough to be able to make my first decision. whatever that was. because whatever it is that makes me ME only started at that point. call it a soul if you like, but that's when *I* came into being. whatever happened to my body before that, whatever stories my parents tell, are just stories. they're not about ME. they're about my body, perhaps, but they're not about me.

i am pro-choice.
in fact, everyone is pro-choice. i am anti-government-coerced forced pregnanacy.

[psychopomp]

17. Right on

I know what you mean...that was deep.

[Chalco]

14. I was sitting on a shelf in the ether when I decided to be born

into the body I now inhabit. As a soul I entered this body and became me. I don't know what possessed me to enter this particular life, but I did. It was my time and here I am. I chose a life that was difficult. I had a lot of lessons to learn. I did not learn them easily. I suffered. But, through my suffering I did a lot of good. I hear of it. Just yesterday again. It is good that I was born and I am afraid I will die someday. I made a choice to be born, I will not choose to die, but I will. What will happen to my soul? I do believe my soul is me. Is that faith? A delusion?

I am pro-choice.

[Book Lover]

29. Then where does

your mother's choice fit into your statement?

[Schema Thing]

15. No one would miss me, had I never been born

Them's the cold hard facts of life on planet earth.

My ego can deal with that.

[HippieCowgirl]

16. I was also a foetus once

And my mother had a choice, though most other girls did not. She was wealthy, white, and under the care of a doctor who had no problem recommending a D&C for girls who had "dismennorea." (That doctor remained my doctor for most of my life, and he died in 1990 of AIDS, received from a needle stick from one of his patients. He was the only doctor in town who would treat AIDS patients.)

In 1994 I had a miscarriage
In 1996 I had surgery to remove a tumor
In 2001 I had another miscarriage
In 2001 I had a hysterectomy.
I want children, and am hoping to adopt someday.
I am pro-choice.

[intheflow]

18. I was a fetus once.

I was also a 17-year-old pregnant teenager, scared shitless and feeling pressured to decide whether to have a baby or an abortion.
I chose the baby.
I am now the parent of a wonderful young man, but lordy his early life was hell as we survived his father's alcoholism, murder, and life on welfare in the projects.

I don't really like the term pro-choice, because it implies a market context.
It also deminishes the fact that a woman's ability to control her own body is right, not a choice.
I am pro-reproductive rights.


*On edit: I would hve recommended this for the GP, but this thread is older than 24-hours. :( Still, I wish everyone could read this thoughtful and moving thread.

[TalkingDog]

19. I was a fetus once and it took over 40 years to be content with that fact.

I've spent many many years wishing my mother had had the option of having an abortion, then getting one.

But I'm a little better now.

Maybe over the next 46 years I'll actually be happy with life.

Wish me luck.

[4_TN_TITANS]

20. I could have been aborted but wasn't

by someone who either couldn't or didn't want to care for me. I was adopted by the best parents a kid could have.

Personally, I don't believe in abortion. Politically, I have no right to dictate what a woman does with her body. Imagine if women tried to legislate vasectomies for men!

[loudestchick]

21. I was a fetus once.

I was adopted at 3 months of age.
I'm a rape survivor.
I've had an abortion.
I've carried three fetus' to term, 2 of them are female.
I've provided for them the best I can.
I'm pro-choice.

[Beaverhausen]

22. I was a fetus once

My parents wanted me and loved me.

All children should be wanted children.

I'm pro choice.

[Kerrytravelers]

23. I was a fetus once.

My parents are white.
My father was in the military, so the government paid for my mother's health care.
It was a hard labor. She only had one child- me.
I was raised to be a thinking, compassionate human being with the understanding that not everyone is as fortunate as my parents.
My mother was born to two 15 year-old kids who put her up for adoption.
My father was raised in poverty on a rural kentucky farm.

My parents, my husband and I are pro- reproductive rights.
And we vote.

[Pachamama]

24. I was once a sperm and an egg....

...and then I split.... :hi:

Meanwhile, millions of other sperm (and I could have been one of them!)who traveled w/ half of me perished and never had a chance...so, I guess you could say I beat the odds....

Meanwhile, I was lucky enough to survive gestation and childbirth,(puberty and being a teenager was a bitch)and to have been born into a family that wanted me and could afford and care for me.

I guess you could say I'm a survivor...but, I look at it differently...I was meant to be....and if for some reason my sperm half hadn't made it, or I failed to have "implanted" in that uterus, or if for some reason my Mom couldn't have cared for me and had chosen to abort me, then, I wasn't meant to have been...

I'm pro-choice and I am "Pro-child"...that means that every child born should be and deserves to be born and cared and loved...I wish the "Pro-Lifers" re-named themselves "Pro-fetus" because they don't seem to care too much about all those fetuses they say are so sacred once they are born...

:pals:

[HockeyMom]

25. I work with former fetuses

Who were abandoned by their families 40, 50 years ago. NOBODY adopted them. They became wards of the state to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

They sit in wheelchairs and make incoherent sounds, drool, and wet and soil diapers. Some crawl on the floor with their arms and legs twisted in every direction. Some look more simian than human.

I feed them, change their diapers and try to get some human reaction from them. In about 90% of the cases, I get nothing. No smile, not even a sign of recognition that there another being is even there. Having raised two children, all I can say is that even a newborn will follow a light or an object placed in front of them. With most of these people, they see or know nothing.

It is so sad. Welcome to the new "compassionate" world that is ahead of us.

[NMMNG]

31. I work with disabled adults as well

They are not quite as disabled as the ones you work with but they are still profoundly disabled. Two of them are non-verbal (though one makes almost continuous guttural growling sounds), and the two who can talk are merely echolalic (they can only mimic the speech of others rather than use functional communicative speech). They cannot dress themselves or care for themselves in any way other than to feed themselves the food that has been chopped or ground up by staff. Three of the four are in diapers, and the fourth has periodic incontinence. Drooling, rumination , PICA , physical aggression, self-injurious behavior and more are par for the course.

Where are the pro-lifers who are normally screaming about the virtues of adoption when it comes to these needy people? Oh yeah, I forgot. It's only when the babies are perfect (preferably white) and unblemished that the pro-lifers are interested. Otherwise they're disposable and shunted off to a home of some sort.

[fudge stripe cookays]

26. I was a fetus once.

My mom was Catholic so had no choice. If she had chosen not to have me, I wouldn't have blamed her a bit.

I have had one abortion and one miscarriage. I am now married and happily childfree.

I am pro-choice.

[valerief]

27. I was once a sparkle in someone's eye.

Eyes should have rights.

[Nobody]

28. You know all those sperms shouls have the right to vote

and all those sperms are going to vote Republican. :evilgrin: Ova have to wait until they're fertilized, born and celebrate the 18th year aout of the uterus before THEY get to vote.

[HockeyMom]

30. My second never was a fetus

Barely even an embyro when he/she ruptured my fallopian tube. But I believe she was meant to be born and was later as my second daughter.

When it is your "time" to be born, you will be; either after a miscarriage, or after an abortion, perhaps even to another set of parents. I part company with this on the "christian" philosophy. I am Pro Choice.

[NMMNG]

32. I was a fetus once

My mother had me a few years prior to Roe v. Wade. I've wondered more than once if she would have had an abortion if she'd gotten pregnant just 5 years later given that she was 16 at the time. I wouldn't have borne her any ill will had she done so (not that I'd be around to do so--just speaking hypothetically here).

I am pro-choice.