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To: NittanyLion
This is not an easy issue for me generally. It is not a choice I would make for myself, frankly, for a host of reasons. When an egg is fertilized, it's a mass of cells. Yes, cells with unique DNA but cells nonetheless, as indistinct to me as any other mass of cells. That's the first thing. The second thing is an essential belief that people just have sex. You can't teach it out of them or moral it out of them or browbeat it out of them. They have sex - they're made to have sex, driven to have sex in some normal propotional way. If you hate abortion, making it illegal isn't going to stop it. The only thing that stops it is to stop sex that leads to unwanted pregnancies OR to severaly minimize the likelihood that an unwanted pregnancy arises as a result of having sex. That would mean we would have to acknowledge that even young people (our daughters and sons) have sex and should have access to birth control. Yet the people I characterize as the "religious right" seem to be opposed to the sex, the birth control, and the potential abortion. I can't add that math up. And I don't believe women should be subjected to forced pregnancy for the sake of a bunch of cells. Harsh? Perhaps. But it's what I believe.
341 posted on 11/14/2006 5:02:06 PM PST by DCBandita
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To: DCBandita
It is not a choice I would make for myself, frankly, for a host of reasons.

I don't mean to pry, but would you mind if I asked you to elaborate on those reasons?

When an egg is fertilized, it's a mass of cells. Yes, cells with unique DNA but cells nonetheless, as indistinct to me as any other mass of cells. That's the first thing.

Is it not just a mass of cells on Day 89? 91? 180? People who are pro-life have a hard time understanding at what moment the mass of cells converts to a human. The only two bright lines I can see are conception and birth, and even you've admitted that birth isn't the right standard.

The second thing is an essential belief that people just have sex...The only thing that stops it is to stop sex that leads to unwanted pregnancies OR to severaly minimize the likelihood that an unwanted pregnancy arises as a result of having sex. That would mean we would have to acknowledge that even young people (our daughters and sons) have sex and should have access to birth control. Yet the people I characterize as the "religious right" seem to be opposed to the sex, the birth control, and the potential abortion. I can't add that math up.

On that we agree, but I would submit that birth control education is a private matter that should be handled by the family - not something that is administered in a public school.

If you hate abortion, making it illegal isn't going to stop it.

True enough. But there are many things that are illegal, and we understand those activities continue. They're illegal because society is damaged by them, and as a society we've decided that we cannot condone the behavior.

417 posted on 11/14/2006 6:17:56 PM PST by NittanyLion
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