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Path: utzoo!watmath!saquigley
From: saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Avoiding hasty abortion decisions
Message-ID: <7331@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Mar-84 21:06:16 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.7331
Posted: Wed Mar 21 21:06:16 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Mar-84 02:16:07 EST
References: <411@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 40

I don't understand the point of this article.  In most cases of abortion
I have heard of, there is a waiting period.  This period is between the
time a woman finds out she is pregnant and the time she gets an abortion.
This usually takes at least a few days.

One thing that should be mentioned though.  Throughout the article the
author assumes that the woman will make the decision not to have an abortion.
What if she does decide to have an abortion?  then the longer she waits the
more dangerous the abortion will be and the more "criminal" it will be as it
will happen later in the fetus' development.  I think enforcing a thinking
period would be criminal in this case.  I realise that the author is only
thinking of a few days thinking period so this period hardly makes a difference
in terms of risk and/or killing, but longer periods have been suggested by 
other people and I think those are dangerous for the reasons I just mentioned.

I find the suggestion of an "enforced" period very detestable because it assumes
that the woman is incapable of making her mind up in a quick period of time.
I do not think this is necessarily the case.  I for one have had many "false
alerts" and have had the opportunity to feel pregnant many times and to react
to it and I have a pretty good idea of whether I would like to continue my
pregnancy or not.  I know that at the time there was NO WAY I could ever have
gone through those pregnancies and I knew that straight from the start.  
Whenever I am a few days late on my period I also start wondering about whether
I am pregnant or not and I do know each time whether I could carry the child or
not, so what may seem to you like a rushed decision is not necessarily so.
Many of us do consider the possibility of being pregnant and have thought about
it in a reasonnable way beforehand and I would be very insulted to be told that
I have to think longer about whether I want an abortion or not.  All the women
I know are like me and I see no reason to believe that the majority of women
are different from me (their final decision might be different, but their
ability to know when they've made their decision is just as good)

In a few words I find the suggestion of an inforced waiting time paternalistic
and VERY insulting!!!!

Now, I am aware that this was not what the original poster suggested, so please
don't flame at me for misinterpreting what he said.  I didn't.

				Sophie Quigley
			...!{decvax,allegra}!watmath!saquigley