Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 9/27/83; site hplabsb.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hplabsb!pc From: pc@hplabsb.UUCP (Patricia Collins) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Abortion Message-ID: <2110@hplabsb.UUCP> Date: Mon, 27-Feb-84 12:37:39 EST Article-I.D.: hplabsb.2110 Posted: Mon Feb 27 12:37:39 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 2-Mar-84 13:51:20 EST References: <5823@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA Lines: 29 There are many circumstances under which the US condones/promotes killing others if there is a threat to life/liberty/pursuit of happiness. We go to war over differences in ideology (declared or otherwise), we allow handguns (with no other useful purpose than picking off humans), we allow people to "defend their castles" with guns, knives, etc. Abortion has been a protected right for the same reasons. Before the 1920s, it was almost unheard of for an infant to survive its first year if it was put into an orphanage. [TOUCHING, Ashley Montague) Was the father guilty of murder for passing off his obligation to care for the child? It is now clinically possible to remove a fetus from a woman's womb and place it in another womb (before some early date), and it is possible to remove a fetus and care for it in an artificial womb (incubator etc.)... after about 20 weeks. It is still the case that *most* fetuses will die if removed from a womb during a critical few months. Is this substantially different from the orphanage situation? Medical people are charged with the responsibility of saving lives and preserving health. Women who want abortions are not principally trying to kill someone; they are principally trying to preserve their right to life/liberty/pursuit of happiness by turning the intruder over to the authorities. I personally hope that it won't be long before the authorities can provide care for the mother AND the fetus which preserves their lives...and their rights. I, for one, will be grateful for the day when women and men can create children when they want them and can be guaranteed no child will be created by "accident" or by violence. Patricia Collins hplabs