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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