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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!oliven!barb
From: barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Safety of Abortion vs. Pregnancy
Message-ID: <419@oliven.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Sep-85 15:17:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: oliven.419
Posted: Tue Sep 24 15:17:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Sep-85 07:36:01 EDT
References: <996@bunker.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 46

> 	"'There has been almost a conspiracy of silence in declaring
> 	its [abortion's] risks.....

Gary's posting is sobering, to say the least.  My reaction is a gut
one -- if abortions are so DANGEROUS, then, if they are performed,
they should be performed by a competent physician with the best possible
medical care on hand.  THIS IS WHY I SUPPORT LEGALIZED ABORTION.  I
do not support it because I think abortion is Right -- I support it because
I Know abortions are a Fact.

Now, some of you no doubt think I've got my feet planted firmly in mid-air.
Perhaps I do -- I make no claims of omniscience.  

Personally, I believe abortion is a symptom rather than a disease.  If there
were no unwanted pregnancies, there would be no abortions.  Simplistic?  Yes.
Much more so than the issue, alas.  

So this is where I run into a [personal] quandary.  How -- *really* -- are
we to treat the "disease" -- unwanted pregnancies? [I am excluding from this
classification, as I believe most netters are, pregnancy by rape and most
certainly pregnancy where the mother's life is endangered.]  Education, 
better birth control methods (we've come a long way but have even farther
to go), abstention . . . these are all possibilities.  But it all comes down 
to two individuals in a heated moment.  I would like to think that they would
have the long-term vision to realize what they are risking.  Some do -- 
for example myself, one night a very long time ago [perhaps the most
difficult 'no' I've ever said].  But many don't.  

So what's the answer?  I wish to God I had one -- but I certainly don't think
illegalizing abortion is it.

         ___________________
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	    .ooooo.   .ooooo.  .oooo                      Barb
        oo..oo	 oo...ooo ooo..ooo  \ 
     .oo  oo	  oooooo   oooooo   
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|  Others look to you for stability... |
|    so hide when you bite your nails. |
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