Should the time limit for late abortions be lowered to say around 12 weeks instead of the current legal limit of up to 24 weeks ?

[enigma]

A recent article in the Daily Record newspaper featured a couple who were told to abort their foetus at 24 weeks as it had stopped growing at 22 weeks in the womb and the mother had developed pre-eclampsia , a life threatening condition to herself and unborn child. The baby was born weighing just over 1lb but now weighs over 5 lbs and has returned home to her overjoyed mum and dad - posing the question , if babies can be saved at 22 weeks then should abortions be allowed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Surely the "mother" should know long before this stage that she does not wish to keep her baby ? I am currently 24 weeks pregnant so this subject has greatly affected me and I find the whole matter of abortion very disturbing.

[Drewhound]

Doolallygirl, I think this is why it's such a difficult problem, every one has a different and very personal approach to it

[el duerino]

doolally girl do you think that is your choice? If you asked the baby, do you think it would choose death? I know several people who were adopted and have very happy lives. Are you sure this is why you had the abortion?

[Doolallygirl]

I think that it is my choice yes. If I had asked the baby if it wanted to be bought into a world where it was unloved, unwanted and to be perfectly honest a burden to me, my career and my life then I think it would have chosen death too. I know three people who were adopted and not one of them has lead a particularly good life, they always say that they wish they had known their birth parents and one of them that had contact with her birth mother found out that she was a murderer. In that case she says she wished that she had never found her mother at all and her adoptive family life wasn't perfect either. I believe that I made the right decision at the time. I wouldn't use it as a form of contraception though, and if I got pregnant right now the time would be better for me. I've got a steady job, I'm in a loving relationship and I feel that I am mature enough to cope with a child. But I was just a child myself when I got pregnant.

[Uriah Heep]

Very interesting debate. Let me say from the outset that I am anti abortion. I believe it is murder. I was adopted at birth, always aware of the fact and never bothered by it. Most adoptions are because the child was unwanted so that fact should not come as asurprise to any one. Better to be adopted by someone who loves you than DEAD!

[el duerino]

right so you had it aborted because you didn't want it basically. For the sake of inconveniencing your own life, you took away anothers. Thats my view anyway.

[Doolallygirl]

Well to be quite honest I would rather "kill" my "baby" (as I am given the choice) than bring it into a world where it has a low quality of life (I wouldn't have had a home to bring it up in, no money, no shelter, no food) and where it would have been unwanted basically for inconveniencing me, yeah maybe it was because it would have got in the way, but that wasn't the only reason. Abortion is always the last option, and in my case and in my mind I made the right decision, for whatever reasons. It was still traumatic for me to go through that. To learn to live with the guilt was the hardest thing for me at first because like many others I did believe it was murder, but maybe me trying to find an "excuse" to do it is my way of coping with the guilt. I know that if my daughter came home at 17 and said she was pregnant then I would fully support her RIGHT to have an abortion if that is what she decided to do.