A new study of New Zealand women has concluded that abortion in young women may be associated with increased risks of mental health problems. This included depression and anxiety disorders and they were also more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs.
The study’s leader, Professor David Fergusson, is at pains to show that he’s not a pro-lifer and he’s just telling it like it is. Fair enough. But with over 80,000 abortions being done each year in Australia, there’s a lot of people who will be suffering, assuming you can extrapolate the study to Australia.
As the study shows, not all women feel bad about abortion or suffer consequences for it. And Emily Maguire in The Sydney Morning Herald offers suggestions about how women could feel better about their abortion experience.
I say it doesn’t really matter. What really matters is what God thinks. It’s clear from the Bible that God is against abortion, for plenty of reasons. I’m with God on this point. As the father of three children—one of whom is still in-utero—we’ve always thought of our babies as our babies from the moment my wife was pregnant. “We’re going to have a baby” is a common enough expression (at least on the TV shows I’ve watched) to indicate that we’re not alone in thinking this.
I think attempts to argue that unborn babies are not human are similar strategies to those used to dehumanise groups which require killing—as the Nazis did to the Jews. For pro-choice people babies need to be non-human so that they can be disposed of.
Abortion is killing a person, plain and simple. If you can justify that, say on medical grounds, fine. Otherwise there’s no difference between that and taking your three-year-old up the back paddock and putting a bullet in her head.
Comments
Seriously, how many studies have been published saying that drinking and taking drugs leads to a greater chance of developing a mental illness? We know that. This is nothing new, all this study is trying to do is prevent women from having access to abortions.
And I'm sorry but I soo disagree with you. I would rather a 16 year old drug addicted street prostitute had an abortion than had a baby she couldn't feed, clothe or care for. A baby that would most likely also end up as a pregnant 16 year old drug addicted prostitute.
While you may love your children and would do everything in your power to care for them, not everyone in this world is like that. And while I hate to see abortion used as a form of birth control, I would rather have it accessable to women who know they won't be able to care for a child, who have been raped, who wish to abort a child with a severe disability or who's life is in danger because of the pregnany (i.e. cancer patients). Also, you must remember any woman who has an abortion goes through couciling prior to the procedure where they are evaluated as to their ability to make a good decision for themselves.
Personally, I would like to see free long term contraception for the unemployed and those living below the poverty line. I think this would prevent the majority of Australia's abortions as well as improve the living quality of all Australians as a result of needing less money to go towards foster homes, childrens welfare, and youth on the street programs.
But hey, that's just my personal opinion.
Some people may need their inheritence sooner rather than later, and some people can be really dreadful to live with, but it's often very very difficult to predict the outcome.
For example killing your grandmother so that you get her money may indeed improve your lifestyle, but it may not. You just can't tell.
I also don't think it's a good thing for 16 year olds to be addicted to drugs and engaged in prostitution. Rather than killing their children, or giving them the cheap and efficient means to do so, wouldn't it be better to help them get off drugs and out of prostitution?
But that's a furphy anyway. The majority of women having abortions are like Rebecca Huntley-- well-educated and with their career ahead of them. College students seem to be in the majority in the stories on www.imnotsorry.net, and there's a lot of alcohol involved, not drugs.
But ultimiately our personal opinions about what's right and wrong don't matter. You may feel comfortable for poor people to kill their unborn children, but that's not the issue.
What matters is what God says is right and wrong because he'll ultimately judge each of us for our actions: how we've treated each other, our born and unborn children and, most importantly, how we've treated his son Jesus.