per microfortnight?
How many were a result of rape, accident, or choice?
Because who can object to an 18 year old married woman, financially supported by her significant other, fully aware of the consequences and responsibilities in deciding to have a baby?
That is worlds apart from a 15 year old female child being raped.
āThere are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.ā
Mark Twain.
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Can we please see a citation for this āresearchā?
Iām not from the US, but Iām dubious that a victim of sexual abuse would be forced to pay child support to their abuserā¦
Editā¦
My apologies, I read the article at the end. The article says the girl was 17 at the time though, wouldnāt that make her underage as well? I can only assume that she was below the age of consent, and that this was a factor in the courtās decision.
I am still stunned thoughā¦
Abortion makes me feel uneasy - but thatās my problem, no one elseās.
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In the US? Sounds about right.
Ditto.
Itās not about my feelings or the feelings of any male. What with not giving birth and all. 
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Me too. Although I understand the reasons and will always advocate that a womanās body is her to control (no one else), the act of aborting means a human life will not come into being.
Have never really thought of it that way (hard to measure potential. Some say impossible)
My position is not that it the destruction of human life, but of life per se. Not something I support without very good reason. EG self defence, executing murderers for gain, peadophiles, that kind of thing.
The rub is apart from the bleedinā obvious, who gets to judge? Itā all too hard for me .None of my business.
In some arguments I attempt to place myself in the shoes of the other.
For the female, I donāt want any stranger dictating what will be done to my reproductive organs. They are part of me, my body, go away. Imagine if some groups debated messing with menās junk.
Planned parenthood promotes the concept that if a male sires two offspring, then he is sterilized? Any objections? Absolutely, many who represent males would state āthis is my body, you can not control me. You are taking away my rights (or some other drivel)ā. The point is that many people have no problem dictating to others and attempting to intrude into their bodies. But they are hypocritical when that is applied to them.
And I extend that point of view to the unborn baby. What if that had been me? I would have never existed.
That is the bottom line and I am in complete agreement.
Is it possibly a sign of maturity that one is able to what he thinks is right rather than what he feels is right? (assuming thereās a conflict)
I suspect that might depend on the depth of the feelings of moral certitude. For example, Iām not sure I could remain in a marriage/partnership in which my wife/ partner had unilaterally decided and had an abortion. Intellectually, it is my position that such a decision belongs only to the pregnant female. Emotionally, that is not what I feel, and I cannot control what feel. I have never been able to force myself to feel anything.
All I can say is that Iām grateful I have never found myself in that position.
Since not being a Christian I have changed my stance on a lot of things, and now abortion as well.
Yes, I know, how misogynistic of me, but I use to believe that if it is Godās will to allow a pregnancy then it is a womanās obligation to go through with it. Some f#cked up mental gymnastics I know.
Fortunately I no longer hold that opinion and I like the way that @David_Killens described it
Our atheism only means the rejection of the claim that a deity exists based on a lack of evidence, but since rejecting my previous convictions I find myself open to reason and welcome the challenge of my previous held ideas.
āCriticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower.ā
ā Karl Marx
Growing up religious abortion was definitely wrong and it was killing a baby. No one feels āeasyā about killing a baby. I had read ādiary of an unborn childā many a timeā¦the hopes and dreams of the baby, each day it wondering how loving itās parents would be and the exploration of the world god created, and then 
its last entry ā¦ āToday my mother killed meā.
Iād cry for that baby and felt a righteous anger for the worldly woman that deserved to die at Armageddon. This whole wicked satanic world deserved Gods day of judgement for legalizing such wickedness.
āāāā
Interestingly enough, cognitively the developing fetus couldnāt āthinkā in the terms I was lead to believe it could. I didnāt understand at the time it was a manipulative pull on my empathy and ability to āput myself in the otherās shoeā. Except it wasnāt equal. It was me, with my fully developed brain, and ability to form and understand thoughts, and my experience in the world being projected onto a fetus that had none of that ability. I was never āput in the otherās shoeā when it came to the equal, the woman, who had to make this type of decision.
The fetus doesnāt āknowā that it will never exist or come into being, no more than the sperm would - had ādadā jerked off before doing mom and lost that special swimmer that made it to the egg. Our ābeingā is a numerical close-to-impossibility AND yet here we are.
Quite frankly, I havenāt been in the position of making this type of decision. Iād like to imagine that under any circumstance Iād remain pregnant 
. I love human life. However, I canāt say for sureā¦ it was something my reality never presented to me.
It is kind of my stock reply to this original question.
What a woman does with her body is entirely her business.
It is not a subject that I can have anything but an outsiders opinion.
How about we pass a law giving a committee of female psychologists and doctors the power to regulate the male sex/social life? They would consider standards of physical and mental maturity, decide whether an ability to process alcohol is a factor, deciding whether, should you accidentally impregnate someone, the father can afford to pay for the child. Even decide whether they are capable of making decisions for a child until majority.
You like that idea? No?
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Yea, I know what you mean. I still have a piece of coat hanger in my ear.
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Indeed.
A woman once said something like: " If men gave birth, abortions would be available at any supermarket" ( I forget who, or when I saw it)
Instead, one of the least important yet most lucrative discoveries by any drug company was how to give rich white blokes erections by simply swallowing a pill.
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I absolutely loved this.
The facial expressions are bang on!
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Pickle me grandmother. I just had to have a look at that.
Context: l once had a catheter for about 12 hours. I one point I got the nurse to give me an injection of lignocaine I think-------
Next morning, nurse came in to remove the catheter āThis wonāt hurtā he lied. Fucking did hurt.
It was a bladder operation. They gave me these pills to deacidify my urine. With an enviable talent for understatement, the surgeon said āit might sting for a few daysā. Fainted the first time I urinated.
So, no Cranky would not have had even one child.
it is true that birth control pills are supposed to stop the woman from ovulatingā¦ to prevent pregnancyā¦ but sometimes an egg will come downā¦ it will be fertilized by a sperm after sexā¦ but this little āzygoteā or tiny āembryoā will not stick to the lining of the uterusā¦ if people believe life begins at conceptionā¦ this woman is having like mini abortionsā¦ of course people who believe in godā think that this 'god ā wants a man and a a woman to āmake love and make a babyāā¦ but these nasty people just want to fuck cus it feels good and then if a baby starts to grow they donāt give a flying fuck just pay someone to have the stupid little ābabyāll sucked out of the womanās uterus and thrown into the trash canā¦that is what an abortion isā¦ by the way ia m playing the devil here. i am a Believerā¦ i think Atheists are liarsā¦ of course they know there is a Godā¦ they are just pretending there isnāt cus they are afraid of going to Hell probablyā¦ they just sayāthere is no godāā¦ cop outā¦
I am an atheist. Are you calling me a liar?
Your logic is not there. If I was truly afraid of going to hell, wouldnāt I be doing everything possible to avoid such a fate instead of inviting certain doom?
Your statement is not rational or logical.
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Why did you choose to debate people you believe to be liars?
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What a deeply ignorant and stupid claim to make. Itās whatās called an unfalsifiable claim. You know, like; Thereās a god/there is no god. This means that the claim cannot be demonstrated to be either true or false.
I not going to waste my time defending my lack of belief. I truly could not care less about your personal superstitions. That includes the unfounded claim that human life begins at conception.
Yes, I find your ignorance and lack of sensitivity insulting. However, as insults go, itās pretty lame compared with other insults Iāve had from other loving christians who I donāt know and will probably never meet.
The most appropriate conclusion which comes to mind seems to be from scripture: Mathew 7:5 : āThou hypocrite , first cast out the beam out of thine own eye ; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brotherās eye .ā (KJV)