# Abortion hypothetical: Would you consider this a good situation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 30, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558 "2015-07-30T04:23:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/41 "2015-07-30T16:47:53Z")
As a could never ever happen scenario I guess it is OK to choose to have every defective baby there is. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/42 "2015-07-30T20:59:48Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > A choice is a choice. What’s the problem? That’s how I voted. Now, the hypothetical is untenable. What if we had lots and lots of guns…but no murders? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Well, sure: show me how we get there. What if the nations of the world had huge armies…but there were no wars? Hey, great! I also want a pony. The hypothetical requires an impossible change in human nature. Communism was based on a similar fantasy: what if all people simply agreed on economic decisions and public policy, because they understood the wisdom of the collective? Yeah, and what if everyone shit diamonds, too… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/43 "2015-07-30T21:10:04Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Yeah, and what if everyone shit diamonds, too… Ouch!! Gluttony would definitely be its own punishment. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/44 "2015-07-30T21:26:10Z")
I’m pro-choice from a legal/voting perspective… but personally am about as opposed to abortion as it is possible to get. The OP’s scenario is the only solution that would make me truly happy. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/45 "2015-07-30T22:11:31Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The question we are being asked is: if you think it’s wrong that service X is available, is is still wrong if service X becomes universally available, but then nobody lines up to use it. > > i.e. is it the availability of abortion that Pro-lifers think is wrong, or is it the fact that people make use of that availability. Make use, of course. Abortions didn’t suddenly become morally objectionable when they moved from illegal to legally permissible. If no one had an abortion due to no pregnancy being unwanted and every baby and mother being healthy, it wouldn’t matter to me in the slightest if there were still laws on the book to permit them. Bear in mind, though, I’m very pro-life (while there are other reasons I wouldn’t contemn someone for having an abortion, I do not think that abortions are moral for _any_ reason other than sparing a very ill or damaged baby a life of unremitting pain) but I would be happy if there were very few abortions because there are very few unwanted pregnancies _in the first place_, so I don’t object to the vast majority of birth control types; the POV of someone who is pro-life and anti-birth control might well be very different than mine. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/46 "2015-07-30T22:22:16Z")
I don’t buy that it WOULD be voluntary. The poll doesn’t have a valid option for my opinion so I chose the last one. Abortion is a medical procedure that is sometimes necessary. In 1993 I was pregnant with my second child. I was told early on I SHOULD abort, that there was something wrong early on but I felt like being a hero and taking the risk. And everything was going fine (in my addled opinion) until around the 20th week, thereupon I almost died because my pregnancy had (that of course, should not have been carried on so long) become toxic. The outcome was not one of those pretty inspiring stories. And that’s all I gotta say about it. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/47 "2015-07-30T22:29:14Z")
A lot of the people who would have been aborted but aren’t for some reason turn out to suck, so the scenario where they are all born anyway is worse. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/48 "2015-07-30T23:41:36Z")
Taking the hypothetical as given, I’d have to think that the reason that abortion became rare to the point of extinction was that we finally ALSO had completely accessible, safe, and effective birth control, and therefore all pregnancies are wanted pregnancies. So **of course** I think that’s great! Why opt for surgery when prevention will do? Of course this doesn’t cover cases where medical problems aren’t known / don’t manifest until you’re already pregnant. I got no explanation for that. And I sure wouldn’t expect women to voluntarily risk their lives or give themselves death sentences for their pregnancy. If the mother dies, in many cases so does the fetus, so what’s to be gained from that? ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558/49 "2015-07-30T23:42:21Z")
It’s not a useful hypothetical, really. I hate to fight it, but there are just too very many ways that an earnestly wanted and anticipated pregnancy can result in an abortion for me to do otherwise. For example, I carry a genetic disorder - I know this for fact. I’ve done the tests and everything. It results in a birth defect that is _inevitably fatal in a horrifying manner_. Not always, but a high enough percentage of the time that several doctors have suggested pretty firmly that I should consider how I might handle an Unfortunate Prenatal Test Result in advance of having to face it down in real time. As it happens, I _also_ have unrelated fertility issues so I’ve never had to face it down, but my sister has. She and her husband chose to terminate the very, very wanted and anticipated pregnancy. It was brutal on them, but they don’t regret the decision. There are also a number of ways - several of which people discussed earlier in this thread - where even a much-wanted pregnancy can develop a serious risk to the mother’s life. Pregnancy and childbirth carry inherent risk, even in perfectly healthy women who are assiduously tending their own health and the health of their child. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-hypothetical-would-you-consider-this-a-good-situation/726558.md?page=2)