# Abortion: Murder or Woman's Right?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [January 7, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386 "2000-01-07T23:21:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Juniorbunk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniorbunk777)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/1 "2000-01-07T23:21:00Z")
Just kidding.
* * *
“The Good deserve a higher plane of existence than this life can offer, The Bad an even higher.”
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### Author:  [@Phaedrus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phaedrus)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/2 "2000-01-07T23:23:00Z")
Whew!
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### Author:  [@Juniorbunk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniorbunk777)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/3 "2000-01-07T23:29:00Z")
I’m a newbie, not a dumbass…but, P…watch this ACTUALLY TURN INTO A HEATED DEBATE!
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/4 "2000-01-07T23:32:00Z")
How about retroactive abortion?
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### Author:  [@Phaedrus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phaedrus)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/5 "2000-01-07T23:32:00Z")
Yeah, Junior, watch is all I’m GONNA do!
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### Author:  [@Sake\_Samurai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sake_Samurai)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/6 "2000-01-07T23:45:00Z")
Five little words for you, my friends: **Sterilization!**
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Hell is Other People.
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### Author:  [@royalbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/royalbill)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2000, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/7 "2000-01-07T23:53:00Z")
WHAT!!!
Are you all too chicken to debate this one?
Bok bok bok
(You’ll notice I certainly didn’t start it)
B^D
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### Author:  [@Juniorbunk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniorbunk777)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/8 "2000-01-08T00:39:00Z")
Nope. No abortion for me. I’ll just stick to the more mundane debates…the possible existance of a god, etc.
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### Author:  [@Pariah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pariah)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/9 "2000-01-08T00:46:00Z")
Hmmm…
\
Okay, seems safe enough. Here’s my answer:
> [@](#):
>
> Abortion: Murder or Woman’s Right?
**Answer:** Yes.
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### Author:  [@royalbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/royalbill)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/10 "2000-01-08T01:14:00Z")
Okay you chickens…I’ll start.
Abortion is murder of a living soul.
{Ducking for cover}
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Heaven…One to beam up!
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### Author:  [@THRIFTY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THRIFTY)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/11 "2000-01-08T01:20:00Z")
Abortion is Murder
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“Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
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### Author:  [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/12 "2000-01-08T02:45:00Z")
Dear David B:
This thread is stillborn. I do not believe it would impinge on anyone’s morals to put it to rest.
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### Author:  [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/13 "2000-01-08T02:51:00Z")
Abortion sucks.
But far be it for me to tell someone else what to do with their fetus that is dependent on that person for several months where the feuts cannot survive without being directly inside the person, and the dozen plus years it’ll need more help to survive outside of the person.
Yep, that make me pro-choice. But not pro-abortion.
Zank you, I be here all ze week…
* * *
Yer pal,
Satan
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/14 "2000-01-08T03:51:00Z")
Let’s define when “life” begins…is it at conception?
Or when the child draws its first breath?
The bible says the latter.
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If you can’t convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. Truman
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### Author:  [@Juniorbunk777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniorbunk777)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/15 "2000-01-08T04:12:00Z")
Hey, Phaedrus…are you seeing this? Let’s go somewhere, the two of us…somewhere safe. You have a bomb shelter left over from Y2K?
Wadda buncha’…
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### Author:  [@Cooper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cooper)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/16 "2000-01-08T06:25:00Z")
Ha ha funny, not just funny.
What am I going to do with you kids.
wait, i have an idea…
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### Author:  [@royalbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/royalbill)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/17 "2000-01-08T07:45:00Z")
Now if abortion is okay, why not allow parents a period after birth to change thier minds, and abort the kid after birth…
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### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/18 "2000-01-08T07:47:00Z")
My $.02-
There is almost **no difference** between a baby at five minutes before birth and five minutes after birth.
Both times, the baby is a baby, and should live.
Pro-choicers- If you were pregnant with a child you wanted, what would be your reaction if you miscarried? Since the baby isn’t “alive,” it’s no big deal, right? Hmmmm…
::braces himself::
* * *
JMcC, San Francisco, [JJM’s page from the Bay](http://members.tripod.com/~weirdstuff/index.html)
If I were beaned with a fastball, fling my limp, lifeless body to first, cause, dammit, I earned it!
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### Author:  [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/19 "2000-01-08T21:32:00Z")
royalbill: Straw man. You’ll have to do better than that.
jjtm: It’s simple, really.
In one case, a woman decides that what is in her body is a fetus, cannot see it as a child, only a burden. She makes a decision with her body.
In the other case, the woman sees the fetus as a child. Looks forward to it, names it, buys colthes and a crib… And it’s taken away from her. She makes no decision with her body.
## Totally consistant…
Yer pal,
Satan
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### Author:  [@Holly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Holly)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2000, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abortion-murder-or-womans-right/17386/20 "2000-01-08T22:56:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> There is almost no difference between a baby at five minutes before birth and five minutes after birth.
> Both times, the baby is a baby, and should live.
I don’t think anyone is arguing that a fetus isn’t alive, jjtm. What people argue about is whether or not the fetus is a separate human being. Five minutes before birth, the fetus is unlike a baby in this way: it still depends on its mother for all of its bodily functions; she is a human life-support machine for it. For many people, this is the difference that makes the fetus somewhat less than a separate human being.
Life does not begin at conception. You can certainly argue and believe that HUMAN life begins at conception, that is the fertilized egg IS a human being. This is a matter of faith and/or opinion, as is the opinion that human life does not begin until the unbilical cord is cut. Life does not begin at conception, though: the sperm and the egg are each alive before conception.
A brain tumor is also very much alive, but we have no qualms about destroying it. Life isn’t the issue; we simply can’t get everyone to agree on when humanity begins.
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