That’s what you get from a casual poll with only seven choices in single sentences. Obviously most issues don’t boil down to simple choices like this, so you can either choose the closest answer to what you believe OR you can answer unsure, which no one has, because really, it’s the internet, what’s the point in an unsure answer?
Poll probably should include something to reflect the status quo. Legal in all circumstances for the first 6 months, only for compelling reasons after that.
However, as has been pointed out, not too many women who have gone through 6 or more months of pregnancy are suddenly going to want an abortion for non-compelling reasons after that.
At this point there are 34 Dopers who would favor at least some restrictions on abortion…Where have they been hiding?
They’ve been hiding? Seriously? I’m pretty sure I could name them without checking the poll, just like you could probably make a reasonable guess as to some people who voted “no restrictions”.
I’m in favor of 3rd trimester restrictions, but not the restrictions mentioned in the poll. I voted for the restrictions option anyway. However I suspect others who favor similar limits may not have, given the restrictions offered in the poll.
Sure there are a handful, but 34? Did Sam Stone vote 34 times ? 
I put legal with some restrictions because “all circumstances” is really really broad.
Legal in all circumstances.
Hon, for the most part pregnant women are “voting with their feet”. They are the pregnant ones, they possess the authority to make the decisions not only legally but pragmatically. For the overwhelming most part, no one is forcing them to go into abortion clinics and have abortions. In the absence of deliberate interference, therefore, some pregnant women DO abort.
I don’t merely think it “should be” her decision, I am observing that it IS her decision to make. Opponents to abortion don’t possess the wherewithal to stop them, not without imposing a police state and clamping down on the practice of medicine and monitoring the hell out of citizens’ behaviors in a fashion that most people, regardless of how they feel about abortion rights, would resent as an intrusion.
(Could you inconvenience a lot of people and reduce the quality affordability and safety of abortions by making them illegal? Yeah. But women would still be getting 'em.)
I don’t know of anyone who thinks that abortion would disappear if you made it illegal, so that argument is just a red herring. Rape, thievery, speeding, and mattress tag tearing all go on in the presence of laws banning them, so abortion would be no different.
I agree with the previous poster, though. You’ve simply stated that it is a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body. That is what the whole debate is about: should it legally be that way.
Damn few, I’m sure, but that wasn’t really my point.
The person to whom I was responding said that “it is a woman’s choice, because she’s had PMS, UTIs, periods, etc.”. (paraphrasing).
Read first. Then flame.
Then what was? If we agree that there isn’t really such a thing as a whimsical 39th week abortion, then why do you feel the need to legislate it?
I don’t think your post makes sense.
Women are voting with their feet and having abortions. Well that means, maybe, that that is how THEY would vote.
But the debate is about whether they SHOULD be legal or not or have restrictions. The women having abortions wouldn’t be the only ones voting. Maybe you think that only women SHOULD vote on such an issue or that it is a constitutional “right”, but that’s what the debate is about. Some people don’t necessarily think it’s a constitutional right.
It’s like saying “pot should be legal because some people are smoking it now they would most likely vote to make it legal”.
No problem. If there’s a war going on and I get drafted, I’ll just inform them that it’s my right to do what I want with my body. That’ll work.
Or if I want to smoke pot, I’ll just say “it’s my right to do with my body”. That should work too.
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I’d appreciate it if you didn’t characterize me as imagining very pregnant women “gleefully” trotting off to their “whimsical” abortions.
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Where have I said that I think it would be a good idea to legislate it? I voted “legal in all circumstances,” and I meant it.
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That said, if there were no legal restrictions to very late term abortions, then there would be more very late term (discretionary) abortions than there are now. If someone thinks that that sort of thing is objectionable and should *not *be legal, then it doesn’t really matter that it’s rare.
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“bri1600bv’s question was not a red herring, but rather directly on point: ‘Legal in all circumstances’ would represent a significant departure from current U.S. law. I would wager that a significant percentage of the people who voted for that option did not have it in mind to include women in their 39th week of pregnancy who appear to be on track for a perfectly safe delivery – hence, a clarification was in order.”
That was my original point.
I wasn’t sure about what mandatory meant. If it meant doctors cannot refuse to perform abortions, then I would agree with that. Christian Science doctors should not be allowed licenses.
Most people who want to make abortion illegal seem to think that doing so would reduce the number of abortions performed. I think that we’d have about the same number of abortions, maybe a few less, but that they’d just be performed by an underground. Performing an abortion is really pretty easy, technically, and doesn’t require a lot of training, from what I understand. By having abortions legal, we can regulate who does them, and how they’re done.
By the way, it’s perfectly legal FOR THE CONSUMER to remove the tags from mattresses and pillows. The tag is there to inform the consumer just what the mattress is made of, and that the mattress is new.
Legal in all circumstances.
This was the beginning of my slide into liberal thinking. My father, devoutly Christian, convinced me. His argument, in its entirety was that people were going to get abortions whether or not they were legal, and it was better that abortions were legal and safe than girls die with their unborn infant from alleyway hack. He’d be overjoyed if no one ever had another abortion, and the procedure became something studied only as theroy, but no one has managed to convince either him, or me, that outlawing it will eliminate it.
I tried to sit on the fence for awhile, honestly. It was a women’s issue, and I didn’t feel I had a right to take a stand on it. A very pro-life co-worker pointed out that was essentially the same position as pro-choice. For some reason she suprised when she convinced me that she was correct, and simply held that position. I wonder what she thought I’d do, have a change of heart over a name?
I’d still be completely happy if I heard that no one wanted an abortion for the last year. Utterly shocked, but happy. Doesn’t mean that the option should be removed.
ETA: I had not seen bri1600bv’s posts when I wrote this. Just wanted that on the record.
I am for “legal in all circumstances” with the understanding that it is a medical procedure and should be governed by medical case specific considerations.
eta I’m neither christian nor churchy, but it does say this in genesis:
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
So I’m thinking, no breath = no living soul, if you want to go strictly ‘by the book’