Not deliberately, no. Did you read my contribution? I’m certain there are people who choose abortion for selfish reasons, and I see no reason to avoid that possibility. I did my best to include a range of options, and admitted the list could have been very long and still missed several reasons. My own best friend for instance, is a kind hearted and loving human being… to adults. And she had an abortion without consent of her partner precisely because “I like my life just the way it is, and a child would fuck up my whole world.” And still… she is a kind, responsible, caring programmer for an environmental non-profit.
Figuring out how to create a non-biased poll that covers the whole spectrum of options is difficult. And since this one is anonymous, it is entirely possible someone will admit abortion for selfish reasons. It is what it is.
This is not selfish. Conflating “selfish” with “never wanted to share my world with a child” in the poll option is the problem. There is nothing inherently selfish about not wanting to share your world with a child.
Interesting that “no, would carry to term” is (slightly) beaten out by “no, but would terminate”.
Also, one’s answer might change depending on circumstances. An unplanned pregnancy when we were newlyweds would have gotten a different answer than an unplanned pregnancy now - at age 50+ it’d be rather unlikely to be an issue, but if it DID happen, our circumstances are such that another child would not be the best addition to the family (not to mention, the possiblity that I might not survive…).
I really don’t know how to qualify her actions and attitude without maligning a loving, giving, caring person. But she claims to hate children, and refers to herself as selfish and self-centered. In reality she is neither, she is simply a solitary soul who will help anyone out when they are in need, but who finds children incredibly tedious. I would never call her selfish; it is the word She uses to describe herself with regards to her decsion to remain child-free.
Having said that: I am certain there are persons in the world who would abort because they are self-centered and feel they could not provide the proper love and attention a child needs to thrive.
There are also people who have children for selfish reasons; either for financial gain or attention. Cuts both ways and you’ll find no judgment from me, no matter how you parse the choices I provided. There are far too many reasons to choose an abortion, and an equal number of reasons to choose to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term to list them all here.
I clicked heritable birth defects but that’s not really accurate.
She was on several types of medication, each of which had tremendous potential for severe birth defects. We might have considered abortion anyway but the knowledge that the baby was almost certainly screwed from the medications made it a very quick choice.
Wait - I choose not to have children because I do not feel that I would be a good parent. I couldn’t provide what a child needs: “the proper love and attention”. Is it selfish not to bring a child into these less than ideal circumstances? Why is this selfish when not having it because I can’t afford it isn’t, according to your poll? It’s just as much (if not more) a failure to provide.