Keep it to yourself! Better yet, DON'T DO IT!

Great Debates
1

Okay, I’m posting this here because I have a feeling that it will turn into a GD.

I was at work last night. I normally sell computers, but I was up at the customer service desk because: a) a customer who had just bought a computer had some questions and b) the customer service girl is SOOO hot.

Anyway, I’m helping this customer, who is quite visibly pregnant, 6th or 7th month, probably. We’re just about finished up, when the pregnant lady’s sister asks me what time it is. I tell her it’s almost nine. The following dialogue ensues:

Sis: Oh, good, *Wild Oats[/i} is open until 10, I think.
Preg: What now?
Sis: We need to go abortion shopping!
Preg: Oh, yeah!

I bit my lip, finished up the paperwork, and walked away.

I cannot fucking believe this person.

I cannot believe her. Believe what you will about abortion, I’m not going to be able to change your opinion about it one way or the other.

But I believe abortion is wrong.

Especially late term abortion. Pull the baby out, rip open it’s neck, suck it’s brains out with a vaccuum, and throw the body in a dumpster. Either that, or sell it for beauty supplies.

Where the fuck does this woman get off? I don’t give a flying shit about you, your computer, or your life, but for shit’s sake, don’t go running your fucking mouth in the middle of the fucking store, loud enough for everyone around to hear you about something like this.

If you don’t want the kid, wait nine months, dope yourself up, squeeze it out, and send it off to one of the millions of people who can’t have their own, who would DIE to have this baby you are going to dispose of like so much garbage. How can you have so little respect for another human being, yes, that’s right. It may not be born, but it’s still a human-in-the-making. How can you have so little respect for another human being that you would deny them so much as a right to live. Not so much live, but even to be born. No one has a right to live, as the quote goes, but geez, you at least have a right to be born.

If you are so fucking irresponsible about having sex that you go and get pregnant, that is YOUR problem. Killing the baby is the pussy way out. Adoption is such a good solution. Everyone wins. Dammit. Dammit, dammit dammit. These people, how can they respect themselves? How can you live day after day, knowing you denied someone who was perfectly innocent the right to do the same.

Have some respect for yourself. Have some respect for those who can’t fend for themselves. Please consider adoption!

How can someone be so incredibly self centered, care so little for anyone save themselves, and be so irresponsible that they would get themselves pregnant, then just ditch the kid? I pray for these people. Well, I don’t, but I should.

–Tim

BTW, babies from rape, incest, abuse, or known before birth to have severe physical or mental handicap should be considered special case.

You can’t accidently create a handicapped baby whilst smoking pot. - Coldfire

2

Homer, are you sure you heard her correctly?
Wild Oats where I live is an organic grocery store. People don’t go abortion shopping, esp. at 9:00 at night.
Maybe she said grocery shopping.
Peace,
mangeorge (nevermind)

I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000

3

First: Did you bother to ask the pregnant lady if it were his baby to be aborted?

Second: Did you bother to ask the pregant lady if the pregnancy had been the result of “rape, incest, abuse, or known before birth to have severe physical or mental handicap?”

Third: So are you saying that abortion is wrong because the fetus is a human but if said fetus is the result of “rape, incest, abuse, or known before birth to have severe physical or mental handicap” then it’s really not human after all?

Fourth: “Dope up?” Right, and how many folks are going to adopt straight away a “crack baby?”

Fifth: Actually, I see this heading quite rapidly for the BBQ Pit.

4

But first my posting has to detour to S&G Class, due to my using the wrong pronoun in

Obviously, the correct pronoun is her.

5

Regardless of what you think of abortion, the conversation, as you report it, doesn’t make a ton of sense. (Witness the transition from health food store to abortion-- huh?) Did it ever occur to you that you may have misheard her? Oh, and secondly, what business is it of yours? That’s right – none. Your views of abortion apparently include a belief that those whose views may differ from yours have an obligation to be quiet about it. Well, they don’t. She can run her “fucking” mouth off about any subject she pleases, and if you don’t approve of it – tough shit. It might in fact be an inappropriate topic for public conversation in your opinion, and in mine, but that is the only way in which I agree with you. My reaction to your post is profound gratitude for the fact that you cannot decide for that woman what she does with her own body – or me with mine.

Jodi

Fiat Justitia

6

You certainly are entitled to your views. But I really, really strongly suspect that you misheard the lady. Really.

This is my new sig. Thank Wally. It was his idea.
“I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.”

7

Homer, you’re not just jumping to conclusions, you’re positively wearing Seven League Boots to get there.

I see several possibilities here: a) you flat out misheard what the sister said. b)Even if the words “abortion shopping” were used, you have no idea who the abortion was for - it could very well have been for the sister of the very pregnant woman - or for someone else entirely. Or c)from something in your conversation, the sister decided you were a jerk and said it just to yank your chain. I’d say she did a pretty good job of it.

8

Hellfire, even if you did hear her correctly, it could have been some sort of inside joke between her and her sister for all you know. Whatever you may feel about abortion or any other issue, passing judgement on someone you don’t even know based on a single overheard sentence on a topic that was none of your business to begin with is a sign that you need something worthwhile to be outraged about. Bite your lip and let it pass.

Heck is where you go when you don’t believe in Gosh.

9

6th or 7th month??? A third trimester abortion?? You definitely mis-heard her.

I guess another possibility is that the term “abortion shopping” was an inside joke with them. If they were going to the grocery store, maybe there was a joke between them that foods like peas, or other “seed” foods, are “aborted” plants.

Something is definitely missing from the story as you related it.

10

Bean sprouts! I’ll bet they were referring to bean sprouts when they said let’s go “abortion shopping”!

11

Are third trimester abortions even legal? I didn’t think they were legal after ten weeks (2.5 mo. not 6) except in the most dire circumstances (mother’s life, rape etc.) Furthermore, since the doctor has no idea when a chick REALLY got pregnant, they go by the size of the fetus and they are really conservative.

I drove a girl to get an abortion one time (again, it wasn’t mine) and they almost wouldn’t let her because even though she had only been pregnant for 6 weeks, the fetus was larger than average for that time.

My X got knocked up once while we were married and it turned out to be ectopic. It damn near killed her too. No, it wasn’t a planned pregnancy. It happened only once in five years. Would we/she have gotten an abortion if we had the option? Maybe.

12

This thread really does remind me of the Rosanna Danna (you know who I mean) skits on the old “Saturday Night Live” show.
Peace,
mangeorge

13

I hope that you just misheard some aside joke, because, as a student of herbal medicine, what’s available at Wild Oats in that advanced a stage is not to be toyed with at home. To be truthful, at an earlier stage, there are herbals that will work.

As to your OP, many women end up in a situation where their pregnancies are not the best situation to bring a child into the world. I believe in the sanctity of life, from conception, but wouldn’t impose it upon everyone. Until equity is established in paternal responsibility, with all the major social adjustments that will entail, leave that decision up to women. If you really have an issue with it, direct your efforts to all children , and women, who have been abandoned by their other half.

14

I would imagine it’s an inside joke. I remember a tasteless (and not actually very funny) abortion joke from my teenage years where a man in an abortion clinic eats what he thinks are tomatoes while observers watch in horror. For a while after that, we used to call tomatoes “abortions”.

It could also have been a prank to observe your reaction.

Whatever the explanation, as other posters have pointed out, late-term abortions just don’t happen unless the woman’s life is in grave danger. So… barring true lunacy, I don’t imagine they were being serious.

15

If this is exactly what they said (and I strongly suspect you misheard, or they were using some bizarre “joke” term, etc.) then it could be the other way around. Sis was maybe 4 weeks pregnant, and wanted to go to Wild Oats to take some herbs to abort it. I seriously doubt that Preg was going to take herbs to abort the baby. Too late for herbs, I agree. (Think about it - if she took herbs, she’d have a still birth, right? The fetus is too big to slip out painlessly at that advanced stage. Sounds messy, painful and terribly risky method of getting rid of the baby.) I firmly believe Preg was not going to Wild Oats to get abortion herbs. I FIRMLY believe that.

I do understand your distress over hearing it, though. I think abortion is creepy, (unless absolutely necessary) especially late term. Hell, I doubt any of us think it’s peachy keen. It saddens me. But - I cannot dictate what another individual, with problems that I don’t know about, should do. It’s a very sticky and delicate situation. I don’t have to like hearing about it, though. And it’ll never not distress me.

Elelle hit the nail on the head, for everyone:

Exactly! Abortion is a “symptom” (in many cases) of a woman being pushed against the wall, feeling she has no other option. We need to be the “cure” by being more involved in the way Elelle specified.

Polydactyl Cats Unlimited
“A Cat Cannot Have Too Many Toes”

16

Monty, you just became one of my favorite posters. This logic has never made any sense to me. In fact, I find it downright hypocritical. You can’t say that all life is precious and then list the exceptions.

Anyway, back to the “abortion shopping” discussion.

“You don’t have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die.” --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

17

First guess: It was a private joke.
Second guess: you heard it wrong.

Sitting here with Webster’s Rhyming Dictionary in my hand:

[ul][li]“We need to go apportion shopping…” They’re involved in a city council debate on apportionment…[/li][li]“We need to go extortion shopping…” They need a blackmailer, but where can you get one at 10:00 at night?[/li][li]“We need to go contortion shopping…” Ditto for contortionists…[/li][li]“We need to go proportion shopping…” Proportion shopping is where you need one size for the top of a swimsuit and another size for the bottom. And she’s hugely preg, so nothing off the rack will fit…[/li][li]“We need to go distortion shopping…” They both work in TV journalism…[/ul][/li]
Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

18

Homer- Let me congratulate you on your eloquence. Any woman who thinks she has a “right” to murder ANY unborn child for her own convenience deserves to burn in hell for eternity. As for births from rape or incest,the child can’t be blamed for how it was conceived.The mother should get counseling,but let the baby live!

19

…and Homer heard:
Homer, let me come felate you and your elephants.

20

Hahahahehehehahahaha!

Several people just popped their heads into my office to see what was wrong with me.

:wink:

PeeQueue