# S.D. Gov'r "inclined" to ban abortions, shoves head up ass **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 25, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066 "2006-02-25T13:49:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/201 "2006-02-27T05:00:26Z")
Having a baby and leaving it in a dumpster is avoiding all responsibility. Having an abortion \*is \* accepting responsibility, whether you happen to feel that way or not. I’ll not be arguing the point with you any further, as I’m sure that there’s a wall somewhere more receptive to any amount of reason I can transmit to it via repeated collisions with my skull. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/202 "2006-02-27T05:02:13Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > Feasible? > > Feasible? > > All children are a gift. Should we abort blind or deaf or handicapped children? So I should endanger my health and possibly my life just because YOU think a child is a “gift”? Not ALL children are gifts. Don’t give me that sentimental clap trap. Who’s going to pay for that child? Who’s going to pay for my prenatal care? You? Are you willing to support said child? Then shut the goddamn fuck up. ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/203 "2006-02-27T05:02:24Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Having a baby and leaving it in a dumpster is avoiding all responsibility. Having an abortion \*is \* accepting responsibility, whether you happen to feel that way or not. I’ll not be arguing the point with you any further, as I’m sure that there’s a wall somewhere more receptive to any amount of reason I can transmit to it via repeated collisions with my skull. HOW is it accepting responsibility? Do explain. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/204 "2006-02-27T05:04:04Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > HOW is it accepting responsibility? Do explain. There are different types of responsibility. How thick are you? Just because YOU say there’s a responsibility to raise a child, doesn’t make it so. Why do YOU think someone has a duty to reproduce when they do not wish to? ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/205 "2006-02-27T05:07:50Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > HOW is it accepting responsibility? Do explain. I gave a few reasons, which i’ll let you off not reading since this thread is moving pretty fast - > [@Me](#): > > It is evading the responsibility of raising a child, and the physical effects of pregnancy and birth, and being able to live with that choice. > > It is taking on the responsibility of the physical effects of abortion, and, depending on your beliefs, killing/removing a foetus/child/groups of cells/potential child, and being able to live with that choice. > > Both also have the responsibility of making that choice, unless it is mandated one way or the other. > [@Updike](#): > > All children are a gift. Should we abort blind or deaf or handicapped children? I’m going to give you a gift of a rabid, rabies carrying wolf. And you’ll have to pick it up yourself - I hope you have a truck and not a car, that could be awkward. Are you capable of looking after my gift? What will you do with my generous gift? ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/206 "2006-02-27T05:12:43Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > There are different types of responsibility. How thick are you? Just because YOU say there’s a responsibility to raise a child, doesn’t make it so. > > Why do YOU think someone has a duty to reproduce when they do not wish to? My, you’re dense. No one has a duty to repdrouce. But if you do have sex, then you are completely responsible for the consequences thereof. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/207 "2006-02-27T05:14:32Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > My, you’re dense. No one has a duty to repdrouce. But if you do have sex, then you are completely responsible for the consequences thereof. Of course. And I’ll take care of those consequences. In some cases, it means keeping the child. In some, it means giving the child up for adoption. In other cases, it means having an early term abortion. ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/208 "2006-02-27T05:18:48Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Of course. And I’ll take care of those consequences. In some cases, it means keeping the child. In some, it means giving the child up for adoption. In other cases, it means having an early term abortion. Why only an early term abortion? How about a late term abortion, say eight months in? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/209 "2006-02-27T05:20:49Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > Why only an early term abortion? How about a late term abortion, say eight months in? Because by then, you have a being that is capable of existing outside of me, that is viable, has brain functioning, etc. Early on, all you have are some cells that may or MAY NOT (remember, many fertilized eggs don’t implant, and most miscarriages occur early on) develop into a baby. Also, why would I want to wait? Why shouldn’t I go and get it taken care of as soon as possible? ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/210 "2006-02-27T05:23:49Z")
> [@moonstarssun](#): > > But I’m vehemently pro-choice, and I find it particularly disgusting when men get on the pro-life bandwagon. Guys, do you know what it’s like to be pregnant? How it completely takes over your body? How terrifying it is? And do you have any idea how scary and painful it is to have an abortion? Of course you don’t, and you can’t. So don’t talk about how abortion is the “easy” or “irresponsible” way out. Once you’re pregnant, there’s no easy way for it to end. Seriously. It’s almost the point where I don’t care what males have to say on the issue of abortion. I used to be pro-life. I was so pro-life that I went to Marches, carried around a little “right to life” pin with me everywhere and argued incessantly with my classmates about the issue. When I was 20 I got heavily involved with a young man. There was talk of marriage and we lived with his parents who actively encouraged us. At one point his dad told me that he would pay me to have kids (extra if it was a son). They said that they would raise them for us while we completed our schooling. Although I didn’t want children, I thought that I was prepared to have a child if one should happen accidently. I would love to get my tubes tied, but doctors don’t perform that on girls as young as me. We used birth control and behaved fairly responsibility for two young kids really in love/lust for the first time. However, in the heat of passion we could occasionally get careless. Once there was an incident where we were worried that sperm had gotten into my vagina. Even though I was pro-life, even though I had people promising to raise any kids for me, even though I was in an exclusive committed relationship with my guy the first thought that crossed my mind when I considered the possibility that I might be pregnant was abortion. If you had told me even a week before that I would consider abortion I would have laughed at you. Even now, that the danger has long since passed I find it personally morally reprehensible. But it’s different when you are sitting on the toilet wondering where the hell your period is. It’s different when you shamefully purchase a pregnancy test and wait for the results almost too afraid to look. I thought that I could handle a child, but I wasn’t ready. As I look back on myself now I know that becoming pregnant would have destroyed me. The boy and I broke up a year later and although we are now best friends, we will never go back to the way we were before. It wouldn’t have just changed my life but his as well. Neither of us were ready to be parents. I’m still not ready. I now use two forms of birth control. Shit happens. I have a friend who wasn’t properly informed of the effect her antibiotic medicine had on her birth control and got pregnant. Having an abortion was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. I have another friend who was seriously mentally unstable. She thought that she could handle the consequences of a pregnancy at 14 but she was too fucked up to fully understand what she was doing. She had an abortion, got mental health counseling and is fine now. Until you’ve been there you can’t possibly know what it is like **Updike**. You don’t know shit. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/211 "2006-02-27T05:26:15Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > Feasible? > > Feasible? > > All children are a gift. Should we abort blind or deaf or handicapped children? No. All children SHOULD be gifts. Forcing a woman to bear a child doesn’t make it a gift; it makes it a punishment. I’ve explained this to you three times, and you’ve ignored it three times. You still haven’t answered how you believe the father should be responsible, or how you believe the onus will be equally on both of them. Because unless you meet the terms I set above, it won’t be. And you STILL haven’t explained to the four people including myself why you believe that abortion is not a responsible choice. I believe it’s because you cannot explain any other way than to say it’s the woman’s fault for getting pregnant, and this is her punishment. So far you haven’t corrected me. ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/212 "2006-02-27T05:26:27Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Also, why would I want to wait? Why shouldn’t I go and get it taken care of as soon as possible? With this comment I give up. A baby is a human life. The idea that it’s some kind of problem that needs to be taken of as soon as possible is just gross. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/213 "2006-02-27T05:27:36Z")
IOW, you can’t back up your assertions, and you’re going to run away with your hands over your ears shouting “lalalalalalaa!!” ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/214 "2006-02-27T05:31:08Z")
> [@Maureen](#): > > IOW, you can’t back up your assertions, and you’re going to run away with your hands over your ears shouting “lalalalalalaa!!” Um, what assertions have I not backed up? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/215 "2006-02-27T05:31:43Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > With this comment I give up. A baby is a human life. The idea that it’s some kind of problem that needs to be taken of as soon as possible is just gross. A two week old fetus is NOT a baby! No matter how many times you say it is. And even then, NO ONE has the right to use MY BODY has a host unless I say so. You want gross? You want appeal to emotions? What would you say to a 12 year old who was impregnated by her own goddamned father? I explained earlier why an unplanned pregnancy for me would possibly have devastating consequences. I’ve had a nervous breakdown before, and I’m NOT willing to risk it again. If it’s a choice between losing my sanity and getting an abortion, I know which one I’d choose. In a New York minute. Excuse me for not wanting to go through that hell again. It’s fine for you to sit there and tell me what I should do, when it’s something you’ll never in a million years have to go through. ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/216 "2006-02-27T05:33:11Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > A two week old fetus is NOT a baby! No matter how many times you say it is. > > And even then, NO ONE has the right to use MY BODY has a host unless I say so. > > You want gross? You want appeal to emotions? What would you say to a 12 year old who was impregnated by her own goddamned father? > > I explained earlier why an unplanned pregnancy for me would possibly have devastating consequences. I’ve had a nervous breakdown before, and I’m NOT willing to risk it again. If it’s a choice between losing my sanity and getting an abortion, I know which one I’d choose. In a New York minute. > > Excuse me for not wanting to go through that hell again. It’s fine for you to sit there and tell me what I should do, when it’s something you’ll never in a million years have to go through. Psst. Don’t have sex, and then you won’t have to worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/217 "2006-02-27T05:34:25Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > Psst. Don’t have sex, and then you won’t have to worry about it. So that’s what you’d tell my hypothetical 12 year old? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/218 "2006-02-27T05:36:21Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > So that’s what you’d tell my hypothetical 12 year old? :rolleyes: Your hypothetical 12 year old is just that, hypothetical. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/219 "2006-02-27T05:37:53Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > Psst. Don’t have sex, and then you won’t have to worry about it. Psst. Kill yourself and you won’t either\*. Stick to homosexual sex and you won’t either. \*Not suggesting Updike should kill himself, just suggesting an alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066/220 "2006-02-27T05:38:44Z")
> [@Updike](#): > > Your hypothetical 12 year old is just that, hypothetical. Not in the real world, snookums. In the real world, these kinds of things happen all the time. In the real world, people are going to have sex. Whether you approve or not. I am not going to remain celibate because YOU think I should be punished for having sex. Nor will that do a damned thing if heaven forbid I get raped. But feel free to keep evading the question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-d-govr-inclined-to-ban-abortions-shoves-head-up-ass/346066.md?page=12)