Perhaps God does answer prayers, but sometimes the answer is “No”.
Maybe God just doesn’t answer prayers. Not because he doesn’t care, not because he isn’t able to, not because he isn’t listening, just because that’s not what God does.
That sounds like the Unitarian way! 
Geez - talk about the pot calling the kettle black. YOU are the one who sidetracked this into an abortion debate.
Or, they can accept responsibility and NOT HAVE KIDS IN THE FIRST PLACE. I think you misunderstand what I mean by “ready”. I don’t mean an “expert” on child-rearing; I just mean someone who is emotionally up for the challenge and has the desire to be a good parent. The world is full of people who are not ready, for example:
15 year-olds
drug addicts
alcoholics
child-abusers
criminals
No, these people should not have kids in the first place. I believe you were talking about what God would think about such people; not about “revoking parenthood”, whatever that means.
Talk about non-sequiturs.
Loving and properly caring for a child is virtuous. Simply deciding to have a child, when one is not up to the task, is not.
How exactly would God end the practise of abortion, anyway?
By encouraging fundies to blow up clinics and kill doctors and nurses of course!!
Maybe God recognizes that sometimes through mischance a baby is conceived, which may be unwanted , unloved and abused and through his free will permits abortions to happen, rather than observe this behaviour.
I hope God does not care about Christian athletes who praise him for their victories, who then curse him when they lose, or forget about him for the majority of their time.
I asked the original question probably because, living here in good 'ol deep south Pensacola FL, I might be a little more sensitized to the issue. (We still have the lead in doctor shootings, clinic bombings - Hooray for us!) [/end sarcasm]
And, as you may recall, Pensacola is the home of the two young boys recently tried and convicted as adults after crushing their fathers head with a baseball bat. The mother hit the road years ago, and there was a “gay” friend invovled as well. I gotta think a couple of terminations would have better for all.
But also, if there was ever a subject that ought to fit the conventional notion of a "good" subject for prayer, this should be it. I mean, this isn't some fool praying for victory in the super bowl, or for a new car. It's for something that at least seems to be completely humanitarian, and untold thousands of well intentioned people must be praying their knees off, but nothing's happening.
Why don’t intelligent believers see the disconnect?
Thanks for that one Guin, sometimes the onion just nails one.
Does this mean we will soon have another thread from you:
“Why are they any intelligent believing Jews post 1945?”
Heres what I’ve heard from christians:
- Not enough people are praying
- God is being patient with those sinners, holding back His wrath (though some say that Sept. 11th Was judgment for that!)
- Gods’ ways are beyond understanding.
I dunno, myself.
What a great question Dragline! The issue of whether prayer works has been discussed often on these boards and elsewhere. There are, as you might expect, many flavors to the argument, but there are those who claim that God does answer the prayers of the faithful who ask earnestly enough. Even Jesus said as much (can’t remember where, sorry). This is as close as we have gotten to empirical data on the matter.
No, I don’t know why there would be believing Jews, post 1945. I would think there was some pretty sincere and intense praying going on in the gas chambers there, too.
But I do know that whatever you do, don’t let anybody ever attach the tag “God’s chosen people” to you or yours. You’ll really catch hell then!
fair 'nuff.
Your OP seemed to suggest that there is something unique about abortion and the “power of prayer” question.
As bnorton pointed out, there have been plenty of threads about the efficacy of prayer…and plenty of threads about “why bad things happen to good people”.
I don’t get the contradiction.
If everyone started praying for God to end all sin, would anyone really expect it to suddenly end?
If we only had to pray for something in order for it to happen, that would reduce God to our slave! “Your wish is my commmand!”
It doesn’t work like that.
I agree. 
Oh, you said “…like that.” Sorry.
An ancient Great Debates thread titled Prayers That Actually Work:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75327&highlight=prayers+work
The upshot of this thread was that many religious folk claim that a prayer “works” whether or not the things requested in the prayer actually come to pass. If God grants your prayer request, the prayer worked, and if God doesn’t grant your prayer request, it meant God was teaching you a moral lesson or allowing you to get better in touch with Him by talking with him in your prayer, so therefore that prayer “worked” too. (Note: I detect a sense of eating your cake and having it too in this idea.)
If prayer worked, it would have taken a lot less than 1900 years to get back to Jerusalem.
Actually, god answering prayers is a Christian thing. It came from Paul’s recruiting effort - Paul and PT Barnum, two peas in a pod. I don’t recall my Hebrew school teachers or Rabbi ever saying that prayers get answered.
Of course, they never threatened me with hell either.
As for the OP, abortion seems to be allowed in at least some of the Bible, so God, if he existed, might be thinking “can’t you read, people?”
Here is Matthew 21:21-22:
So Jesus seems to think that it works like that. You also hear it all the time today. Sometimes in thanks, e.g., “Jesus answered my prayer and I got to see my little grandson one more time…”, or when asking for safety or health “We’ll pray for you on you journy home” and “I prayed that you would beat your cancer”, or just greed, “Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz”.
There are plenty of folks out there who think it does work like that, so for them it is a contradiction. So it all depends on how you think of prayer.