Just lost a post to you -- back later to reply --

Eh ... if you're against abortion then you have to understand that also applies to the pill.

Actually, NATURE is pro-choice and had given women and their families many options on controlling reproduction. via plants and the knowledge of them. However, most of that knowledge and the plants themselves were destroyed by patriarchy. Plants are our medicines and our drugs and the model for ALL pharmaceuticals, but with many less side effects.

At any rate, these plants provided ways to control pregnancies, limit births, end fertility at anytime - and interrupt conception. Again -- Nature is pro-choice.

If you're against abortion, then you have to be against the PILL (as the anti-abortion right wing makes clear) because the PILL is based on old knowledge and ingredients where RU486 actually will prevent a fertilized egg from adhering to the lining of the womb and it is then flushed out of the woman's body. Anti-abortion fanatics consider this an abortion.

There are still some of these means of birth control and abortion still being used -- if I recall correctly RU486 may be based on papaya plant -- women in tropical areas used to eat papaya for 7 days to cause an aborting of a pregnancy. In early term, I would presume, because anything after the second trimester becomes dangerous to the life of the female.

That is why "late term abortions" require approval to protect the life of the female -- These are rare abortions -- only about ONE in every county of the US every year. And they occur most often because it was a wanted pregnancy which went wrong -- something wrong with the child which makes it undeliverable and likely short-lived, or something to do with the pregnancy which is threatening the life of the female. Often delivering a child with an abnormally enlarged head would so damage the woman's body that she would be unable to have other children.

Further on the insanity of this distrust of women, where NATURE actually puts all of her trust in women, is the reality that even in very recent times when abortion was illegal, there were cases like the actress Debbie Reynold's where she had a pregnancy where the child died in something like the 7th month and she had to walk around pregnant carrying a dead child and then finally go through an actual labor/delivery of the dead child at term. But NO abortion was permitted.

The insanity of all of this becomes even clearer when we learn that some time later, Debbie Reynolds became pregnant again and this time the child died even earlier in the pregnancy and again no abortion was permitted. Later, of course, it was discovered that the second pregnancy was doomed because the first dead child pregnancy where she had to carry the dead child around for months and months had so depleted her health that she was unable to carry the next pregnancy to term. But again this second pregnancy had to be carried to term so that she had to go through labor again and deliver another dead child.

Of course, there is the occasional situation where there is a third trimester abortion done on a 10 or 11 year old girl who was the victim of incest by her father -- sometimes these children come to the US where they can still receive an abortion here. But -- you'd deny that abortion, as well, I imagine.

As for you personal comments --

** If 2/3rds of pregnancies are unplanned, that means a lot of people are being irresponsible. If people were to use it correctly, that would be cut by A LOT. **

Whatever happened to "Thou shalt not judge?" Actually we do not have 100% effective birth control whether the pill or the sponge or the condom or anything else. And there are many side-effects which accompany these and other forms of birth control. Plus, there is still male dominance and many women still find themselves in positions where the male doesn't want her to use birth control to prevent a pregnancy, or the male refuses to have a vasectomy, or to use a condom. PLUS many women can't afford the PILL -- and you do recall that Planned Parenthood is under attack and being defunded?

**"A father being handed a newborn because his wife was dead and only one could be saved"... What does that have to do with abortion? **

I told you that story because it is about the dangers of male-supremacy and male dominated religions which have mind-sets that the newborn is of higher value than the female host ... though that woman (and the many more like her) may have not only been wives but mothers to other children they cared for. They may have had homes and responsibilities, or even a job to keep the family going.

But this is the mind-set of too often of our 90% male Congress and our male-dominated religions -- that it is the newborn who is to be saved and NOT the female.

You ask WHY should you be concerned? Mainly because "No man is an island -- and neither is any woman."

The Catholic Church also has great influence over our government -- we have a huge percentage of Catholic members of Congress. Also the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church funded the anti-ERA movement with "tax-exempt" dollars.

The UN has accorded the Vatican the privilege of a "Sovereign Nation" at the United Nations which gives them great influence over worldly political issues -- many issues having to do with females. Even though this is a "nation" of only one square mile made up ONLY of males.

These are things we should all be concerned with.

A fetus is dependent upon the female for survival - her body, her choice. And, again, the majority of these pregnancies take place in first few weeks of the pregnancy. If you consider a wanted pregnancy and a child which is negatively impacting the health and life of the female ... then the question you have to answer is does the female have the right to self-defense?

Also consider that if a woman delivers a male child at birth then that male will have rights under our Constitution which the Mother does not have as she does not have equality under our Constitution.

If you are able to make allowances for certain situations such as rape and incest, then you would certainly make allowances for a 10 or 11 year old girl, perhaps? Or for a woman threatening to kill herself should she have to carry a pregnancy to term? Or for a woman who finds her husband cheating on her and herself pregnant while she must take responsibility for other children and earn a living? Or for a pregnant woman who's husband is killed and she has children to care for and finds herself pregnant?

Adoption? Until recently, women had no expectation of every seeing that child again -- even in adulthood. But times did mercifully change to some degree. And, knowing the chances of children being abused in homes where they are adopted, would that stop you?

Obviously, you read nothing that I said about "late term abortion" which is called "partial birth abortion" by right wing propagandists to make it sound like something it isn't -- PLEAS re-read what I said about late-term abortion and understand that the purpose of abortion is to abort the child. The practice where the fetus is brought further down the birth canal is done so as not to further damage the body of the woman - and to preserve her ability to become pregnant again and have a healthy child. If you force one of these late abortions to be done by labor/natural delivery rather than by breaking up the fetus ... then you are damaging the health and life of the female.

Sadly, too many males in our society allegedly treasure the life of a newborn over the life of a living, breathing female with an established life. Until it is time to aid children and then they disappear. We have 43 million Americans living in poverty in the US today as we are constantly being reduced to a third world nation by the right wing. And we have the highest levels of child poverty in the world. Little proof that anyone in our government or Congress gives a fig about the life of a child AFTER it is born.

Meanwhile, if you want females to be responsible for their own lives and those they take care of then birth control and abortion are necessary for them to be able to do that.

Partial birth abortion or late term abortion is horrible and should NEVER be done.