To be fed up of people saying drug addicts should abort?

[SchrodingersMew]

I realise I will probably get flamed for posting this here.

In the past 12 hours I have seen a comment from someone on here saying drug addicts should abort and then logged into Facebook just there to find another comment from someone saying ".I would only hope that disgusting junkies/alcoholics/abusers and the like abort when they fall pregnant."

My Mother was a drug addict and this really makes me upset every time I see comments like this. They are basically saying me and my Brother should have been aborted. :(

I know I am probably being unreasonable about this, but it really does upset me and I think some people should think before posting comments like that.

Fwiw I would like all babies that are born addicted to be removed from their mothers at birth with zero chance of any future contact. Immediate adoption would be better for the poor babies if their selfish parents can't get clean by the time the babies are born.

Al0uiseG
Maybe before you start offering money to 'abort the foetus' you should speak to the 'poor unfortunate girl' herself first.

Why on earth do you think it would fall on you and your Mother to raise the child?

I really think that the 'poor unfortunate girl' (and her Mother) should have a say in the whole thing.

I thoroughly think, without exception, that if you cannot give up class A drugs you should be forced to have the contraceptive injection. When you are free, with regular testing, you may come off the injection.

Al0uiseG

Problem with your tidy argument of remove them all at birth, is that many mothers do get clean before the birth or even before they become pregnant, but are forced to take methadone as no one will fund research into alternatives being safe in pregnancy.

Methadone is addictive, and some of these "addict babies" you think you know of may well never have been exposed to class A drugs. They are weaned off methadone.

Add to that the fact that often these mothers are put under pressure to keep taking the methadone (so they can be "stable" and monitored) and that actually some hospitals dont even check for signs of withdrawal in babies they just go ahead with the methadone treatment anyway, you have a problem.

Also, an interesting point I read on another thread here not long ago - what about mothers who are on morphine? Both in pregnancy and post c-section? Morphine and methadone are the same thing.

As I have said earlier in this thread, I truly think that that, is the way forward.

the above was to CrapolaDeVille

Well said KilledBill

It must be horrible seeing that OP

I agree with the contraception injection but it just wouldn't work.

You couldn't actually force them to take it and they probably wouldn't turn up to get it.

KilledBill makes a good point, most babies who are treated for withdrawals it is for methadone and not heroin. I know my Mother took heroin when pregnant with me and I wasn't born addicted AFAIK but she was taking methadone with my brother and he was born addicted.

wrongdecade It is, I know people are entitled to their opinions but opinions like that really hurt.

"I think somebody made an interesting point that if the kids of junkies were aborted, there would not be enough "adoption stock" for people who wanted to adopt "native" children...."

I'm the adoptive mother of a child born addicted and I can promise you keeping up the 'stock' of such children is not a priority for adopters, for social services, for anybody. OP, I would never say any woman should abort. I wouldn't say that drug-using mothers can't be good enough parents (it's harder, but never say never).

What I would say is that you shouldn't take it personally. Do I think you shouldn't have been born? No. But I do think it is a complete tragedy but so many drug addicts give birth to not one but many children, each of whom is then taken into care. You mention that they can be weaned off drugs and go on to lead happy lives: yes, some can. But for others the lifetime effects are enormous. It would be better if drug users used contraception, of course, but people with chaotic lives rarely organise their contraception well.

I am passionately in love with my daughter and of course I do not wish she had been aborted. But she has already endured more than a child that young should ever have to, and she will continue having to deal with stuff relating to her mother's addiction for many years to come. I don't think any woman SHOULD abort, but yes I do think abortion is generally a better option than a woman producing child after child all of whom will have to undergo - at minimum - weeks or months of pain, loss of their birth family and repeated disruption of their primary carer in the first year of life.

Totally agree with hester. We do not look on our son as adoption fodder he is ours because of his severe disabilities, sadly no one else wanted him so he landed up with old farts but he could not be loved more. Regarding the abortion debate I am not prepared to judge but I frequently weep for my son. It would have been better to have been removed at birth but not aborted.