to not want a teenage boy telling me abortion is a sin and should never be legalised?!

[ThisMomentusDay]

I never really know how to feel about abortion, i don't think i could ever have one but thankfully i've never been in a position to have to consider this so it's a very easy thing to say isn't it?
As such i'm very much sitting on the 'pro-choice' fence!
It's such a personal choice for a woman and not usually one taken lightly.

Yesterday on the street there was a stall set up with a petition to the Taoiseach (PM) to not have any sort of a referendum on legalising abortion in Ireland. Fair enough i thought, freedom of speech, right to protest etc.
Untill i was passing and a teenage boy below the voting age (and possibly the age of consent) tries to hand me the leaflets. I looked across the street and on the 4 corners of this junction there are teenage boys handing anti-abortion leaflets out to (mainly) women!

It really annoyed me, (especially as it was very obviously a catholic group and i think the church has done enough damage to the state and should stay the hell out of politics) but i just refused the leaflets and kept walking.

AIBU to have thought 'what the hell has it got to do with you?'

Goblinchild had the best response.

yabu, teens can have a voice and if they agree with the protest they should be able to use that voice.

luckly i have never been in the situation of an unwanted pregnancy, how i would deal with that i would not know.

Surely teenage boys are intimately concerned with abortion politics - presumably the majority of the girls/women crossing the Irish Sea each day are doing so be ause of teenaged boys. I don't think they should get a veto, but it's certainly a lot to do with them.

It reminds me of the very small children we've seen on US TV spurting stuff about hell and damnation. It always feels to me like the children are being 'used' - which they are of course because it makes your cause look good to have children promoting it.

As for their democratic rights I'd say their position (their church's position) was an attack on democracy. Demanding that a referendum NOT take place must mean they think the majority would vote in favour. What next? a campaign to stop women voting or perhaps just Catholics should have the vote.

It was probably these fuckers, vile, nasty, misogynistic group of brainwashed children.

Yanbu! I wonder how they'd feel about it all 2 years down the line with a pregnant 16 year old girlfriend!

Very easy to be black and white about life before you live it!

sausages I think you misunderstood my post...

"At 14 unfortunatly some have already had to deal with the issue of abortion, or have been around friends who have"

In Ireland?

I think YANBU to object to being collared about such an important topic by people who are very unlikely to have a full grasp of all the issues.

I thought that ericnorthmans but i read further back and think she was agreeing with a post from mistressfrankly. was

eric i was confused too but then realised there is another mistress on the thread!

YABU for not going back and arguing with the little fuckers!

Well, the militant arm of the prolife movement are disgraceful IMO, but YAstillBU, because the teenage boy is entitled to both his opinion and free speech.

I personally fall entirely on the side of prochoice, regardless of whether I could actually have an abortion myself. I suspect I could not go through with it, but since I have thankfully never been in a situation where I had to make that choice, I do not know for sure and do not pretend otherwise.

Regardless, you would not find me campaigning on street corners, but try to tell me I couldn't do it and I'd raise hell.

totally agree with MistressFrankly, seing that teenager are sexually active at a ever younger age it is not unreasonable for a 14 yo boy to have opinions on abortion.

I think lears makes a very good point also.

I doubt these teenagers are though are they? Surely that would be too hypocritical?

a 14 year old boy will never have to make that decision, and shouldn't spending his weekends shouting lies at women in the street and brandishing revolting pictures and literature. Whoever organises these meetings should be arrested for using and corrupting children. It's sick.

I am Catholuc. I am also pro-choice because I am informed. What Catgirl said. The kids (and that's what they are) are unlikely to have heard both sides of the story and be informed.

I feel very sorry for any child who at 14 has formed their moral stance on life and won't change. This smacks of either a child that had to grow up quickly and didn't get to enjoy being a child, or someone who was opinionated as a teenager and hasn't changed their views based on life experience as they are opinionated without facts.

Catholic! doh!

2a 14 year old boy will never have to make that decision"

You are probably right that it does not happen very often for a 14 who impregnanted a girl to be consulted about the issue. Very sad really. The boy in the OP has an opinion that totally differs from ThisMomentusDay's opinion but at the very least he is taking an interest in the question and personnaly I find it is a positive thing, regardless of whether I agree with him or not.

Sorry don't know what the "2a" is doing there

It is positive for teenager to take an interest in issues. And they all have the right to opinions and to voice those opinions. However, for me "taking an interest" in something means finding out all about it, not just swallowing the views you are given by your church / parents. In this instance I do not believe the teenagers have been exposed to balanced information or sought it out.

Futhermore, I would not want to take advice from a 14 year old boy on whether having laser eye surgery was safe. I would take advice from someone who had experienced the issue or who was educated on the issue - not from someone who had neither experience nor education.

Right to an opinion? Always. Right to voice that opinion? Yes. Right to feel annoyed if someone in possesion of neither attribute required to form an opinion attempted to force theirs on me? Certainly.

They are not being reasonable, but I suspect that you're rather asking "is it right"- in that case, you can't really say no.

I have never faught in a war, Have never lived in a country ravaged from it but still have very strong opinions about it. Actually I probably had those very same opinions before reaching the age of 13. Not having experienced an issue does not mean you have never heard both opinion by the age of 14 to be able to form your own opinion. I think that if the boy had been pro choice this thread would not even exist.

Do you think that he cant have a valid opinion because he is 14 or is it because he is a boy?

you can gurantee this boy has only heard one side, thats the entire point of the group. Its inherently biased and one-sided, thats the intent. It also seeks to control the lives of others, another thing a 14 year old boy should not be involved in.