New abortion scare tactics *sensitive warning, photo included*

[NeedACleverNN]

This is doing the rounds on fb at the moment.

Seriously

Why are you so desperate to push your agenda here? If you don't want to have an abortion, don't have one. You have no right to even attempt to tell me what I can or can't do with my body. It disgusts me that you think you do.

I'm not even responding to your stupid point about contraception.

*If abortion is no big deal then why does any one bother with birth control?
Why don't we all just go get abortions every time we get pregnant?
Why use the morning after and not just go have an abortion instead?

Because it's wrong.*

Um, no.

Why does anyone bother with birth control? Because it's easier to take a pill every day than to wait for an appointment for an abortion.

Why don't we all just go get abortions every time we get pregnant? Because some people choose to get pregnant and want to keep the baby. Some people weigh it up and decide actually, having a baby will be okay.

Why use the morning after pill and not just go have an abortion instead? Because it's more convenient than waiting until you miss a period, then going to the doctor, then arranging an abortion.

Nothing to do with abortion being "wrong".

Are you really so fucking dense that you can't see how ridiculous your points are?

People don't use birth control because abortion is wrong, they use birth control because they don't want to get pregnant.

Women thst have abortions do so because they don't want to pregnant or for whatever reason don't feel they can continue with the pregnancy. Some actually desperately want the baby but sadly still can't continue with the pregnancy for many reasons.

I suspect that actually most peoole do know what a fetus at various stages of gestation looks like, especially if they already have a child. But regardless of what a fetus looks like women still need and should have access to safe, legal abortion.

I dint think posters think the pictures are disgusting, I think posters see that the emotive bordering on harassing use of the pictures to try and guilt women who need or have had an abortion is disgusting. do you see the difference?

I seriously question the comprehension of some posters tbh, yes an aborted fetus looks like a miscarried fetus, yes a fetus starts to look more 'baby' like the further developed it is, that's biology, women know that. What is wrong is pro life misrepresentation of a fetus to try and guilt women.

I will depend abortion and I don't feel guilty about that. It doesn't bother me that some aborted fetuses may look more like a baby, I don't have some arbitrary cut off point that when a fetus looks like/is similar to a baby that abortion isn't Ok.

For the woman's sake I wish all women could access safe, legal abortion as early as possible but I think it should still be available to term. And I say that as a woman who is 32wks pregnant with a very wriggly baby, I can feel it's head,knees, little feet etc. It weighs about 5lb (had a scan recently) yes it is looking like a baby but that doesn't change my views on abortion.

All the excuses and silly arguments in the world don't excuse the fact that you could of had the baby and had it adopted

Actually, my first post on Mumsnet was on the "Adoption" boards. I was nineteen, pregnant and terrified, halfway through a university degree. I asked about the process of relinquishing a newborn for adoption.

Without fail, every single reply was from someone who had adopted a child, and every reply said "Don't do it". These people knew the adoption system far better than you or I ever will, and they know how birth parents are treated. They advised me that the agencies don't know how to deal with parents relinquishing the child for adoption because it's an astonishingly rare occurrence, so they have a tendency treat them exactly the same as parents having their baby taken off them for neglect - i.e with contempt as opposed to sensitively.

Add in the social stigma of giving up a baby for adoption (being accused of abandoning them, not loving them, being selfish) and it's not hard to see why I decided against relinquishing the baby.

I wish people who said "oh you can just give the baby up for adoption" would actually look into just what is involved in that process before they open their mouths. And if you think the care system is a bed of roses and the tiny newborn will be in their forever home the day after birth, you're even more naive and stupid than I already think you are.

Brilliant post Ovaries and good of you to share that.

Well says Ovaries. There are some fucking ridiculous agendas being pushed here, good on you for sharing that.

You know what, it wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference to me if I'd had a scan, seen photos or anything else designed to 'show me the reality' of what I was doing before I had an abortion. Nothing would have changed my mind as I needed an abortion.

I did feel a little bit guilty at the time, but that was due to my being so young I think. As my life moved on in ways that would never ever have happened if I'd not had that abortion I felt nothing but extreme relief and gratitude that I lived somewhere that would allow me an abortion if I met the criteria (and I did).

I would have been suicidally depressed, homeless or married aged 16 to a waste of space abusive BF, no qualifications - a shit life, especially for the child. Instead I got to go on to uni, have a great life and can now give my children and society the benefits of that.

I wouldn't matter if 12 week babies did look like the pic of the doll. Or how many bloody photos there were, or videos of foetus's doing cute things - because I was not going to have that baby under any circumstance. I would have killed myself instead. Genuinely.

Uare unless you have actually adopted an unwanted baby in order to stop it being aborted then you have no right to use the "just get it adopted" argument. So. How many unwanted babies have you adopted?

Exactly. I suppose I could have gone down the 'just have it adopted' route. I would then still have suffered the negative consequences that I'd have had from keeping the baby anyway...

Strict religious family disowning me or forcing me to marry a violent man. My school routinely made pregnant girls leave immediately. No way would my family have allowed me to stay on at any school or sixth form, They discovered I was not a virgin when I was 21 and immediately cut off all uni funding and refused to speak to me for over a year in case I corrupted my 18 year old sister (if only they knew...). So my life would be ruined in just the same way, even if some magical efficient kindly adoption service existed - which is doesn't!

Uare has clearly put the same amount of careful thought into "just put the baby up for adoption" as they have for "abortion only for rape".
Complete logic fail apart from anything else. And zero reading comprehension skills seeing as they seem to be answering entirely different posts to the ones actually on the thread.

I am 100% pro-choice.

Anyone else signed the Exclusion Zone petition? They are around 500 short of the 10k needed if anyone fancies it.

Done - petition link for anyone else who needs it.

Thanks Kitty and hope you're keeping well.

Because it's wrong.
No it isn't. Offering safe and legal abortion to all women regardless of circumstances, thereby ensuring their safety and legitimate choices is not wrong.

We all know deep down its not right but please carry on with silly arguments A reiteration of trite shite doesn't make anything right. Particularly when you have nothing with which to back up your assertions.

people dont use abortion as a form of birth control because its massively invasive, fucks with your hormones and requires medical aftercare. Someone would have to be fucked up to think it was easier than using contraception.

I'm pro choice, but Im intrigued by the way some people can emotionally detach from the situation.

I could never personally have an abortion unless for a lethal diagnosis, I just couldn't. I was pregnant in an abusuve relationship at sge 20 and there was never any question. Full disclosure, my family are Catholic so I've grown up in an environment where abortion is "wrong" which has obviously influenced my view.

It fascinates me how some people can look at it unemotionally, as that was never my experience. I loved my baby from as soon as I got two lines!

This isn't meant to offend, I'm not sure how else to word it, it's just different and peoples mindsets interest me

It saddens/angers me that an exclusion zone is even necessary - you have to be a pretty repulsive individual to think picketing a clinic is a good idea. I don't think we need the zone though I have signed, we need it to be illegal with restraining orders and further sanctions against those who carry what can at the very least be considered harassment and threatening behavior.

UareWhatUeat - I hope you're a troll and not a busybody who thinks a woman has no right to autonomy, argue all you like because as far as the law (rightly) goes, your opinion means fuck all. I don't need to justify the choices of other women, mainly because it's none of your business but also because nobody owes you an explanation as to what or why they do with their body, least of all with your attitude.

By the way just what is it you've been eating? it's clearly making you unbearably sanctimonious, you may want to lay off it.

Those asking why the photo is disgusting - to state the obvious it's because of it's motive, it's not there to inform, educate or awe - it's there to guilt trip and victimize a vulnerable group of women.

I saw it as a pregnancy, not a precious baby. I didnt feel emotionally attached to it, but then I was only 17. I was a bit stunned I was pregnant tbh. I think id find it more emotional if I had to have an abortion now, but if I found myself pregnant again, I would terminate. Im pretty sure I would, but I think it would be harder. I was brought up by a feminist and I know my mum had an abortion too, so I cant remember ever thinking it was something particularly morally wrong.

Ovaries

Thankyou for your post about adoption. It had simply never occurred to me that this might be the case

Bran thanks, I like hearing other people's perspectives. I think for me I can't see a pregnancy and the baby as unrelated things.

I wonder if knowing I'm an only child because my parents had losses and couldn't have any more also affects why for me, a pregnancy is precious.

I wouldn't take the choice from others it's just not something I could dob

I actually think the abortion limit should be around 10-12 weeks but I don't think that is a real picture

No one needs to justify on here their own personal reasons for abortion! It's such a sensitive issue I don't know how anyone could discuss it with strangers... Post like these just bring out the anti-abortion proclaimers aiming to shame and hurt people

<a class="break-all" href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:EfB9iDYfNUAJ:www.bpas.org/media/1181/32-reasons-not-to-lower-the-abortion-time-limit-briefing.doc+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">32 reasons not to lower the limit

The vast majority of terminations happen before 13 weeks, most before 10. Some people have difficulty accessing them for a variety of reasons (for example, I had to see a GP, see a family planning doctor, see a counsellor, be referred out of county because my pct don't perform them and wait for an appointment at the clinic - all in all it took some time, meaning I was 11 weeks by the time it happened, having been to the GP close to 8 - and I was a lucky one). I believe they should be as early as possible and as late as necessary. And the two doctor rule needs to be abolished - no other legal medical procedure requires permission from two doctors.

And the picture in the OP isn't real. It's fakey fakey mcfake. 12 week foetuses do not look like that. The link to the religious page showing miscarried foetuses is far more accurate but I think its really not on to use images of much wanted and mourned for babies to push an anti-choice agenda. It says far more about the person linking to it than it does women who choose to end their pregnancies.

And I think its important that we speak about our experiences. I feel no shame, no sadness, no regret just sheer and utter relief that I am not a parent to a child who would be 16 now.

I felt no different at the time and I think its important that girls and women facing that choice should know its ok to feel that way too.

I agree Alora. Far too much is made of the guilt and regret that we are supposedly all feeling after an abortion. I had no such guilt and no regrets at all.