Is it me or ...

[hstar1995]

Young women are becoming increasingly anti abortion? I mean we all have different views and I do appreciate that, but it seems to me that lots of women my age (under 25) seem keen on restricting women's right to choice that many fought - and still are fighting - to achieve.

In my uni lecture (a childcare course so maybe some bias) we were discussing abortions and almost the whole class were saying abortion should be banned, only in cases or rape, and telling anecdotes of women they know who've 'had 6/7 abortions and use it as birth control' . it annoys me so much, especially the myth that women use abortion as birth control. I know people have different opinions but I was so shocked to hear young women talking about how if they were in charge, they would basically take away other women's rights . I'm probably being over sensitive but I think it's worrying that this attitude is so obvious in some parts of the UK

Oh I'm still pretty opinionated, lol.

I didn't mean at all that strong opinions are always negative .

I just meant that the ability to see that things aren't always inherently right or wrong no matter what the circumstances came as I either got older or gained life experience.

Not this issue to be fair, but just in general I think I've gained more understanding that lots of things depend on the circumstances surrounding them rather than just being a clear cut that is right and this is wrong.

If that makes sense?

I'm in my 30s and was pro choice in my teens, but went to Catholic school and had pro lifers give us lapel pins of tiny baby feet at x weeks gestation (we weren't told they were pro lifers and I'm sure it was put across as some sort of sex education). I was always pro choice but waivered on whether it was something I could choose for myself.

I don't have many young people in my life, and none I would have a conversation about abortion with. My thoughts on why young people may be anti abortion stemmed more from a general place of remembering being pretty black and white about things as a teenager, through to a young woman, and being pretty immovable once I had made a decision.

Now I have more life experience I am more open to the idea that I could be wrong or that my opinions may shift in light of new information.

I agree with both of those - you see more flexibility as you get older - but still, my response and what I remember of my generation was to come down heavily on the pro-choice side. Being restricted to black and white doesn' t necessarily put you on the right-wing side by itself.

Oh why do they become right wing? I don't know, I didn't say that.

I think they come down on the pro-life side because they don't think of it as controlling a woman's body or fertility - they tend to focus on the baby tbh.

With the exception of rape, where they suggest adoption or that that and a baby being born with a life threatening disability being exceptions, they pretty much discount all practical issues as not as important as the hypothetical baby.

Things like finances, destroying educational or career opportunities or timing issues they just don't see as important...because to them at that point, they're not, they're not dealing with them.

You get lots of comments about being able to live on benefits or you can go back into education or work or that they know lots of single parents.

I'm sure some of the young people I was teaching have grown up to be pro-life, but equally I'm sure some of them would now be pro-choice.

I was brought up pro-choice (thank you, mother!), but it was having a pregnancy scare at university and realising that, if I had been pregnant and abortion hadn't been legal, I would have done the thing with the coat hanger that made me deeply, viscerally pro-choice. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I've aalways been pro-choicechoice but I also went to Catholic school (Catholic schools produce masses of university students every year) and I would find it very difficult to have an abortion myself.

I remember some of the teachers used to tell us stories about women with infertility and how horrible it was for them to witness young women having abortions because 'a baby would clash with going on holiday' it was very manipulative and having an abortion was subtly pitched as being selfish. Women of course are conditioned not to be selfish.

Just to make this extra hypocritical it was private so if a girl had got pregnant and decided to keep it I think they would have been told not to come back (I am fairly sure this happened at least once)

I don't think young people are necessarily more right wing in the traditional sense, from the stats I've seen, but they don't necessarily hold the same ideas teenagers traditional have either.

I absolutely agree that teenagers are black and white and that they have forever been so! It totally depends on who is influencing them and what their agenda is.

I don't think many (any?) have an abortion lightly, or would never be troubled by it again.

The point about the baby / foetus is interesing. I always used to get bored of beginner-ethics debates because they all do eventually come down to the rights of the mother v the rights of the foetus, they then entrench and clash for all they're worth. I focus on the rights of the mother, not least because the foetus and then the baby (if you prefer) is dependent on the mother. It can't survive without her and what kind of life will the unwanted child have, or the mother with 'it'.

It troubles me that more and more young women are turning against their own rights.

And as the op says, other womens' rights too. Very dictatorial.

and what kind of life will the unwanted child have, or the mother with 'it'.

I don't think it's relevant for the purposes of deciding whether or not to continue with a pregnancy.

And not sure if I'd run that argument as you run the risk of being shot down by the fact there are undoubtedly children who became very wanted when they arrived/children very successfully placed for adoption/children very successfully brought up by grandparents/lone fathers who always wanted the child.

I dI'd a debate in my childcare course about abortion as a very naive 18 yr old very much against abortion but I think as you mature you do realise how things work now as a middle aged woman I'm very pro choice I think this multiple abortion is a myth. They hear so and so had had 3 and so on as if women are using termination right left and centre

My 25 year old DD is staunchly pro choice, always has been, whether that's down to me and her dad holding the same views or her own ideology, who knows. She is a teacher with a year 8 form and deals with some horrific home situations, abuse, grooming, you name it .
She has definitely become more outspokenly feminist since starting to teach teenagers 2 years ago.