We (men OR women) don’t have free reign over our bodies.

you’re right, it is illegal to get our hair cut, to have tattoos + piercings, to refuse medical treatment, to prosecute another who inflicts physical damage on us…oh wait.

in your world, should i ever find myself with legal power over you, i’m guessing you would find it perfectly acceptable for me to decree that i have decided for you that you should not be allowed to breed and therefore have to undergo a mandatory vasectomy. that would be ok, right?

funny how women having authority over men’s bodies never seems to be an issue tho. i’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that some men can’t even conceive of woman as even being autonomous, thinking entities.

rapists will never have their testicles removed because that would be a violation of their human rights. McCain and his ilk appear to argue that women’s human rights are dependant on, and subservient to, parasitical flesh that (in the early stages) has no heartbeat, feelings nor brain.

tell me again who’s sick?

We (men OR women) don’t have free reign over our bodies. We are not allowed, by law, to use our bodies to pick up a gun and shoot a stranger on the street. Saying abortion should be legal “because it’s my body” makes about as much sense as saying “I am going to take this knife and stab my neighbor, and don’t try to stop me, this is MY hand and MY arm!”

I think you are missing the point. Actually, the belief in bodily autonomy would mean that it would be legal to take the knife and stab yourself. When you stab someone else, you are infringing on their bodily autonomy. When a woman is pregnant, the pregnancy is taking resources (calories, calcium, etc, etc). This is fine if that’s what you want, but difficult if you do not want it.

Let’s participate in a thought exercise. Let’s say I am pregnant, and I have a gyno who is going to perform an abortion on me. In my other hand, I have a knife that I am holding to the throat of my next-door-neighbor, a grandmother helping to raise her three grandkids. You burst in the room, because you are mighty interested in my uterus. Either the fetus or my neighbor is going to die, and I leave the choice up to you, because in McCain’s America, that is what women must do. Who do you choose to die?

A lot of christians think that everybody should have kids because it’s “god’s plan.” Who are you to tell other people what they should do with their lives?

Plus a lot of christians think that people who do not have children are selfish. Which brings us to yet another christian paradox: Selfishness according to them is not christians telling you what to do; selfishness is you not doing what they tell you.

You’re assuming that a pre-viability blastocyst is a person. It’s not. Neither is a seed a tree, nor a blueprint a skyscraper.

The anti-choice people won’t get anywhere with their failed arguments if they do not address the actual reality that a baby is the results of more than just sperm and egg. It’s sperm+egg+time+uterus+luck.

If you can get a baby without all 5 of those, I think the Nobel committee would like to hear from you. Mr. McCain seems to think it only takes the first two, and would like to skip the other three and hand out cigars that say “Congratulations, it’s an Amoeba!” before any of the hard work of childbearing has even begun.

Such is the problem with magical thinking. There isn’t a bright clear line of instant creation. Development and gestation is a slow, fuzzy process. On one side is merely unimportant gametes, on the other side a need to be protected baby. And somewhere in that magic, mysterious middle is an ethical crossroads where difficult decisions need to be made thoughtfully.

The anti choice people want to pull the Overton window all the way to foreplay, I’m afraid. And perhaps all the way back to a boy’s first boner. Why else would they be trying to get the pill and the IUD reclassified as “abortion”? At this point, we’re not talking about babies at all, but rather attempting to control the sexual activities of others.

Let’s face it, the same people who want to outlaw abortion don’t particularly like gay sex, sex toys, straight oral sex or even masturbation. Which is a big clue that it’s not about the babies, it’s about the fact that they don’t like the idea that other people might be having some fun with their bits and pieces, without having to pay the wages of sin!

Abortion should be legal because if it isn’t people will have coat-hanger abortions? In that case, let’s legalize theft so that people will steal in a safe and risk-free manner.

I think that the current law on terminations is pretty balanced for the most part. They are available where needed yet are not so easy to get as to be a replacement for contraception.

If McCain has a pro-life AND an anti contraception\abstinence only opinion then America is in for an increase in disease, risky illegal medical procedures and unwanted children who must rely on the state for support.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Abortions will not end if they are illegal. Instead, women will die from unsafe abortions. Daniel, are you ok with your wife, sister, or mother dying from a coat hanger? And sure, maybe she never would have an abortion, no really, but one in three American women do. Please keep that in mind.

Every sperm is sacred! Every sperm is great!