Interesting scenario. Aside from the civil rights issue of forced sterilization I'd worry about the requirements...
but it's ok to ignore the civil rights issues in forced pregnancy?
Please understand, I am NOT pro-abortion. I am pro-choice.
My brother (now deceased) and sister were adopted as babies when I was about 7-10 yrs old, as my mother kept having miscarriages and was not able to carry a pregnancy to term after me.
(and no nasty comments from the peanut gallery please!)
Also, I'm not sure how much any of you really understand about the thought process that goes into deciding to terminate a pregnancy. For most women, it is NOT a casual decision. For many, particularly if it is a first pregnancy, there is a thought that "what if this is my only chance to have a baby?"
And the idea that you're going to allow it for cases of rape/incest is great, but how is that proven? Does the woman have to go to court? Does that seem fair - - first she was forced into a sexual encounter, and now she is forced to go to court to terminate the pregnancy that resulted? And, how do you actually prove that the pregnancy was the result of that particular encounter? Do you understand that forcing the woman to jump through hoops is only going to delay the procedure to the point that it may become even more distasteful to the anti-choice crowd?
For me, one of the major issues here is a woman's right to make a decision without interference from the "state" - if it means destroying a "life" so be it. To me, the rights of the living, breathing woman take precedence over the rights of a 6-8 week old embryo. Again, part of this is because I'm not castigating the woman as a pariah because she made a "mistake" and somehow allowed herself to get pregnant.
Yes, I don't like the idea that there is a very, very small number of women who may use abortion as a method of birth control, but I don't think we should let bad decisions by a very small minority dictate how we approach the issue for everyone else.
Also, while it is wonderful that Stoked's biological mother had a support system that was able to help her see her pregnancy through to a healthy birth, and she knew there was a comfortable and loving family waiting to adopt her baby, many others are not in that situation.
I knew a young woman who was considering abortion (she was about 6 weeks pregnant) and was persuaded by family members to go through with the pregnancy and put the baby up for adoption. Then when the time came, other family members came forward and wanted to be the adoptive family. They gave her all kinds of grief until she acquiesced. And the original (adoptive) family later divorced, had a bitter custody battle involving additional family members - and now she's a wreck, the child (who is about 11 yrs old) is a mess, the whole situation is horrible. In my opinion, it would have been better for everyone if she had terminated the pregnancy at 6 weeks as she originally planned.
I do know another young woman, about the same age, who did go through with her pregnancy and put the baby up for an open adoption through an agency/service. This was about 9-10 years ago. The family is doing well, a few years later they had a natural child (not sure the correct terminology) - my young friend and her family kept in touch through letters with the adoptive family for the first few years after the adoption was finalized. The young woman took a semester off college towards the end of her pregnancy (it was her second year) but went back and finished.
Of course, like Stoked's story, that is another situation where she had GOOD family support.
