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Originally posted by Sparhawk
I don't particularly like drugs, abortion, sodomy, etc, but I'm not going to moralize on those who do, or even worse, try to legislate it.
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Once a man and a woman have unprotected sex which results in a pregnancy, they no longer are dealing with just "their own bodies". The parents have to take responsibility at some point, even if the pregnancy is a drunken mistake or a miscalculation. Abortion is not a contraceptive and shouldn't be used as one.
Now, I'm not a nut that believes that life begins at conception, and I think that RU-486 is a good alternative for situations where a condom breaks or you otherwise have 72 hours to correct your mistake. However, abortions after 12 weeks are irresponsible and inexcusable save for expected medical complications, and shouldn't be considered legal. There is some dispute about exactly when a developing child is considered "alive" and not just an appendage of the mother, but from what I've seen it is between 10 and 12 weeks from conception.
Take a look at some of Europe's abortion legislation. (<- LINK) This is from the Planned Parenthood site, by the way, not Fox News.
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The majority of the countries where abortion is available on request have a gestational limit, usually of 12 weeks. There is, however, no uniformity in the way this limit is calculated. It can be calculated from the last menstrual period, or from the estimated day of the conception.
The gestational limit, calculated from the last menstrual period, is 12 weeks in 17 of the countries with the most liberal laws. It is 14 weeks in another five countries, 10 weeks in France (a draft law extending the period to 12 weeks will be discussed by the French National Assembly by the end of the year), 90 days in Italy, 18 weeks in Sweden, and 24 weeks (or foetal viability) in the Netherlands. Most of these countries permit abortion even after the legal gestational age, but only in specific circumstances, and/ or with additional requirements. For example, Belgium, France and Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) permit the procedure at any time to protect a woman's life or health or because of foetal impairment.
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In summary, my opinion is, get RU-486 readily available to those who need it (without prescription), and ban abortions past 12 weeks from conception with the exception of consideration for the health of the mother.