Czuch:

> The notion that a woman has a right to do with her own body as she wishes,
> i will not argue, and so too for a man..... but an unborn child is not a part of a
> womans own body, the womans body is simply the incubator for the unborn baby....

If women are mere incubators of babies, then women must be things. You should read your own statement. I can buy an incubator from a medical supplier. Should women be bought and sold? A woman is more than an incubator. It is what sustains the fetus' life. For approximately the fist two trimesters the fetus needs the woman to survive, and in the last trimester survival outside of a woman's body does require an incubator.

> how can a sperm, injected into a woman by a man, be then called part of the
> womans body???

The fate of sperm in a woman's body is well known. Most of the sperm are consumed by the immune system so in a sense they do become a part of a woman's body. The one (or more) spem that fertilize the egg enter the egg and become a zygote. The egg starts as part of a woman's ovary until ovulation releases it. Technically speaking, except for the DNA and a small fraction of proteins in the sperm, all of the baby's tissues come from the woman's body. Is the baby then part of a woman's body? It is certainly made from it.

I find that most abortions are probably unnecessary, but in some cases abortions are difficult choices.

A girl of 13 is pregnant. At the time of conception she might have been too old to realize the consequences of having sexual intercourse. Should she have a child or an abortion? There are people who adopt, but do we have the right to subject a child to the pain of childbirth?

A woman is pregnant and doctors determine that the child has a genetic condition that will predispose the child to a painful, debilitating disease throughout the child's life. Should the woman have an abortion and spare the child a lifetime of suffering? What is worse for the child, abortion or disease? Some genetic conditions can give children a chance for a full life, but some are painful and devastating.

Another woman is sick and gets pregnant. If she attempts to carry the pregnancy to term, she could die. Should she risk her life to give birth? Should she accept her fate and risk dying?

A woman was sexually assaulted and became pregnant against her will. Should she have a child she never asked for? Should she go through the risk and pain of childbirth even though she never asked for it?

I find that in many cases people tend to see abortion as the product of some woman not willing to take responsibility for her actions. Perhaps people see a middle-class woman who got pregnant carelessly and now does not want to face the responsibility of having a child. In reality most abortions are a lot more complex than that. In most cases women face difficult circumstances that nobody has the right to judge unless they are walking in their shoes.

Pro-life advocates sometimes paint abortion as the murder of children. People on the Pro-choice side are not advocating abortion as a whim or a game, but rather as matter of a fundamental right of a woman. I have not met any pro-choice people personally, but I doubt any of them thinks abortion is good. I never met a woman who said "Gee, I really want to have an abortion, it might be fun."

The issue is extremely complex. I think it will always be. However, I think that giving or denying women the right to an abortion will accomplish nothing if we fail to educate boys and girls from an early age on how to protect themselves and how to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Sexual education should be an essential means to prevent unwanted pregnancies. My only criticism of some (but not all) Pro-life advocates is that they oppose both abortion and sexual education in schools. They expect people to refrain from sex, and that seems unrealistic to me.