I'm for abstinence but do agree they need to educate folks about things so that unplanned pregnancies can be prevented. I do believe in abortion if the Mothers life is at stake or in cases of rape or incest. I read somewhere that that was Bob Dylan s view on abortion...

Hmmm, I guess I have to come out of the closet, so to speak. I'm no longer one to hold the torch against "unplanned pregnancies" or even believe for a second that there is a "foolproof" method... believe me, Michael had been planned for a long time... but certainly not when I was 40! I'd given up at age 38... used SEVERAL forms of protection... and here he is! Oh, btw, he's 13 already! Can you believe it? Still blond and a real entrepreneur too.

I absolutely believe in educating kids and not putting my head in the sand believing that preaching abstinence actually works... my mother was one of those! She thought if she ransacked my handbag and confiscated my pills, I wouldn't need them!

I like the name conservative. Does that mean they will conserve the earth?
It doesn't seem that way to me. About all the name would be good for, is if we didn't spend more than we take in. Though it seems to me that the conservative brain is a closed one. It was Einstein who said, "A mind is like an umbrella, it works best when it is open."

I just want to say that: speaking as an atheist, a male, a registered Democrat (with independent leanings) and as the father of a wonderful and bright daughter, I can say, without hesitance that in general, for the groups of people I represent, Abortion is not what I would call the preferred method of birth control. Having said that and also speaking as a member of all those groups above and from my own personal experience and desires, I would say abstinence is not my preferred method of birth control either!

just one more view point I suppose!

I mean the perfect answer would be to have abortions available on a retroactive basis. I mean it would be a helpful tool if for example you were to have a bad president or a serial killer or something. Once I perfect the time machine I am working on from the notes I got from the H.G.Wells archives, I'm gunna call my congressman and suggest it.
You people really need to learn how to think outside the box.

Might need a flux capacitor to think outside the space-time continuum!

Give the progressives, who are for progress 20 years... Which will give more trash/cash/money back to Families, and abortions will be cut in half. Because Families will be able to afford more Kids. How the right got away with, after both couples were forced to work-to pay for a home, and then had the nerve to speak to US about Family values is beyond me.

PSB - I'd rather you amended that thought. Abortion should not even be considered a form of Birth Control. It is a corrective action taken, when Birth control (or the lack thereoff) fails, or is allowed to fail. Better support for proper, varied, easily used methods of Birth Control would help to contain the need for corrective procedures. And more requirement for education and followup would help insure less repeat corrective procedures. But that's what I think, and I'm just the back-half of this discussion. I'm waitin' for that time machine...

What about Jesse Ventura? Jesse said on Hannity that if he could get on the ballot in all 50 States/of confusion from massive chaos at high volume he would run, and win.

Why is it that I feel that the Morlocks will build a statue of Dubya someday?
Perhaps because his type of thinking will help create them? Hmmmmmmm???????

The trouble is, all forms of birth control except abstinance can fail-even having tubes tied or vasectomy. When it does you are stuck with the decision to end the pregnancy or have the child. So, most times people have sex they take a chance of becoming a parent.

I don't advocate aboration, but if it's immoral, it's immoral even if the pregnance is a result of incest or rape, or if it puts the mother's life in danger or when the baby may be severly damaged. You can't judge right and wrong by circumstances-the baby is innocent in every case.

I had my last child at age 39 after my tubes had been tied. She's 20 now and one of the joys of me and her dad's lives.

well, if a vasectomy fails to stop a pregnancy I would certainly consider a law suit against the doctor!

tubes tied, don't know

and yes there is always a risk and a probability to with so many things in life and I am not an advocate of abortion nor am I a prochoice person, I am a realist that believes that parents should be honest with their children. My child seems to have developed OK, she is not stigmatized by sex and I believe she understands the biological, health and social implications (you know what I mean). Sorry, (I know Iknow you are thinking there he goes again on his athiest soapbox) but it seems to me the extreme western culture religious taboo's on sex (you know Christians and Muslims) have resulted in a fairly bizarre social and psychological gender gap phenomena. i mean look at that latest religious sect down Texas way, scary scary plenty scary.

So, honesty with the children, no goofy taboo's and psychologically damaging forced sexual practices and the availability of materials on sexual awareness and birth control and I just can't help but believe the demand for abortions won't be that great!

I saw on TV some conservative person commented on the fact that sex eduaction and awareness was a failed experiment. Don't you actually have to produce unbiased data to make such a statement and yet nobody on the panel questioned that?

Anyway, Richard Dawkins will be on Bill Maher next week. It is a good oppurtunity for viewing a fundamentalist athiest up close, I'll tune in.

I don't think anyone likes abortions. Its just that after 4 or 5 of my Family have been against them since the 80's, I have not seen the fruit from the debate except to divide us. On another line, both couples on the most part had to go to work. Then the right had the nerve to start talking to us about Family Values. So after hearing all this for over 20 years, I have come to the opinion that abortions today, are where slavery was at the start of this land, where they ended up saying slavery is for another generation to deal with. Then maybe we can make it easier for Families to raise Kids.

I think that many of the problems in this country stem from families being unable to make a decent living so both parents need to work. The world has always had unplanned pregnancies. My young daughter had a classmate who gave birth at age 12. Children need 2 parents, one of whom is available to provide care for them.

With vacetomies, there is a waiting period to assure that the sperm can't get through. Not everyone waits for the test to know the job is done. I feel that my unplanned pregnancy was meant to be. I was urged at the time by many people to sue the doctor. I like my doctor and believe that the band came off because it had help. (yes, helped by the hand of God)
I told my husband that if it ever happened again, I would sue him!

Bill Maher is funny, and relivant in so many ways, but I feel sad for him and all atheists.

i would want to sue the parents of the 12 year old that probably "advised" her to have the baby... The morality of "saving" one life at the destruction of another totally escapes me. And I don't buy into the "innocence" of the unborn fetus, especially when in context of the life already in progress...