What do you think about this?

THE CHOICE





I will never see a rainbow


Or count the stars above.


I will never watch the sun's evening glow


Or know a mother's gentle love.


My daddy will never hold me close


Or push me high on a backyard swing.


He'll never tell me secrets that noone else knows


Or hear my sweet, childish voice sing.


Mommy will never tell me she loves me


Or tuck me in and sing me to sleep.


She'll never watch me climb a tree


Or pray to Jesus my soul to keep.


I will never learn to tie my shoes


Or play baseball with my dad all day.


Mommy will never kiss my bruise


Or wipe all of my tears away.


I will never see the moon so bright


Or give my mom a pretty flower.


I'll never see an eagle in flight


Or know the ocean's awesome power.


All these things and more besides


I will never see or do.


In my mommy's womb I died


'Cause she had the right to choose.

What do you think about this?
Well, you asked my opinion so here goes. God gave us free will. Free will is for us to make choices. I don't agree it's alright for a woman to have an abortion. I am definitely pro life. That is because of my faith. What is in this poem, to me, is a bunch of crap from an infant's point of view.





This is describing what we as living people would think an unborn child would be saying. I believe that a mother would feel horrible guilt later on in life after having an abortion. I know women who have. BUT that infant, that soul, is blameless and will be in heaven for eternity. I believe that infant would be in eternal worship and not have any regrets being in heaven. I believe babies who are miscarried too are blameless and will spend eternity in worship.





I think women should be against abortion due to conviction God has put on their hearts, not what people 'propose' a fetus or infant would say or think.





Just remember, YOU asked.
Reply:That is ridiculous - a fetus is a fetus.





Why then are we eating eggs, fish and meat, killing animals and talking about trying to stop abortion? Abortion is a personal choice - the baby born may have





- teenagers as parents who will be inadequate parents and perhaps end up having a child who is a drug addict or a social misfit


- a child of a rape victim


- a down's syndrom baby


- or even a baby whose parents didn't want him but were forced to have him because of the law (and he will always be unwanted and unloved, maybe?)


- a single mom who is trying to make ends meet because the dad conveniently disapppeared
Reply:This is a romanticized, emotion-laden, manipulative poem meant to wrench the heart and feelings and to persuade people, women specifically, not to get an abortion because it is "selfish". It is from the perspective of the soul of an aborted fetus who regrets not being born. And it's a piece of complete and utter crap.





Notice first how many strong emotion words are in there. While the actual verbs themselves are weak and rather pedestrian (see, count, watch, know, etc.), the nouns have strong connotations. A rainbow in Christian iconography represents God's promise never to flood the earth again. Counting stars represents a childish activity to pass the time as a well as making wishes. There are other emotion-laden words like secrets, tuck me in, pray, learn, kiss.





This is all meant to make a person who has gotten an abortion feel condemned, wronged, and ashamed, as if she has deprived someone of a life, and this is false thinking. A fetus is a developing bunch of cells incapable of existing outside the womb. A fetus has no thoughts or feelings that modern medicine knows of. Therefore if a woman chooses to abort, she is not aborting a developed, sustainable life, but rather a fetus, a bunch of cells that may become human or may not, because about 25% of all pregnancies end in spontaneous abortions or miscarriages. The poem is also meant to serve as a warning to other women of what such a "bad" moral decision would mean to the soul that they aborted. This also is false because disembodied souls don't have feelings, and can't communicate directly with us on any plane that we know of.





Ultimately this poem and other ilk like it condemn a woman's taking control of her sexuality and of her reproductive choices, and this is wrong, backward and fearful. Every woman knows whether she wants children or not. If a woman does want children, then she also has the right to say how many and at what interval she spaces them. To deprive a woman of that essential right is to rob her of her full humanity and her womanhood. Everyone wants the freedom to make deep, intimate, important life decisions, and no one wants other people to take away this highly necessary freedom.





People who write and appreciate this kind of romantic claptrap and manipulation often don't finesse the finer points of what it means to be selfish, and they don't understand how to make a moral decision. Selfishness is NOT always bad. Taking care of your body, your health, your mind and your emotions is literally selfish, because you are caring for yourself. Bad selfishness occurs only when you retreat within yourself in fear and deliberately ignore the needs of others. And an abortion is selfish, but in a way that people of limited intelligence and moral reasoning may not understand: a woman who aborts is making the best choice she can from limited, unpleasant options. This is NEVER done lightly and it is NEVER done without significant thought, planning, and deep rumination.





It is better to abort than to bring an unwanted child into being. It is better to abort if a woman has significant physical, emotional, mental or financial issues which will directly, negatively impact her and her child's life. It is better to abort if a woman simply does not want to be pregnant at all. All of these decisions are selfish to a certain extent because the woman actually takes her own mind, heart, emotions, talents, financial resources, plans, hopes and dreams for herself and her future into consideration. She does not put herself last or second; she puts herself first, as a human being.





We have very romanticized notions about what women should do, how they should act and how they should make decisions, when reality paints a very different picture. That we have a foster care system at all points out that a great many women DIDN'T fall in love with their babies after birth; that parenting does NOT come naturally; and it's NOT different when it's your own. Everyone at a certain point in their life should be able to distinguish between romantic ideals and pragmatic reality.





See this poem for the manipulative twaddle that it is, and dismiss its inherently flawed logic and gawpish, maudlin sentimentality. Women of the world, dare to be positively selfish. Put yourself first. Think about your hopes, dreams and talents that you have to offer the world. Make an informed, thoughtful choice to have children or not, based on your own inner compass.





Cheers, K (teacher, traveler, thinker, feminist, liberal, poet and mortal enemy of maudlin sentimentality)
Reply:what will be will be its ther choice to let live or die even if they read this verse that made me cry



CAT