My German Mum didn't abort me so legalised abortion is akin to the Nazi regime. My arse.

Here is a letter to The Age from a pro-life whiner followed by my fairly scathing response.

My mother chose me over the alternative

I AM not supposed to have an opinion on abortion that counts, because I'm male and a Christian, but when my mum tells me that I was unexpected and unplanned, it all starts to have a familiar sound to it.

I'm the youngest of seven (two didn't survive beyond childhood) and the only one born here after my parents migrated from Germany.

My mum has found Australia difficult from day one and I'm thankful she did not consider me inconvenient when she found out I was going to arrive after less than a year here. I can only shudder at members of the Victorian Government proposing a law that harks back to 1930s German government policies that effectively removed equal rights to other human beings.

If laws such as this existed here 40 years ago, it would have put developing humans such as myself at risk simply at the whim of another human being.

I would not have been worthy of equal protection simply because of my total dependence on my mother for a few months. My mum knows this kind of philosophy only too well. If I had been aborted, I would not exist.

It's not the mark of a mature human society to remove innate rights, regardless of any other argument that can be built to support such a motion. Germany was a technologically progressive nation back then, but still managed to miss some fundamentals. Equal rights means just that, and if some class is somehow excluded, the whole concept is seriously undermined. In fact, if abortion is decriminalised — effectively the denial of the right to live — equal rights is a myth and a delusion. And I seriously doubt that the experience will be any different or better for women.
Mark Rabich, Mount Evelyn
_______________________________________________________

*sigh*

Mark, if you are raising emotive specters such as the Nazis in your arguments you are not thinking clearly about the issue. A woman seeking to stop her pregnancy has nothing in common with a Nazi doctor euthanasing living, breathing adults and children. Developing humans do not participate in equal rights. Period. It is the law that you don’t have the same rights as the rest of society until you take a breath, and with good reason. There is no way to give a foetus rights without trampling all over the rights of the woman. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in favour of trampling over women’s rights on a whim.

Mark, if your mother had stopped her pregnancy, you would not have existed. Thus you would not be around to be horrified by the alternative of non-existence and would not have been able to bore us with your drivel. Comparing the availability of safe and legal abortion to the Nazi régime is patently emotive. To say that women have abortions on a whim is to severely understate the stress and trauma that such a decision often entails. So you mother kept you. Bully for you. Next time I’m visiting my alcoholic and sometime abusive mother who wishes she hadn’t had me at all, it will be such a comfort to know that an unplanned pregnancy can work out well.

Mark, You clearly have not the slightest conception of what it is to bring an embryo to term, then watch it every minute for the next fifteen years. Perhaps if abortions were more readily available in Australia we wouldn’t have seen as many babies abandoned as we have in past months.

Mark, I’m glad for you that your mother kept you, you must feel very special. Sadly, yours is not the only “my Mum chose life” story. Spoken to any women who had their babies taken from them in the 30s, 40s an 50s for the crime of being unmarried? Asked them how that felt? Spoken to a child victim of that policy? Asked them about their identity crisis not knowing their biological parent? Or you could check out our foster homes and ask children born into families that can’t look after them how special they feel? How about kids that are born into abusive families because the poor woman was afraid to refuse sex and couldn’t access the cash for a termination? I bet those children feel both lucky and special.

It is my opinion that developing humans do not have a right to life, but they have a right to be loved and cared for by their biological parents. There are unwanted children who have that right violated every day. You have no idea how truly lucky you are. There is a big difference between unwanted and unplanned, Mark. Be grateful you were the latter by all means, but try having a little Christian compassion for women who are trying to prevent the former.

People who blindly trust doctors with child birth annoy me.

My contribution to the noisy and emotional discussion about caesarean sections. Click on the title to go to the discussion on the Sydney Morning Herald website.

I'm amazed at the number of ill informed folk posting here. I'm also amazed at the number of people taking the issue personally. Doesn't anyone teach reason and argument at schools any more?

Most of my friends did more research into the purchase of their latest car or TV than they did into the birth of their child. It beggars belief.

For heavens sake people, get educated. Take a look at the recent medicalisation of childbirth, read the HISTORY, take into account that we have been bipedal and giving birth without assistance for 300,000 odd years, acknowledge that in some cases natural processes go wrong. Take a look at the birth stats for countries such as NZ, Canada, US, UK, Netherlands etc, compare policies, methods and outcomes. Look at the stats for our country, listen to the experiences of those around you. For heaven's sake don't get your information from Maternity Ward or *insert any dramatised birth story television show*. Find out what the World Health Organization says. Learn exactly what your rights are in this country, especially when it comes to "informed consent" as that tends to go out the window in a labour ward.

After all that, if your OB recommends surgery for your healthy pregnancy you are likely to ask for a second, if not third opinion. That is if you've opted for an OB at all (checking out the stats in Australia should tell you why most people who check the stats don't have a private OB).

If, once you've done your homework, you still want to opt for unnecessary surgery, you will have my astonished, but heartfelt respect for your well informed decision.