A woman should be able to decide herself.

A woman gets to decide a lot of things. She can decide to take The Pill, to use a condom, to read the instructions on the condom box that declare this method is not 100% safe, to have that fourth drink, to go home with that guy at the bar, to have sex during the time of month she knows she is most likely to get pregnant, etc. So MANY choices are made along the way to getting knocked up, the one you don't get is to kill someone else. That someone else is innocent. He or she did not ask for you to make all of YOUR stupid choices and does not deserve to have it's life taken away. It's the ultimate persecution by the haves against the have-nots.

That is hardly compulsory child-bearing, and is in no way similar to the analogy of the violinist unless it was rape.

When you have sex, you KNOW the possible consequences, you can't kill someone else just because they're an inconvenience brought about by, and I cannot say this enough, your own choices.

While it is true that many decisions were made before a pregnancy, one must also ask one's self what life would be like for the child given the circumstances. Would the mother be able to take care of it? Would the father be involved in the life of the child? Would the life of the child bring enough stress to the life of the mother that two people may die as a result. Would the mother have been able to accomplish her goals set forth with the addition of a child?

As far as I can tell, babies on campus are frowned upon, and knowing from experience, child care is extremely expensive. Having a child is an amazing experience, but it is an experience that some people, and most college-aged people are not ready for. I am male, and as such, I believe that I can only weigh in on this debate only so much as it effects the lives of males.

Even well founded relationships can become stressed with the introduction of a child into the equation.

I know that people will probably never agree on this topic, but with the fact that Americans that want to adopt American babies cannot do so in many states (referring to homosexual couples), and the popularity of adopting babies from other regions of the world, and the fact that becoming a ward of the state is not something most sane people would prefer to a happy loving home due to the overcrowding of foster homes, and the over extending of foster parents, the question remains: what do we do with babies from mothers that either cannot, or will not support them?

We are genetically designed and chemically engineered to have sex. Pregnancy is just a byproduct of that act. If we were not, does one think that the population of the world would be exploding right now?

I cannot comprehend an argument that will support my belief that a person's own body should be their own except for the belief that even if abortion was illegal, abortions would still happen. They would just be less safe and more harmful for everyone involved. I cannot state as to when it is exactly that a group of cells become life, but if it is at the time of conception, should the doctors that create thousands of embryos for couples wishing to get pregnant then be charged with murder for destroying those embryos after the pregnancy has come, or should the couple wishing for one child that they could not produce on their own be left to raise the hundreds of possible pregnancies created in the lab? Is it the couple's right to believe that they own their own genetic make-up and refuse to allow possible surrogate mothers raise the "left-overs"?

It is true that people should be more careful when having sex, but accidents do happen. If the mother were forced (through pressure, or law) to birth the child, would not the life-long sentence of pain and anguish that could result for both parties be considered cruel and inhumane? Furthermore, what happens when the state decides that after this forced delivery the mother is unfit to care for the child? Are we as tax-payers required to pick up the tab?

This is a complicated issue, and I believe it will remain so in make-up only. The laws will stay the way they are because of the expense and complexity involved in changing them. We do not live in a perfect system. It is all about priorities and money, and if you think that is cold, ponder this: the amount of money spent on dog food in the European Union annually would surpass the estimated amount of money need to eradicate global hunger. Priorities and money.