Teenage pregnancy is a stressful experience, and many people would agree that it would be sensible for a pregnant unmarried teenage girl to seek advice from a responsible adult. Parental involvement laws would make notification of pregnancy and consent for abortion from one or both parents mandatory. Such laws exist in 43 US states, but are enforced in only 32. Most of the statutes apply to young women under 18 and provide for a court bypass procedure should a young woman be unable to involve her parents. Most of them include exceptions for medical emergencies. In principle, of course, similar laws could be introduced anywhere where abortion is legal. The definition of underage will vary from culture to culture, and will need clear explanation by the proposing speakers.NB I would strongly recommend that this debate avoid arguments about the morality of abortion in general. The motion necessarily assumes that abortion is legal, so questions about whether or not it should be are beside the point - arguments against abortion in general would point to the need for an outright ban, not for parental consent for it.
Under-16s need parental consent for medical treatment and surgery: abortion should not be an exception. There are plenty of other things children are not allowed to do without their parents’ consent: tattooing, ear-piercing, school activities such as school trips; parents can withdraw their children from school religious activities without their children’s consent; under-16s are not allowed to get married without their parents’ consent. Abortion is at least as important a decision as any of these.
Parents have a right to know what their children are doing: they are legally responsible for their care, and as parents they have a proper interest in any case. Any good parent would want to know if their daughter were having an abortion; any good parent would want to help her daughter make a good decision on the matter, and to prevent her making a bad decision.
The parents of teenagers have to live with the consequences of teenage motherhood: they often bear a particularly large responsibility for looking after the children, because teenage mothers are usually 1) single; 2) living at home; 3) unemployed; 4) in full-time education. They are economically dependent, and unable to give all of their time to their children. If the mother’s parents are going to have to look after their grandchild and to live with it, they should have a say on whether it is born in the first place.
The decision whether to have an abortion or continue the pregnancy often has a major long-term impact on a woman's psychological and emotional well-being, her ability to continue formal education, and her future financial status. The proposed measure helps ensure that pregnant teenagers get support and guidance from their parents in this important decision. If parents are not informed, there is a risk that they and their daughters will become permanently estranged at a time when parental support is most important.
In exceptional cases, we appreciate that it may be inappropriate for a child to tell her parents she is pregnant: where she is estranged from them, for example, where she has been abused by them, or where telling them would present a serious foreseeable threat to her safety. In such cases, the courts could allow a waiver so that she would not have to tell them, as happens in those US states where this policy exists. In normal circumstances, however, they should be informed and consulted, and these unusual cases do not affect the principle that this is a sensible law.
This may be one of the circumstances which could be grounds for a judicial waiver - again, it should not be thought to invalidate the principle that parents should be consulted over whether underage children should have abortions. For young women nearly at the end of the 16 or 18 age barrier, the case for parental consultation is clearly less compelling; for 13-year-olds it is overwhelming. We have to draw the line somewhere, and remain sensitive to individual circumstances.
Requiring parental consent will lead to a fall in the number of abortions. In Minnesota, the number of legal teenage abortions fell by 25% when this measure was introduced; in Virginia it fell by 20%. Since abortion is - quite apart from moral questions about its permissibility - physically and psychologically traumatic for mothers, especially teenage mothers, this is a good thing.
When the ‘quick-fix’ of abortion as a response to teenage pregnancy is no longer so easily available to teenagers, attitudes change. Teenagers are less likely to have sex, or more likely to use contraception if they do - both of which have positive effects on health, by cutting unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
In some cases of sexual abuse which have resulted in pregnancy, abusers have taken their victims to have an abortion without the knowledge of the victims’ parents. Requiring parental consent could help to uncover such cases of abuse.
I think that parental consent for abortion should be a law (and enforced) in all 50 states. If you're a minor, you don't get the rights of adults. This goes for so many things, like you mentioned, and should include abortion.
And some girls get abortions just because they're scared of telling their families..not because they actually want to kill their child. Maybe this would make them sit down and talk about the pregnancy, and maybe it wouldn't end up resulting in an abortion.
As you mentioned already, I can't even get a tattoo as a minor. Yes I can kill my own child? That is absurd.
i dont agree with abortiation evenif tehpretns agree
To all who argue that minors should always seek parental consent for an abortion, no matter what the circumstance, I would ask this: since you believe that parents should always have control over their daughter's bodies, how do you feel about the parents who force their daughter to have an abortion against her wishes?
I don't believe they should have complete control, but they should have a say. They should know what their children are doing with their bodies and any children inside their bodies. So no, a parent shouldn't be able to force a child to get an abortion. There should be consent forms from both the parents and the person actually receiving the abortion.
At the clinic where I work, most minor women arrive in the company of their mothers, believe it or not.
Those who lack parental sanction lack it for a reason. Not everyone grows up in a safe environment, or has access to both parents (as is required where I live.) To pretend otherwise is to ignore the reality and the humanity of young women.
Think about the girls beaten by their parents for being pregnant. Or thrown out on the streets. Think about the girls with one parent in Somalia, or Laos, or Mexico. Why subject them to the intimidation of the courts at this most difficult time in their lives? Is this the right thing, the moral thing, to do?
The next post sums up the positions aptly, and offers a reasoned approach. I won't repeat those arguments, with which I agree wholeheartedly.
You know, parental notification, spousal notification--they poll well. People embrace the notion, until they consider the reality of individual situations. Women and girls are NOT vessels. Physical sovereignty over our very bodily organs should not be up for negotiation, regardless of whether we're 15 or 51.
Mandatory Parental Notification Laws are a bad idea and do nothing to ensure that teens get the care they need. Nor do they decrease abortion, teen pregnancy, or teenage sexual activity (your stats are horribly wrong). The only thing that they do is place the health and safety of our teenage girls at risk. Most teens already involve one or both parents when facing an unintended pregnancy. The girls that do not have good reasons. They fear physical abuse, abandonment, disappointment, or a number of other things, and forcing them to go before a Judge is an inappropriate way to handle the situation. Family communication can not be legislated by the government, and teens who fear telling their parents end up seeking dangerous alternatives to their unintended pregnancies, or delay appropriate medical care. Any "good" parent would want to know if their daughter were facing an unintended pregnancy, but any "good" parent, above all, would want their daughter to be medically safe.
Parental Notification laws force a teenager who does not feel comfortable talking with a parent about an unintended pregnancy to go before a Judge and argue her case for confidentiality instead of helping her to access a counselor and the medical care she needs. In some states, anti-choice Judges have denied a girl a waiver and given her a lecture on morality. In others, where towns are small, girls have reported having to go before a Judge that they know (in one State the Judge ended up being the girls softball coach). In all states where these laws exist, girls are forced to discuss their sex lives and sexuality with complete strangers that make a living, not counseling teens, but judging people.
The statement above claims that a teen cannot get a tattoo without parental consent so it would make sense to require a teenager to notify a parent before receiving an abortion. In reality, many confidential services are made available to teens that they may not otherwise access due to fear of parental involvement including: drug and alcohol counseling, suicide counseling, STD care, etc. As a matter of fact, a girl can become pregnant, carry the pregnancy to term, have a caesarean section, or give birth, all without the knowledge of a parent. Interesting given the fact that having a first trimester abortion is 10 times medically safer than giving birth.
It is also assumed that if abortion was denied to women that they would delay sex. Not only is this an incredibly sexist statement (I want to control if women have sex by forcing them to be terrified of pregnancy), but this is simply not the case. According to the National Campaign to prevent Teen Pregnancy, "Teens who are close to their parents and feel supported by them are more likely to abstain from sex, wait until they are older to begin having sex, have fewer sexual partners, and use contraception more consistently." A study just recently published in the New York Times found that state laws mandating parental notification have unintended consequences and do not reduce abortion rates. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "mandating parental notification does not achieve the intended benefit of promoting family communication, but it does increase harm to the adolescent by delaying access to appropriate care." This is why the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology all oppose parental notification measures. The San Francisco Chronicle put it best, "The way to reduce abortion is not a law that requires frightened young women to either face a judge or the wrath of their parents. It's about increasing communication--about sex, about choices, about consequences--that prevents an accidental pregnancy in the first place."
The statement above also claims that abortion causes lasting emotional damage....also not true as supported in recent studies by the Alan Guttmacher Institute. The same can not be said however, when talking with women who were forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term and have a child when they were not ready emotionally, physically or financially.
Illegal abortion kills hundreds of thousands of women world wide every year and leaves many more women maimed and injured (Alan Guttmacher Institute). It is laughable when anti-choice people attempt to claim that "legal" abortion is dangerous emotionally and physically for women. As opposed to what??? Illegal abortion?
People who are truly interested in reducing abortion should focus their efforts on increasing access to contraceptives (especially for the poor, the young, and the uninsured). Comprehensive sex education programs that provide medically accurate information should be mandatory. Instead of attempting to deny women access to abortion through burdensome and unnecessary legislation, we should be working together to provide people with the tools they need to prevent unintended pregnancy in the first place. It always amazes me that the very people who want to criminalize abortion or impose burdensom legislation on women accessing the procedure, also want to decrease access to birth control for women and limit comprehensive sex education in our schools. It makes the intention of the other side perfectly clear....give me virginity or give me death.
"under-16s are not allowed to get married without their parents’ consent"
that is not true for all states.
"teenage mothers are usually 1) single; 2) living at home; 3) unemployed; 4) in full-time education"
i know three mothers where this is not the case. even if this was, it is not necessarily a bad thing.
I just think about what if the parents are uber Catholic...for example, say peppermint frost was my mother (god help me), and i got pregnant. And I was in no way ready to have the baby, didn't want it, didn't want anything to do with it, and I wanted an abortion to salvage my life. And I needed PPM to sign a consent form. And PPM refused to sign it because "murdering your child is wrong in the eyes of God". And I couldn't have the abortion because my mother refused to sign a piece of paper. And I am forced to have a baby at 16.
Fair? no. I think a revised plan would be that the parents must be informed of the abortion. Not that they must give consent. I don't think whether or not a minor has a baby is the parent's decision. I think it should be the choice of the pregnant teen. And to deny her the right to remove something unwanted from her body because "her parents said so" seems unfair and horribly controling. I'd hate my mother if she ever said I couldn't get an abortion when I needed one. (I've never had one, I'm saying if the situation ever arose when I was a teen).
Yes, it is fair. You can still put up the baby for adoption. Some people may use your type of argument for plastic surgery. "But I cannot live with this big nose/tiny breasts/etc and I NEED plastic surgery." As far as the places I know of, you need parental consent if you're a minor. You don't have adult rights until you are an adult. Especially when they have to do with another person's well-being.
It's not just a part of your body. It's a human being who is innnocent and defenseless and may be killed due to a teen's selfishness.
Keyword: teen. child. minor. Punishing a girl permanently for making a mistake seems rather cruel. Teenagers are still immature, still children. They make mistakes. Punishing them by inevidably changing their lives in the most drastic way possible is not a lesson that should be used to teach them not to be "selfish". Plus, I don't consider having sex as being "selfish".
PPM, we've been over the adoption issue before, I can't retype the 400 arguments I've made against why this isn't always the answer. Sometimes it may be, but not ALWAYS. A choice is neccessary.
Just as a parent shouldn't be able to force her child to HAVE an abortion, a parent should not FORCE her child, keyword CHILD, to have a baby. A teenage girl is not a vessel for a baby. If she was the one who made the mistake, she should be the one who chooses how she handles it. If a parent's religious views don't line up with their daughters, enforcing those views on her is inhumane and goes against all the teenagers rights. It's not like getting a piercing or a tattoo or staying out late. It's requiring her to go through 9 months of pregnanacy and god knows how many hours of labor. It's telling her how to use her body. It's wrong.
As for plastic surgery, it's apples and oranges. If you don't get a nose job, your old nose will not come looking for it's mommy 18 years later. It will not be a financial burden, it will not change your entire life, it will not ruin a lot of opportunities for you. Youre talking about an entirely different entity. Nothing at all the same.
Punishment? Not allowing a girl to kill her child is punishment? That's like saying that since the cops caught a criminal before he carried out his murder, they were punishing him by not letting him commit the murder. I just don't think that the word punishment really fits with either of these instances.
No, if she makes the mistake, she needs to realize that she's responsible for the consequences of her actions and she better grow up and take better control of her life.
But it's not wrong for her to kill her child? Her innocent child whose future will be ended? Who did nothing wrong, but just happened to be a mistake?
The criminal example is totally different. THe criminal is going to kill someone already born, not a sac of cells. And chances are he isn't murdering someone in order to salvage his own life. A 16 yr old shouldn't be a mother to begin with.
I do consider it punishment because there is an option. Abortion is an option, whether you like it or not. It's legal for a reason, to be an option to those who want to abort their pregnancy. Forcing someone to not have the choice, I consider punishment.
Somehow, I don't think forcing her to bear a child, regardless of whether or not she keeps it, will get her to fix her life. On the contrary, I think it will fuck her life up more. I know it would fuck up my life.
And again, I reiderate the fact that not everyone see it as 'killing their child" ppm. Not everyone considers it murder, as you do. Just because you consider it murder doesn't mean everyone else does. It doesn't mean the pregnant girl does.
Again, I'm not gonna argue this out with you because I consider people blinded by religious ideaology illogical most of the time. I see your point, and it's good to know if it was you you know exactly how you would handle the situation. But not everyone is like that. In my opinion, it shouldn't be parental consent, it should be that the parents need to be informed, and that the teenager makes the choice about whether or not she bears a child. Not her parents. It's her life. Not theirs.
But it isn't just cells. This embryo is a unique human with a unique DNA sequence that will never be replicated. It is growing and developing at every moment.
"A 16 yr old shouldn't be a mother to begin with."
-Then she shouldn't have sex.
"Somehow, I don't think forcing her to bear a child, regardless of whether or not she keeps it, will get her to fix her life.
-I didn't say it would help her to fix her life. But at least it wouldn't end another precious life.
And just because you don't consider it murder doesn't mean that everyone agrees with you. Many people do believe it's murder, just as many people don't. We'll never see eye to eye on this.
But it isn't only her life. It's her life, plus the life of her child inside of her. Two lifes are being directly affected by every abortion, not to mention all of the lives of people who know the mother.
Hey, I agree that 16 year olds shouldn't be having sex, especially unprotected sex-but two wrongs don't make a right. Teenagers experiment, make mistakes, etc. I don't think forcing her to make a decision that isn't her own is a proper punishment for having sex.
I agree that we will never se eey to eye on this. What my point is, is that pro lifers and pro choicer do not agree on when life begins. So why, then, do pro lifers feel they have the right to decide for EVERYONE that life begins at conception? I don't consider 10 cells packed together a human, I consider it cells that have the potential to eventually one day become a human. I do not look at my sister, and look at a fertilized egg in a petri dish and think "people". You want abortion to be banned because you feel it's murder. Well don't I get a say in this? I DON'T think it's murder, and I know tons of people stand the same ground. I think if you are against abortion, fine, great, dandy, don't ever have one, and i have no doubt that you won't. But I'm not you. And I would have one if neccessary. Now, because you won't have one, I shouldn't be allowed to either? I don't see it as "destroying God's prescious creation", I don't see it as "murdering my child". I see it as removing a sac of cells I am not ready to have. So my best advice to you is if you ar so gung ho against abortion, live your own life and do what it is you feel is right, which clearly you are doing. But don't expect people to live the same life as you. Don't judge or condemn people for the choices they make just because they aren't the ones you would make.
The "two wrongs don't make a right" argument can also be said for your opinion. She messed up and got pregnant, but does having an abortion really make everything okay? No. She can still have STDs. She may feel guilt for the abortion for the rest of her life.
But being pro-life advocates does save lives. Next year at college I'll be in the Pro-life club, which goes every Saturday morning to pray the Rosary outside an abortion clinic. And friends who atten the school I'll be attending have seen women change their minds. If I can change just 1 mind and save just 1 life, then I feel I did a good job. So no, I won't just sit back and be a quiet pro-lifer. We need to stick up for what we believe in and spread God's message. If we don't do that, we're just being selfish...knowing the truth and keeping it to ourselves.
"The truth". Better term: YOUR truth. It's not my truth.
So what happens if you scare or guilt one woman out of an abortion and she later commits suicide because of post pardum depression? Do you still consider it saving a life?
"You save lives". You may also destroy them. You don't follow up on pregnancies.
And hey, if that's how you want to spend your saturdays in college, by all means be my guest...not my idea of a good time, but to each their own...
She may feel guilt-maybe she would feel guilt for giving her child up for adoption too. Maybe she'd be like me and feel no guilt what soever. I wouldn't feel guilt. I would see it as a proceedure and I would go on with my life. You think I'm the only one?
The whole point of my argument was that it shouldn't be the parents' choice whether or not their daughter who is 15 16 or 17 gets an abortion. That I think this is like, a score for the pro lifers because it means even if the girl wants the abortion her parents can stop her, thus adding to your agenda. That's all. Toodles.
No, it's your truth too, you just might not realize it yet.
Yes. A life was still saved. You could also say that about abortion. Some women face extreme guilt afterwards. Do you still think that they should have had the abortion if it leads them to commit suicide due to guilt?
Saturday mornings, yes. Not a good time? What could possibly be better than saving the lives of innocent children? Partying? Drinking? Sleeping? Well, not to me.
You can't know that you wouldn't feel guilt. Do you really think the people who do feel guilt thought they would have before they had the abortion? Of course not. Then they wouldn't have had it in thee first place.
But girls these ages are minors. They can't drink, smoke, vote, drive(some of them), but they should be able to kill another human? No.
No darling, it isn't my truth. As I have told you before, I had God once, and I'm not into it. Sorry. It will never be my truth. Get over it. Stop preaching bible at me. What if I were Jewish? Would you try to convert me, or convince me my religion was wrong. Shees, freedom of religion sweetheart, look it up. My truth is definitely not your truth, and thankfully your truth isn't mine. Otherwise I would commit suicide.
Again, I can't predict what others will do. But I support having the choice.
And I find it funny that you say I don't know how I would feel after an abortion, but you don't question whether or not you'll ever be in a position to want one. I know how I feel about it, I've had pregnancy scares before and it doesn't effect me like it does you. I don't see it as murder. End of story.
And like I said, to each their own. If you wanna spend your saturday mornings preaching at women who already have enough on their plate, go for it. I'll take my walks of shame and hangovers. :)
I'm not forcing you to believe what I believe, I just know that what I believe is right. I'm not impeding on your freedom from religion. I'm just telling you what I know to be correct.
Well you can't ever know how you'd feel in a situation that you aren't currently in. But I know that I will never have sex before marriage...unless I was raped, and therefore will never feel the "need" to have an abortion.
Fine. I'll save some lives while you go an get wasted. If you want to spend your saturdays with headaches, be my guest.
Hunnie, I'm a little bit older than you, so don't preach to me about how I spend my saturday mornings. I've done it for far too long...
You know you're right. Good God, you sound absolutely pathetic just saying that. I almost hope God doesn't exist so when you die you're like "what the fuck". So if you're right, does that mean the 5 billion jews, hindus, muslims, lutherans, protestants, evangilists, baptists, etc, are all wrong? They are all wrong, you happened to land in the small pool of "enlightened" ones? Good God. You have no idea on how to take critisicm and respect other people's beliefs. It scares me.
K, you go save "lives", because while you save lives through jesus, I will go to law school and work on actually making a difference in the lives of people who need it. I will make a difference in the lives based on people's needs, not by forcing my opinion on them until they are guilted out of making a personal choice.
Just because you've done it long means you're right? No.
Well first off, it isn't a small pool. And second off, many of these religions are similar and they only have small differences in the way they practice their religion, but they still believe in generally the same things. Jews believe in the Old Testament...they just haven't acknowledged Jesus as their savior yet. But there are Messianic Jews who have acknowledged Jesus and they do believe in Him, but they remain Jewish instead of Christian. That doesn't mean they're wrong.
It's not like that's all I'll do in my life. I'm going to be an 8th grade English teacher once I graduate.
So any person who decides against having an abortion is guilted out of it? Fine, you can believe that. But some of the women just realize that an abortion won't help anything. It won't magically make everything all better. It definitely has the potential to lead to years of guilt and depression.
You know how incredibly naive you sound? You sound like Fred Phelps and his clan; you know, those guys who protest at military funerals? That's what you remind me of; people who are so convinced that they are the only ones who know what's going on, that they take it upon themselves to bug the shit out of everyone else who doesn't think the same way. You do exactly what he does; you tell everyone else that YOU are right, regardless of the proof, situation, etc, and you use God as your answer. You don't care about the fact that not everyone is a psycho catholic, you don't care about how any other person looks at the world, you don't care because you think you are tight buds with God and know the answers to everything. I may not believe in everything the Jews believe in, or the Hundis, or the Catholics, but I don't go around telling them they are wrong and my way of thinking is right, because I'm not as cocky as to believe that at 20 years old I have all the answers. You push your religious ideals on everyone without regard to who they are, what THEY believe in, what they've been taught, or what situation they are in and you expect people to look at you as some kind of prophet. Honestly, I've replied to so many posts that you've put up and I've never been so damn irritated with the bs you spewed tonight.
It's not like I think every single other religion is wrong. Like I just said, many of these religions have minor differences. I mean, the Jewish and Catholic faith, which many people seem to think are polar opposites have their similarities. And many Jews are finding Jesus Christ now. I'm happy that there are so many believers, no matter what religion it is. But it's the athiests that I can never agree with. They don't believe in any God at all...every other religion does.
Clearly you do find something wrong with other's religion because you are excited that a Jew would turn their back on 4000 years of history and tradition to "find Jesus". I hate to tell you, when Jews "find Jesus" they aren't Jewish anymore. They don't follow their faith anymore. It's like a Catholic saying Jesus isn't the messiah. It doesn't work that way.
And so what about people like me, who aren't athesist, per say, but don't follow strict Catholic rules like you? I believe there's a God, and there's something, but I don't believe you have to be chaste until marriage to be on his good side, or that homosexuality sends you to hell. I don't buy into the brainwashing shit. So where do I stand PPM?
As for the similarities in jews and christians, yes there are a few, but I consider the fact that they don't believe Jesus to be the savior of their people a slight....problem in the eyes of many christians, wouldn't you agree?
And the difference between extremist jews and extremist chirstians is actually similar. My best friend at school is conservative jew. She doesnt mix meet and cheese, does shabbat, is part of hillel, but she isn't orthodox, and orthodox jews tell her she really isn't orthodox. Kind of like what you do to other people ppm, you tell them they aren't correct in their beliefs. My friend doesn't sit there and preach to me about her religion or try to fucking convert me and tell me I'm wrong because I mix meet and cheese. You tell me I'm wrong because I say your truth, which is a God that hates abortion, gives people plants for the sole purpose of the benefit of people, and hates you if you don't stay chaste or homosexual, is not my truth. That is not the God I believe in. So fucking get over it already. You are nto a prophet, you are not a preacher, you are a 17 year old high school barely graduate who assumes that she alone understands the world because she follows a 2000 year old book which she claims to have all the answers. You insult me and every other person of other religious background on this blog by simply implying you know it all and the rest of us are all following the wrong type of faith. You do not know it all, PPM. There is no 'right' religion. I am not lost, I am not misguided, I am not brainwashed to believe every single thing I'm told. You know what's sad? "God gave us free will" and yours was stripped from you at such an early age by the Catholic church that you have no concept of how to makeyour own decisions or look out for yourself, you have no concept of how to rationalize things without bringing faith into the mix. I bet you freakin sit at the burger king drive through window wondering what it is God would like you to eat. This is why I will not raise my children Catholic, this is why I don't bother going to church anymore, because I want my own life, that isn't controled by priests and popes and arbitrary rules that just make life that much harder for people. My life is hard enough that I don't need to worry that when I'm screwing my boyfriend God's watching over my shoulder going 'tisk tisk'. Perhaps first and foremost, PPM, you should not spend your time trying to fix other people's religious problems, but fix your own problems. You're not free from sin, you're not full of grace, you're not perfect. Maybe instead of taking the light of yourself and pointing out EVERYONE ELSE'S 'mistakes' you should put it back on you and start fixing your own sins and problems.
I find the consent laws and some of the stricter inform laws to be simply a way for parent's who believe abortion is wrong to force their daughters to carry an unwanted child to term. There is no law allowing a parent or anyone else to force a woman or girl to have an abortion but their are dozens of laws designed to make having an abortion more burdensome, slower, more dangerous, more humiliating, more expensive, more painful, etc. in the rather sick hope that one woman who does not want a child will through law or circumstances be forced to carry it to term against her will. Despite philosophical, and scientific arguments about what constitutes the moment where human life begins, everyone on this side of the debate recognizes the opposite viewpoint for what it is, a desire to see those who practice sex outside of marriage be punished for their "sin" because they don't give any thought to what happens to that kid outside the womb. It is easy to tell right from wrong, it is much harder to tell which wrong is more right. Abortion like the individual circumstances that lead to it may be ugly and unfortunate and wrong, but we live in an imperfect world that cannot be run according to blind ideology, and I think the greater wrong is for an individual to be claimed as the property of the majority subject to their ideological whims.
"a desire to see those who practice sex outside of marriage be punished for their "sin" "
-Having a child is not a punishment. And no, I don't want people to be punished for their sins. That isn't what God is about. He doesn't punish us. He just wants us to learn from our mistakes and begin following Him again. Having a child should never be considered punishment.
But it can be punishment to some who have their whole lives in front of them and have it cut down in order to have a child. You think a girl who explains on a college resume that she missed a year of school and graduated a year late because she got knocked up is going to get where she wants to go? Regardless of how you feel about pregnancy not everyone feels the same. I would see a baby as a punishment and a horrible event in my life right now.