Quote Originally Posted by fantassy
When a poor 16 year old daughter of a drug addicted mother, who has struggled her entire young life to keep clean and earn a scholarship to college to get out of the mess in which she is raised, seeks the love and affection from her boyfriend which was lacking in her home and accidentally gets pregnant, would that be a "frivolous use of abortion?"
While I don't actually have statistics on this, from what little I know this case is in the grave minority. When deciding things on a general basis, one usually looks at the more general use of abortions, which as far as I know are largley frivolous.

About this specific case, to my knowledge there are several things that aren't quite as you say they are. First, in no way did the 16 year old 'have' to have sex with the guy. You don't get pregnant by accident. Many people don't understand this, but you need to draw the line somewhere. Nature drew this line for us, and you can't blur it: you have sex, you have an approximately 30% chance of getting pregnant ( think thats the number). People need to grow up and take responsibility; the sooner this happens the better.

However, the 16 year old's life is far from over. After delivering the baby, there are plenty of kind, loving, mature people that are more than willing to adopt. In most cases the young adult chooses to hold on to her baby; again this is a choice she made, she lives with the consequences.

In my mind, this is one of the biggest problems in this society: we don't expect to be held accountable for what we do.

Finally, I am sure there are some cases where, really, the girl had few options, got pregnant, etc. There are very, very few cases like this. In these limited cases, I would say sure, have an abortion. The problem is, the majority of teen pregnancies aren't as clear cut as you portray them.

Quote Originally Posted by fantassy
I enjoy discussing/arguing these tough issues. I think taking a position in debates like this (whether it be a deeply held position or merely a position assumed for the sake of argument) forces one to clarify one's own thoughts.
I agree entirely.