Agree or Disagree: I could vote for a president whose views on abortion differ from mine

The president has no right to force his religious views on the people. His job is to uphold the law. The law is there so we have the right to decide for ourselves. It doesn't not force us to have an abortion either.

What is this a woman can do what she wants with her body crapola? We're not talking about killing herself? We're talking about killing her baby!! Hello!! The baby's body is NOT hers to do with what she wants. She is NOT God! She's immoral and gets pregnant, then that baby is HER responsibility.

The right to choose is based on the false premise that women have no choice. They do. They have two choices. Choice one is abstain from sex. Choice two is put the child up for adoption. There are thousands of couples who can't have children and have to wait for years to adopt a child. Certainly it is more humane for a mother to put the child up for adoption than to kill it for the sake of her own convenience. Another argument used by those favoring abortion is the argument that a women has the right to do whatever she wants with her body. This is a false argument. Can she run around in public in the nude? Can she extend her hand into another's face and punch them? And if she can do whatever she wants with her body why can't a man? Can a man rape his wife in the privacy of their bedroom? Can a man terminate the life of another? We grieve when we read that over 4,000 soldiers have been killed in Iraq, yet we give no thought about the 50 million children that have been killed since Rowe vs. Wade.
When we agree that a women should have the right to terminate the life of her child, we passively agree to let this genocide continue.

The Republicans must talk about abortion because they are can't talk about the real issues, like how they have screwed up this country so bad. Its their game plan every four years......Oh and yes....Here come the Big Black HELICOPTERS to take our guns away. Boo hoo, boo hoo. Guess that never happened either.

Lets face it, they can't win on issues and they have to cheat when they do. Wars, guns and lies, so Christian.

As an Obama supporter, the critical issues for me are the War in Iraq (get out), the Economy, rebuilding America's infrastructure, a Health Care plan for all Americans that is affordable, and a host of other issues. I am pro-choice. As sad a shape as the country is in, surely there are other issues we need to address. McCain is just pushing the Evangelicals and anti-abortion hot buttons to garner votes.

The Right to Life, is the most fundamental of ALL Human Rights, and the One on which All others depend. The Right to Life is also guaranteed in the US, and is specifically addressed in the US Constitution. Any court that makes it legal to kill a Pre-Born Boy or Girl is unjust and therefore null and void. It is essential we have a Right to Life Amendment that specifically recognizes this "Self Evident Right" bestowed on us by God, not Government. Roe V Wade is the most illogical and immoral interpretation the courts have ever made. The consequences have been devastating.

Are all of those so vehemently in favor of reverseing Row V. Wade willing to support a single mother financially, emotionally, and in all the vital ways a family system and community are required in healthy development of children?

Discussions about "birth control" really don't address the core issues and there are many, that contributed to "unplanned" pregnacy. Abstaining from sex prior to "marriage" or a long-term commitment is woeflly inadaquate as well. Social change that supports young women and men and the systems in which they live (systems: family, school, neighborhood, etc.) could go a long way towards minimizing unplanned pregnacies.

When men and women feel valued, necessary, and connected to the larger community, there are reasons to be more thoughtful about having a family. We have an enourmous gap in this country between those who have opportunities realize their potential and those who have absorbed generations of hopelessness and shame. (granted these comparisons are broad, but in my opinion ample for the point).

Our media sources offer simplistic commentary that does nothing more than perpetuate our inability to truly address the class divide that's been slipped under the over arching umbrella of "morality" accross the board, but very blatnetly in very weak and relentless dicotomy of "Pro-Life" V. "Pro-choice."

Any women who has made the very difficult choice to abort an unplanned, unwanted pregnacy can tell you that it is a very lonely and personal experience. It requires a great deal of personal strength and responsibility to decide that one is unable to care of a child and all that this life-time commitment requires. I can not begin to list the diversity of experiences women who have made this choice carry with them I can, however, speak from my own experience that I live with sadness and at the same time a sense of comfort that I did not subject a child to a directionless life (and this includes no home, extremely limited financial resource, and an inability to care for and value myself. The child who would've been born into that young girl's life would've have suffered so much.

We really have to stop judging each other and taking empty, convenient, and hurtful approaches to families. If you really want to reduce unwanted pregnancies and all of the devestating consequences, abortion one among many, take an interest in young people who need mentors. You really don't need to be a member of an approved "mentorship" program to take an interest young men and women who need support and encouragement.

One last thought: Why are we so determined to moralize and control women's reproductive processes in endless and overly simplistic terms while prisons are getting filled with poor people (a significant number of women who are single mothers). Why aren't we outraged enough to debate the incredible number of young people killed every day; casualties of grossly inadaquate gun control laws in the faces of every journalist, politician, and Duck hunter in our country? Many lives are being desposed of in jails and gun-fire, that's loss and unecessary carnage.

I appreciate being able to share these thoughts in this forum these issues are very important to me and I vote.

I believe that the pro-life/pro-choice abortion question itself was framed incorrectly from the very beginning and it has lead to division and conflict between very well meaning people on both sides of the issue. The truth is everyone is really pro-life because no one really WANTS an abortion, and that is especially true for those who have had one. It is a difficult decision made in a difficult situation, by people who would prefer to be making a different choice. It is a significant emotional event that's is never cherished and remains with those involved decades after the abortion itself is completed.

By the same token, everyone understands that in pregnancy, the baby is in the mother's body, and she has complete control over what happens to it. It is always her choice as to how she either does or does not care for the developing child.

I believe the place both sides have common ground is in considering unplanned pregnancy. How do we as a community work together to significantly reduce them, and treat each other with dignity, compassion and respect in the event that they happen no matter what we ultimately choose to do about them.

Coming together in that way will help bring all of our good thinking and good will to the table to solve this problem together. Because "a house (country) divided against itself cannot stand."

I want to add - As much as I believe a woman should make her own choice, it should not be used a form of birth control.

Levels of repeat abortion increased at a slower pace between 1979 and 1993 (from 32% to 47%) and have remained stable since then.

This is very sad news.

I choose Pro-life for myself, but I support Pro-choice for others. I work in Foster Care & Adoptions and every day I see children suffering from the bad choices their parents made or from the hands of someone who physically, sexually, or emotionally abused them. From the first day of conception, some of these children will never have a chance for a quality life. These children didn't ask to be born; they were forced into this world. If only the world knew how poor the quality of life some of these children have, they would change their minds about abortions. If you believe in Pro-life for all, then please go to the nearest Social Service Agency and adopt a child with physical handicaps, severe mental health or mental retardation issues. If all persons who are Pro-life would be willing to adopt a child with these kinds of problems, than I'd be willing to vote for a pro-life president.

This poll comes at a time when The Shrub and his Bu@!$%#es are trying to make ALL CONTRACEPTION equal to, and ILLEGAL as abortion. I do not believe that the government has any business in our bedrooms or telling us what we can or cannot do with our bodies. But if they succeed, the availability of The BC Pill, IUD's, and the Day After pill will be classified as illegal, and millions of women will be denied access to the means to control her own reproductive life. This is one more distasteful example of the few forcing their views on the many. Next they will want to ban hysterectomies!

The right to practice MY religion is guaranteed by the Constitution, but as he has played fast and loose with other areas of the Constitution, The Shrub will try to force this down our throats. What if my religion teaches that a woman's body is her own, no longer owned by a father or husband, but allowing her to make the choices she decides are best for her? I am so tired of him lying to us and blaring headlong into his own agenda. Perhaps we can find someone to sit on him for the 4+ months!!!

How is it possible, for John McCain to consider taking the high moral Christianity grounds,when he committed adultery,on his first wife? This adultery,was committed with Sidney McCain/"Chick on the side"!
As for McCain's offering to be release earlier than his comrades,by his captor's, this was done because of his father's rank or position in the military at the time of negotiations for his release. Senator McCain was ranked in the less percentile in his graduating class in college,could it had been pilot's error that cause his captor? Senator McCain, was also broken in captivity by his captors. Is this why he was offered
and early release to his father,of whom was and admiral in the navy at the time. Did Senator McCain give information to his captors, that would have compromise his unit? Who really knows. If life begins at conception,where does marriage value's end? What about the sense of honesty and honor? Straight talk, "RIGHT"!
Rodney E.Rhodan
U.S.M.C,Disable Vet.
Mssg24-24th Mau,
1983 Beirut Lebanon.

Under the Constitutional mandates of separation of Church and State, and privacy rights, it is time to keep the government and faith based beliefs out of the lives of citizens of the United States. Like illegal domestic spying on citizens under the smokescreen of national security, the Executive and Congressional branches of government have no business enacting statutes telling folks that they may or may not terminate a pregnancy. It is an outrageous government and religious intrusion into the lives of citizens.

No, I could not vote for any candidate who does not believe in the fundamental right to personal privacy in ALL reproductive and personal relationship matters. Republicans are "pro-life" only from conception through gestation....once you are born....they could care less what happens to you !
It's SO hypocritical. In my mind, true "murder" is leaving 1/2 of our population under-educated, under-paid, and without health-care for all. That to me seems more like murder than the termination of an unwanted pregnancy. Abortions in this country could be seriously reduced by teaching adequate sex education and contraception measures in our schools....but the Republicans are against that too!

Women have found ways to get rid of unwated pregnancies since women started getting pregnant. Whether abortion is legal or not isn't going to change that. We should all work to make having and raising children easier for women in difficult situations.

Chioce is important. Without Roe vs. Wade we will go back to the times of backroom abortions.

no man or president has the right to tell any woman what to do with her body, abortion or not , please keep the dark ages in the past , any woman should be able to do what she want's not what some old guy or preacher things is the the right way, and please lets thing about things that are better for the people as far as having a good honest person in the white house and stop with the moral issue , to most people , good HMO's , better wages, lower gas price's , not what is been going on in last 7 years , please prople think about that , abortion is the last on the list,

John McCain proposes that freedom is something worth dying for, yet he wants to take that freedom away from women. Where the heck am I living? Another John posted that abortion is the murder of a child. Since when do religious zealots make law. Oh wait, we already have a law defining murder.
Other people want to load the supreme court with right wingnut judges. What happened to state rights. I believe in the philosophies of our founders. Why are their people that want to work to both take our freedoms away and at the same time reject the balance of power and the systems checks and balances

If the religious faithful truly believe in the immortality of the human soul, why should they behave toward abortion as if they don't? If life continues after we die, it seems logical that fetuses will have it the easiest because they're the most innocent of humans. All life dies one way or another anyway...and throughout time countless human fetuses have died naturally during complicated pregnancies or births. Is a God who presumably designed this life and death system of nature not responsible for its results? Are not miscarried fetuses God's or nature's way of aborting? I don't understand the fanatical opposition to abortion when no irrefutable scientific evidence fully supports one view over the other. We would be wise to just accept our differences until then and stop pretending that anyone has absolute answers for everyone.