I'm fairly interested in this topic; however, I'm not going to go into depth on a fake conversation. Write a blog on what you think about this topic and I'll get into it with ya.

-A.

Gee its weird that a woman might get emotionally attached to a baby she's carrying - there only a few million years of evolution behind the emotion. Giving up a baby for adoption isn't easy either. Last I heard Bush was anti-abortion too so if he did have it his way she couldn't abort.

Emotions often get in the way of the obvious simple solutions. Gee, we could reduce the unemployment rate to zero if we just killed all the unemployed people.

"I don't see how abortion can be equated with killing people."

Apparently you have not been a parent? or if you have been one you don't have a heart or soul

Great article, Juxta. Very courageous. It should also be noted that women initiate two thirds of divorces. Most industrialized countries are trending toward a majority of children born out of wedlock (in Scandinavia over half of children are bastards) and that can't be a good thing - for men OR women.

Put another way - there is a very strong correleation between socialism and the breakdown of the family, and in this case I believe correlation is indeed causation. Indeed, the welfare state creates a profit motive for breaking up families and birthing children out of wedlock, and when you provide financial incentive for a particular action you tend to increase frequency of that action.

The status quo ain't working and while the alternatives may seem harsh (i.e. no welfare for single moms, end mandatory child support, mandatory adoption for children born out of wedlock OR from divorced families) it's time to have that conversation. Thank you for having the stones to bring this up.

David St. Hubbins

Gee its weird that a woman might get emotionally attached to a baby she's carrying - there only a few million years of evolution behind the emotion. Giving up a baby for adoption isn't easy either. Last I heard Bush was anti-abortion too so if he did have it his way she couldn't abort. I get emotionally attached to things. Does that make it any less my fault if I allow those things to ruin my life? Sometimes, it's necessary for people to act like adults and make responsible decisions.

How about making an adult descion based on all factors instead of just economics?

Emotions often get in the way of the obvious simple solutions. Gee, we could reduce the unemployment rate to zero if we just killed all the unemployed people. I don't see how abortion can be equated with killing people.

I'm not drawing a comparison between abortion and killing people (I'm pro choice) although I guess you are putting an end to a potential life which can be seen as the same thing (by some people anyway).
I'm just saying that you seem to imply that we should put practicality over emotion. An adult recognises that not all situations are as clear cut as they seem and you have to take into account many factors (emotions, finances etc.) before making a descion as big as abortion or adoption. The thing about killing people was just to say "well there are a lot of easy solutions to the world's problems but morals and so on make them unsuitable."

The writer of this fake conversation either has a problem thinking properly or if just plain biased enough to write an one side fake conversation, .. anyway what more can one expect from a post on websited for average joe...

It is a shame that your mind is so closed you cannot learn something from people who know more than you.  Guess in your mind, Ward Churchill is the only one that can teach you anything.  Or maybe Mikey Moore?

While we have no way of knowing if the conversation is real, it is highly plausible.

uh, actually, we do know that it is fake...

Here's a fake conversation I had with a single pregnant woman

uh, actually, we do know that it is fake...

I stand corrected.  Still, I think this was meant not to come up with a solution, but to explore the mindset of some.  In other words, it is a straw horse and a good one.

you are entitled to your opinion juxta, but i was appauled by your insensitve approach to such a sensitive topic. I hope to God that you are never employed or volunteer to counsel pregnant women on this topic because you don't seem to have much of a heart.

Ever heard of Tough love?  Sometimes the solutions are not the feel good ones, but the harsh ones.  It is easy to always go with the feel good ones, it is tough to gowith the tough love ones,hence the name.

I think I can make some interesting observations about you from the tone of your post.

1) You have never been poor and most likely come from a middle class family, never really going without food or decent clothing. Certainly never having your utilities turned off or having to worry where your next meal would come from. Ever have shoes from Payless? Shopped at K-mart? It is doubtful. Of course you'll probably say you had it hard, even if your family is worth quite a bit. I know a millionaire who complains about how poor she is.
2.) Nuclear Family with a mommy and a daddy, daddy played football (baseball? Rugby? Lacrosse?) with you on weekends while mommy baked cookies and lived at home. She could afford to do this because Daddy is which? (Lawyer? Doctor? CEO? Military Officer?)
3.)You will never understand the plight of the poor. you can't! You have no point of reference of the pain of that existence or how hard it is to work out of it.

As far as what you have to say. The tone is all wrong and shows no compassion or real want to help this person or persuade them in any way. I am prochoice, I think it is in the best interest of someone who will ruin their life by starting a family too early to terminate that pregnancy. On the other hand, I have known many who have gone through with the said act only to regret it the rest of their days, as their situation improved faster than they anticipated. Her reaction to you was because of your tone, you weren't being helpful, you were attacking her character, somehow puffing yourself up with your own superiority.

I come from a one parent home. My mother was never on welfare, worked hard for a living at an 11-7 shift as a nurse at a hospital 6 nights a week. We had nothing growing up while my rich father was busy stealing our inheritance and avoiding child support. I can tell you I have seen the point of view from both sides of the spectrum. The rich are blind, selfish, narcisisstic, and quite honestly evil. They usually claim to be good christians too. If you think you are a good christian, have a look at what Jesus had to say about charity.

I will tell you the system is truly rigged toward the ritch and against the poor

Coming from a poor home, I have had to work twice as hard as you to have equal standing to you. And there are no programs for a poor man who fits in my demographic. I'm not a minority and not a female. Though, I think programs for them should stay in place instead of being torn down by the rich republicans you cherish so much. You won't understand that I look on you with pity. You have no soul, no heart, and no truth to your character. You are narcissistic and too valuing of your own self importance in the world. You somehow think that people who are poor deserve to be there. Guess what bucko! If you were to lose it all today. Mommy and daddy took away the trust fund, your stocks soured and you lost your shirt. YOU WOULD NOT SURVIVE! Without the money you are nothing but a spoiled brat who wouldn't know what REAL hard work is.

Of course why do I bother, you have eyes, yet cannot see the truth when it is staring back at you. There is something terribly wrong in this world. When you meet Jesus at the pearly gates and he tells you he does not know you. Then you'll understand.

"The dispossessed of this nation - the poor, both white and Negro - live in a cruelly unjust society. They must organise against that injustice, not against the lives of persons who are their fellow citizens, but against the structures through which the society is refusing to take means which have been called for, and which are at hand, to lift the load of poverty.The only real revolutionary, people say, is a man who has nothing to lose. There are millions of poor people in this country who have very little, or even nothing, to lose. If they can be helped to take action together, they will do so with a freedom and a power that will be a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life." --Martin Luther King

I think anyone can make a "fake conversation" to justify any point-of-view. This article seemed more "provoking" than thought-provoking. What is Juxtaposition's true intention? If you would like a "real conversation" with a single parent feel free to post on my blog. I defintiely don't blame my problems on anyone...okay maybe on my parents...if it wasn't for my parents I would be a normal person.

Sometimes I feel like the poster child for the right wing conservative politician. Seems like the entire problem with the good ole U.S.A rest squarely on my shoulders. Anything wrong with the world today? Just point to my poster...single-parent-working-woman-who- wears-combat-boots. (I think its called the "Old Bait and Switch".) But all kidding aside, I think it's always bad form to lump everyone in one category. I think you can do better Juxtaposition.

"Abortion is advocated only by those who themselves have not been aborted" Ronald Reagan

Indeed, you're exemplifying a good bit of ignorance here. In my imaginary image of you, I see one of those young white guys who'd never previously likely even had a meal with a black person but felt is was his civic duty to show up and monitor voting in black districts on election day 2004. Yep. Those "monkeys" can't be expected to do it right. Though you do not denote race at all, there is an evident racial subtext in your message. And, of course, there's that "personal responsibility" concept. I find it interesting that you Republican types (yeah, that's pretty obvious, too, from subtext of your message) honor choice under these sorts of circumstance but not under other circumstances, as in choice over what one might do with her own body. I like how you suggest a tolerance of abortion-- maybe it's ok for poor black folks? Geez, who needs another of THEM, eh?

You'd do well to maybe actually go out and have some REAL conversations with some people who are different in their life experiences from you. I know, it'd be scary: it might disconfirm some of your prejucides. Egad. But, you might also become more of a real person than a caricature. I realize the world is scary in all its complexity and that it's easier to sit back and judge from your throne of privilege. But, people make complicated decisions for a complex array of reasons. And different people yield from different structural location in this life, based upon their social structure (race, class, gender). Read C.Wright Mills' The Sociological Imagination. Get a _real_ life. It's easy to get trapped behind one's inevitable prejudices, which generate from one's own social conditions/position-- very easy. But we only live once, and you're missing out on the authentic life. Like Siddharta (Buddha) before he left his gated community. Walk out that gate...come on, you can do it...