What If your mother decided to have an abortion instead of giving birth to you?
I’ll start saying that this has nothing to do with any other questions around here.
Then I’ll explain why I ask this. I just saw a news report about a woman who had like 6 abortions in 10 years.
Remember this is just a hypothetical question.
So: what if?
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98 Answers
Someone else would be the first to respond to this post…
Well, gosh, then I guess I wouldn’t be posting here, would I?
Then I wouldn’t exist. Just like the billions of years before humanity even existed.
Any rational pro-choice person doesn’t agree with people using abortions frivolously.
I would not exist. This seems pretty cut and dry.
Then I wouldn’t exist and it wouldn’t matter. No different than if my parents had never conceived in the first place.
The world would be short one amazing person.
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I think that a woman has a right to determine what she does to her body but anyone that uses abortion as birth control needs to be sterilized. I expect they would be really terrible mothers.
My mother would never have thought of having an abortion.
Who would save the wayward geese of the world? lol
I guess I wouldn’t be answering this.
Just curious, @Hibernate is English your native language?
So I guess the general consensus is that we wouldn’t be here. Gee, that’s startling. I am kerflummoxed.
Is there a point to this question? No one would be here to answer it, and you’d be asking a question and have no answers whatsoever. Is your hypothetical in any way, shape, or form useful in furthering the knowledge of mankind?
Might I ask you another hypothetical? What if the Bible had never been written? Remember. It’s just a hypothetical. It has nothing to do with any other question around here.
There’d be one less person on this overcrowded planet. In the great scheme of things, no biggie.
On a smaller scale, my mother wouldn’t had to marry at 18, only to be divorced and struggling by 22.
This question has given me a new perspective on abortion…I’m going to run out and protest at the local killing center now!
So, pretending for a moment that this is a serious question: sometimes people ask this as a way of suggesting that one cannot be rationally in favor of abortion because they cannot be in favor of anything that might have caused them not to exist. The claim, however, is obviously false: I can be against rape even if it turns out one of my ancestors is the product of rape.
Moreover, the conclusion would be too broad: it would suggest that everyone should be conceiving children as often as possible. But no one worries about all of the non-existent brothers and sisters they could have had if only their parents had been more sexually active (nor do we worry about all the people who failed to exist because the sperm that created us beat out all the others).
I guess I’d be somebody else. Hopefully, the other me has better parents.
@FutureMemory made me lol4rl.
Funny you should ask, I just got back from the Abortionplex this afternoon. It was so fun! Five stars!
Well, @SavoirFaire , in this case I’m afraid I just don’t have it in me to pretend that this Q was not designed to start some kind of major battle. This is exactly the wording that goes on in those pro vs anti arguments usually carried on between uninformed parties, and rocks usually get thrown. No thanks.
@jaytkay I love discovering new jokes. Thanks for that.
U wouldn’t c me?
Not that you can anyway, thank goodness….my hair is an absolute fright darling ;¬}
I expect that kid would have drowned and there would be about 4,000 more bluegills in Shawano Lake.
If a condom falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Billions and billions of infants have not been brought to term in many different ways, most notably, at the point of contraception. While I don’t condone abortion as a birth control method, I favor even less giving birth to a being that won’t be loved and nurtured.
I’m somehow thinking of all the little me’s and you’s that never were and never will be.
Didn’t find Abortionplex funny, though.
In another universe she might not have aborted according to our physicist friends, thus it would not matter, and I would be here, albeit on parallel fluther world. (or more accurately there).
Maybe I’d be a stem cell somewhere.
@JilltheTooth Perfectly understandable. It occurs to me that this thread is in Social. Anyone have a good recipe for banana bread?
@SavoirFaire : Thanksgiving food thread going on in general. Infinitely yummier.
I wouldn’t be here and my multiple siblings would only have 1 younger sister, not two. My boyfriend would be dating somebody else. Or maybe my soul (assuming it’s a real thing for this response) would have manifested in another form so I could be alive elsewhere. My mom would probably have been suffering some emotional issues if she ever had an abortion. Essentially, a woman who aborts can’t truly know what she is missing. I’m not certain that is always bad.
I would be a bear right now.
If I had never been born, then the world would be a nuclear armageddon. Feel free to thank me through cash donations for existing and saving everyone from certain doom.
Let me start by saying there is no way, under any circumstances that my mother would have had an abortion. So now. I am sixth out of eight children in my family. After giving your question some thougtht, I imagined answering your question along the lines of the lesson taught to George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. There are too many things to mention that would have been altered in this world if I hadn’t been born. That isn’t being egotistical. Just a fact.
I think she would have made the right choice; having children brought her little to no joy, she sacrificed her entire being for them (not, she spent less time around friends, but actually stunted any measure of personal growth or personality, and it was not the right choice, and it was not helpful, it just made things tense and bitter), and she was a horrible mother.
It also would not have any bearing on how I think about abortion; there’s always a what-if to counter, and they’re besides the point.
Initially, I thought that if I had not been born there would be six less people alive right now but then I thought that maybe someone else would have picked up the slack so maybe there would actually be 7 or 8 more people in existence. Then my brain began hurting again and I stopped thinking.
I wouldn’t care because I wouldn’t be here.
If I were never born, it would not be an issue because I would not be here to be know about it!
Thinking again…............ what if my mother did abort me and I am actually my brother and my brother is actually my sister and my sister is the sister I never had because mom and dad stopped having kids and…...............oooooooooooooh!!! Ow! Ow! Ow!
It would be a non issue, because I wouldn’t be here to think about it or worry about it or get upset about it or be judgemental about it or anything else.
The important question to ask would be whether it was the best thing for my mother to do, for her reasons alone and nobody else’s reasons.
If I wasn’t here, there’d be a lot more cheese for other people to eat.
What kind of question is this. I don’t get it. Obviously, none of us would be here. That is literally all there is to it..
Not really, @deni. If my sixth grade teacher hadn’t been born I may not have met one of my best friends to this day. We have been the support system for each other through many things in life. I can’t imagine not having her. If he hadn’t been born, his brother would most likely not have met his wife and had their children. I may not have developed a confidence in school if he hadn’t been born. I think it is a very deep question. One of those along the vein of what if Hilter or Mussolini or whomever had been aborted type questions.
If I had been aborted…
My father, who married my mother after she fell pregnant at the behest of his very Catholic mother, would have broken off the relationship also at the behest of his very Catholic mother.
Thus, he would never have married her. Which means he would have followed his plan to study theater instead of becoming a cop. He wouldn’t have hung out with his cop buddies after work to avoid my crazy mother, so he wouldn’t have become a five-alarm alcoholic. Which would have saved him having a hip replacement at the age of 32 after drunk-driving and crashing into a telephone pole.
My mother, on the other hand, would still be living with her mother, and they’d be making each other miserable without involving my dad at all.
All in all, life would have been much better for my dad. And it’s my mom that claims I ruined her life.
I would never have existed.
There’d be a hellava lot more stray animals uncared for…
EDIT:I just saw a news report about a woman who had like 6 abortions in 10 years.
Where you live, is birth control acceptable @Hibernate? Is it free, and easy to come by? Do women have the same rights as men?
Then I couldn’t answer such asinine questions.
T his R idiculous O riginal L ine of L ogic I s N ot G ood.
@bkcunningham That’s still not a justification to ask such an asinine (thanks @everephebe for articulating it for me) question. You wouldn’t have answered this question if you were aborted. It is seriously that simple.
My darling husband would still be looking for the love of his life and I would be blissfully unaware of the the Kardashian break-up.
Guess I’d be fucked outta luck.
@SavoirFaire Rawwr rawwr rawwr rawwr. Rawwr rawwr rawwwwr. Rawwwrr ooorrrghhh rawwwr blurrrrr.
This particular sperm and egg combination never would have come to be, just like the quadrillions of sperm and egg combinations that don’t come to be every time a woman has a period or a man jerks off. Yawn.
@Mariah Your answer was concise and awesome!
This question had a lot of potential. Speculating on how your parents lives would have turned out differently had you not been born seems a legitimate topic of discussion.
Yeah, but it’s a lot more fun to take the piss out of it.
@FutureMemory The interesting question you describe is not about abortion. Different subject.
I think it could be if one decided to take that approach to it. The question as asked is ridiculously open-ended.
I would say the question is ridiculously pointed. The opposite of open-ended.
I wouldn’t be here answering this question.
My wife wouldn’t be with the one she truly loves.
There wouldn’t be my two wonderful, adorable young children.
And if it happened to the pro-abortionists, they wouldn’t be here to express their arguments for it! So they should consider themselves damn lucky their mothers didn’t abort THEM, and get down and kiss the earth. Lol.
@MRSHINYSHOES First, most women who get abortions either already have children or go on to have children later. Second, people who don’t exist are neither lucky nor unlucky; they simply don’t exist. Third, arguments in favor of legalized abortion wouldn’t even be needed if abortions were so easy to get that 73% of Americans—that being the number of people who support keeping abortion legal in all or some circumstances—had been aborted.
But see the first point: even if all actual pro-choicers had been aborted, the likelihood is that our parents would have had other children later who also supported legalized abortion. So ultimately, your argument makes no sense at all.
@SavoirFaire And if your mother aborted you, you wouldn’t be here explaining this to me, and I’d still be here not reading your explanations because MY mother didn’t abort me, right? Sorry, but that’s my point. :)
And with that said, I shall unfollow this thread. Thank you Mom for letting me have the last word. Bless your soul. :—)
@MRSHINYSHOES the term “pro-abortionist” refers to someone who does not exist. It is vulgar and offensive. If you decide to stop arguing your point that isn’t really getting the last word.
To the few who have expressed (fairly self-righteously, IMO) that their mothers “would never have considered such a thing”: you can’t know that. Really. You can think that you know your mother that well, and maybe you’re right, but the chances are that your mother had many many thoughts about child-bearing and child-rearing that she never shared with anyone, for fear of reprisal.
And, @MRSHINYSHOES , I have never met someone who is a “pro-abortionist”. I know lots and lots of liberals, I have fought for the right to choose, and I’ve held the hands and comforted those who make the choice. And still, never met a pro-abortionist.
I wouldn’t know anything about it as I wouldn’t exist.
My mom was going to abort me. The abortion doctor went on vacation, so she kept me. You think women who have 6 abortions in 10 years are terrible mothers? You’re wrong. In countries where fucked up men don’t like to wear condoms, women have to use abortion as contraception because same fucked up men just have to have sex, as well. So my mother had 15 abortions in her lifetime, she might not be the greatest mom to me but it wasn’t because of the abortions.
@MRSHINYSHOES I’m curious why you always announce your decision to un-follow threads?
@FutureMemory and @Simone_De_Beauvoir I always figure that if someone announces out loud that they are leaving they will be too ashamed to jump back in. You know like telling your friends and family you are going to quit smoking so they can heckle you when they see you lighting one up.
@SuperMouse Except nobody here would actually bother to heckle anyone jumping back in. Right, I hope so?
@Simone_De_Beauvoir good point. But would some be inclined to think less of someone who publicly checks out of a thread then keeps getting back in? If that is the case, would it even matter to the fellow with the glistening loafers?
@SuperMouse My love, there are plenty of other reasons to think less of someone, ahem.
I always thought people announce they are leaving so people won’t ask them a question or expect a reply.
@bkcunningham : I think it depends on how it’s announced . High drama, with the stated intent of having the “last word” comes across as a bit…well…melodramatic. Simply saying “I’m done” gives the impression that the person is leaving for any number of reasons, and yeah, don’t address stuff to me.
@Simone_De_Beauvoir, how does it come up in a conversation with your mother that she was going to abort you but the doctor was out?
I find it shocking that women would kowtow to their husbands and have unwanted sex, sex without condoms or wouldn’t use the rhythm method or whatever other form of birth control is available but use abortion as a form of birth control. What am I missing?
What countries @SpatzieLover? I’m going to read about this. It is new to me.
@bkcunningham My mother is frank about many things. And this was in Russia. And what is it about ‘traditional marriage’ practices of forced sex do you not understand?
@bkcunningham If you scroll down about ¾s of the way on this link there is a bar chart of abortion rates by country.
Vietnam has the highest rate, with Romania, Russia, and the Ukaraine right behind.
I suppose the easiest way for me to understand it, @Simone_De_Beauvoir, would be to ask you: what is it about traditional marriage and practices of forced sex and using abortion as a form of birth control do you understand?
@bkcunningham I understand that I’m talking about my mother, primarily. I also understand that it’s not just my mother, it’s quite common in many countries for women to use abortion as contraception because no contraception is available to them. And the reasons given, when I asked are that ’ you can’t not have sex with your husband when he wants it and you can’t afford to have another child so you abort, it’s very common.’ It was only in mid 90’s even that the UK decided it was possible for husbands to rape their wives. Well, let me tell you, it was always possible. And I think many a time my mother was raped by my asshole of a father but it was a ‘how our culture is’ and all that bs they tried to sell me.
@SpatzieLover, did you know that the United Nations Population Fund has released a study showing the growing shift to male births in Vietnam. One of the primary reasons?
“This gradual shift is a complex phenomenon, influenced by lower
female mortality, changing age structures and international
migration. However, of significance is the direct link to this shift
found in the gradual increase in live male births recorded since
the 1999 census. This increase relates to the prevalent practice
of prenatal sex selection, particularly the widespread preference
for boys over girls. As a manifestation of such gender bias, the
elevated SRB is therefore of major concern for both social and
demographic reasons.”
Also, ”“Vietnamese parents’ long-standing preference for sons, increased access to sex selection technology and declining fertility rates, which have increased pressure on smaller families to fulfill their wish for a son, are the main causes for the rapid changes in Viet Nam’s sex ratio at birth in favor of males.”
http://vietnam.unfpa.org/webdav/site/vietnam/shared/UNFPA_Sex%20Ratio%20at%20Birth%20Booklet%202010_ENG_FINAL.pdf
@bkcunningham Surely you are aware that arranged marriages are still the norm in certain countries? You must also be aware that in certain countries women are considered beneath men and treated like objects? I watched a programme recently about arranged marriages in India and how children as young as 12 and 13 years old were expected to give their husbands whatever they wanted. Obviously, many of these girls were getting pregnant at a very young age. It didn’t go on to mention what the abortion rates were like because of this but I hate the idea of any woman becoming a baby machine simply because their husband wants sex on his terms.
@Leanne1986, yes, I’m aware of arranged marriages. I don’t see what that has to do with abortion as a form of birth control or forced marital sex.
I’m also aware of aware of countries were women are considered beneath men and treated like objects. I also don’t see what that has to do with abortion as a form of birth control or forced marital sex.
@bkcunningham When women are treated as objects (as they often are in arranged marriages or in cultures where the woman is considered inferior to the man) then they are expected to have sex whenever the man wants it on his terms ie: if he doesn’t want to use contraception then he gets his way. These women may feel that abortion is there only option. I suppose that would be considered a form of birth control. How can you not see the link here?
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