I had children young, looked after them at home from birth to school age, started working part time to fit in with school times, began studying, got qualifications, began working more hours as they got older, and worked full time when the youngest one was about 13.  Had time off work in the school holidays, mother-in-law had them some of the holidays. 

By doing this, I saw every single one of my childrens teeth grow, I heard their first words, I saw them sit for the first time, crawl and I saw them take their first steps, I watched them learn to feed themselves, and laughed when they made a mess.  I listened to them reading their first words, and helped them with their first maths.  I built lego toys with them, helped them with model aeroplanes when they became frustrated, I taught them about nature and respect for nature.  I wiped their tears, I kissed them and cuddled them when they were upset.  I taught them to ride a bike, to fish and I taught them to swim, I taught them to drive a car, I taught them how to stand on their own two feet.

By the time I was 35 (my children just about off my hands) I had a reasonable job and good prospects which I have built on since to become a senior manager and since moved on to pastures new into another senior position and now rub shoulders with politicians. 

Is that enough or do you want more?

If anyone is interested this site gives statistics for the number of Irish women seeking an abortion on the UK mainland.   http://www.ifpa.ie/abortion/index.html

If anti abortion legislation was ever passed in the US I presume there would be nothing to stop the "haves" from going over the border, into Canada for a termination.  (I don´t know if it´s legal in Mexico) .    Where would the "have nots" go?  Would there be DIY abortions? What would be the consequences?

I am pro choice, but I do think there should be strict limits on deadlines (unless for extreme medical reasons).  Premature births at 22-23 weeks are having successful outcomes nowadays. 

A recent news item here in the UK about a mother killing her 4 year old daughter because she had mild cerebral palsy  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/mother-drowned-girl-four-because-she-was-disabled-923660.html .

I´m not saying I think cerebral palsy is a reason to have an abortion.  Someone made to have a child against their will could be tipped over the edge and who knows what mental state they may be left in. Of course some may look back and be thankful that they changed their mind about having an abortion and some will be left bitter, resentful or mentally unstable.

I´ve worked with many disabled children over the years, in a mainstream school, and worked closely with their parents.  Children with Down´s Syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Hemiplegia, Dyspraxia, verbal Dyspraxia and Muscular Dystrophy to name some.  I can say without exception the children enrich school life and the lives of others, as well as their own.  It is wonderful to see young children keen to learn sign language in order to be able to communicate with the children that need it.

I´m shattered and I don´t think I´ve made myself very clear.  Basically, I´m pro choice but I can understand why someone would not want to have an abortion and I don´t think I could.  However, I´ve never been in the position where I had to contemplate it, so I don´t know what I would do if the chips were down.

I do worry what the consequences of a pro life law would be, as I said at the beginning.

It is definitely legal in Mexico as they have forced abortions for women working in the maquiladoras in Mexico, otherwise they lose their jobs.  Maquiladoras are foreign owned factories, mostly large corporations (usually American), where people work poor conditions and low pay.  If the women are found to become pregnant then they are forced to have abortions.  But then that is another story.................

 So we are perfectly clear here...you are telling me and everyone who reads this that you support the government´s intrusion into the body of women? You would force any woman who has a fertilized egg to bring that zygote to term? You support females who are rape or incest victims being forced to bring their pregnacys to term?

If you are so ardent about life, what about the millions of poor children in Africa, India, Haiti or many places on the planet? What are you and your candidates doing for them? How about the poor citizens of the US who can´t afford health care? You know, they can die without proper medical care?

If you are so anti-abortion, why do you shop at Walmart, who imports products from China? (who performs forced abortions)

WOW, you already had my respect and admiration, but now it´s increased even more!

Dear Teaschip, you are right that you have the right to object what happens in your country. You also have the right to object the decision of a woman to have an abortion (though I hope you will just respect a friend or family member when they decide to have one, as others respect your opinion). But you have NO right to forbid other women to take their own decisions as they don´t have the right to tell you what to do or believe.

That´s what it is all about - respect. You may dislike somebody´s decision to have an abortion yet you should respect their right to make such decision. For it is YOUR system of beliefs that leads you to consider zygote a human being. Por-choice people do not force anybody to have an abortion, "pro-life" impose their points of view on everyone. That´s far from fair.

If a person wants to have an abortion it is unlikely that a law will stop her. I come from a country where abortion is illegal - the effect is thousands of abortions conducted in private surgeries. Doctors that loudly pronounce abortion immoral within office hours, do it during their private practice.

I believe nobody has the right to tell me what to do with my body, nobody can force me to be a human incubator. Just like nobody can punish a raped woman to suffer more or sentence a mother of a disabled child to a lifetime of pain. It should be an individual decision of the person directly affected by pregnancy, not some believers who´ll do nothing to help.

I agree with most of what you say DD (I posted similar views and gave a link to statistics for Ireland) but I don´t agree that having a disabled child will automatically lead to "a life time of pain".  "Disability" is a very general term and I think most of the competitors in the paralympics (many of whom were born with their condition/s) would not agree that their life has been full of pain for either themselves, their parents or their siblings.  In fact some "disabled" people do not like being referred to as such.

At a Special Needs conference I attended, one of the seminars was led by a man in a wheel chair and he was adamant he was not disabled.  The ´pain´ he seemed to be going through was dealing some other people´s perception of him because he was in a wheelchair.

In the staffroom of my school there is a copy of the order of service for the funeral of the 3 year old son of an ex colleague.  It´s been there for 5 years but nobody wishes to take it down because it is full of testimony to the love of everyone who knew him and the richness he brought to their lives.  The service consisted of all the little boy´s favourite music, nursery rhymes and stories and his father had written the most poignant and, in places, humorous poem about his son´s life.  The little boy was born healthy but he contracted an illness when he was a few months old and this led to his having complex needs and needing a great deal of care.  His parents and family gave him this lovingly. I´m not saying there was never any heartache (pain) but in the main, there was much to celebrate about the life of this little boy.

As I´ve said before I´m pro choice.  I think there are extremes on both sides of the pro choice, pro life debate.  Pro lifers who will never contemplate abortion under any circumstances and want to outlaw it and pro choicers (is there such a word ) who might take an extreme view and regard any facet of their unborn child that they don´t like as a reason to abort (designer babies).  I don´t think either of these extremes is attractive.

btw, I´m sure DD didn´t mean anything extreme when she used the phrase she did, sometimes what we say doesn´t always come out as we intend. So, please don´t see this as a dig, I am not misinterpreting your intention, I just wanted to put some ideas forward because there are some who are all for designer babies.  I would hate that to become a way of life. I am also sure there are cases where parents do experience a great deal of heartache constantly and children do experience, literally, a lifetime of pain.  However, I´m not confident they would like the idea of abortion.  There are those that would say the love they receive/feel more than makes up for any heartache or pain they may endure.

So, after all that, pro choice is really the only option as far as I´m concerned, as it is not a matter where a government should be allowed to dictate. 

Well, PT, I actually intended every single word I wrote - because I was writitng from my perspective. Much as I admire people who decide to give birth to and raise disabled children, I would undergo an abortion if I learnt my child would be disabled. And I don´t think Teas or Liz have the right to force me to keep a child that I would never be able to love or bring up, and they´d better not suggest giving it away for adoption - chances are scarce. Also, life in an institution without prospects of ever going out is not a good choice either.