It's a sticky situation. Many times when women go in for and abortion, they're telling themselves "I will only do this once" or "I hope this is the only time I ever have to do this!" you know? When the female is presented with multiples, suddenly it sort of becomes "two" abortions instead of just one.

I know it would make a difference for me, since I wouldn't be pleased at having to get an abortion in the first place.

I don't think multiple is somehow worse than single, but I read this as presenting it as a wanted pregnancy.... maybe I'm wrong.

So, if a wanted pregnancy ends up being multiple... then I personally/morally would not consider abortion an option - because I wanted to conceive a child. (Hypothetically) when I (or the woman in question) chose to try to conceive, I also accepted the possibility that it could be multiple. I could not abort a wanted pregnancy unless my health was at serious risk.

So that's my personal perspective. On to my legal/social perspective. I don't know her circumstances and it is entirely her decision.

Women also have the option of selective abortion - where 1 of a set of twins is aborted. Also something I personally could never morally do when it is a WANTED pregnancy.

If it is an UNWANTED pregnancy and I was told it was multiples I don't think it would alter my decision in any way, no.

I don't think it being mulitples makes a difference. Especially in the situation where the woman was considering abortion before she knew that information. If you don't want one baby, you definitely don't want two!

I might consider abortion if I were having multiples because I seriously do not want multiples and I would selectively abort if I chose that route. However, my husband might not go for that because he thinks twins would be great! Actually twins, wouldn't be such a big thing, I guess. Anything more though, I absolutely would not do.

Is selective abortion where they only remove one or two of the embryos and leave the others? Mothers who go through invitro have done this so I've heard. I personally couldn't do it, but it's not my place to tell others no.

Yeah, I've got to say that I find selective abortion rather distasteful, especially when it's for no other reason than 'I just don't want more than one'. I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be to be faced with a multiple pregnancy, especially if you already have a child or children, but to selectively abort, to me, would feel like the equivilent of picking lobster out of a tank in a restaurant.

Saying that, I can see how to a pro-choicer there is no difference between an elective abortion of a single or a selective abortion.

Yeah. I personally couldn't do it and wouldn't want to; and I don't think it's right for women who are purposely implanting several embryos into their uterus hoping for one, to abort the extras. But that's just me, and I'm not going to stop someone from doing it.

I agree. We have triplets and I wouldn't trade them for the world, I can't imagine it if one would have been aborted.

Personally, if I were having an abortion and found out there were more than one embryo it would not alter my decision. If i can't have one baby, I certainly could not have two!

However, if I were using fertility drugs to purposefully conceive, i could not abort one or two if I were carrying multiples, becuase i knew that using fertility drugs can cause a woman to become pregnant with multiples. IMO that would be like calculating my most fertile time, deliberatley having sex to get pregnant, and then aborting.

Having said that, it is still a woman's choice to do so, and i would not interfere or pass judgement. I reserve my judgements for my own actions!

Carrying of multiples would just give me greater incentive to abort - I would go postal on someone with one little waif to deal with. Entire towns may get blown up if I had three or four little screamers to care for at once...nyyeh, makes my skin crawl just thinking about having four babies whining all at once.

Carrying a multiple pregnancy is nothing like carrying a normal pregnancy. It's very high risk for mother and baby. Multiples are taken C-section very often and often have low birth weight as well. I won't go through that if I do not have to.

I see not difference in aborting a single pregnancy to a multiple pregnancy.

Lets turn this a bit.. how about when you don't elect to reduce the amount of multiples and this causes premature delivery and 5 of 6 sextuplets die? how prolife is that?

Well, you'd be letting "nature take it's course" and that would make it "okay", except of course for the fact that the entire conception was anything but natural.

"It's a sticky situation. Many times when women go in for and abortion, they're telling themselves "I will only do this once" or "I hope this is the only time I ever have to do this!" you know? When the female is presented with multiples, suddenly it sort of becomes "two" abortions instead of just one. "

eiri I think you have been very honest there with the forum. It must of been hard for you to take that stand point and I see you are the only pro choice person so far to go down that road. I hope you realise what you did and it was intentional and not just a slip.

because what you have done and I think it is very brave of someone to do this from the pro choice movement is to seperate the abortion issue with the pregnant state and shift the focus onto the killing of the fetus, where you said it "sort" of becomes "two" abortions instead of One, although the woman is not pregnant twice, pregnant once but with twins. You do kind of cover yourself though with the "sort of becomes" remark, that kind of seperates you from the point of view, but you understand it. I think that view opens a can of worms for the pro choice person if they hold to it themselves or not so long as they understand it and either the others genuinely dont see that point of view or have been afraid to post it..... I respect your honesty and your bravery (if it was intentional)

I've gotten grief from fellow pro-choicers for just these reasons. I said "sort of" simply because other people don't have the same opinion as me, so though I may view it as two, other people won't.

And the concept of multiple abortions (whether of twins or of one fetus at a time) is a sticky issue for me, period. I honestly feel unhappy with abortion being used as a sole form of birth control unless the woman has no other options - some women can't use hormonal birth control, and as we know, barrier methods fail. I think it is a disrespect to life and to the female body to constantly have abortions. Then again, that's just my opinion. Would I drive a woman to her 8th abortion, knowing she didn't use birth control when she could have? No.

I believe in moderation, so saying "one abortion is exactly the same as the ninth one" is NOT the same. Eating twenty cookies is not the same as eating one or two.

For some reason I just don't see 'letting *god* handle it' as a descent excuse. If several doctors tell me I will stand a better then average chance of losing most or all in a premie delivery is it really any different to electively abort then to let *god* abort for you?
I think its cowardice.

Then Eiri you are very brave to take the opinion.

Personally I actually don't take that opinion; the one that "god" should take his course in the case of risky multiples. I think that if you will increase their chances of survival, you should selectively abort one or two of them if that means the rest will survive.

This is of course slightly off topic and in relation to IVF.

In relation to the original posted question "If a woman is planning to abort and discovers she has multiples, does it change it for her?" I can see how it would. You are suddenly killing two potential babies, instead of "just one". Of course not every woman will feel that way and I wouldn't expect every woman to feel that way.

IVF is a complicated situation, since multiples are a semi-common occurrance, and the space for debate is larger. Personally, you purposely put 5 or 6 embryos into your body. Now, since there's nothing natural about IVF at all, the thought of aborting a few of the multiples in order to increase the survival rates of the others just makes plain sense. I used to dislike the idea, but upon further consideration and the mention of "increasing the survival rates of the other embryos", I realized it made more sense.

Sometimes aborting one or more multiples is the "pro-life" position:

This family was strongly urged by doctors to not carry all of the embryos to term, and the couple refused.


Aug 10, 2007 5:17 pm US/Central
Morrison Family Holds Funerals For 5 Of The Babies

(WCCO) It was a day of sadness and celebration of life Friday at Bethany Church in Bloomington, Minn.

Brianna and Ryan Morrison held funeral services for the five babies they've lost since Brianna gave birth to six babies in June.

Friends and family joined in honoring the short lives of Lucia Rae, Bennet Ryan, Tryg Brenton, Lincoln Sean, and Cadence Alana.

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_22218272 1.html