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Channel 4 to show graphic abortion footage
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
As some of you will have heard Channel 4 is to show a programme called My Foetus on April 20th on the subject of abortion. The programme includes very graphic images including a clip of a vacuum pump abortion and footage of the four-week old aborted foetus on a petri dish. Full story.
The programme-maker, Julia Black, claims to be pro-choice herself but argues that the footage must be shown because it "will help people fully confront the issue of abortion."
I personally think that argument is nonsense. The graphic footage was part of a political broadcast by a god-bothering anti-abortion fundamentalist group and like the fundies, Julia Black seeks to shock the public, which in her case will translate as a great programme-making success.
But the issue of abortion is not about how nasty it looks. The issue is whether a woman has a right to terminate a pregnancy because up to certain date the foetus cannot be considered a human being; because it is still part of her and it is her body and her decision. That you can see something that resembles a leg or an arm the size of a coin does not prove much IMO.
Opinions?
The programme-maker, Julia Black, claims to be pro-choice herself but argues that the footage must be shown because it "will help people fully confront the issue of abortion."
I personally think that argument is nonsense. The graphic footage was part of a political broadcast by a god-bothering anti-abortion fundamentalist group and like the fundies, Julia Black seeks to shock the public, which in her case will translate as a great programme-making success.
But the issue of abortion is not about how nasty it looks. The issue is whether a woman has a right to terminate a pregnancy because up to certain date the foetus cannot be considered a human being; because it is still part of her and it is her body and her decision. That you can see something that resembles a leg or an arm the size of a coin does not prove much IMO.
Opinions?
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments
i don't see it as entertainment and i can do without the education thankyou.
All power to her elbow. As I said in the other post about this... I think that this programme is worth watching and worth showing.
The big hold Pro lifers have over pro choice is that they (Pro Lifers) totally understand and accept that an abortion cuts short a life. Pro choice people (Myself included) tend to gloss over the whole issue and for some reason seem unable to stand up and say 'Yeah, Abortion is terminating a life - so what, it's my choice to do so'. This programme will make it clear what actually happens and will hopefully make pro choice people feel no fear or guilt or pressure about abortions.
Pro Life organisations use footage of foetuses over and over to try and convince or guilt trip people into not having abortions. They have power because they are talking about the reality while Pro Choicers (is that a correct term) use every argument they can find to 'excuse' their choice or right to choose.
Pro Choice people should be able to say 'yes I have seen the footage, yes the cells that start a life were killed - but I want to have the choice to do so with the cells I have produced - and I refuse to feel guilty about it''
To be fair I think most women "think carefully about what it is that they're doing" :rolleyes:
sorry but this makes me so angry. people who have abortions DO know what they are doing...they are terminating the life of a child they do not wish to have or cannot have. They are doing it legally, they are doing it knowing that the cells are sucked from their body and a life is stopped from developing. SO WHAT! It should be public, it should be shown.
This film takes all the power away from Pro Lifers who up until now have been the only ones prepared to use such footage. Take the rality and the footage away from them!!
i agree :yes:
some people dont though. people just see abortion and use it more as a convenience thing. alot of people think "this is the wrong time in my life to have a child so i will just abort it" im not denying that this is an easy decision to make but i think that they do take advantage of the fact that abortion is legal in this country.
i would hate to be in the position where i would have to make a decision like this. i believe in abortion, i think it is good that it is legal but i do think that it should only be used in *extreme* cases like, for example, a pregnancy resulting from a rape. to me there are so many couples that would be fantastic parents that cannot have children that i think that adoption should be considered as an option more. however, i am fully aware of the fact that after carrying a child for 9 months this is not an easy option either.
this is a hard one.
This is why I said "most" women.
There will always be a group of people that don't, but my post was really in reply to this comment
which just seemed like a loaded comment suggesting that to have an abortion is wrong.
I don't like loaded comments that have such ambiguity.
It is a hard one. How do you regulate this...how do you tell who are the most deserving of abortion?
You can't
yes sometimes people take no precautions, get pregnant, have an abortion as if it's another form of contraception but it is impossible to tell who these people are.
Yes some people can't have kids but there are plenty of kids in care who need homes. If they want to be parents that badly go and find a kid who really needs a home. People are so obsessed with having babies and yet there are thousands of kids waiting to be adopted. Why should women who find themselves pregnant but not being able to have the child be expected to provide babies for couples who through some accident of nature cannot have their own kids!!
Yes, but since I drew the conclusion, it must at least have seemed to be presenting such a view, even if just to me.
I had (until now) no other knowledge of your viewpoint or personal circumstances, so it wasn't too unrealistic.
This is what I meant about the ambiguity of such statements.
i do agree with you. completely. i just wish that people do think about all of this before actually making the decision to have an abortion. alot of people do take the decision too lightly and that was the issue i wanted to highlight, in agreement to girl with sharp teeth. it is extremely difficult to regulate it and i am not sure exactly how one would. but i just think that some people dont really understand what they are exactly doing.
A friend of mine has had 3 abortions - each time because she didn't tak e any precautions.
However - when a person like this goes to the doctor I'm damn sure they make up a story about a contraceptive failure. What can you do?
Banning abortion isn't the option.
Well the rational behind it was that to me it seemed saying
"It might make them think more carefully about what it is that they're doing"
was taking the point of view that none of "them" (people having abortions) think about it. So it wasn't too much of a leap to believe that you therefore thought that it (having an abortion) was wrong.
To go into more detail will be to distract the thread into a symantics debate.
I've never (to my recollection) participated in a pro or anti abortion thread because I have no suitable viewpoint from which to make an argument, the extent of my contribution here was going to be that which I made first of all that -
"I wouldn't want to watch such a show, but I see no reason why that means it shouldn't be shown, so long as the perspective is fair."
but I found your post vague (or some more suitable word that I can't think of) , so replied.
On the one hand, I understand why a woman wouldn't want to go through the procedure (maybe not the right word) of pregancy and pain of giving birth and later giving the baby for adoption, and I do agree that having a child without wanting it will change her life plans (and the father's) completely.
But on the other hand, there's the old philosophical phrase of "You can't have everything happen the way you wanted it to happen" (which I believe). Also, as long as we can't give a completely satisfying definition of what is life, we can't say at what point in pregnancy the "baby" starts being alive, and I'm 100% against the taking of any life unless you must in order to defend yourself.
So I honestly can't say what I think about it. But I do think that as long as we can't say if the embryo is alive or not at a certain point in pregnacny, abortions should be avoided (not that I have a say in the matter, but still...)
they are also less likely to pass on other std's.
having sex with a circumsised man is therefore much safe.