I know you didn't want anyone starting up the pro-life pro-choice debate, but the fact that worldwide, more than 13% of women die from the poor unsanitary conditions of illegal abortions strengthens my already rock-hard pro-choice convictions.

karlotta...you've ignited the fire

haha

13 percent? Damn.

13% that are reported who knows how many more.

4/5 - Only missed the one about the drug.

The 13% thing SHOCKED me too, but I had basically the opposite reaction from karlotta's. If those women did not HAVE to go to unsafe and unsanitary "back-alley" illegal abortionists, many or most of them would not have died.

"Of all female deaths, 13 percent are caused by illegal abortions"

This is truly awful.

3/5, i got the first 2 wrong. I'm with you 100% Karlotta.

the questions talk about women who "choose" to have abortions. i wonder about the ones who don't necessarily choose, but are forced into it by law, parents, partners...

i'm dissapointed by my lack of knowledge on this. i thought i knew more than that.

I don't want to start a fight here, but if there were more places available for women to have safe abortions, they wouldn't need to have unsafe illegal ones. It;s really sad. A woman has to put her life in danger just because she's not ready to have a baby.

my thoughts exactly, Beaner.

3/5 got the last two incorrect ...
I agree if there were more places to get an abortion done legally it would hopefully reduce that number, at least in the developed countries

I underestimated the number of abortions in the US and world-wide, but got the last three right. I'm surprised numbers are so high. This is pretty depressing.

5/5

Angela, I don't see where we disagree - if they didn't HAVE to do it illegally, they probably wouldn't die! So, abortion should be legal... isn't that your point too?

No, she's saying that everyone should be pro-life.

And holy crap, 13%?! That's massive.

5/5
Very sad to know about the 13%, but like others have mentioned, if there were more sanitary places for this procedure to be conducted, perhaps that percentage would decrease.

Umm...if you're going to hold yourself out as providing facts to the general public, you should at least double-check your information. A quick google search confirmed that illegal abortions account for 13% of all MATERNAL deaths - i.e., all deaths of pregnant women, not all deaths of all women. I'm pro-choice but just get your facts straight. Common sense should be sufficient to tell you that illegal abortion does not account for 13% of all female deaths.

Link below.

http://www.ippf.org/en/Resources/Reports-reviews/Death+and+Denial.htm

Maybe we should all be hoping that forms of birth control are more widely available (esp. in poorer areas where rape is a high occurance) so that abortions themselves would have to be sich a high occuring option.

I'm pro-choice (not that I have anything against being pro-life) but I do have a problem when the gov't goes pro-life because then even in cases of incest or rape, abortions would still be deemed illegal (the sad truth is that it would be hard for you to prove that you got raped and thats why youre pregnant and not because "youre a wh*re").

Pro-Choice or Pro-Life: I think we should all stand united in protecting women and girls from having to make dangerous options (back-alleys no more!)

I hate so say the stats don't surprise me. Worldwide rape and incest are more frequent than we in a country that at least tries to help women realize. Think about it, in certain countries if a woman claims she was raped she is punished as an adulturer and/or she and her family are outcasted because she is a wh*re and brought shame to them (and no this is not just a middle-eastern thing either. It does happen with shocking frequency in Spanish-speaking countries. I've seen it firsthand how a family will disown a grl who was raped coming home from school by a group of young men because everyone thinks if you were raped you were "asking for it" or "shouldn't have been there anyway, so it is your fault"

missed one..... I am Pro-choice!!! Protect your right to decided for yourself and control your body... dont let the govt choose for you!!!

Yeah, I'm with girl friday. I don't think that 13% is correct. Especially when you look at it this way:

56,597,034 die each year (in the world) approximately

let's say about 28,000,000 are women. that means 3,640,000 women die due to illegal abortions.

This doesn't make sense, because the top causes of death in the world are: 1. HIV/AIDS 2 678 000 (in developing countries) and 1. Ischaemic heart disease 3 512 000 (in developed countries). And that includes both men and women.
So, if this 13% was the right number, then it would be the #1 cause of death.

DearSugar, would you be able to look into this??

Actually, I just found that "worldwide, 67,000 women die every year due to unsafe abortion procedures" according to the WHO (referring to illegal abortion)

This definitely IS NOT 13% of all female deaths.

Omg it's so sad, 25 million babies. I want to cry.

No AnnaLove you mean 25 million fetuses.

The 13% figure just strengthens my already completely pro-choice opinions. It disturbs me to know that women are still dying from a procedure that can so easily be performed in a safe way as long as it remains legal.

And wadewifey3 - you're so right.

lol wadewidey

The need for a safe, clean environment to obtain a perfectly legal abortion exists in the U.S., as well. My state does not have *any* abortion clinics. It's like a third-world country here, women resorting to all sorts of old wives tales to end their unwanted pregnancies. If you want to find an anti-choice (we need to stop using the term "pro-life"--I'm pro-choice and also in favor of living... that's just a stupid term) so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," though, where you can be convinced to be an incubator for a fetus you never wanted and you'll be abandoned as soon as it's viable, there are plenty of those.

Wow, shocking numbers! This is an awesome quiz, very informative. This is stuff that everyone, pro-choice or pro-life needs to know.

queenlizzie: "anti-choice" Agreed, b/c that's exactly what it is.

And I think more birth control options available and making more legal safe abortion centers available would both help these problems. There isn't just one solution, all ideas should be used together to make a bigger impact.

There are many choices a woman can make before she becomes pregnant; it should start there.
Otherwise, especially in a rape incident if she's over 18 she should decide what she needs to do for herself, and I would hope there's a safe place to do that.
I've never given it much thought personally so that's the only thing I've ever considered regarding abortion.

i remember seeing a documentary where people in africa didn't have access to most birth control methods, and the women would have to have back-alley abortions because they couldn't afford to rear another child (healthily, happily, etc) ... so many of them ended up dying - much like the whole clothes hanger thing, the metal poking devices they used to perform the abortions caused infections and a lot of internal damage. abortion is going to happen no matter what, i think, and although i don't know if i would exercise my right for it, it's important to make safe abortions available to every woman.

5/5!? Whoa, can't really say that I'm shocked, even if the 13% is wrong.

And I totally agree with ya, Mesayme.

3/5 not to badd

Wow; although I'm pro-choice and I thought i had a pretty good grasp on the facts on abortions, I did not do well on this quiz LOL.

That 13 percent number is shocking. But I plan to use that now in arguments.

3/5 Got the first one and the drug one wrong. I'm Pro-Choice and proud.

I was gonna say that 13% is not only shocking, it's outright impossible. Luckily, other commentors did the research for me. And I love how people who commented after didn't read the previous comments...

i do hate to disagree and be unpopular, but...
no matter what the circumstances are, why decide to terminate a life? just because we are women we have the right to decide if someone has the right to live or must be terminated? it might not seem like much, just a little operation, but there is a live fetus which at some point dies. because the woman was not ready or ashamed or felt parental pressure, etc . why is a woman's clean image or certain goal/ideal life plan more important than a whole life? women are so brainwashed into being prochoice, but abortion hurts women! its unnatural.
there are many situations when i would sympathize with the woman enormously, (even being a single mom or a young mom would be hard, let alone a victim of a sex crime)
but its a whole life that is at stake. . .

snowysakurasky - I hardly think its fair for you to say that we're "brainwashed" into being pro-choice. Many of us have done our research and taken account of our own beliefs in forming our opinions (much like you have done, I'm sure). Please don't be so naive to think that just because our opinions may differ than yours that we're uninformed.

snowysakurasky, I wouldn't take "unnatural" as a plausible argument. Is make-up natural? Is body piercing natural? Is any kind of surgery natural? There are a lot of "unnatural" things we do to our body, so I really don't think that argument holds any weight.

hi ladies, thank you for being so polite, i was hoping i didn't offend anyone, since this is such a controversial subject.
i apologize, 'brainwashed' was harsh, i didn't think twice when choosing that word and it was probably the wrong word.

i do think that in the media in general abortion is talked about as a legitimate decision, and there is very rarely ANY negative stories about abortion. any long term health risks are seen to be the creation of the pro-life groups' studies (which they may well be, i admit i have no idea) and the negative and distasteful side (what happens to the fetus's body, what exactly the procedure does (not just what happens to the woman's body, etc) is not mentioned in sex ed. at least they were not for me. The negative effects of NOT having an abortion are widely discussed: scorn, single mom stigma, death from childbirth, emotional pain of giving a child up for adoption ( on the tyra banks show all the time), the unfairness of rape and incest, 'broken families' and poverty come to mind. that is what i meant by brainwashed, we hear a lot about the negatives on one side. this is the first generation or two that has grown up in a world that allows abortion and we still do not know everything, riight?

natural is a very general term i guess, and i am not opposed to any of the unnatural procedures you mentioned, especially surgery for health reasons. once i had a child i saw abortion as something that is ESPECIALLY and PAINFULLY unnatural, especially after the first 2-3 months of pregnancy. it is so unfortunate when girls/women who are torn have no resources and also don't have the courage to give the baby up after 9 months (which is very understandable). its unnatural in the same way that, say, never visiting your grandparents when you could easily do so and they've done nothing wrong to you is unnatural. its sort of inhumane in that way.

if anybody wants to share, i would love to hear people's opinions on a specific moral question i just made up

if a healthy post-pubescent 17 year old girl is raped by her stepfather and doesn't know that she is pregnant until later than the first trimester, when is it too late (morally) to have an abortion if the pregnancy never endangers her physical health (other than the typical risks of childbirth)?
a) when the fetus could possibly survive outside of the womb
b)around__months
c) never as it was not her decision to get pregnant and she is also a victim of sexual violence
d) other.....______________

thank you

I'm pro choice and in terms of being unnatural - I think it is more unnatural to give up your child after it being inside of you for 9 months and then not knowing if it will have a good life or not. I think it is natural to want to give your child the best life you possibly can and how can you know that for sure when you are giving your child up to a complete stranger?

I agree with what most of you pro-choicers have said.

I don't think courage has anything to do with giving up a baby. good for women who are able to do that but for those of us for who it wouldn't be the best option, it doesn't make us lack courage.

Google: 'baby found dead' and tell me if the fetus wouldn't have suffered less. Visit an orphanage or a children's home where children have been abused, or speak with a social worker before you make up your mind about whether an unprepared or unwilling mother shouldn't have had a safe choice/alternative to ending the life of an unwanted child. Many times it results in just that. But only after that child has suffered years of abuse and neglect. Not all women who get pregnant in a few minutes of sex can handle the responsibilities and emotional strain of a child 24 hours a day.
I wanted to be a mother; not just have a child so when I learned I was pregnant I was overjoyed. That is not always the case.

I'm not trying to tell you what to think, merely to consider all sides before you make up your mind. It's much less to do with the mother than it is to do with the child. If my three children live to be a 100... I only mothered them for about 20 years of that. We get caught up in the cuteness of a baby...that last but a minute in time. You're not just having a baby, you're creating a new human. It's a decision that should be considered before you even have sex.
All women should be pushing for birth control options for all women instead of the band-aid of fixing an Opps. Most women in aforementioned Africa and other countries, have no choice, usually they have been raped. But if we were able to get them free pills, at least they wouldn't have children- unless they decide to.

I don't think much about abortion because it's never been an option for me. Even if I were raped I'd still be a mother to the child. But I'm mature enough to accept that not all women think like I do, and they have the right to make their own decisions. Our government needs to do that very same thing. Or- continue to overload our social workers, or prosecute child abusers and murderers.

snowy - I think that the "stigma" you speak of is a two way street. For example, imagine what would happen if Sarah Palin's daughter decided to abort her pregnancy. Given her social circle, she would likely be chastised.

I see nothing wrong with being pro-life (though I identify myself as being pro-choice), but no matter what decision a woman makes there will be people there to criticize her.

Angela, I don't see how you had the "opposite" reaction to karlotta's comment. I thought at first that you meant that if these women didn't get abortions they would be living, but then you agreed with another poster's comment (forget the name, sorry) that was pro-choice? I'm a little confused.

Anyway, I guessed 13%, I was way off on the first two questions though. I'm suprised by those numbers for sure.

Oh and I just read above that the 13% was of MATERNAL deaths, that was kind of what I had assumed but I still thought it would be lower..

To everyone who is pro-choice:

Please read Lime 5 By Mark Crutcher.

'nuff said.

Enough said about what? It's a pro-life book written by a man who has been pushing the pro-life agenda for years.

i don't think abortion is ever a "good" choice, but sometimes its the best choice.