[Puffer Fish]

So in the abortion debate, we have mostly been talking about women with unplanned pregnancies. But what about those women who intentionally got pregnant, but still get an abortion?

Take for example when the mother finds out she has TWINS. In a growing number of cases now, women are saying to themselves "I didn't sign up for this!"

So she aborts one them.


just terrible, I can't believe women do this:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110925042 ... g-one-twin

The Half Abortion: Only Keeping One Twin
August 14, 2011, Nick Shell

Eight months.

In today’s publication of the New York Times, there is an article entitled The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy. It tells of the growing number of women who are pregnant with twins and choose to abort only one of the fetuses, and allowing the other to survive. In other words, these women are having a “half abortion.”

According to the article, New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center performed 101 abortions last year; 38 of those pregnancy terminations involved a mother pregnant with twins who decided to only abort one unborn child. And that’s just one medical center in the entire country.

One mother who used fertility drugs to get pregnant, then aborted only one fetus.

What is it about the idea of a half abortion that somehow seems more difficult to grasp than a “normal” abortion? The immediate thing that comes to mind is that it is an ultimate case of “playing God.” As if a “normal” abortion wasn’t already giving one person the authority to choose another human being’s ability to live, a half abortion gives a person the ability to decide which unborn child deserves to live and which one deserves to die. That’s playing God, times two.

Is there any justification for a half abortion? The article in the New York Times gives several examples of why women made their decision:

1. The mother was 45 years old and already had children. She felt financially insecure, as well as, too old to have twins.
2. The mother was known as a “good parent,” highly devoted to her children. Pregnant with twins, she decided she couldn’t be equally devoted to two more; just one.
3. The mother already had a son. Then she got pregnant with twins; a boy and a girl. She chose to keep the girl.
4. Many of these mothers were in their 2nd marriage and already have kids from their previous marriages. Twins would have been too complicated, compared to only one more addition to the family.
5. Some were single mothers.
6. Some mothers did not want to jeopardize their education.
7. Some did not want to jeopardize their careers.
8. One woman’s husband was an officer in the Army, fighting in Iraq. They already had a few kids. Twins were too much a risk if something happened to her husband.


One woman wrote on yahoo answers:

Can I abort just one of my twins?

I am pregnant with twins, but I don't want two kids. I just don't want to be one of those "twin mothers" who thinks that everything is so hard for them and is always complaining about the hardships of two same-aged children. A single child is a much better option for me. Is it possible to get only one of the babies aborted without harming the other? Or is it necessary for me to get both aborted and start over?


The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy
The New York Times, August 10, 2011

As Jenny lay on the obstetrician's examination table, she was grateful that the ultrasound tech had turned off the overhead screen. She didn't want to see the two shadows floating inside her. Since making her decision, she had tried hard not to think about them, though she could often think of little else. She was 45 and pregnant after six years of fertility bills, ovulation injections, donor eggs and disappointment -- and yet here she was, 14 weeks into her pregnancy, choosing to extinguish one of two healthy fetuses, almost as if having half an abortion. As the doctor inserted the needle into Jenny's abdomen, aiming at one of the fetuses, Jenny tried not to flinch, caught between intense relief and intense guilt.

"Things would have been different if we were 15 years younger or if we hadn't had children already or if we were more financially secure," she said later. "If I had conceived these twins naturally, I wouldn't have reduced this pregnancy, because you feel like if there's a natural order, then you don't want to disturb it. But we created this child in such an artificial manner -- in a test tube, choosing an egg donor, having the embryo placed in me -- and somehow, making a decision about how many to carry seemed to be just another choice. The pregnancy was all so consumerish to begin with, and this became yet another thing we could control."

But what began as an intervention for extreme medical circumstances has quietly become an option for women carrying twins. With that, pregnancy reduction shifted from a medical decision to an ethical dilemma. We still have to work out just how far we're willing to go to construct the lives we want.

Jenny's decision to reduce twins to a single fetus was never really in doubt. The idea of managing two infants at this point in her life terrified her. She and her husband already had grade-school-age children, and she took pride in being a good mother. She felt that twins would soak up everything she had to give, leaving nothing for her older children. Even the twins would be robbed, because, at best, she could give each one only half of her attention and, she feared, only half of her love. Jenny desperately wanted another child, but not at the risk of becoming a second-rate parent. "This is bad, but it's not anywhere as bad as neglecting your child or not giving everything you can to the children you have," she told me, referring to the reduction. She and her husband worked out this moral calculation on their own, and they intend to never tell anyone about it. Jenny is certain that no one, not even her closest friends, would understand, and she doesn't want to be the object of their curiosity or feel the sting of their judgment.

This secrecy is common among women undergoing reduction to a singleton. Doctors who perform the procedure, aware of the stigma, tell patients to be cautious about revealing their decision. (All but one of the patients I spoke with insisted on anonymity.) Some patients are so afraid of being treated with disdain that they withhold this information from the obstetrician who will deliver their child.

What is it about terminating half a twin pregnancy that seems more controversial than reducing triplets to twins or aborting a single fetus? After all, the maths the same either way: one fewer fetus. Perhaps it's because twin reduction (unlike abortion) involves selecting one fetus over another, when either one is equally wanted. Perhaps it's our culture's idealized notion of twins as lifelong soul mates, two halves of one whole.



I wonder, how on earth are these women ever going to explain what they did, to the other twin, their child that they chose to keep?

A Twin Lives Through an Abortion - CBN.com

Claire Culwell was living what she thought was a normal teenage life in the home of her adopted Christian parents when she decided that the time had come to connect with her birth mother. What Claire discovered from her biological mother rocked her world, changing her life forever. Claire's biological mother had been forced to abort at the age of 13, after five months of pregnancy. As a little fetus in the womb, Claire inexplicably survived the surgical abortion, but her twin sister did not. A few weeks later, her mother was brought back to the same abortion clinic to have the botched job finished, but the doctor refused to perform what would now be classified as a late-term abortion. Claire was born two weeks after the scheduled abortion, weighing a mere three pounds.

After the shocking revelation, Claire understood why so many health issues had constantly plagued her. She heard how the attempt on her life through abortion had left its mark on her, dislocating her hips, giving her club feet, and inflicting other injuries on her, injuries which still manifest themselves to this day.

[Godstud]

A woman having twins and wanting an abortion is exceptionally rare. The exception is not the rule.

I am pro-Choice(partially), but at the same time, I think we should get rid of abortions and make people take responsibility for who they have sex with. The only exception should be in rare cases, involving the law(Sexual assault).

Women would have to choose to be more selective in who they are having sex with(Women are the gate-keepers of sex).

They should also allow a "financial abortion" for men who don't want children, so they can sign away all right to the child and not pay child support for a child they did not want, but the woman chose to keep. This would de-incentivize women from having children, unless they were in a committed relationship.

No incentives for women to have children and no abortions. Children from single parents are more likely to have mental illness, go to prison, have childhood problems, etc.

Effects of Fatherlessness – Teenage Statistics
63% of all youth suicides,
70% of all teen pregnancies,
71% of all adolescent chemical/substance abusers,
80% of all prison inmates, and.
90% of all homeless and runaway children, came from single mother homes.
https://www.fixfamilycourts.com/single- ... tatistics/

[Unthinking Majority]

If you abort one twin you are a self-centered psychopath.

Check out these misogynist parent psychopaths in India and China: https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... han-girls/

Hopefully they'll soon be able to detect eye and hair color of the child so parents can abort gingers and everyone else they don't like.

[Fasces]

In China, the problem is overstated - not as high as 105-110 as is commonly reported. Closer to 102-103.

Girls' births don't get recorded so that parents can circumvent the one-child policy, but aren't murdered at birth or aborted in large numbers. I'm not saying the problem is nonexistent, or that this doesn't cause its own issues - unregistered children can't get a hukou, can't go to school, get a job, or receive any public services, etc. It is a huge problem, just a different one.

If you look at birth records after the repeal of One Child policy in 2015, the problem basically goes away because couples can register girls without fear.

[Rancid]

Seriously, what's up with @Puffer Fish. 99% of his posting is about rape and abortion.

[late]

Seriously, what's up with @Puffer Fish. 99% of his posting is about rape and abortion.

He's not getting laid?

[Unthinking Majority]

Seriously, what's up with @Puffer Fish. 99% of his posting is about rape and abortion.

The only rational conclusion is that he rapes women, who then sue him, and is mad that they then choose to abort his rape-babies.

[Tainari88]

A woman having twins and wanting an abortion is exceptionally rare. The exception is not the rule.

I am pro-Choice(partially), but at the same time, I think we should get rid of abortions and make people take responsibility for who they have sex with. The only exception should be in rare cases, involving the law(Sexual assault).

Women would have to choose to be more selective in who they are having sex with(Women are the gate-keepers of sex).

They should also allow a "financial abortion" for men who don't want children, so they can sign away all right to the child and not pay child support for a child they did not want, but the woman chose to keep. This would de-incentivize women from having children, unless they were in a committed relationship.

No incentives for women to have children and no abortions. Children from single parents are more likely to have mental illness, go to prison, have childhood problems, etc.

Effects of Fatherlessness – Teenage Statistics
63% of all youth suicides,
70% of all teen pregnancies,
71% of all adolescent chemical/substance abusers,
80% of all prison inmates, and.
90% of all homeless and runaway children, came from single mother homes.
https://www.fixfamilycourts.com/single- ... tatistics/

If the fathers are worthless parasites and mentally ill pendejos I don't see the value in having the father there traumatizing the kids. But if the man is a good father and responsible and loving and nurturing and an example of manhood for their sons and daughters? I am all for men's rights.

I say women need to get together and do a conference worldwide on "How not to have BAD TASTE in men."

First off, don't marry someone like Puffer Fish.

I don't get most of thes complaints about men not having rights. You don't want to get women pregnant? Put on a condom or get a vasectomy. Don't go to bed with women you are not in love with. Stay home and masturbate instead.

If you wind up in bed with the woman you really love and you don't use a condom or have a vasectomy and she is not on a pill or doing a damn thing to prevent pregnancy. Do plan B the next day. If you don't do Plan B? Then why abort the child?

I wish men would have sex with women they really love. Don't go to bed with anyone just because she is convenient at the time. It is a mistake of epic proportions.

A child will always need to know who his or her Daddy is. Usually.

I don't think there is anything lovelier in the world than a pregnancy that a woman has from her most beloved of all beloveds in this world. Just be responsible. That is not so hard!

[Tainari88]

The only rational conclusion is that he rapes women, who then sue him, and is mad that they then choose to abort his rape-babies.

No UM, I doubt that El Puffer Fish has sex with anyone. He has zero social skills with women, and he distorts everything. A serious case of inadequate social skills. He does not respect women.

A man does not have to be good-looking, rich, or anything to get a beautiful girlfriend who loves him. He just needs to be warm, know how to respect women, and treat them with a lot of love and as equals and on a human level.

I have met some outstanding young men this week at work. Smart, charming, educated, humble, just, and on top of all the good stuff? Movie star looks. Lol. I think I feel maternal towards all men under the age of 50. Lol. They remind me of my sons. Lol.

But the truth is? I have really good taste in men. And women who don't have that are stuck with the worst of the worst.

I tell you the conference on "How not to have Bad Taste in Men." It has to happen. Too many women having sex and having kids with men who are the dumbest, most irresponsible and stupidest possible people on Earth.

[Godstud]

If the fathers are worthless parasites and mentally ill pendejos I don't see the value in having the father there traumatizing the kids. But if the man is a good father and responsible and loving and nurturing and an example of manhood for their sons and daughters? I am all for men's rights.

Most men make good parents if they are given the opportunity. That said, if women are going to choose the guys who sleep around, to be their baby daddies, you can't blame the men for the women making these choices.

I say women need to get together and do a conference worldwide on "How not to have BAD TASTE in men."

Sure, but... Unfortunately, most women want the top 20% of men(tall, wealthy, confident, handsome), and so they are choosing a small pool of men who are sleeping with a lot of women. That gives these men the opportunities to sleep with many women.

I don't get most of thes complaints about men not having rights. You don't want to get women pregnant? Put on a condom or get a vasectomy. Don't go to bed with women you are not in love with. Stay home and masturbate instead.

Reproductive rights are the realm of women. If a woman choose to not have a baby, she can abort it, even of the man does not want this to happen. That said, if a woman wants to keep the child, the man has no say and the law can even jail a man who does not pay support to a child he never wanted.

Women, however, choose whether or not to have sex(in general) with men, so laying most of the blame on men, is a poor argument. Men are also very different from women, which most women simply don't like to acknowledge.

If you wind up in bed with the woman you really love and you don't use a condom or have a vasectomy and she is not on a pill or doing a damn thing to prevent pregnancy. Do plan B the next day. If you don't do Plan B? Then why abort the child?

The woman chooses to use the Plan B, or not. The man has no choice in the matter. Stop pretending this is a man's decision.

If you want to be perfectly fair, give men the ability to have an "economic" abortion, to absolve them of all rights, if a woman chooses to have a child that he does not want. Perhaps this would cause women to be more picky about who they allow to sleep with them.

Women are the gate-keepers to sex. Men are the gate-keepers for relationships.

I wish men would have sex with women they really love. Don't go to bed with anyone just because she is convenient at the time. It is a mistake of epic proportions.

Men are not, biologically, the same as women. Women don't understand this. Women are hard-wired to find a good mate who will protect them, provide for them, and give them good children.

Men are hard-wired to have sex with as many women as they can. This is a biological imperative, and is supported both biologically and historically.

A child will always need to know who his or her Daddy is. Usually.

If they do not grow up with their guidance, then it's not really that important.

I don't think there is anything lovelier in the world than a pregnancy that a woman has from her most beloved of all beloveds in this world. Just be responsible. That is not so hard!

I agree. Ideally, this is the perfect situation for the child. Having the mother and father present makes for the best possible outcome.

It IS hard, though. Women have been conditioned to think that men are unnecessary, thanks to modern Feminism. This goes against the very thing you are talking about.

Feminism, nowadays, is about being independent and not needing a man. It's a female supremacy organization that even extends that further to the point of not needing fathers of their children. We then end up with the problems of their offspring.

The children of these women end up repeating the same mistakes, and the men who are raised this way, haven't had a male role model and so are not as masculine(having had no male present, in general). This leads to these men being not as attractive to women, as women want strong men, and not ones who are submissive to them(regardless of what they might say).

The proof is in the pudding. Dating apps have showed that almost 100% of women are picking the top 10-15% of men. They restrict their own dating pool and then complain that there are not enough good men out there. There are. They are ignoring them because they aren't good enough.

The men being ignored are average men, with average jobs, of average height. Most of these men would make good fathers.

[Tainari88]

@Godstud I can't speak for all women of course. Or not even for the average feminist. All I know is some man who wants to have sex with a lot of women just because he can do it. Is not very intelligent. Diseases, including VD, and gonorrhea, are out there as well as HIV and others. I had to deal with hundreds of people who were HIV-positive including most of them getting it through sex and intravenous shared needles. it is not worth it. I had a couple of these men and women who were extremely contagious knowingly having sex with no protection. Public health risk for sure. You can't be really jumping into bed with people you barely know anyway. It is not safe on many levels. It does not matter how strong the sex drive is. You need to deal with it.

I never went for men with a lot of money and who were womanizers. They never interested me. At the same time I don't really know how the dating world is Godstud. I have no inerest in these supposedly rich, successful men who these women chase consistently because the dude is going to pay their bills, and get them pregnant with genius children with IQs in the 150 range. I find all that stupid in the extreme. Nothing is guaranteed in life.

You fall in love hard with someone you admire. My husband was broke and had nothing in terms of money. No prestige. No job that was well paid. He was unemployed. Living in a bad barrio. But who was he? Creative, artistic, piano player, yoga, dancing, studied theater, loved literature, charming with manners, civil, great manners, respectful, polite, truthful and honest, same politics, spiritual, and the best of masculine behavior, thought and action. Money, success and titles? No. Nothing. He was an adopted son who at the time did not know he was adopted. He had no idea where he sprung from?

I don't care about anything but SUBSTANCE. Give me a man with substance. The rest is superficial. If the women out there are looking for money and titles? They deserve the idiots they wind up with. It won't be me.

I can tell who has substance in PoFo and who does not. Lol.

But, each woman should take responsibility on which man she chooses to have sexual relations with. She better make a good choice. Because the truth is having a child is a very very serious decision.

Good men are wonderful. I don't know how any woman can choose a bad one. Choose a good man I would say. The world does have a lot of good men. If you have the eyes for something beyond money and status. Always.

I meet great men that I like deeply all the time. But I don't feel sexual attraction to them. That is very special indeed. It is hard finding perfect compatibility. All of the parts of falling in love are a kind of magic, isn't it?

[Unthinking Majority]

No UM, I doubt that El Puffer Fish has sex with anyone. He has zero social skills with women, and he distorts everything. A serious case of inadequate social skills. He does not respect women.

But this is why he has to rape them. If you said Puffer doesn't have consensual sex you're probably right,

I tell you the conference on "How not to have Bad Taste in Men." It has to happen. Too many women having sex and having kids with men who are the dumbest, most irresponsible and stupidest possible people on Earth.

They won't listen. I've given advice to friends dating bad guys. They don't listen.

[Godstud]

Most of the stuff I mentioned is generalized, @Tainari88. We all recognize that exceptions don't make the rule. You might very be an outlier. Good for you!

Women do look for status, prestige, wealth, confidence, etc. They are looking for the best provider/mate. That doesn't mean they might not hold some in priority over others.

[Tainari88]

Most of the stuff I mentioned is generalized, @Tainari88. We all recognize that exceptions don't make the rule. You might very be an outlier. Good for you!

Women do look for status, prestige, wealth, confidence, etc. They are looking for the best provider/mate. That doesn't mean they might not hold some in priority over others.

Women can make their own money and have their own generation of income. Confidence is tricky. One can fall in love with someone very shy. Or someone without any money in the bank. Someone who studied but is not very ambitious. Most people have their individual criteria of what they find sexually attractive or nice in the other person.

it does vary.

I just know what I love. I really really appreciate and love kindness and a good heart. Then generosity of spirit and of finances too with other people and with you. He can make very little money but what he makes he shares with everyone. A cooperative spirit. And the absolute clincher for being my kind of man? A very very just man. Injustice bothers him. Deeply.

Also, I love intellectual curiosity and wanting to know the why of everything. Being able to discuss a wide variety of subjects. Well-read or a constant reader. Active and full of wanting to be doing things. Love of adventure and variation.

I want him to enjoy being FREE. Being a lover of freedom. For himself and for others. And also sees women in general as his equals in legal rights and in human rights.

I also like men who like kids. And pets.

That is it. How the man looks physically, or what race he is, or that sort of thing. His culture or nationality? No, it doesn't matter. Or his bank balance, or what profession he does for a living, or where he grew up? What language does he speak as his native language? All of that is not that important for me to be honest. He could be white, black, Latin American, Asian, etc. It does not matter.

@Godstud now that I look at the list of requirements? Not many men like that out there eh?

[Godstud]

The higher the standards that women set for their "ideal man", the most likely they are to not find him, or have to share him with other women. This is NOT ideal for men and women.

Most average men, at average jobs, of average height, would make good fathers and husbands. Women who want to make money, instead of families. will find out that this works against them, and their happiness, despite the Feminist propaganda saying that single women in their 40s and 50s are happy..

[Tainari88]

The higher the standards that women set for their "ideal man", the most likely they are to not find him, or have to share him with other women. This is NOT ideal for men and women.

Most average men, at average jobs, of average height, would make good fathers and husbands. Women who want to make money, instead of families. will find out that this works against them, and their happiness, despite the Feminist propaganda saying that single women in their 40s and 50s are happy..

When I was a little girl Godstud, I liked everything that is associated with a very feminine and traditional role. I liked all those images from the fifties...the baking and cooking, and washing and ironing and having babies. I always like the idea of being home with my children and serving my husband. I still do that to a certain extent. I do admit to not liking mopping all that much. Lol.

But, traditional roles and being married always appealed to me.

I always thought being a feminist should mean women can be traditional and be happy or be modern and so on and be happy. That meant women could be free to choose. I can make money on my own. I really like the housewife idea though. That and being a ballerina. Lol. I loved that idea too. I wound up an anthropologist because of my life experiences.

But some of my happiest moments were being pregnant and cooking for my husband and son. And being the mom or the wife and feeding my husband.

And being at home...reading a book and thinking about traditional life for women.

I guess I am an outlier after all Godstud.

[Rich]

If you look at birth records after the repeal of One Child policy in 2015, the problem basically goes away because couples can register girls without fear.

Ah but it does seem to me that China has some pretty serious problems at the moment including a water problem, serious water shortages in Northern China. Now according to the Western establishment there is no problem that can't be solved by more labour. Western Conservatives want more indigenous births, they find it particularly upsetting that the American Black African ghettos have so many abortions. They say this is genocide and equivalent to the Nazis. They say America could be so much richer if abortions were banned and the Black African ghetto populations were much bigger. Western Conservative prefer more indigenous births, western liberals prefer mass immigration. But they are all agreed that we need to urgently increase our population and labour size.

This is why the western establishment is so critical of the One Child policy, imagine if North China's population was double what it is now, isn't it obvious that China's water problems would just evaporate. Mind you to be fair California also has a water problem, why can't people see that reducing abortions isn't enough,the only way to solve the water shortage is to import millions of people fast?

[Godstud]

You are married to a "traditional man", because you are a traditional woman, @Tainari88. I have a traditional wife, because that's what I wanted. She wanted a traditional husband.

Too often, now, women want traditional men but will not act in any way like a traditional woman. There is a disconnect from reality. They want a bread-winner but not do anything in the home, aside from going shopping.

Now, if a woman can be happy into her 40s and 50s when she's chosen a career over a family, that's great. Not everyone wants to sacrifice a family for a career, however, and women will have to make that choice moreso than a man would.

[Tainari88]

You are married to a "traditional man", because you are a traditional woman, @Tainari88. I have a traditional wife, because that's what I wanted. She wanted a traditional husband.

Too often, now, women want traditional men but will not act in any way like a traditional woman. There is a disconnect from reality. They want a bread-winner but not do anything in the home, aside from going shopping.

Now, if a woman can be happy into her 40s and 50s when she's chosen a career over a family, that's great. Not everyone wants to sacrifice a family for a career, however, and women will have to make that choice moreso than a man would.

I think the problem has always been the devaluation of women's work within the home Godstud. Because women do the cooking and the cleaning and the child care--it is considered unimportant work in the wider society before. Anyone can do it type of work. No, it is very very important work. But it was devalued because women did that. I think if society recognized it as critically important work and would always protect women financially (widow's pensions etc), and made it important to carry out the work without this stigma of it being wrong or not good? Then there would be a real culture shift.

I never liked other women criticizing housewives or homemakers. I told them, "If you want to be the least like men? Do not devalue the work that women do inside the home." Stand up for the traditional women. They are the backbone of families. In the USA and I assume in Canada as well, there is this movement of women who are told that being a traditional wife and mother is something to be ashamed of. Women need to compete and bring home the bacon and do this or that. No, they don't.

I was always reading Godstud and studying. I was not the best housekeeper. I found it boring when there were many other things to accomplish out there. But? Now that I am semi-retired and have more time and I have the home I always wanted? I find great meaning in taking care of my house. I really do. It is humble work. But the children and the husband gain great pleasure from coming home from the world out there and finding peace and care for them in their homes. It makes for a good and peaceful society. And that is vital for everyone.

Devaluing the housewife is not thinking much of women. And if you are a feminist you should highly value all women and the work they do for society. Always.

[Pants-of-dog]

So in the abortion debate, we have mostly been talking about women with unplanned pregnancies. But what about those women who intentionally got pregnant, but still get an abortion?

Take for example when the mother finds out she has TWINS. In a growing number of cases now, women are saying to themselves "I didn't sign up for this!"

So she aborts one them.


just terrible, I can't believe women do this:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110925042 ... g-one-twin

The Half Abortion: Only Keeping One Twin
August 14, 2011, Nick Shell

Eight months.

In today’s publication of the New York Times, there is an article entitled The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy. It tells of the growing number of women who are pregnant with twins and choose to abort only one of the fetuses, and allowing the other to survive. In other words, these women are having a “half abortion.”

According to the article, New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center performed 101 abortions last year; 38 of those pregnancy terminations involved a mother pregnant with twins who decided to only abort one unborn child. And that’s just one medical center in the entire country.

One mother who used fertility drugs to get pregnant, then aborted only one fetus.

What is it about the idea of a half abortion that somehow seems more difficult to grasp than a “normal” abortion? The immediate thing that comes to mind is that it is an ultimate case of “playing God.” As if a “normal” abortion wasn’t already giving one person the authority to choose another human being’s ability to live, a half abortion gives a person the ability to decide which unborn child deserves to live and which one deserves to die. That’s playing God, times two.

Is there any justification for a half abortion? The article in the New York Times gives several examples of why women made their decision:

1. The mother was 45 years old and already had children. She felt financially insecure, as well as, too old to have twins.
2. The mother was known as a “good parent,” highly devoted to her children. Pregnant with twins, she decided she couldn’t be equally devoted to two more; just one.
3. The mother already had a son. Then she got pregnant with twins; a boy and a girl. She chose to keep the girl.
4. Many of these mothers were in their 2nd marriage and already have kids from their previous marriages. Twins would have been too complicated, compared to only one more addition to the family.
5. Some were single mothers.
6. Some mothers did not want to jeopardize their education.
7. Some did not want to jeopardize their careers.
8. One woman’s husband was an officer in the Army, fighting in Iraq. They already had a few kids. Twins were too much a risk if something happened to her husband.


One woman wrote on yahoo answers:

Can I abort just one of my twins?

I am pregnant with twins, but I don't want two kids. I just don't want to be one of those "twin mothers" who thinks that everything is so hard for them and is always complaining about the hardships of two same-aged children. A single child is a much better option for me. Is it possible to get only one of the babies aborted without harming the other? Or is it necessary for me to get both aborted and start over?


The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy
The New York Times, August 10, 2011

As Jenny lay on the obstetrician's examination table, she was grateful that the ultrasound tech had turned off the overhead screen. She didn't want to see the two shadows floating inside her. Since making her decision, she had tried hard not to think about them, though she could often think of little else. She was 45 and pregnant after six years of fertility bills, ovulation injections, donor eggs and disappointment -- and yet here she was, 14 weeks into her pregnancy, choosing to extinguish one of two healthy fetuses, almost as if having half an abortion. As the doctor inserted the needle into Jenny's abdomen, aiming at one of the fetuses, Jenny tried not to flinch, caught between intense relief and intense guilt.

"Things would have been different if we were 15 years younger or if we hadn't had children already or if we were more financially secure," she said later. "If I had conceived these twins naturally, I wouldn't have reduced this pregnancy, because you feel like if there's a natural order, then you don't want to disturb it. But we created this child in such an artificial manner -- in a test tube, choosing an egg donor, having the embryo placed in me -- and somehow, making a decision about how many to carry seemed to be just another choice. The pregnancy was all so consumerish to begin with, and this became yet another thing we could control."

But what began as an intervention for extreme medical circumstances has quietly become an option for women carrying twins. With that, pregnancy reduction shifted from a medical decision to an ethical dilemma. We still have to work out just how far we're willing to go to construct the lives we want.

Jenny's decision to reduce twins to a single fetus was never really in doubt. The idea of managing two infants at this point in her life terrified her. She and her husband already had grade-school-age children, and she took pride in being a good mother. She felt that twins would soak up everything she had to give, leaving nothing for her older children. Even the twins would be robbed, because, at best, she could give each one only half of her attention and, she feared, only half of her love. Jenny desperately wanted another child, but not at the risk of becoming a second-rate parent. "This is bad, but it's not anywhere as bad as neglecting your child or not giving everything you can to the children you have," she told me, referring to the reduction. She and her husband worked out this moral calculation on their own, and they intend to never tell anyone about it. Jenny is certain that no one, not even her closest friends, would understand, and she doesn't want to be the object of their curiosity or feel the sting of their judgment.

This secrecy is common among women undergoing reduction to a singleton. Doctors who perform the procedure, aware of the stigma, tell patients to be cautious about revealing their decision. (All but one of the patients I spoke with insisted on anonymity.) Some patients are so afraid of being treated with disdain that they withhold this information from the obstetrician who will deliver their child.

What is it about terminating half a twin pregnancy that seems more controversial than reducing triplets to twins or aborting a single fetus? After all, the maths the same either way: one fewer fetus. Perhaps it's because twin reduction (unlike abortion) involves selecting one fetus over another, when either one is equally wanted. Perhaps it's our culture's idealized notion of twins as lifelong soul mates, two halves of one whole.



I wonder, how on earth are these women ever going to explain what they did, to the other twin, their child that they chose to keep?

A Twin Lives Through an Abortion - CBN.com

Claire Culwell was living what she thought was a normal teenage life in the home of her adopted Christian parents when she decided that the time had come to connect with her birth mother. What Claire discovered from her biological mother rocked her world, changing her life forever. Claire's biological mother had been forced to abort at the age of 13, after five months of pregnancy. As a little fetus in the womb, Claire inexplicably survived the surgical abortion, but her twin sister did not. A few weeks later, her mother was brought back to the same abortion clinic to have the botched job finished, but the doctor refused to perform what would now be classified as a late-term abortion. Claire was born two weeks after the scheduled abortion, weighing a mere three pounds.

After the shocking revelation, Claire understood why so many health issues had constantly plagued her. She heard how the attempt on her life through abortion had left its mark on her, dislocating her hips, giving her club feet, and inflicting other injuries on her, injuries which still manifest themselves to this day.

And?

I fail to see the problem.