Abortion Book - This could be snark worthy.

[treemom]

For many people, even those who believe in safe and legal abortion on demand, this is a tough emotional subject. I respect the averages person's choice on when to discuss it with your kid. My son knows, although I think that is mostly because we talk a lot about current events and politics in our house.

He does not know about my abortion though and I don't know when or if that will ever come up.

[flojo]

You put it much better than I could. I've always been opposed to kids on protests, because very often they can't understand at all what they're protesting about. I don't mean 12 or 13 year olds, but it's a bit horrible to see a tiny child holding up a placard which Mummy or Daddy gave her.

That was me. My mother and I have both shifted on the issue though. I was taught a very benign version of abortion though ("women think the babies inside them aren't really people, but they really are"- I thought it mean't that some women thought babies were like soft toys or teddy bears), and really didn't understand. I remember getting pitying glances form a woman driving a car, and seeing her on the news that night fighting with some of the people we were with (where I come from anti-abortion protests are almost unheard of, so it made the news).

I actually feel really vulnerable saying this on here for some reason. I don't know why. More wanted to share that it is a long journey, but those of us who were those kiddos can and do change.

In high school I was the anti-abortion crusader. I actually was in contact with NZds prolife leader, and remember giving a horribly graphic and long speech in class one day on abortion - I basically rehashed arguments I read online with limited critical thinking - using the "rape babies are still people" type arguments. I now look back and regret it - I don't know who I might have hurt as a 14 year old saying those things, even if I was a product of my environment.

Honestly, being pregnant right now is probably my tipping point. For the past few years I have been pro-choice politically, because I didn't want to control women, even if I personally disagreed. I am not so sure I disagree now, and going through a very difficult first trimester (two uncommon, unreltated complications and we are only week 7!) really makes me understand more how much I can't ask someone to do this unwillingly. We want this baby, even though I really worry about providing and immmigration etc. I hate to imagine going through this when I wasn't ready to become a mother.

[Feberin]

My kids are too young to talk about abortion seriously. I have recently told my daughter that when she grows up if she ever needs to make that choice then it'll be her choice after seeing some anti-abortion propaganda my MIL and SILs keep posting on Facebook. However she's only a year old and it went over her head. I remember when I was fairly young perhaps ten years old I was watching the news with my dad and they did a story about abortion. I had been raised Catholic and started spouting off some pro-life propaganda. My dad set me straight and I remember him explaining how tiny the fetus was when most women had an abortion and to me that really helped me separate fetus and baby.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

Honestly, I don't think there's a way to truly avoid having this conversation until the kid is in high school. I remember, back in 2007, babysitting an 8 year old kid when we passed an abortion protestor. He had this huge sign that you could see the details of from 500 feet away of a dissected fetus. And his car was covered in anti-abortion propaganda. The kid then started asking me questions I knew I couldn't answer without his parents consent. It was all kinds of awkward and then his parents had to sit down with him and talk about it.

[lilith]

Honestly, I don't think there's a way to truly avoid having this conversation until the kid is in high school. I remember, back in 2007, babysitting an 8 year old kid when we passed an abortion protestor. He had this huge sign that you could see the details of from 500 feet away of a dissected fetus. And his car was covered in anti-abortion propaganda. The kid then started asking me questions I knew I couldn't answer without his parents consent. It was all kinds of awkward and then his parents had to sit down with him and talk about it.

And America has exported that sort of horrific display. I was appalled to see similar signs, obviously sourced from US anti choice groups, being waved outside NSW parliament last year. Abortion is pretty much accepted here, even our conservative catholic prime minister limited himself to restricting access to medical abortion as health minister, access to surgical abortion was never in doubt, and much as he'd personally like to restrict all abortion his party and the electorate would never allow it, but seeing those scare tactic protests here and knowing how quickly reproductive rights are being undermined in parts of America, in ways that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, is scary, and makes introducing the subject to our children before the encounter anti choice propaganda even more important.

[Stephanie66]

I downloaded the book to my kindle. It's just drawings. I have no idea why it is called the abortion book, other than there is a baby in some of the pictures, and she seems to die (or something) and then at the end she is under a rainbow and her baby is crawling around.

[slh12280]

I don't remember ever specifically learning what abortion was. All I remember was I believed that it killed a baby. Then again I was brought up in a conservative religious environment but my parents really didn't talk about it. When I found out my dad was pro choice later on I remember thinking "that's horrible!" I even did a speech in 7th grade on how horrible it was and how you would regret it for the rest of your life, "post abortion syndrome," the whole lot. I still have a copy of it around the house somewhere *cringe*

[Trynn]

I don't remember ever learning about it either... I grew up forced birth, except for in cases such as a non viable pregnancy. Even the most conservative around me growing up agreed that if the fetus was non viable and would only cause death to the mother, that an abortion wasn't a bad thing.

I still can't believe there are people who believe otherwise. That's just crazy to me.

[notsocommon]

I downloaded the book to my kindle. It's just drawings. I have no idea why it is called the abortion book, other than there is a baby in some of the pictures, and she seems to die (or something) and then at the end she is under a rainbow and her baby is crawling around.

That is all I got, too. How is it a book that tells kids about abortion?

[Stephanie66]

That is all I got, too. How is it a book that tells kids about abortion?

There was no pregnancy, so I have no clue.

ETA: I guess in some drawings she is pregnant. There is also a picture of the baby falling off of a cliff. Glad it was free because it is going back to the cloud.

[docmom]

Man, something else I'm way behind on telling my kids about... I honestly don't remember when I first heard about abortion but my parents were always strongly pro-choice. I do remember in high school when my best friend became a fundie having a conversation with her about it (this was right after she told me she would vote for Pat Robertson so...). She quite seriously told me that even 7 week fetuses look like humans (they don't) and could feel pain (nope) and that abortion was terrible. I remember telling her not to have one, then. I think that that's what I'll emphasize to my own kids. That being pro-choice isn't being pro-abortion. It's understanding that people have an absolute right to determine what they do with own bodies. If that means never having an abortion even although a pregnancy would kill them, then that's their choice. I don't think this is something that many "pro-lifers" actually get.

[notsocommon]

There was no pregnancy, so I have no clue.

ETA: I guess in some drawings she is pregnant. There is also a picture of the baby falling off of a cliff. Glad it was free because it is going back to the cloud.

It is $2.99, now.

I'd give it yo my 11 year old to see what she gets out of it, but she would swipe through 2-3 pages then give me a " mom!? Really?" 'tude

[silverspoons]

Living in a conservative area of Utah I thought abortion would never come up in school. I have a 15 year old who has had no sex edu/health type class at school yet. What shocked me was in 7th grade the kids had to do a debate project. The teacher directed the kids to a website which had the approved topics along with articles and videos to read on the subjects. Abortion was an approved topic! My son asked what it was and I said when a women is pregnant, and he stopped me and said he didn't want to read about girls stuff. I didn't go further because he was 12. I'm not LDS far from it but I had a hard time picking any topic for my son and finally he picked assisted suicide which included viewing a PBS film Suicide tourist(which I felt was a very hard film to watch for an adult let alone a child).

Since there is no sex edu here & it is a fine line what and when you tell your kids here or they will be alienated I find short answers that statisfy an answer are best. I also feel it should be up to parents how and when they discuss the subjects. When my daughter was little we were visiting an aquarium in CA and after seeing a fish lay eggs my daughter and a girl that was a similar age started asking questions about why don't a women(or they said mommy's) egg turn into a baby every month. I told my daughter you can take a pill to stop an eggs and she skipped off happy and felt her question was answered. The other mom was having a detailed talk about sex to answer her child's question. Obviously we all have different ideas of what is right for our children.

[Trynn]

As a child, I stopped my mom from talking about it. Then when I wanted an answer, I couldn't get one. I learned most of what I know about sex from awfully written romance novels.