You know these 24 weeks aren't a vacation, right? They're about 100x more demanding then the average tech job, and on-call 24/7. Not to mention that after the 24 weeks are up, you still have another unpaid (in fact, you are paying!) full time job of raising a child for at least another 17.5 years. That is a tall task for someone hoping to climb in their career, even if they want a child, and it's just not the right time right now.
> Alternatively, keep the baby
The great and wonderful thing about abortion is that, even when it's legalized, someone who wants to have their baby can still choose to, if they wish. Just as they can choose not to.
And all of this is from the relatively cushy and overcompensated perspective of a tech career! Now imagine someone between minimum-wage jobs struggling to make rent every month. Do you know how many kids today were born and not given the time or resources from their parents to succeed, or worse, abused? Did you know the fact that – today – 1 in 2 people nationwide who are homeless were products of the foster care system [1] ?
I never claimed it was. It’s a time to bond with your child and get acclimated to new responsibilities. That Google offers 24 weeks of maternity leave is something should be lauded, not vilified.
> They're about 100x more demanding then the average tech job, and on-call 24/7. Not to mention that after the 24 weeks are up, you still have another unpaid (in fact, you are paying!) full time job of raising a child for at least another 17.5 years. That is a tall task for someone hoping to climb in their career, even if they want a child, and it's just not the right time right now.
So? That’s what life is. Just because it might be difficult at times doesn’t mean it’s not the right decision. Claiming that it will impair your career or you’ll be tired taking care of the ones you literally love more than anything in existence is a cop out.
> The great and wonderful thing about abortion is that, even when it's legalized, someone who wants to have their baby can still choose to, if they wish. Just as they can choose not to.
There is nothing great about abortion. And ease and normalization of abortion for convenience has contributed to way too many over the past fifty years.
>> And all of this is from the relatively cushy and overcompensated perspective of a tech career! Now imagine someone between minimum-wage jobs struggling to make rent every month.
People grossly overestimate the cost of raising children, both in time and actual dollars. Yes, there are things that scale directly like plane tickets and private tuition, but there are economies of scale for everything from food to housing.
Forgoing some travel and changing your leisure habits is small price to pay for a lifetime of joy.
> Do you know how many kids today were born and not given the time or resources from their parents to succeed?
Life can be tough and it’s not a fair shake for all, but given the choice I’m sure they’d prefer it over the alternative.
> Did you know the fact that – today – 1 in 2 people nationwide who are homeless were products of the foster care system [1] ?
I fail to see how that’s relevant to a tech salary worker choosing to keep her baby. The child would not be in a foster home.
That may be your experience, but people can also resent their children, especially if giving birth causes life-long health issues.
My parents never should have been parents. They were too busy, didn’t have enough money, and were physically and emotionally abusive. Their children didn’t bring them joy and they took their unhappiness out on us.
We've been doing abortions for millennia, only in the past century did we start doing safe ones. I'd be less pissed about this ruling if those in support of it would fund neonatal care and social welfare systems to support a baby that may come into this world with a mother underprepared to care for it but typically the people against right to choose don't actually care about the babies once they're born.
Do you know the number of kids in foster care? Being a parent does not automatically mean you love your child, nor does it mean the kid has the attention and resources a child needs and deserves.
> And ease and normalization of abortion
Yeah, it should be easy and normalized. This isn’t even a situation like alcohol/prohibition that has pros and cons we must legislate against to find the right balance. The right to a safe abortion is fully positive. Why restrict a good thing?
Holy cow. That is absolutely incredible statistic. And it seems 25% (at least) of Americans who entered foster care experience homelessness as adults.
The ordeal and prospect of raising a child aside - pregnancy and childbirth is inherently dangerous.
Banning abortion is in effect saying women are incubators. Par the course for American Christians. Hopefully this Roe reversal causes people to be a bit less apologetic about that religion here.
There’s nothing about legalized abortion that makes it easy to keep a desired pregnancy.
China has coercive laws that prohibit women from keeping desired pregnancies, despite having permissive abortion laws. So does North Korea, and a handful of other horrific states.
Sure says something about the uneducated “keep the baby” line that it’s the have-not states towing it.
If you're engaging in some activity that doesn't harm other individuals, go for it, who cares. In the case of an abortion, there's at least some gray area. I hope we can agree that aborting a child that's going to be born tomorrow is much different than aborting a child that's 2 weeks into development. When does a human life start? If we truly believe that all men are created equal, then we need to answer the question when does a life begin?
Put another way, I'm sure many slave owners preferred to keep their slaves. Doesn't make it right, and it's a disgusting perverted belief, to believe somebody is less of a human because of their skin color. In the same way, who are we to say that an unborn human is less of a human than us?
When I held my baby newly delivered, I thought he was dead. He was not alive like the toddler who asks to read books on my lap now is. It is not a binary of life is there or not.
We also do not force in any other circumstance one human to give up their body for another. You may have a kidney disease and I have two healthy ones with no other conditions, but you have no right to my body. Children do not have the right to their mother's body at any stage.
When you take your first breath.
Further, is it ok for a hospital to stop attempting to save people once they flatline? After all, if we measure humanity according to this metric, then they ceased to he a human once they could no longer breathe.
if you subsequently stop breathing, after your life has started, that's a different situation with different rules.