Sasquatch - Sure. People below the poverty line are already people, and if governments and NGOs start working properly and taking poverty alleviation seriously, they could be elevated. A baby in those circumstances, while still a member of the family, is yet another mouth to feed.

I've been researching a lot about Ethiopia for school lately. There can be families who depend entirely on food aid, and yet have upwards of 5 or 6 children. They say it is their right to. Yet, there is evidence to suggest that Ethiopia's booming population (I would share said evidence but it's only on JSTOR) is one of the factors contributing to their continued starvation. It's more of a case for contraception than abortion, but do you see what I'm getting at - to put it bluntly, abortion in cases like that is stopping a problem before it's begun. It's stopping a baby being born who will, unless there is a radical change, die of starvation within its first few months in horrific pain. Its mother too will suffer, but its mother is already a fully grown person with a right to life.

The right to life is fundamental, but I, like SOLDIER, don't believe that life begins at conception. For the first month or so it is a collection of multiplying cells. All of the government charters and human rights charters aren't against abortion - they're about human rights, not zygote rights. For that reason executing everyone below the poverty line would be fundmentally wrong, but allowing abortions is not. I know you won't agree to this, as you believe that humans and embryos have the same worth, and that is fine. But I maintain that if the baby will have a rubbish life, or if the birth and early life will cause undue stress to the mother, she should be allowed to terminate. It's her baby. If she is desperate, she will go at it with a coat-hangar and a bottle of rum.

And I've already stated my views on adoption. Maybe it's better in America, but here, it really isn't that viable an option. Hardly anyone here puts their baby up for adoption, because they know what kind of life it would have under the system. Like I said, I'd have to keep any potential baby of mine - and it would screw up my life for a while, because I am 19 and selfish - just to keep it out of a broken system. I know there are good parents chasing babies, and I wish them every luck. There are babies out there waiting for them, hundreds of them. Adding more would just overwhelm the system. So many teenage mothers have abortions here, and I have to say that it's right that they do.