I can list a number of women who's lives were changed by a teenage pregnancy and I can't think of one man. Doesn't mean there aren't any,but I don't think my experience is unusual

You can list me. I'm the product of an unwed teen pregnancy. If abortion had been legal in 1969, it's entirely possible, even likely, that I never would have existed.

I don't see abortion as just a women's issue, frankly. As Matt points out, we're all the child of some woman who got pregnant.

The issue is certainly fraught and hyperbole in the arguments usually end up going nowhere. You can't really convince hard liners, no matter what so I don't try.

As a parent, I would like to wish that my kids would come to me in that situation. But if it happens and they try to deal with it as adults by themselves, I think I want them able to do it as safely as medically possible without more emotional trauma than they're already coping with.

I wonder about consent issues. I know last year there was a HUGE deal in Florida where a 12 year old was pregnant and Child Protective Services sought an abortion for her. I mean, the argument is that she's not old enough to make the decision for the abortion but were they going to let her try to raise a baby? That was fucked up and beyond the usual, I know but it still points out to how complicated the issue is.

I wish that the parental notification stuff had some kind of age limit on it -- like, if you're 13 and pregnant, you get to decide what to do, even if it's to seek an abortion on your own. But if you're ten and pregnant, it's time for not only the parents but the authorities to get involved.

(Note that pregnant 10yos are pretty damn rare, but they do happen.)

I was talking more about the parenting side. But, glad you are here , Matt!

I'm not happy with slots as a state revenue source, yet am unopposed to other "vice" taxes such as alcohol and tobacco, which I can't quite reconcile. OK, so authorizing slots is introducing (allowing) a vice industry expressly for the purpose of making money off it. I guess that tastes bad to me. I dunno.

This was a big issue when I was living in Wisconsin. There too, the revenue was supposed to go for education, but instead went to middle-class tax relief. Which when you think of all the poor people playing the lotto....

When I was in Minneapolis, I lived in a very poor area. It really bugged me to see all the billboards in my neighborhood advertising the lotto... and seeing all the poor people scrape their money together to buy tickets.

Vegas didn't bother me, though. Maybe it was seeing all the middle-class retired people gambling, instead of the poor.

Liv (who has the concept of "big" and "little" down and is fascinated by body parts) just pointed to my breast and said, "Big boobie." then to her own and said, "Little boobie!"

I nearly choked to death laughing.

One of my toddler charges, falling asleep on me, reached up and padded my boob and said "you have nice cushions." I about died holding my breath to keep from laughing.

Timelies all!

Back from OVFF. Had fun, heard lots of good music, and acquired a knit DNA double helix.

Signed,

Has Lived in the South Far Too Freakin' Long

[subtext of: Get Me the Hell Out!]

So. Much. This.

Although I wasn't a potentially aborted fetus, I spent many years thinking I was, and am still very pro-choice. I am sure there are also men in my situation.

The billboard in my poor neighborhood now advertise Ruinite and Geico, but man, I feel like the Lotto has really brainwashed a lot of people. I used to sell Lotto/scratch offs, and I can really not buy them now, because I saw so many people spend so much money... it made me sick. And the people who were spending $100 a week were not the people who could afford it, but those who the dream of the millions meant the most. I am not sure if the state run taxed "lotto" is better than numbers running.