text: abortion: when is it right? i have read a bit on the subject of abortion and the ethics their of. my problem with understanding the issue is this:  i understand the entire argumant of woman who believe it is their own body and may therefore decide what to do with it. i sympathize with those woman; rape, financial problems, and complications during pregnancy make their argumant very strong, but....  when those woman have an abortion it is not neccesarily their own body they are protecting, but the body of another they are harming. even if that body may only be a few cells it will in time become a full grown human being with the same basic human right (the right to live).  so the real question then is when do we ascribe those rights onto a child still being carried within its mother abortion is acceptable to most people if it happens because of:  rape/incest baby will not survive after it is born mother's life is at risk if baby is born  i do believe that abortion should be legal, with the exception of late-term (this is currently how it is now.)  i do not support abortion as a form of financial or birth control, as some use it for, and i would like to see children adopted instead, but i realize not everyone will be willing to do this, and may find other, less-satisfactory ways of aborting the baby.  abortions now are regulated and licensed.  if abortion were illegal, i do fear that back-alley abortions may start up again.  and if one woman is forced to do this, instead of going into a clean facility with properly-licensed people, and ends up getting a disease or dying from a improperly-performed procedure, that's one too many.  therefore i do believe that abortion be legal, safe and rare.