IMHO and scriptually speaking, Abortion is un-buddhist. Has anyone seen the procedure of abortion? It is very cruel and and images are so gruesome.
They use a loop shaped steel knife to slice the baby in parts (the hands, limbs, the body etc) and later take the dead baby out. It's the most horrible medical procedure on Earth and I've seen it on video tape. And in the Video, it is said that modern equipments detected that even the 1st stage (1~3 months) the baby could move and have heart beat, which means that it is definitely sentient.
Even if the child is of low mental capability, or have some organ defects/etc, it is a karma and responsibility that the parents must take even though it takes a lot of courage. More so are those whose babies are healthy! At most, give the baby away for adoption (which is only last-resort). I'm sure there are many people out there who have trouble making babies and are looking forward to adopt a child!
I would like to share a with you a true story which was told by a Venerable. There was a Venerable who had the powers to know a person's previous existence. There was a couple who had a child with low mental capabilities and they asked the venerable why was that so. The Venerable answered - that child of yours was a drug lord in the previous life and has caused much mental delusions and intoxications to others, and therefore that was his karma. The parents then asked abruptly, if that was the case then why were they affected too? (to have the responsibility to take care of that child). The Venerable continued, "let me finish explaining. You two were his accomplice in selling the drugs while he was the mastermind and therefore it was your karmic consequence for having him as your child." Therefore I think whatever child was borned, that was his karma, by karmic association. He should accept it, give extra love and patience to bringing up their child.
The abortion rates are simply unacceptable. I can't imagine myself being one of the babies subject to the cruel and torturous abortion procedures.
Those who had abortions, there are a few suggestions by Buddhist Venerables for karmic clearance: Do daily repentance*, help promote anti-killing, anti-abortion, through any means, and transference of merits (accumulated throughout one's entire life) to the deceased foetus.
I would encourage people to know more about abortion -
those who are not weak hearted can watch the whole abortion procedure (
Warning: very gruesome images!):
http://old.abortionno.org/realaudio/hrdtruthdsl.rmless gruesome alternative which explains accurately the abortion procedures, etc ~ "Pro Life Doctor Speaks Out"
http://www.abortiontv.com/Movies/ProLifeDoctorsSpeakOut.htm - information about the video
working video links (outdated links on that page):
http://old.abortionno.org/realaudio/hrdtruthdsl.rmhttp://old.abortionno.org/realaudio/hrdtruthdsl.rm*Repentance verses:
All the evil karma that I have committed in the past,
Arising from my aeons of greed, anger and ignorance,
Committed by my body, speech and mind,
Now I repent before the Buddha.Ideally for repentance practise is to chant 108 times, each time bowing down to the Buddha.