Or rather having someone else make a moral decision on abortion.
I see many people that claim life begins at conception. Really? If that is the case then abortion wouldnt be necessary. If a fetus can sustain life then by definition they are alive if not they are a mass of growing tissue.
I see many people who say abortion is OK if the mother's life is in danger. Sounds good til you disect that statement.
Who is it that gets to decide that the mothers life is in danger? An atheist doctor? A Christian doctor? A priest? The pope? The husband or father?
Now what about this.
Because of many cultures and religions there are women that have to follow the strict rule of their husbands. He says no birth control she abides. Now she starts to realize that she can be much more than a baby factory but does she dare to defy her husband and her culture to get birth control? Many of these men are abusive thinking their wives not partners but property.
Many people will agree that abortion is OK in cases of rape or incest. Cool til you realize that there are so many taboo's still associated with both rape and incest that fewer than 20% of rapes are reported as rapes. Get rid of the stigma of rape and incest so women know they truly are victims.
Dont impose your situation on a woman facing an abortion.
Realize everyone you meet has their own trials and tribulations to deal with.
And while we are at it...if every life is precious let's end war. OK
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Comments: 33
Rob at least your realize that being a man you are not faced with the issue the same way a woman is....you are the best too.
Alta if you feel the need to pray go right ahead I will take a pass.
I guess one thing I don't understand, is why in this country, in these times of tons of easy ways to prevent pregnancy, are there still so many abortions? If there weren't, it probably wouldn't be such a dividing issue...? I dunno', just thinking out loud.
Take care.
On the birth control issue there are many factors. Lack of education. Sometimes parents will deny their child getting birth control in the assumption that it will condone them having sex. Denial. Embarrasment.
To name a few. Plus the only form of birth control that is 100% is abstenance.
I believe morality dictates a person's right to choose. Life is all about choice. We choose who to marry. We choose who to vote for. We choose whether to get an operation when we have a terminal illness or just go when God decides to take us. God gave us all free choice. Yes, he has a plan and a way He would prefer us to go. But He does not force anyone to do anything. Freedom of choice was his greatest gift to us. Within that choice, there are consequences...both good and bad. We learn from our mistakes and grow stronger.
The abortion issue is not the only one that causes controversy in regard to "life". What about capital punishment? Is not killing a murderer playing God and taking away that person's chance for future redemption? What about euthanasia? What about pulling the plug? Could not someone argue that if God wanted the person dead, He would make his heart stop?
Good article, Lori! Very thought provoking!
The Constitutional issue and a SCOTUS ruling are not concerned with the beginning of life, but the point at which "personhood" begins. But interestingly, the Christian Bible does define life as beginning at the first breath....
Genesis 2:7 states that God made Adam's body from the dust of the ground. But it was only after God "breathed into it the breath of life" that Adam "became a living person."
but it does contain the contradiction that life begins at conception....
"Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb?" (Job 31:15)
"Yet Thou art He who didst bring me forth from the womb… Thou hast been my God from my mother's womb." (Psalms 22:9-10)
"For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalms 139:13-16)
Jewish law says.... "...a baby...becomes a full-fledged human being when the head emerges from the womb. Before then, the fetus is considered a 'partial life."
Catholics believe "An embryo is an individual, no matter how small. While the embryo receives cells from the mother and the father, it is neither the mother nor the father." Pope John Paul II 3 (1995).
I believe that life begins at conception...but I also believe that personhood begins later...when the fetus is capable of breathing on its own. I don't accept the notion of a "soul" (being an atheist and all) so I don't have an opinion as to the time the soul enters the life of the united cells...at the time of conception or at some later point.
I do think the protection, by the Roe v Wade decision, of the right to personal choice about abortion is a valuable and necessary method by which that protection can be guaranteed to all American women, regardless of where they happen to live.
She was a baby when she was born and even if she'd been born 30 years earlier, she most likely would have survived.
While she was in the newborn intensive care, I saw fetuses being kept alive with all kinds of equipment. They were usually in the 2-3 lbs. range and could do nothing on their own towards survival. They were not babies to me, but artificially animated beings. I hoped they couldn't feel anything with all the tubes and hoses coming out of them.
I don't believe life begins at conception. Life begins at birth. You survive that and manage to kick and scream your way to adulthood, that's a successful pregnancy your mother had.
I've had to make the decision whether or not to continue a pregnancy. We weren't trying and it was the only time in 20 years birth control failed us. Financial matters and health matters were the top concerns. We couldn't afford to raise a child, especially if taking the risk meant only one parent would be able to work. Or that there would only BE one parent. I have no regrets for making the decision I made and count myself fortunate I have a partner who supported my decision. (And recognized that it was MY decision to make.)
I do not think that anyone has the right to tell another what to do in the abortion issue. All judgments are left to God. I strongly believe in separation of church and state. I guess I'm a in the minority of Christianity.
The Berlin Wall was created in my lifetime.
The Berlin Wall came down in my lifetime.
Roe v. Wade will be reversed in my lifetime.
This is a little off topic, but worth watching. It is a clip of a politician running for office in New Jersey claiming that the pill should be illegal. That it is a form of abortion. Me? I'm pro-choice. It isn't my right to tell someone what they can and cannot do with their body.
Every situation is as individual as the individual(s) involved in the situation. Therefore, I don't think abortion is the kind of situation that can fall under a blanket law, moral or otherwise. Too many individual variables to consider.
Also...you are using a misleading label when you call "pro choice" advocates "pro abortion". You are making the association that those of us who believe that the choice for abortion should be held by the individual rather than by the state (the government) are in favor of abortions. This is an illusion of words insinuating that the opposite of "pro life" or "anti abortion" is "pro abortion". "Pro choice" is the more accurate description of those who endorse the decision that abortion is guaranteed to the individual by the SCOTUS ruling Roe v Wade. "Pro choicers" do not advocate abortions.
Well written and expressed!
I agree with you but lets not forget that the Court's decision was pro privacy! The government simply has no business telling women what they must do with their bodies and what they cannot when they, their doctor and clergyman, if desired, should fill that role.
Those who would force women to carry pregnancies to term regardless are trying to insert themselves in the role of God and judge these persons as well. Let the doctor do his job, the priest do his, the parents do theirs and finally, let God do his!