Hope you eventually have millions of readers, they need you.

God bless.
Andi recently posted..Outrageous Fortune: 97 percent

The parents do cooperate in creation with God when they conceive, and I am guessing that was what they were trying to get at. We do believe that participating with God’s creation in this way is a great gift and yet another way in which God has “created us in His image”.

Do you also belive that theft and murder should not be criminalized? If something is wrong, it should be criminalized. You cannot argue that because a law is ineffective (whether becasue people insist on an act or because the executive branch refuses to enforce it) it should not be a law. That is just like the parents who do not tell their kids to abstain from premarital sex and instead get them condoms because they are “just going to do it anyway”.

If I am not mistaken, the number of abortions has gone up, not down, proportionally, since it became legal. You might like to look that up if your reason for being pro-choice is that criminalizing it would be ineffective. For pro-lifers, it is a moot point. We do not think it should be criminalized because it would be effective in preventing abortions; we think it should be criminalized because it is wrong, and the state should uphold the rights of everyone, even (or especially) the defenseless.

I understand where you are coming from. We want to make sure that every life or potential life is given a chance. But when I was reading this, it seemed that you viewed most of the pregnancies that ended in abortion as inconvenient pregnancies. (I could be wrong, that’s just how it come off to me.) And yes, I understand that something being inconvenient doesn’t justify ending a life. But not all pregnancies are so black and white. What about cases of rape, where the mother did nothing to try and begin the pregnancy? Maybe you think that while it is obviously horrible, it doesn’t mean we should get to kill an innocent life. What about incest? These cases are usually also some form of rape, but with an increased risk of genetic defects from inbreeding. Would you make them have the baby, despite all the psychological trauma to the mother (and possibly later on, the child), as well as the risk of creating a special needs child? Maybe, again, you sympathize with the unfortunate, horrible situation, but again point out that we don’t have the right to end life. I can see how both of those could be justified.

But what about pregnancies where the mother is at risk? Would you say that the unborn child’s life is more important than the mother’s? What if she already has kids, would you deprive them of their mother because of an unfortunate situation (the baby’s condition that is posing risk) that was no one’s fault, but none the less still exists? I don’t really expect you to answer that, because I don’t think it’s your place, really. You shouldn’t be able to tell somebody that their life is less important than somebody else’s. The choice that the mother makes should be all her own, because it is her life that is at stake, as well as the baby’s.

I think that the idea that it is wrong to make abortion illegal is very American, in that if you were to make abortion illegal, it takes away a person’s own rights over their own body. You can’t tell someone they can’t have an abortion any more than you can tell them they can’t burn an American flag. You may not like it, but that’s the way freedom is approached in this country. Also, if abortion were illegal, what would be the punishment? Would you throw them in jail? These women who are most likely already going through emotional trauma?

Having said all that, I don’t think that people should have abortions. I don’t think they should be presented so readily as an option, I can certainly understand taking away federal funding for abortions, and I am afraid of a future with an increase of abortions and what that would lead to. If it becomes too “popular”, it almost becomes its own form of eugenics, in that you are breeding humans by saying “oh, this child has a defect, therefore it shouldn’t be born”. It’s a slippery, scary slope, one that hints at literary dystopias where “nature” and its natural diversity are almost completely removed, because humans think that they know what are the best human traits.

I really agree with you that the best way to try and stop people from getting abortions is education and understanding. (Granted, these two things are probably harder to spread these days than it is to get a law passed.) The idea that sex is more than recreational is worth spreading, and changing societies perceptions is the best chance we have of stopping abortions. I don’t want to take away a person’s right to choose, but I do want to try and make them see the reality of the choice they’re making. But in the end, it’s still their life, not mine, and therefore not my choice.

Phew, that was long winded. Sorry about that. But thanks again for writing this, definitely gave me a different viewpoint and way of thinking things.