Why are you defending the forcible ending of a life? I know you are a good person.
Murder is an issue for the state... absolutely. So whether the victim is in the womb or out of it, you cannot justify making it only a moral issue and not a legal issue... because it is both.
I respect you, Emjay, so you deserve a serious response. I'll try.
I've never defended abortion. I've defended the right of a woman to decide for herself, whether and when to raise a family. Most women I know who've had abortions have gone on to have kids in later years, kids they loved, kids that wouldn't have existed if the woman had had a child years before, when she didn't have the support of a partner or the security of a career.
I don't know what God wants of us. I think He wants us to be decent, compassionate people. I think He wants us to be good parents. I think most of us are, even if some of us felt the pain of exercising that freedom the feminists insist is a woman's right.
I think the abortion issue polarizes this nation like no other. It is the root of the blue/red divide, the one issue that a Democrat can NEVER break ranks with, and precious few Republicans. It's the reason, well, that we seem to hate each other.
I think the victims of that polarization are the babies themselves. Reconciliation on this issue will save lives, because once the right is safe and legal, there can be consensus on the most important part - that it be rare. That it be rendered unnecessary. My position on abortion is predicated on the belief that reconciliation will ultimately save more lives than petitioning the state to impose its moral will on what is fundamentally a question of conscience, and of extraordinarily private concern.
The left wants to subsidize birth control, and the right wants to provide moral support. Once the choice right is not subject to criminalization, the two sides can unite on a strategy that can strengthen families. Moral war claims casualties. I think there's a better way.
