Life culture

Today I thought I'd share why I believe the freedom of choice ought to extend to the decision to have, or not have, an abortion. My aim is only to explain myself, not to confront.

I believe that a body isn't alive, that is to say inhabited by a conscience, until it receives the breath of life. This view can be supported in Genesis, where Adam is but clay and dust until he is breathed into, but to me the Bible is a book of parables, so I point that out as a touchstone for the religious.

Since I believe that a fetus isn't alive, I don't consider an abortion a murder. That is also why I feel a fetus ought to be of secondary concern to the life of the mother (who is alive). Since I know that this viewpoint horrifies many people I feel abortions should be minimized via sex education and contraception whenever possible, and also through the reduction of poverty (which is dramatically linked to the number of abortions).

Abortion is a deeply personal decision, and often a deeply religious decision as well, so I feel each individual needs the freedom of choice to make a moral decision which is right for themselves.

I feel that people opposed to choice on moral grounds have a right to be angry that their tax dollars might support abortion activities, in the same way that a Quaker might feel their taxes support the military, and in the same way atheists feel that their taxes now support religion. Perhaps someday there will be economic democracy as well as political democracy and the people will control the flow of money based on their own interests and values? Until that day, though, I think that everyone who looks will find the US government doing things they disagree with (in my case my tax dollars fund Capital Punishment, the War against drugs, the war in Iraq, and anti-smoking ads).

But, the older I get the more committed I am to the ideal of freedom of choice, since that strikes me as the fairest balance that can be struck and lays the responsibility for one's soul with one's actions.

I think that more can be done to limit abortion when progress is made in areas of agreement, and those should be areas of objective truth. Reducing poverty does reduce the number of abortions. Effective contraception does reduce the number of abortions. Reforming the adoption process will give women a brighter hope than abandonment to an ineffective institution (most people adopt abroad).

All this fighting is more of an appeaser of conscience than a force of positive change.