To me, abortion is not a matter of you going to hell if you endorse or condone it. Abortion is the taking of innocent human life. Now, before the protagonists start in, we need not debate science and biology again, this is an irrefutable fact, human life begins at point of conception. You can construct all sorts of arguments about 'viability' or 'personhood' but the scientific facts and biology can't be refuted.
I am also pro-choice... I believe a woman should have the choice of whether or not to risk pregnancy by having unprotected sexual intercourse. If this choice is denied her, through rape or incestuous relations, she should have the choice to obtain an abortion. If the circumstances of pregnancy are a risk to her life, she should have the choice to terminate the pregnancy to save her own life, I will not deny her that choice.
I am opposed to unlimited choices and a woman's right to arbitrarily choose to terminate innocent human life, for the sake of vanity or convenience. I think personal responsibility has to play a role in life, and if a woman does something irresponsible, there should be a consequence for that, should she become pregnant. There are options available that do not result in the termination of innocent human life, and those options should be made available, but the woman shouldn't be allowed to obtain an abortion 'on demand' just because she is a woman with a fetus inside.
When I was in college studying psychology, my thesis was on the psychological effects of women who dealt with unwanted pregnancy. What I found, was pretty revealing. In every case study of women who had obtained an abortion, none were mentally healthy afterward. The degrees of this varied, from those who were suicidal to those who were severely depressed, to those who exhibited self-destructive patterns of behavior in their life. I think I interviewed close to 30 women, and the vast majority of those who had gotten an abortion, regretted the decision in the years following it. In the case studies involving women who delivered and gave their children up for adoption, only two of the 30 showed any signs of depression or negative mental health. The vast majority of these women stated that they never seriously considered abortion, and were glad they didn't. In a ratio of 2 to 1, the women who got abortions, said they wished someone had told them how they were going to feel afterward, they would have not gone through with it.
You see Don, from your perspective, you feel like you are doing someone a favor by "being there" and helping them go through an abortion, but there is something about the act of taking a human life that is not your own. It's something you sometimes don't realize or understand until you do it. Soldiers who have been in combat and had to kill people, can relate to this feeling. It changes you as a person, and it is something that many people have difficulty living with afterward. The abortion clinic doesn't tell you this, they don't counsel women about it, they are in business to do abortions, and that is all that matters to them.
I do not want to force my personal 'religious' view on others, that isn't where I am coming from. I just want us to be honest about what we are doing. Let's get on the same proverbial page with regard to the act of abortion, and understand it for what it is. We can have an intellectual debate on when it is appropriate to terminate innocent human life, we can make exceptions for the rare and unusual circumstances, but to deny science and biology, and refuse to acknowledge what we are doing, and to continue insisting this is some "right" a woman has, is deplorable and reprehensible as a civilized society.
