I am personally pro-choice because I am Christian. Yes, I'm outing myself as a believer. Those of us who are Christian but do not hold the what have become caricatured views of the so-called religious right often hesitate to share our faith. But I think it is important to share that being a Christian does not automatically mean that you oppose the right to abortion. In fact, the church into which I was baptized affirms that "it is the legal right of every woman to have a medically safe abortion."

I believe deeply that I have no authority whatsoever to judge the sin of any other person and to believe that I did would be blasphemous. Only God can judge our sins or innocence. The concept that a fetus is innocent is a moral one and not a legal one. I fully respect those who hold this view of life but my personal perspective tells me that it is not my place to judge relative moral innocence before or after birth. I also do not believe I am capable of divining God's will let alone creating laws that would seek to enforce that will.

Politically
When I was in my teens and early twenties, I was an idealistic young punk rocker who investigated theories of utopias and anarchy while also working in politics and studying government. As much as I love the idea that we could all just get along, I have come to believe that we as humans are not capable of existing without government and laws.

The laws of civil society do not exist to enforce morality and certainly not Biblical morality. Murder and abortion existed before the Bible as did laws prohibiting murder. Laws exist to regulate behavior in a way that allows societies to function. If there were no prohibition against murder society could not function if anyone could kill you for any reason without consequence. One need only look at nations which engage in and permit genocide to see that this is the case.

Whether or not there is a God or what religion if any is the right one, if murder were unregulated, civil society could not exist.
Abortion does not disrupt civil society in the same way as murder. To believe that abortion must be regulated relies on a belief that a fetus is a person with all the rights and responsibilities of someone born.

To grant a fetus that cannot exist outside the womb greater rights than the woman carrying the fetus is, in my estimation, fundamentally incompatible with the function of civil society.
Most importantly, making abortion illegal will not stop abortions. The disruption to society from criminalizing abortion I believe is much greater than protecting safe and legal abortion. If I were to choose to have an abortion it would not infringe upon your liberty or the function of society at all.

If you were to deny me the right to choose an abortion it impinges upon my liberty and the society at large in a myriad of ways.
And to the argument that people should not be forced to be governed by laws which are in opposition to their moral and/or religious beliefs I would point out that we are all governed by some laws which do not comport with our personal moral beliefs. I am morally opposed to war and yet I voluntarily participate in a system of government to which I give my authority to decide to wage war and to which I pay taxes which support the waging of those wars.

However, I also recognize that all societies, however small, develop methods to protect themselves from attack and I understand that there is common agreement therefore that a military should necessarily exist. Society cannot function if everyone is allowed to opt out of living under common laws based on individual beliefs.

You talk about laws against murder, and about countries that engage in genocide. I ask you what is abortion if not murder ? In my opinion it is a form of genocide. The Bible ( which your church apperantly doesnt read) clearly states that life begins at conception so it seems obvious to me that abortion is at the very least murder.

It's not a matter of what bible someone reads. it's a matter of the constitution. at the point of conception until the child is born, the fetus is just another organ within the body of the woman. we value that organ alot more than we value others but biologically speaking it is just another organ.
the separation of church and state exists so that religious organizations cannot control our government like they did in the old days. that being said "by what standard then are we to make and enforce laws?"
the answer is simple. we make and enforce laws by the standard in which our nation was conceived. by enlightenment principles. contrary to popular belief we are not a nation built upon christian principles. some of them coincide with christian principles however they are not taken from the bible. the base of our declaration of independance and the consistution of the united states of america was taken from the enlightenment writings of thomas hobbs, john locke, rousseau, voltaire. infact the very men who signed the declaration of in dependance were mostly deists. people who believed that A god created the universe but then stepped back and let nature take it's course. there were a few athiests, one unconfirmed and only one confirmed christian. I being a christian would love to say that this is a nation built on christian principles by good christian men but that would be a lie. i know that i (along with God) am more concerned with truth than saving face.
now that said and done back to abortion. it is the ninth amendment that protects the unenumerated rights. i believe that the right to chose whether or not to continue a pregnancy is covered under this amendment. the amendments were created to protect the three inalienable rights that we have as human beings; the rights to life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness. if not having a child at a particular time in someone's life will make them happy then by all means let them. again scientifically speaking at this point it is mearly an organ. so therefore it has no rights of it's own. I have to speak scientifically on this matter because science is the language of enlightenment. and these are the principles on which we were founded. i personally would not get an abortion if i were a woman. but i am not a woman and therefore it is not my choice. but i believe a woman should have that choice. i don't seek to offend, just to clarify.

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Marc

I understand your thought processes on this subject and I agree in many regards to your behalf , yet religion and politics aside you and I know that abortion is murder. and to kill a helpless child is something that is destroying our nation right now. There is no regard in america today for those who have made the wrong choices eventhough that being has not breathed air on its own. Guilt is what compells you.
Someday when you have children you want I wonder Will you still think its ok to kill.

That is only true if you believe that a fetus is a child from the point of conception, which I dont. If it was true, any woman who had more than one period could be a serial killer. My parents had an abortion before they had me and I dont really care. They were in no position to have childrens before and they had a kid when they could.

Most people that are pro-choice are against the use of abortions as a method of contraception. We believe abortions should be a last resort to people who cannot or should not have childrens at a certain point of their lives.

If the US wants to lower the number of abortions, then the US should support birth control.

It is ironic that the religious right refuses to teach their children about birth control and when and if a young woman gets pregnant, they want society to provide for that child. Palin's daughter is seventeen and pregnant. If she is pregnant at seventeen then she must have gotten pregnant at sixteen.

Wouldn't it have been better for Mrs. Palin to teach her daughter "the facts of life" rather than keeping her daughter ignorant. If Mrs. Palin had told her daughter about sex, her daughter could have used birth control of some type.

It appears that conservatives still believe that women are inferior and don't need to be paid the same wages as a man when doing the same job. It seems the same conservatives believe that by keeping their daughters ignorant about sex they won't get pregnant.

That mentality hasn't worked for tens of thousands of years and it won't work now.

Ignorance is not the answer.

Respectfully,

wdp

I'll answer your B.S tomorrow when I have time, until then, if you hate us so bad, leave!

Who are you talking too? Who said they hated us? No one.

The choice to have a child, especially in difficult circumstances, is an act of love. While we may believe, and even know with all of our hearts that abortion, in most cases is wrong, you cannot legislate love without inspiring hate. Besides, love not freely given has no value.

Anyone who believes they themselves have a spirit, must wonder when the spirit enters the body. It's a shame that more women couldn't have their babies and put them up for adoption.

Though I agree with you, I believe life begins at conception, I've not found the verses to back that up. Which ones are you referring to?

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Would it not be the first words of the Bible?

In the beginning....

All things have a begining and an end. Even so with human life. In the begining.... would that not be the moment when the sperm and the egg unite and begin a journey of unknown duration?

In the begining......

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Marine Corps saying.