Blast from the Past 10 - "Pro-choice" vs "Pro-life"

This series consists of notes that I wrote on facebook in the past. Enjoy reading my thoughts during my college years. Please comment but please be nice! Also please feel free to check out my other Blast from the Past Posts.


From October 2006


"Pro-choice" vs "Pro-life"

Today in President’s Colloquium we talked about “Pro-life"? vs. “Pro-choice"?. Even though a few weeks ago I discovered that I am not shy (See my note “Nothing to Say"?), I still do not like talking in class, well some classes, and this is one that I cannot talk in. So I have decided to post my views on Abortion here.
I am “Pro-life"?. I put the “"? in because I do not like that title. By being “Pro-life I am also pro-choice (notice absence of “"?). I am in favor of the child having a choice too.
I believe that abortion is fundamentally wrong. I believe that abortion is in fact killing a child. It does not matter how old a person is when someone kills them, it is still wrong. The dictionary says that the definition of kill is “to deprive of life in any manner; cause the death of; slay."? If a person removes a fetus before it is born that person is depriving the child of life. How can this not be considered killing? Even if the fetus isn’t alive at conception or whenever the abortion takes place, although I believe that it is alive, but even if it isn’t, it will be at some point, right? I mean nobody is debating that a fetus will grow and become nothing, it will be alive sometime. So it would have life, and an abortion would deprive the child of having life in the future.
In the case of rape, I am somewhat uncertain about the topic. I believe that the mother should have the child, and if she does not want it she can give it up for adoption. I believe that this is the right thing to do, and this is what I would do if that ever happened to me. But I am not entirely certain that I have the right to say that this is the way that everyone has to be, for this part of the issue only. I guess I compare it to if a woman was attacked and she was physically injured, like her leg broke, or like if he gave her a STD, she cannot get rid of these simply by saying “oh I didn’t want this so I will get rid of it"?. Nature does not work this way, we can not simply wish things away like that. I do not see how having a baby is that much different.
Another issue that we discussed is that a lot of “Pro-choice"? people would not actually have an abortion, but they believe that other women should choose. They are basically saying ‘I don’t want it but nobody is allowed to tell me that I can’t have it’. This attitude reminds me of the southern attitude around the time of the civil war. A lot of southern people didn’t own, or want to own, slaves, but they rebelled when the government told them that they couldn’t own slaves. To me this attitude is immature and sinful. If you don’t want something why are you fighting for it? Some people don’t believe that it is right but they don’t believe that it is the governments place to regulate it. By fighting for it, however, they are endorsing abortion. Now I am not condemning them for this, because I know that I fall into this pattern too. Sometimes someone will tell me that I can’t have something that I didn’t want anyways. And I will rebel and start fighting for it, even though I didn’t really want it. But when I notice that this is what I am doing I stop myself and think about what I am really fighting for. I am really fighting because I want my own way. But I don’t need to have my own way all the time, I need God’s way.