Abortion, Feticide and Assisted Suicide

What am I doing? There are some things that you are not to talk about: politics, religion and abortion. It is a topic that causes too many fights! That may be true, but it appears everything starts fights these days. I already discuss religion. I figured I might as well throw abortion in, too.

I am still trying to figure out how I feel on the subject of abortion. I used to say that I had no right to an opinion since I could not get pregnant. Then I became a father. As a father I began to feel that abortion was wrong. How could some one rob me of the joy involved in raising my son, or steal from the world the joy of meeting and interacting with him? I was confused........

That was how I felt while I was an Agnostic and not a father. Since then I have had a Pauline Conversion, but you can read about that in several other of my blogs or hear/see it in my testimony. I also have a son that means the world to me and his mother. Those things have combined to change my stance. I am now pro-life and I talk about it. My conversion has probably intensified my feelings on abortion. But let us not even get into my religious reasons. My son has also made me more pro-life, but that is a matter of the heart. Let us not get  into the emotional reasons. Instead, how about the legal reason abortion would appear to be wrong.

Why is it illegal for a woman to perform an abortion on herself in most states? It should be perfectly legal for a women to induce her own abortion, since it is just a fetus and that is not considered to be a life. It is seen as, I guess I really don't know what it is seen as. It might have a heart beat, be able to feel pain and be able to move. That sounds like life to me, but what do I know? I am only a man!

Yet if a fetus is not a life, how can you charge someone else with killing it? There can be no manslaughter or homicide charge since it is just a fetus. Assault charges should apply for the attack on the woman, but murder or manslaughter charges for loss of fetus? You must be kidding! That is like me punching someone and rupturing their spleen then getting charged with murder for their spleen being destroyed.

If manslaughter or murder is a charge that can be levied against one who kills a fetus while in the mother's belly, that tells me the fetus is a life. If the fetus is a life, then a doctor should not be allowed to kill it. In most states doctor assisted suicide is illegal. It is illegal for a doctor to help you kill yourself, even if you are of sound mind and request it. How much more illegal should it be for anyone to kill a fetus, when it has no opportunity to weigh in on the subject.

If abortion is legal, then it should be legal for me to kill my own child when he is 6 weeks old. "I had sex and gave birth to him, and there is just no way that I could care for him. I am in college and this baby is inconvenient." I go to the doctor, who gives him a cocktail that ends his life and my life instantly becomes better. (Last statement not true, see below) Ultimately, what is the difference between 6 weeks in the womb and 6 weeks after birth?

I argue that they are both living, feeling, heart beat having individuals. If that is true, abortion sounds like the killing of something that is alive. Not to mention the impact abortion can have on women. I work with many women in the substance abuse field that have nightmares about abortions. Many more are carrying around depression, anger, self-loathing and guilt because of a past abortion. Abortion does not sound like the healthiest thing to do for the one who is pregnant or the fetus. What is the answer?

Imagine that I do not want to go to prison. I know that committing crimes will result in criminal charges which could result in my going to prison. Since prison is the end result I am wanting to avoid, I do not commit crimes. Now the problem is taken care of. No crimes, no prison.

Now we use that same line of reasoning with babies. I do not want a baby. I know that having sex can result in my having a baby if I were to get pregnant. Since pregnancy is the outcome I am avoiding, I do not have sex. Now the problem is taken care of. No sex, no babies.

Bottom line, if you are not responsible enough to raise a baby, you should not have sex. If having a baby is an inconvenience or financial burden you cannot deal with currently, be abstinent. Use some self-control and don't have sex. Problem solved.

In closing I just want to say thanks to my mother, who is pro-life. I would also like to thank the mothers of all who read this blog, as they chose to give birth to you instead of aborting you! Thanks Moms!!

P.S. - Some might argue about rape or incest being the primary reason for abortions, therefore abortions should be legal. The last statistics that I saw from Planned Parenthood's research affiliate the Guttmacher Institute said that rape and incest account for only 1-1.5% of abortions.

The Anniverary of Roe vs Wade: Why I Am Now Pro-Life

My son asked me a question last night. If he would have asked me the same question 2 months ago he would have gotten a different answer. He asked me to name the 5 people I love most. Two months ago the answer would have been God, Julie (my wife), him, my sister Michal and her daughter/my son's cousin/my niece Kelly. Last night, though, I told him God, Julie, him, his unborn brother/sister and my sister Michal.

Two months ago I found out that my wife was pregnant, and we were both overjoyed. At this time she was 4 weeks pregnant. She had a life inside of her. The heart of her fetus had already begun to beat. Blood was already beginning to flow through the vessels and arms and legs are already becoming visible. This is at the 4th and 5th weeks of gestation when the fetus is only 1 and 2 weeks old.

When I talked to my wife about my conversation with my son last night, she told me that yesterday was the anniversary of Roe versus Wade. It made me remember how I once felt. At one time, I fully thought that I had no right to say anything, since I was a man. Now that I am a father, however, I feel completely different. I would not even want to imagine my life without my son in it. Neither would I want to rob the world of my son, who is amazing and kind and intelligent.

I am pro-life now because I could not possibly imagine my son not living. I do not want to visualize a world without him in it. In the case of my unborn child, I could not imagine terminating a fetus with a heartbeat. To me that is murder. There is a heartbeat, and that is an innocent life. There will be some disagreements, and I will address the most recent one that I had here.

I have a friend that is an atheist, but is very involved in public service. She volunteers time with various non-profits, most of which goes to the American Cancer Society since her mother died from cancer several years ago. She and I had the discussion, because she has had an abortion.

"It did not hurt anybody. I chose to have an abortion because my mother had just died and I could not deal with raising a baby with everything else going on."

I asked her one question that stopped her cold in the conversation. "Your choice could have hurt everyone! What if the baby you terminated was going to cure cancer? What if she would have been the diplomat that forged world peace, or raised the child that accomplished it? We might aleady have a cure for AIDS and cancer if we did not abort babies."

"I never thought about it like that," was her reply.

I know that this is a very difficult issue to discuss. I am not one to cast stones at anyone. I just wanted to share my most recent thoughts on the issue. I feel that there are many things we do that are wrong ethically, morally and spiritually. Abortion is one of those things. I have heard the claim abortion doesn't hurt anyone, As a substance abuse counselor I deal with a lot of women who have carried the guilt of abortion with them for years. Simply thinking about it a decade later instantly brings them to tears, and I would not wish that kind of traumatic pain on anyone.

The truth is, there are far reaching consequences for both the person getting the abortion and the child that never got to grow. What if Martin Luther King, Jr.s mother would have aborted him? What if Marie Curie and Alexander Fleming had been aborted? What if your mother had aborted you, or the mother of your spouse had aborted them? The truth is, abortion is the killing of potential. We truly never know what could have been when abortion occurs. And "what if" is one of the hardest questions to live life without an answer for.