Conversion Diary: How I became pro-life
so the above is an interesting blog post about a multidimensional topic. the author expresses quite thoughtfully & eloquently how her mindset was changed.
this is something i’ve been thinking about a great deal lately, because it keeps popping up in conversation (and makes me slightly uncomfortable, as i think it does to many people). i have strong feelings on both sides of the issue of abortion – both the value of human life and the right of women to decide, and myriad other issues factor into my opinions.
sometimes i wish it were possible to not “choose” one side at all, but to just, you know, set some ground rules. say, if a woman had been raped, or if she’s physically incapable of carrying the child, she should be entitled to have an abortion without judgment or repercussion. of course, the ancient issue remains: where do you draw the line? what’s an “acceptable” reason? obviously, it depends on whom you ask.
another reason i’ve been thinking about it is that being pro-choice in any degree puts me at odds with my church. this has been made very clear to me, but to be honest, that is another issue altogether. i have to form my thoughts both within the framework of orthodox christianity and outside of it.
i’m reminded of a story my mother told me, from when she was a young nurse. she had a patient who was around her age at the time, early 20s. this girl was married and already had five children. five children, at 23 (my age now). she was pregnant again. but now she had terminal cancer.
the patient’s father was deeply religious, a sheikh, and refused to allow her to have an abortion. being pregnant, she couldn’t get the cancer therapy she needed. she died, leaving behind her husband and, now, six children.
i understand that ‘each life is valuable’ and that we cannot ‘dehumanize’ fetuses.
but tell me, when making a decision about a full-grown woman’s life, why does the unborn child’s life take precedence over hers? why is it more important to save a baby that has never been born, than to save a woman, a wife, a daughter, a mother?
in a scenario such as that – how can anyone claim to NOT be making value judgments about human life?
