Life begins...

Abortion is quite the hot-button issue. For obvious reasons: we’re talking about killing babies, right? This isn’t something I (or anyone else, for that matter) take lightly. And for many people, its as much a political issue as it is a moral issue. I want to try to address both sides.

Psalm 139 says that (speaking to God): “you formed me in my mother’s womb.” Scripture, and science, lead me to believe that life begins at conception. When a sperm enters an egg, it releases its nucleus (which joins with the DNA material of the egg), and a zygote is formed. We call this a human embryo. At the 8th week, we call it a fetus. Semantics, semantics… it’s a baby. No matter what term we use, I believe that since its alive, it’s a baby.

Sanctity of life is a huge deal for me. If you read my post on war and the death penalty (“Curiosity, the cat and I”), you know I feel strongly about respecting life. It would be wrong of me to speak so strongly against war, capital punishment, etc., and to not speak out against abortion. As plain as I could say it: I find abortion amoral. It is killing a human. Period.

Now, I’ve heard some very interesting arguments revolving around the moral side of this. Questions are always raised: "What about rape? What about certain types of birth control? What about a woman’s right to decide for herself?" All of these questions are worth addressing, but either way, aborting a fetus is still killing another human. I simply don’t think you can legitimize this procedure. That’s easy for me to throw out there like that not having faced the situations that others have. But I don’t think circumstance can change this.

So how can I, someone so set against abortion, vote for a Democrat that is pro-choice? Right? That’s the question I get asked whenever this is brought up. Let me respond…

First of all, while I’m sure I will end up casting a vote for either Obama or Clinton, I have reservations about both. Obama speaks loudly about change, but wants to expand the military (which means expanded budget and expanded world presence—neither of which I agree with). I think we spend WAY too much on the military as it is. I think the US government’s spending has no real accountability and is out of control—expanding this area of the budget makes no sense to me. Clinton is on the opposite end of the spectrum, but I certainly don’t hold her viewpoints on everything either. My biggest issue with her, though, is that she’s such a polarizing figure. People either love or hate her—even if they have no valid reasons and don’t really take the time to find out who she is and what she stands for. There is no middle ground on Hillary and we need unity within our national politics. (As a side note: I wish John Edwards was still in the mix. Alas, maybe he’ll end up on the VP ticket if we’re lucky…If we were really lucky, Al Gore would join the race and we would have the chance to re-elect him as president.) But either way, I still will vote Democratic. Why? For many reasons…

Tops on the list is that there’s no way I’d cast a vote for the pro-war McCain. I’ve heard him called a “warmonger” by many people, and I’m inclined to agree. If he gets to the Oval Office, I see four years ahead that look eerily similar to the past four, only worse.

For thirty years, there has been constant shouting from the pro-life right/conservatives/etc about how this needs to change. But in 20 years worth of republican presidents out of the past 30, what have they changed? (There were just as many abortions in 1995 under Bill than there were in 2005 under W.) What I mean is, I don’t think this is simply a “Republicans are pro-life while Democrats are pro-choice” thing. Its much bigger than that. This isn’t a bi-partisan issue. I want to put a candidate in office who can change the social climate nation wide. I want someone to give people in this nation hope for a better life. I want someone who can fight poverty. I want someone who can do something about national healthcare. I don’t think that simply overturning Roe v. Wade would end abortion—they would illegally continue regardless. I know that if someone can change the social and economic conditions in America, give people viable options, give the adoption process a face-lift... abortion rates would go down. That’s a start…

I have a lot of friends who have communicated this to me: I don’t think the Republicans have anything to offer this presidential race, but I cannot vote for a pro-choice candidate. I can understand that. But at the same time, we need to look at the bigger picture. I have a lot of Democratic friends who are so disenchanted with the Republican/Right-wing that they want nothing to do with it—and that doesn’t leave too many options. (I equate that to people like myself who have issues with the American church. Some people see it as so screwed up, and don’t know what to do about it, so they leave. I have hope for change, and am working towards that from within the walls, but am very frustrated still.) A lot of people who align themselves with the left just don’t see the right as having anything to offer the world at large. I was reading a blog the other day in which someone asked: “How can someone be so pro-life and so ignorant of the bigger issues like the environment, healthcare, war, and oil?” Not everything is black and white. Not everything is left and right. Not everything makes sense in these situations. Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever… we’ve got to look at the bigger picture and not make this into a party-line issue.

So while I’ll vote for a Democratic candidate on election day, I will continue to stand against abortion and do what I can to change things. It wouldn’t be right to speak so loudly in defense of the poor, the marginalized, and the suffering only to ignore the millions killed worldwide by abortion. This is not an easy issue to deal with it—its not even an easy issue to discuss… and it never will be. But I can’t say it enough, we got to look at the big picture of change. We’ve got to do something about the current state of our world.

Hope that makes some sense...