CHOOSING LIFE … some uncommon thoughts on abortion

The other day I was asked my thoughts about abortion, namely whether I considered myself to be pro-life or pro-choice … I answered “Yes”.

Allow me to explain …

Seeing as how abortion is such a highly emotional topic, it could be helpful for me to first provide a few facts … Consider the following:

*There are over 120,000 abortions performed worldwide every day, with around 4000 of those occurring in the United States alone. That’s the termination of an unborn human every 20 seconds, making abortion not only the most frequently performed surgery in America (if not the world), but also a very earnest issue no matter on what side of the choice/life fence you reside.

*95% of abortions are performed as a method of birth control, 1% due to rape or incest, 1% due to fetal abnormalities & 3% due to the mother’s health complications.

*Only 16% of abortions are performed at 6 weeks of life or less.

*38% of abortions occur 7-8 weeks into a pregnancy, by which time, the unborn’s heart has been beating for four weeks, his or her circulatory system is fully in place, and the portions of the brain associated with consciousness have already developed enough to be recognizable.

*23% of abortions occur at 9-10 weeks of a pregnancy, a time when more than 90% of the body structures found in a full-grown human are clearly present. It is around this time that the medical classification of the unborn shifts from “embryo” to “fetus”, due to the fact that almost all future development involves the growth of pre-existing body structures, not the formation of new ones. At this stage of development, the fetus moves its own body parts without any external stimulation (i.e. he or she exudes free will).

*18% of abortions are performed at 11-16 weeks of a pregnancy.

*5% of abortions occur between week 16 & week 20 of a pregnancy, a time when the portions of the unborn’s brain responsible for high-level functions such as reasoning and memory have the same number of nerve cells as a full-grown human.

*And all of the aforementioned abortions are still perfectly legal under the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe vs. Wade.

So, now that we have some insight into the facts of the matter, what are we to do with them? How in the world are we to decide between the rights of a mother to legally terminate the life of a fetus and the rights of that unborn human to continue to live?

All I know is that it is not for me to make that decision for anyone else, AND YET I can provide some insight into why the issue is so volatile, which means I can provide a bit of calm for those of you who are suffering bouts of anger or sadness because of it.

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE on PRO-LIFE:
It is a psychological reality that we can only become deeply enraged by behaviors that we ourselves have similarly committed in the past or are similarly enlivening in the present. And this is true for all you angry Pro-Lifers out there as well … Instead of feeling compassion for the women making these excruciatingly painful choices, you choose to angrily condemn them for the same. Why is this so? Is it because you are being “righteous” in the face of “evil”? Is it because you are trying to aggressively effectuate social change? Is it because you are championing the cause of the innocent & the abused? No it is not … All of these causes could be much more effectively supported by calmer, more compassionate means.

So why are you angry? Well, you are angry because the murder you see being committed in abortion clinics is a mirror — reminding you of the murders YOU support and the death YOU inflict every day as well.

Do you support “just wars” or the killing of “terrorists”? If so, then you too support murder …

Do you affirm the death penalty or rejoice when criminals “get what they had coming”? If so, then you too support murder …

Do you eat meat or imbibe dairy products? If so, then you too support murder …

And THIS is why you are angry.

Please know that this is not a condemnation of your choices; merely a call for you to remove the beam from your own eye before criticizing the mote (or even the beam) in another’s.

“Respect for the sanctity of life, if you believe that it begins at conception, cannot end at birth.” ~ Thomas Friedman

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE on PRO-CHOICE:
It can come as no surprise that the same psychological truth applies to all you vehement & aggressive Pro-Choicers as well. Instead of feeling empathy for the hypocrisy of those who would stop your “oppression” by oppressing you, or who would stop your “condemnation” by condemning you, you choose to angrily rail against them in return. And why is this so? Does your anger come from your rights being violated or your freedoms curtailed or your beliefs being criminalized? Does your anger really come from a sincere fear that you or yours will be forced into an alley with a coat-hanger? Of course not … You know as well as I do that all these concerns are MUCH better served by responses that are calm & compassionate.

So why are you angry? Well, you are angry because, while you are indeed championing the right to choose, you are doing so in a manner that encourages yourself & others to refuse to accept the consequences for choices already made. Ironically, you are angry because, in fighting for your “right” to causally dismiss the results of your past choices, it is YOU who are weakening if not completely eradicating the worth of your Right to Choose.

As has already been stated, 95% of all abortions are performed as a method of voluntary birth control, not as as response to impregnation by rape (which admittedly poses a unique set of choice-challenges that will not be discussed here). In America, half of all pregnancies are unplanned, and half of those pregnancies end in abortion. On top of that, almost half of all the women who walk into abortion clinics have at least one prior abortion under their belt (literally).

In this sense, abortion is not a crisis of freedom, but rather a crisis of choice itself. For the real Right to Choose is not the right to do whatever you want at the expense of the rights of others. Choice always entails dealing with the consequences of the actions we freely engage …

Having sex is a choice, and one of its easily foreseeable consequences is pregnancy. As such, the real Right to Choice is not the right to make things more comfortable for a couple after a mistake has been made or the unplanned has occurred. The true Right to Choice is the right to humbly & courageously accept the consequences for the choices we make.

To do differently is to become angry.

“I certainly supported a woman’s right to choose, but to my mind the time to choose was before, not after the fact.” ~ Ann B. Ross

In conclusion then, the time has come for us ALL to stop venting our subconscious self-loathings on others, and start having the humility & the courage to look in the mirror instead. Once Pro-Lifers choose to completely remove murder from their own lives, they will then be able to compassionately (and therefore effectively) come to the assistance of the unborn & their mothers alike. And once Pro-Choicers choose to stand by their own past choices and thereby truly honor their right to Choose, they will be able to compassionately (and thereby effectively) diffuse the aggression and the condemnation that still rains down on them from “above” as well as from within.

Life is indeed sacred, and this includes the sentient Souls of all sentient beings unborn … Instead of choosing convenience, choose LIFE!

And choice is indeed sacred as well … This includes the choices others make with which we do not agree, as well as those we have already made that have brought us discomfort … Instead of choosing to condemn, choose Compassion!

Amen … Let it be so.

Filed under: simple Answers to tough Questions by Scaughdt