It's been a while since I've written. I used to have this issue at epinions highlighted. Every time someone wrote a new view, I would read it. I found it interesting seeing the pro and con.

Overall Look

In 99% of the cases I read, I noticed that most women, even if they wrote for the pro-choice side of the debate, would not personally recommend abortion to their friends or desire it themselves.

They simply wanted the option available in the case of extreme circumstances. 1% (maybe even only one review that I came across) from the pro-choice side was purely self-focused (it's my life, body, career, etc.). This raw self-focus came up as very very rare.

What does this mean? This means that the majority of women do not naturally find abortion desirable. The problem with the debate is there are two sides: a moral side and a legal side, but the debaters are not arguing for the same thing. Often, pro-choicers' political view is driven out of compassion for others who might have horrible circumstances and find an abortion the only way. But they personally advocate the moral pro-life side and do not agree with it as mere birth-control convenience.

Indeed, one pro-choice writer here found herself in such a terrible place and had to abort against her greater desire to keep the baby, rightfully pointed to the greater sin of society in not supporting such women. She suggested adopting pregnant teens whose parents are not supportive.

I thought that was a good idea and maybe I will one day when I am old enough and I can afford to. Instead of killing abortion doctors, it would be wiser to set up organizations to help provide this kind of support for these kinds of desperate women who lose their babies against their want.

So, 99% of women appear uncomfortable with abortion: many of the pro-choice women are also pro-life - for keeping and encouraging baby development, not killing them, where-ever possible.

The very graphic www.cbrinfo.org website (don't go if you have no stomach for it) with its brutal display of aborted babies - and how greatly they quite resemble humans at even tiny stages was the cherry on the cake for me in favor of pro-life, with its backup articles. I am for abortion only in the case where a mother's life is in danger.

Anti-Female?

I found some more interesting data and discussion I came across (esp. at roevwade.com). It presented a completely different feminist view of the subject. I mention it because I had never encountered this before and it really surprised me...

1. More women are dying as a result of the legalization of abortion. (Not to mention the greater threat of breast cancer caused by abortions).

2. Women are more likely to be treated as sex-objects by men since abortion becomes the man's easy way out of accepting responsibility for his actions.

"As Daniel Callahan puts it, ``If legal abortion has given women more choice, it has also given men more choice as well. They now have a potent new weapon in the old business of manipulating and abandoning women.`` Given that 80 percent of all abortions are sough by single women (according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute) the advent of reproductive rights has created a situation in which a man can coerce a woman to have an abortion by denying his responsibility towards her, or even abandoning her when she gets pregnant and ``chooses`` to carry the pregnancy to term.

"According to feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon, ``Sexual liberation in this sense does not free women, it frees male sexual aggression. The availability of abortion thus removes the one remaining legitimized reason that women had for refusing sex besides the headache.``"
(http://www.roevwade.org/fact5.html)

3. Women are thus still trying to be more like men to be in the work place (the convenience of not having to bear children) - which in reality becomes antithetical to feminism: it is this conformity to the 'man's world' to succeed - not attaining success as a WOMAN who has the unique ability to bear children.

"Abortion does not liberate women. On the contrary, abortion - and the perceived need for it - validate the patriarchal world view which holds that women, encumbered as they are by their reproductive capacity, are inferior to men." (http://www.roevwade.org/women.html)

BCPS & Abortion - Personal Story

Okay. Now I had to be tested. Could I follow through with this pro-life ideal?

One day I came across an extremely well researched article on the internet on BCPS (birth control pills) - that they may cause abortion:

http://www.terravista.pt/enseada/1881/bcpill1.html

It discussed the 3 mechanisms of BCPS to prevent pregnancy and I could confirm them personally. While the mechanisms were never mentioned in American pill manufacturer instructions, United Kingdom pill instructions plainly listed all three of them.

However, I never understood the ramifications of the third mechanism as an abortive (as opposed to contraceptive) mechanism until I read this article. It spelled it out why it could be causing chemical abortions.

Married, I had used BCPs for three years. We had not planned to consider having children for at least another year. Yet, this article suggested unknowing chemical abortions could have occurred as a result of BCPS.

Having made a decision only days ago to trust God more fully with my life, it seemed like a test. I could imagine judgment day: God saying "I gave you this information and what did you do with it?" Even while I felt terrible that some children may have died, I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins - even those committed in ignorance.

We had to stop.

There were two powerful challenges in that specific article I remember the most (paraphrase):

"Is it right to control the number of people in our families by killing off members?"

and secondly (more Bible based)...

"If the Bible considers children blessings - how come we are happy to accept other blessings such as money, a new job, a car, etc. and consider children a curse?"

I had never considered this angle before either...

I have since read other articles that have made me annoyed about every using BCPS outside of the abortion issue. (One example, I think I read they suppress a female sex hormone oxytocin - leading to negative effects with one's spouse on an emotional/physical level)

Last Words

The woman aborting for purely selfish reasons (i.e. ambition, career, convenience, etc.) is disapproved by most, but luckily is a rare case (at least at epinions), contrary to what we see in TV fiction.

It must be harder for women with no belief in God who find themselves in tragic circumstances to keep their babies alive with the faith that their needs will be met. It is a challenge to the rest of us to be aware of these individuals and offer them hope and a way out.

After losing my job (and my husband being a student with no income), possessing high credit card bills, and then a week later obtaining a positive home pregnancy test, we believe God planned both events and will continue to provide a way and support in the future. This temporary financial inconvenience will not lead to another dead baby. Indeed, I know we have received another blessing from God.

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