Struggling with the Abortion issue...

Well, let's see, we've got the Olympics, Brett Farve, first day of kindergarten...but nah, let's bypass the light-hearted stuff and jump right to one of the most controversial issues today. Way to go Mad Hoosier.

Anyway...so I used to be hardcore pro-choice. Not that I'm not now, but I'm wavering. Let me explain.

I think I've said in previous posts about believing that the Lord doesn't want me to tell other people what they should get to do with their bodies. While I still believe that, I'm finding Abortion more wrong than I used to, and I am torn with the Lord wanting me to be a advocate for those that don't have a voice.

So how have I suddenly found Abortion to be "more wrong" than I used to? Well...I've read a couple of books recently that have touched on partial-birth abortions. I guess in my desire not to upset people who I believe should have their own choice to do with their bodies that they wish, I haven't really paid attention to what exactly partial-birth abortions are. Shame on me...and shame on anyone else who believes abortions are ok and don't know what partial-birth abortions are.

If you do happen to know what partial-birth abortions are, and you are still fully ok with the notion of abortion in general...well, that's between you, your conscious, and God. At least you've done your homework, and I will try to not stand in judgement of that notion and however you justify it. But if you believe that abortions are ok, then it is incumbent upon yourself to fully educate yourself with all matters of abortion.

I guess there are a couple different ways to perform partial-birth abortions. I apologize, but I feel like I must very briefly explain two of them, so if you don't wish to read, stop now, or skip to the next paragraph. One involves suffocating the baby...depriving it from oxygen during the birthing process, and another is actually delivering the baby part of the way, but driving some kind of rod/tube into the baby's head after the partial-birth, to kill it.

I don't know why I read those books and thought, "that's murder of an innocent life" when I hadn't thought of it that way before...perhaps because of the graphic nature of it...but I did.

You may or may not know, I have three kids, so I know the various stages of progression in a pregnancy. For instance, as early as the 5th week (that's before many people know they're pregnant) the brain and heart begins to form. So the natural progression of thought is...if partial-birth abortion is wrong, then 3rd-term abortion is just as wrong.

Then you, or at least I, begin to wonder..."if partial-birth and late term abortion is wrong, isn't all abortion wrong"?

So then I ponder...and meditate on...and wonder..."Maybe abortion is ok if the soul isn't in the body yet." Which of course leads to more pondering and meditating over just when does the soul enter the body? Any parent knows, the first time they feel the baby, that baby is alive as sure as you are.

And since I believe strongly in Sylvia Brown-type issues, such as past lives and life on the other side, I even asked my kids if they can remember when they were in Mommy's belly. I got many cute answers, but nothing specific that could help me on my journey.

So I just went back to feeling the baby moving. Once I felt the baby moving, I knew they were alive and well...which to me says their soul has already arrived. So did my child's souls arrive the first time I could feel them? Of course, the mother can feel the baby before the father...maybe the soul just magically arrives the first time they feel that flutter in their belly??

Well, it just doesn't make sense to me, that the soul just magically arrives at any one point. Even in the first two weeks, when they are cells, dividing and creating life, would it be week 5 that the soul magically arrives, when the brain and heart begin forming...and indeed the heart begins beating in week five. Even if that is the case, which I'm not convinced, that's still having the soul arrive before most people know they are pregnant.

Henseforth, along those lines, any abortion after week five, is murder of a soul...which can only be murder of a life, even if it can't sustain itself yet...and is therefore wrong.

BUT...after all that...I still have this part inside of me saying, "God doesn't want you to tell other people how to live their life and what to do with their bodies."

So I'm still torn...completely lost for what to think. So...anyone that has any other input out there, please feel free to add your thoughts.

I promise to keep this topic, at least in this thread, out of the political realm...if you promise not to cite how hard the decision for abortion is. I have no doubt that many people struggle with it....but we all know that the majority of women who have abortions are teens and young 20-somethings that weren't responsible in the first place and are making the decision for selfish reasons.