Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. Pro-choice means respecting others’ decisions even though you may disagree with them. Pro-choice means believing abortion is a moral and/or religious decision that should be made at the family level, not the government. Like Obama and millions of Christians, one can be pro-life at home and pro-choice outside his or her family.
If you’re not pro-choice, then you likely don’t believe in the separation of state and church (or the Constitution), and you like to impose your beliefs on others with disregard to the difficult experiences (such as rape) and emotional pain that some women and families go through when considering an abortion.
Two other things bother me about this issue. One, while abortion physically involves women, most of the people involved in the decision-making are men, whether in the government, courts or churches. And two, of the Christian Americans who strongly oppose abortion, millions support the death penalty (and wars). In other words, it’s OK to kill a 6-foot breathing human being (and children with bombs), but a sin to kill a one-inch fetus.
When confronted with a dilemma, I like to refer to logic and science for an answer. People usually argue about at which stage of the pregnancy abortion should be considered illegal. When a person dies, his or her heart stops beating. In other words, there’s no life without a beating heart. Similarly, I believe abortion should become illegal after the heart of the fetus starts beating, which is about a month after conception. That gives unwanted pregnancies about a month to be terminated, such as those that result from rape.
Every year, there are about 1 million abortions in the United States. In the eyes of pro-lifers, that’s a “murder” on the conscience of every woman who got an abortion (and the doctors who helped her). George W. Bush is one of those pro-lifers. Yet, no U.S. governor has ordered more death sentences (he’s also the only one who never granted a single pardon), and no U.S. president has waged more wars (he waged two). I consider the Americans who voted for him based on his religious beliefs to be the biggest hypocrites of American society.
In his speeches, Obama always tries to bring people together by finding common ground. Many people criticize him for his speaking abilities and positive messages. Are they suggesting that Bush, a very divisive and mediocre speaker, is better? Bush spoke at a Notre Dame commencement ceremony, but didn’t get nearly as criticized as Obama. Yet, in front of a tough crowd, Obama was able to get a few standing ovations during his speech, including in response to abortion, calling for measures to reduce unintended pregnancies as a common ground, and citing solutions such as “making adoption more available, providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term … and (making) sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.”
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