From outside the box

Believe it or not, many liberals who support a woman's right to choose are actually against abortion personally. Therefore when conservatives label them as pro-abortion they are not quite getting the bigger picture. I might support gay rights but that doesn't mean I'm gay. I support the right to eat meat, but I don't eat it. I support the right to own a gun but I don't want one. In that vain, I can say that I support a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, however, I could never personally make that choice. When someone says they are pro-life they are insinuating that anybody who supports a women's right to choose is anti-life. It's as ignorant as saying that someone who is not a Christian is an atheist.

When it comes to abortion, there will never be any kind of acceptable compromise that will work for everybody. You are either for it, against it, or if your like me, you are for and against it. I think the issue has to be compromised in a way that will piss everybody off. If I were king of the world, I would say have your abortion if you must, but it must be done during the first trimester, while it's still a pollywog.

Society is never going to come to a consensus on when soul enters the body, or when life starts. Isn't that what the issue is really all about? You can't murder something if there is no soul, right? Side "A" side says that any form of abortion is murder. Side "B" says that you cannot define it as murder if you don't know when soul enters the body or when life actually starts. Side "A" says that dismembering a completely formed living human body is murder. Side "B" says as long as it's in a woman's body, it's her personal choice of what to do with it. I say compromise by allowing the abortion, but limit it to the first trimester. On the other hand, I am a man and I'm not even sure men should have any say in this argument anyway.

To the conservatives who say that life begins at conception and therefore abortion is murder, I would counter argue with this point....We all have our pet issues. One of mine is animal rights. I would like to live in a world where people did not eat, cage, test, wear, or exploit animals in anyway, shape, or form. Although they may be lower on the evolutionary scale (I'm talking about animals, not conservatives....hmmm), I believe that animals have souls and a conscience. They are as much alive as humans are, although maybe less aware. If I said I was animal pro life and preached that we have no right to kill animals for any reason, even if I could prove that we can live healthier as vegetarians, I guarantee you that conservatives would tell me that it's none of my business what they decide to eat. They would make the point that my belief is not their belief and that if I was against eating animals, then fine, I don't have to eat them but don't go pushing my values onto them.

Now I'm not comparing the life of an animal to that of a human fetus, I am however comparing the logic of the argument. The point is the same. This is where the conservative would say, "But I'm right about abortion being murder and you are wrong about eating and exploiting animals." Maybe....but maybe not. There are some issues that most of us agree on, and these are what most laws are about. There are other issues, I would say most issues really, that we have to agree to disagree and find a solution somewhere in the middle that either works for all sides or pisses everybody off.

I know that this world is nowhere near being ready to give up their appetite for meat anymore than they would give up their right to own a gun. I would have to resolve that by saying, "I can't ask you to give up your guns or your meat but I can try to be a living example as to why vegetarianism is healthier and I could demonstrate peace in a way that if everybody did the same there would be no need for guns. For now I would have to say that if you do not believe in abortion, then don't ever get one. On the other hand, I would say that you should continue to demonstrate the sanctity of life and maybe in time the message will catch on. Maybe someday it will catch on to the point that we regard the life of all living creatures as sacred, fetuses as well as animals.