Is Life A Choice?

 

I’ve been really wrestling with putting into words all the swirling thoughts in my head lately. I know what I believe and why, and I am completely unshaken in it. But verbalizing it or writing it down causes me to prayerfully think through the wording: because it’s too huge to debate. (And I hate debates.) It’s too vital to flippantly put out there without being able to discuss it in a healthy way. 

Lately, with the SCOTUS paper that was leaked, abortion has become an even “hotter” topic than normal. Rights are being debated, people are yelling at each other in every way on every outlet, and it’s been reduced to another political issue. 

But guys….it’s just not. It’s too important, too precious. It’s not political; it’s literally fundamental. 

Please hear my heart. I am completely FOR women and FOR equal rights and AGAINST government control in healthcare. But this issue goes far beyond that. It’s more than a choice to be made; it’s understanding that the same “choice” is not acceptable under any other circumstances, so why should it be in this one, isolated point in time?  

At any other stage of life, does the size of a child (or adult) make one more valuable than another? Does the physical or mental development of people cause one to be better than another? I think we can agree we would be appalled at this thought. If a child with special needs was cast aside as worthless, while a child with a higher IQ was elevated and celebrated and given all the opportunities of a valuable human being. One good thing about our progressive culture is that we have supposedly learned to embrace differences. To recognize that appearances and mental and physical abilities don’t determine worth. So why would we literally kill a human based on an earlier stage of development? Didn’t we all begin there?

One thing I’ve always been confused about is that if a pregnant woman is murdered, the charge is “double homicide.” Yet killing only the baby is legal. Why is this? Is a developing baby only truly a developing baby if he or she is wanted? Do our feelings about the baby change the reality of what is happening in the womb? Does the environment denote worth? For instance, was an African-American person less valuable when slavery was the norm than they are now, when slavery has been abolished? We would shudder at this thought! Therefore I think we can agree that we are not valuable based on our environment, but simply because of who we are: a human life, with intrinsic worth. Why is a baby only valuable once it exits the mother’s body, and not before? That belief would essentially say that mere literal inches and seconds magically change something from “a blob of worthless cells” into a human life. Does this not fly in the face of science? 

I want to be clear with my next point: My heart BREAKS for any woman who is a victim of rape or bringing a child into a hopeless-feeling situation. I don’t pretend to relate or understand. I am thankful for people and places that offer hope and help women walk through options and I wholeheartedly believe we need more of of this. Because at the end of the day, ripping a living organism out of a woman’s body is the WORST thing for the woman and only makes a bad situation worse. I am pro-life but I am also pro-woman. They go together. Yes, a baby is completely dependent on the mother for life and that is a heavy reality. But this is also the case once they leave the mother’s body. An infant (or young child, for that matter) is hardly able to care for themself. Does that make them less valuable? Would we dream of murdering a baby in the nursery at a hospital because it is no longer wanted, when it was the very same person moments before, inside the womb? Of course not. So why is the reverse acceptable? 

At the end of the day, the issue isn’t the government telling us women what to do with our bodies; it’s about the government doing its job to protect life. And once a woman is pregnant, she is not the only life in question. It’s not just about her healthcare, it’s about the care of two lives. Do I want the government telling me what to do with my body? No way! But do I appreciate the government having laws that make it illegal for someone to kill me? Absolutely! Why do I get that right but a helpless, developing baby can be legally tortured and slaughtered because a mother doesn’t choose to let him or her live? 

The abortion industry is a very dark place. I encourage you to open your mind and do some research into the agenda behind it. This isn’t an issue of religion or politics or choices. I beg you to think through the core values within us all. Shine the light of logic on the topic of the day. It’s not an isolated issue: We either value all people - regardless of their development, environment, dependency, etc. - or we do not. 

There are options. Options that don’t take away a life of a baby and destroy the life of the mother. So many people are waiting with open, loving arms to adopt a baby. There are amazing places that offer free medical services, kindness, and practical encouragement and equipping that you will NEVER find at an abortion clinic. There is help available and more needed. Help that injects hope into overwhelming situations.  

At the end of the day, the issue we are dealing with is that size, development, environment, and dependency are not what determines value. I know there are very loud voices that want to reduce this foundational issue to a choice and try to convince us that a developing baby is merely a blob of cells. But that isn’t science. A baby’s heartbeat can be detected within 5-6 weeks of conception. There are many other fascinating scientific facts about when each developmental milestone takes place. And we all started here. Because we experienced our fundamental human right: the right to live. 

In closing, I’ll say again that I am pro-woman and pro-life. I am also pro-having choices; but at the end of the day, is terminating life truly a choice that is ours to make? “My body, my choice,” yes. But when another body is dependent on mine for life - at 2 weeks gestation or 2 years post-birth - it’s no longer about my choice. He or she deserves to live. Period. 

My fellow humans: may we protect life at all stages, as the progressive Americans we claim to be.