Neither Pro-Life nor Pro-Choice

My background in discussing the abortion topic has led me to an interesting place in life. I am not your typical Pro-Lifer and many make the mistake of assuming I am Christian just because I am against abortion. But for the purposes of this post I am going to talk about the good parts of both of the main two sides of this debate. I believe there are more than two sides but we usually think of people as being either Pro-Life or Pro-Choice.

Pro-Life people are people who are opposed to abortion because they view the unborn babies as people the same as the born. Therefore killing them is murder. It really is that simple. Where it gets complicated is where they disagree on whether it should be legal or illegal and also what special exception cases it should be legal even if illegal most of the time. Furthermore beyond that people can still disagree on what legal action should be taken when abortion happens. All people, even those identifying as Pro-Life, will not agree on those details. They only need to agree that it is immoral even if they have other reasons for thinking it should be illegal.

Pro-Choice people are much more complicated and hard to understand. Some of them do not at all view the unborn as equal persons with a right to life. Some of them do believe the unborn should not be killed but that the mother has a right to abort because the person is living in her body and that the right to her body is top priority over that of the baby. What makes pro-choice people interesting is that generally they are for legal abortion but they may have different reasons for it and different opinions on the morality of it.

So Pro-Life and Pro-Choice are both Pro something, but it really comes down to what they mean by Life and Choice. My purpose here is not to tell people what their own opinions should be on the morality or legality of abortion but rather to dive into the interesting implications of these beliefs and what they could mean.

For example, how is Life defined? How is Choice defined? Does being Pro-Life mean that you are against killing all living things? Does being Pro-Choice mean that you are for all Choices that anyone could possibly make?

I think that is not the case. People rarely, if ever apply these terms to other aspects of their lives. But I think that being Pro-Life means that you also generally have to respect the choices that life makes. Living things do as they wish and not as you might wish. To be Pro-Choice however comes at a cost because some make the choice to end the lives of others.

This leads to a contradiction because some of us value some choices more than others and we also value some lives more than others. I’m no exception to this. I hope I never have to kill anyone, but I also know that in a situation of self defense or if I were defending someone I love from an attacker, I could possibly kill them in a moment where there is no time for conscious thought and I rely only on my autonomous animal instinct.

But there is one thing I do know very clearly. I do not kill someone who is not intending to cause harm. The unborn babies and innocent and are neither good nor evil yet. I don’t know who they will become. In a situation where I have to choose one of two lives to save, it will be the one who has done nothing wrong. This is one reason why I find the abortion topic particularly emotional. I see the unborn much the same as I see the ants in my apartment. They cause me no harm and I feed them and respect their life.

In my view most fully grown adult humans are not very kind and they hurt so many animals. Most adult humans do many evil things even worse than abortion. I would rather kill them than the unborn.

Maybe I am not so Pro-Life after all. I cannot say that I would never kill someone. At the same time, I am not Pro-Choice, because I know that I do not approve of most choices humans make.

So what am I? I am Pro-Truth. I have told you the truth of how I think and feel about these matters. That is the only thing I can promise you because I am not committed to all lives or all choices that will be made by you or even myself.

But I do believe in one thing. I believe in freedom of speech and that each person should be able to speak their truth. I believe that this is the best way to respect your life and your choices. I only ask that you do the same.