Abortion Rights

This is a sensitive subject. I don't intend to blast anyone or make anyone feel guilty or anything of the sort. I read the article on Mitt Romney and the evolution of his position on abortion. I thought it some small way it mirrors the evolution of my own position. It made me want to honestly share my own feelings and struggles with the issue.

The first time I can ever really remember discussing or contemplating abortion was 1993 or 1994. I didn't have a whole lot of understanding of the medical and scientific background or anything. Growing up in a very conservative, church going South Mississippi, I understood that all of my friends and family believed it was wrong. At the time, I thought it was wrong as well. I didn't really understand why, though. It was mostly just the influence of my friends and family, though. Where I differed with most of my friends and family was that I didn't think my personal beliefs on abortion should be forced on others. While I believed it was wrong, I thought others should be free to choose for themselves.

That all changed in 1996. One of my good friends in college, Doug Johnson, was rabidly pro-life. He and I discussed the issue a thousand times. When I say discussed, I mean just that. He and I were good friends and I believe we held a healthy respect for one another. This allowed a forum where open and honest communication could take place. Those types of relationships that foster open and honest communication don't exist much within our society anymore. I think that's one reason so many issues are so polarizing. Without open lines of communication one side doesn't understand where the other side is coming from.

As I said, Doug was rabidly pro-life. He thought abortion should be illegal without exception. Through the many talks we had, I came to understand why. It wasn't so much that he convinced me or talked me out of my position or anything like that. It was that being given the opportunity to hear what someone who disagrees with me believes and why they believe what they do, I was better able to understand my own beliefs.

For me, the whole issue boils down to an issue of rights. I'm generally a very permissive guy when it comes to allowing people to do what they want to do. The very premise of rights is that one person's rights end where another person's rights begin. This was the basis for my previous belief that even though I personally believed abortion was wrong, I didn't think it was the government's place to tell others that it was wrong, though.

Doug had me think about other laws where the government has the right to restrict someone's behavior because it infringed upon the rights of others, though. The government has the right to enforce laws against stealing. It's not that me picking up a wallet full of money is wrong. It's that me picking up someone else's wallet full of money is wrong because they have the right to carry a wallet full of money without me interfering with them.

This is where the rubber meets the road in the abortion debate for me. I don't have the right to terminate the life of an adult because that adult has the right to life. At what point does a baby, a fetus, a zygote, whatever you want to call it at whatever stage of development and life it is, at what point does it have rights? My philosophy being based on rights, at the point the baby has the same right to life that I do then I don't believe abortion should be allowed. When does that occur, though?

I'll be honest, I'm not sure exactly at what point those rights begin. I think there has to be a definite point where you say this is a baby, this baby has rights that we can't allow others to infringe upon, though. If you're a mother or father and you've sat anxiously in the doctor's office to see the ultrasound at 18-20 weeks of your baby that you just can't wait to get here, do you honestly believe that little baby doesn't have rights? You can see it move. You see fingers and toes, you see it sucking its thumb. Doesn't this baby have the same rights that you and I do? I believe that it does.

In searching for a definite point at which the baby has rights, I haven't really found a point at which I'm comfortable saying that it doesn't. This is based on several things. For one, my strong held belief in the Bible. In numerous places the Bible talks about God knowing us from conception. Also, it seems to me, the more technology advances and the more we have insight into what happens within the womb, the more we understand how a baby advances earlier and earlier than we think it does. This is a great site for fetal development. I don't feel comfortable saying that a baby - that at 8 weeks has a brain, hands, knees, even an eyelid - doesn't have rights that we have every responsibly to protect.

This discussion isn't an easy one. There are a lot of people with understandably strong feelings on both sides of the debate. I think the more we respect one another and share our opinions the more comfortable we'll all be both with our own beliefs and the beliefs of others. Having been on both sides of this debate and different points in my life and having seen others willingness to respect my beliefs and discuss such a sensitive and personal issue, I feel like I know this first hand.