A Personal Account of What Pro-Life Really Means

Everyone wants to talk about when life begins. But how about talking about what life is? If you chose to be pro life, should you pick and chose definitions based on religious or moral values? Isn't life more than the physical? What about the mental? What about nonhuman life? Are we so arrogant to believe God, Universal Light, or whatever you call the higher source, bestowed life energy to only humans?

Pro life is not just contained on whether or not you believe abortion is wrong. Pro Life means what it says for "life". A true Pro Lifer means:

You are not for war with no exceptions. Taking a life no matter what the reason is not a Pro Lifer.

You are not for any abortion.

You don't honor Living Wills. Despite your love one's wishes, you cannot honor it. You must allow them to suffer in a state they never wanted to be in.

You don't eat meat, foul, or fish. All lives are precious to a Pro Lifer.

You are kind to every life you meet whether it is human or nonhuman. Pro Life is more than physical. Anytime you raise a harsh word to some one or an animal you are taking some life away.

You don't participate in the violence at abortion clinics. How can you be Pro Life when you are harming people physically or mentally?

You don't believe in the death penalty. How can you call yourself Pro Life if you believe in killing someone even though they committed a terrible crime?

You believe in fetal cloning for maintaining lives through stem cell research. Well, if you believe in this, you believe in killing fetus which is not Pro Life. However, if you don't believe in this, then you don't believe in saving a life.

You believe in saving the life of a pregnant woman whose life is in jeopardy whether it is her mind or physical state. Whether she was raped, physically she can't hold the baby till term, or she is so scared of pregnancy for whatever reason she will take her life.

You believe that we must stop overpopulating otherwise it will stifle life of what we know today. What happens the day when there are too many people on earth to exist? If life is unsustainable because we don't have enough space or food to feed everyone we will need to control our population way before this develops. Statistics are starting to show we are populating quicker because people are living longer. Maybe you won't see that day, but just like global warming there will come a day we will have a major problem with overpopulation.

You love the earth. You don't abuse the environment in anyway.

If you had to explain to someone what life is, what would you tell them? Is it just human? Is it just physical? So before you start deciding when life begins, how about deciding what Pro Life actually means. You can't have it both ways and be Pro Life on one subject and give excuses for another area.

As you can see those pro life statements can have some contradiction in them.

Abortion is legal whether you like it or not. If Roe vs. Wade is gone, abortion won't be gone. You will have the states decide whether it is legal or not. You will see a return to back alley abortions. Some of you might not know what that means. Back alley abortions were botched abortions performed in unsanitized conditions. Some abortions were even performed with coat hangers. You will be destroying more lives than saving them by doing away with Roe vs. Wade. You will be seeing young woman self-butchering themselves again as they did prior to federal legalization. Take time out to read "A Historical Summary of Abortion from Antiquity to Legalization" dated in 1973 from the perspective of the woman. See the URL to follow. This is no different than allowing the abuse of women if we fade out Roe vs Wade. It's not as simple as those that desire to call themselves Pro Life believe. It's so easy to judge women who decide to have abortions and yet, it takes a lot of courage to really understand the decision because the labels that comes with it. In other words, if you understood, you would be labeled Pro Abortion.

http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/WRHC/187_A%20Historical%20Summary%20of%20Abortion.PDF

Definitions can't take us beyond concepts and language of when life begins. No one can define when life begins. Not even our highly brilliant scientists. These same people who have found treatments for diseases and illnesses can't reveal to us when life begins. You will never have abortions abolished until we can answer that question. The one legal term to describe life is "viability". According to the courts, a fetus isn't viable before 23 weeks because it cannot breathe on its own. It use to be before 28 weeks until the twenty first century when modern medicine had some results in delivering these premature babies. However, there are no statistics on how long they survived after that. So, we were granted to play God by trying to deliver these babies early. Yet, we can't play God for trying to save lives by cloning of these fetuses to help with stem cell research?

Religious and moral beliefs are no clearer than the issue of "when life begins". The religions of the world can't even get along let alone decide on when life begins. People are fighting over religious beliefs and yet we're forgetting what the really issue is here.

If you don't agree with the beginning statements about the first page about what Pro Life means, then you are not 100% Pro Life. You can't have it both ways. Just as you can't be a little pregnant, you can't pick and choose what you are pro life about.

Do you really believe that the majority of people who have abortions do it without examining what they are doing? Do you believe it is an easy decision? Narrow minded people would believe so. Little do they know the diversity of the circumstances that forces a woman to choose abortion?

And why do they call Pro Choice, Pro Abortion? Pro choice means what it says; you have the freedom of choosing. One of the many things our forefathers fought and died for was "freedom". If you believe in God or a higher source and it gave you the will or the choice, then it's your choice. If you don't believe that God or the higher source gave you free will, then why are you deciding on when life begins for me? How can you judge me if we don't have free will? How can you judge me if we all have free will? If the religions of the world can't get along, surely they should not be making my decision on what I can do or not do with my body.

How many people keep having children with no regards to their future economic outcome only because they say it's in the Bible to pro create? They have to rely on other people's help or the government to keep their family sustainable. However, is that fair to those who are responsible? And is that pro life when you abuse life's quality?

Grasping the essence of the abortion issue has never been simple and clear. The two main issues that should be focused on are the nature of the fetus and the nature of the individual rights. It has been a clear conclusion for 34 years that there is a distinction between potential and actual life. It is clear that the fetus before the 23rd week is human tissue not a human being. A potential human being is no different than planting a seed in hopes you get an actual flower. It is clear by law that human beings have rights. If a fetus before the 23rd week of gestation is not a human being by law, then it has no rights.

According to the CDC which began statistics in 1969, we did see an increase of abortions from 1970-1990. However, with the exception of 1996, we have since seen a decline. http://www.answers.com/topic/abortion
If Roe vs Wade is taken away, I believe you will see no change in abortion statistics but changes in the outcomes.

Don't you believe the majority of humans are pro life? Most societies are for human life. The only trouble is our definitions. So if we understand we all have good intentions then why can we not respect each other's opinion? As long as it is legal, it should be respected. And if you desire to call yourself Pro Life then you can't have it with exceptions.

I grew up in the era of Roe vs. Wade. Unfortunately for me at the age of 19, I did get pregnant. No one but my boyfriend knew about it. It happened 3 months before Roe vs. Wade was past. It was illegal in Illinois where I grew up and legal in New York where I had an abortion in my 8th week of pregnancy. I was brought up in a strict Catholic environment. I was scared and all alone. Back then it was a humiliation if you were pregnant. Unlike today, we didn't have the openness of going to our parents. I was told if I ever got pregnant I would be disowned. My journey to all this was not easy from the moment I found out till 10 yrs later when I had my first child with my husband of today. That boyfriend didn't stay with me long after that. I had to deal with my individual choice, but it was my choice, not someone else's. I don't believe I would have become the person I am today if I didn't go through that period. If you don't think I'm Pro Life, I am, but like the Pro Lifers with exceptions.

I'm finishing this article that I started a few days ago on Mother's Day. The reason is that those who judge me for what I might have done in my past don't know who I am. Just like you don't know what is going through the young girl's head who decides to have a first trimester abortion. I received the best present I have ever received from my daughter. She's 21 years old now. It was the card and the words she put in it that meant so much to me. She told me I was beautiful and how she has noticed herself doing the things I do. She was noticing our similar expressions in pictures of me. She thought she was turning into me. And you know what she told me in that card. She told me, she was lucky to have a mother like me. She thanked me for encouraging her to attain her goals and passions in life. She will be happy if she turns out like me. So, I must have done something right with all of this. I only hope that you who call yourselves Pro Life have received this type of Mother's Day card as I did.

I don't have to tell you what my religious beliefs are now. But I will tell you that I don't believe in hypocrisy. And I do believe in Pro Choice Is Pro Life, My Life!