A treatise on why I am a "pro-lifer", from an atheist's prospective [View All]

[truhavoc]

First off, I know that what I am about to say is going to be met with a lot of resistance. I hope that people on both sides of this debate won't take anything I write personally, we are all friends here are we not?

Let me initially qualify that I am an atheist, I come into this debate without religion shaping my opinion on this issue. I am not going to approach this as if I realize when life begins and everyone else does not, as some right-wingers maintain. I have formulated my beliefs over years (albeit that I am only 23) and I have been firmly planted on both sides of the debate over these years. I have not taken this decision lightly, and I hope that everyone reads this in its entirety before flaming me.

First I must state that I am an advocate for sexual education. The key is to limit unwanted pregnancies in the first place, thus to eliminate the need for abortions in the first place. There should be access to contraception, and "morning-after" pills for any and all that want them. I do not believe that life begins at conception anymore than I believe that sperm and ova need to be protected under the definition of human life. A mass of stem cells is not a life, therefore you can conclude that I am a supporter of stem cell research as well. There does however reach a point when the stem cells become a fetus, which is not up for me to decide, I will leave that up to science to determine. We have to decide at what point a fetus is a life worth protecting. Some of us here would fight with their own life to protect the life of an animal, we need to decide at what point then is a human fetus on the level with the life of any animal or life form that we value protecting. Obviously nobody supports infanticide, but what about the baby that is a day away from birth? 30 days from birth? 180 days from birth? Where is the distinction made? At this very point should be where anti-abortion legislation steps in, not to be "anti-choice" but to be "anti-murder". A woman should have full ability to limit unalterable changes from happening to her body unwillingly and I would work to give her all that is needed. However there reaches a point when a choice for the mother becomes a choice of clear-cut murder for the fetus. We should take our democratic ideals of protecting children and helping them to have a successful future, our anti-war ideals, our anti death penalty ideals, and come together for a coherent message. Not a message based on the prejudices or ignorances of religion, but a message based on supporting the very principles of life that most liberals hold.

The problem with most of the pro-life crowd is an anti-sex approach to the topic. Sex is evil, sex is a sin, sex is dirty, and so on and so forth. The biggest fear they have is their little baby girl growing up and having sex before marriage. They want to keep her in a box without knowing what sex is, and they want her to think that if she does have sex that it will be painful and cause nothing but strife for the rest of her life. What better way to do this than to force any mistake that comes from the act of love or lust to last that child a lifetime. The goal here is to use their pro-life stance as a deterrence, don't have sex because you WILL have a baby. These people are not in the same mold as people who come at their decision through a similar thinking process as myself. I am not coming at this topic with an out of date idea that life begins at conception, while still supporting the death penalty, war, and an anti-welfare state.

The major problem I have with my idea is I have a hard time enforcing the law. I think that abortion at a certain point is murder, but not the same level as normal murder, maybe on the level of killing a pet. I don't think that punishing doctors only works, this just allows the rich to leave the confines of the nation only to come back and be free and clear. Also the state of sex ed is not up to par with being able to institute the law I advocate. I would really like a civil discussion on this, I think it would help us all out in our debates with the other party to really base our beliefs on a sound foundation one way or another, whichever stance that may be.