DISCLAIMER: Long entry ahead.

One of my friends on Facebook posted questions about pro-life vs. pro-choice. I thought it would be a good time, then, to post once more about why and how I'm pro-life.

First, the unborn: I'm staunchly feminist. I'm also staunchly pro-life. I don't believe it's a "woman's choice" to keep a baby alive. While a woman may make the choice, I don't think it's truly hers to make. Even in the case of rape, I don't think the woman should choose. Adoption is always available. Closed adoptions are good ideas as well. Though I know that many will disagree, I think that life should always take precedence over a woman's comfort for nine months. Those nine months can seem like a long time, but they are, in the grand scheme, short. They can also be a good time for reflection.

That being said, I am ok with abortions being performed if the mother's permanent health or her life is threatened. For example, if a girl in Africa is raped or married to a much older man who then impregnates her whilst she is but eleven or tweleve years old, her body is not yet formed to bear children. If she has children, she will be mutilated beyond repair, and most likely will be impregnated again, resulting in death perhaps when she gives birth for a second time. Her life is as precious as her unborn child's, and for the sake of her health, she should be allowed to abort.

If a young girl or a woman here in the States has a pregnancy that is causing her many health problems and it becomes apparent that the mother is going to suffer long-term and adverse health effects from her pregnancy (and this happens very often, sadly), she should have the choice to abort.

The case can be argued that in rape or incestuous rape, the mother will suffer emotionally as much as another woman will suffer physically, but I still can't use that to condone the death of life.

I've argued both for and against abortions, and my stance has changed somewhat, as so many pro-lifers seem immune to emotional suffering. I pray that I am not that type of pro-lifer.

One more thing to add here: I will never, EVER EVER EVER, say that a raped woman deserved it or was asking for it. That philosophy is disgusting, immoral, and ignorant. No woman has ever asked to be raped--I don't care how she carries herself, what she wears, or where she goes. A rapist is not selective. If a woman is modestly dressed and walking completely normally, a rapist will still be aroused by something as simple as her long or short or brown or red hair. I'm sick of raped women being victimized all over again by "well-meaning" associates questioning the women about "Why were you there? Were you dressed provocatively?" etc.

And now for what people don't know about me--I was pregnant at one time. Soon after we married, my husband and I became pregnant. Three months in, though, we lost the baby, and the effects almost killed me: as in, I almost died from the physical trauma. Knowing that it could happen anyway when I do have children again, I wonder, "If I'm of the sort that could die during childbirth, would it be worth it to me to risk it?" I say yes. My husband says no. And I firmly believe that IS a choice that should be made by the parents of the child (or the mother if the father is a loser or not around).

I'm not just pro-life in the area of the unborn, however. Unlike most pro-lifers (usually Republicans of the neo-conservative variety), I am against the death penalty. I am against bearing arms and going off to war. Physical violence sickens me to the point that I can't watch bloody movies or even be in the same room with someone playing a violent video game. I can't understand how babies are worth more than our young men and women, the people of another country, or a convicted murderer or rapist. When i've said this in the past, many became offended, saying, "A baby never hurt anyone!" Hmm, well, if a mother is raped, her child may be genetically predisposed to anger and violence because of the father's genes. Science tells us that personality is more genetic than environmental. So we should save a rapist's baby who may grow up to be a rapist, but we shouldn't suffer a convicted rapist to live? Maybe that rapist was a product of rape. Maybe that rapist's father or mother raped other people and the baby got the violent predisposition.

While I understand that people should be punished or held accountable for their choices, I also understand that only God has the power and judgement to take life. Also, some sadistic part of me thinks death may be too good for rapists and murderers. Let them always be monitored, never living too close to a school or park, cast out by everyone in good society, always being the first to be blamed when something goes wrong or someone goes missing. I think that punishment is worse than any needle and much more fitting to the crime.

Taking pro-life even further, I'm against embryonic stem cell research. Most pro-lifers are, because embryos are created. For those, like I, who believe life begins at conception, this form of research is an outrage. However, most pro-lifers aren't also against human cloning and in vitro fertilization. Many conservatives have benefited from in vitro, and they seem to think it's ok to make little embryos to put into little Petri dishes and freeze and then leave there once they've become pregs, but they cry out against the embryonic stem cell research. How are their actions of making and  (eventually) destroying any different?

Those last three areas I am against mostly because I feel that we humans are trying to play God. We consistently mutate our food and our animal supply in order to make life easier (I'm against this as well, lol). And now we're attempting to create and destroy human life at will in a test tube. It's eerily Brave New World. And it's different from most modern medicines. Nothing is wrong with trying to sustain life to a certain point. But to use a lab to create it? I think that crosses a moral line.

That video clip at the beginning of the post was put there for humor's sake. But lately, I've taken to placing a cup over spiders and insects and taking them outside. I don't want more death in this world that is obsessed with death, excited by death, aroused by death.

In all this, I may sound holier-than-thou. But I don't feel that way. These are my conclusions from living and observing. I feel life is to be celebrated, not mututed or taken away. Others have come to different conclusions, and since I've never lived in their shoes, I can't say for certain that their conclusions are wrong. But I would lvoe to see our society put more of a focus on what we do want, not what we don't. Instead of blaming murderers and rapists for our problems, perhaps we should take more initiative to love our children properly so that they feel no need to exert their dominance over others. That would mean not asserting our dominance over them so often, something most parents aren't willing to concede. Perhaps we should allow for more freedom of thought rather than hush up the next generation for their out-of-the-box ideas and thoughts and concerns. Perhaps we should live with respect toward others instead of fear and arrogance.

We are all brothers and sisters after all.