Controversial Topic Discussion

This is a very emotional and powerful topic and I would ask everyone here to be very careful of what is said. I am against abortion, I think it it wrong to kill an innocent, potential life. I also think, however, that because of the emotions involved, no woman should be punished or made to feel any worse if she did make that decision, especially in cases of rape. I'm going to glance on some topics here to get discussion started.

I believe that the true choice that was made--invalidating the "Pro-Choice" movement--was the choice to have sex and ultimately take that chance of becoming pregnant. This is why I am a little bit more lenient in my belief when no choice there was made, like when a woman is raped.

I think that the larger issue here is our society's degrading view of the family and the resulting lack of care youth has toward saving themselves for marriage.

I've been struggling lately with an aspect of the Pro-Life movement. My church recently held a 40 day vigil across the street from an abortion clinic. They prayed all day every day for the women at the clinic. I have been struggling with the fact that actually going to the clinic and doing it there created an environment in which it was almost a sure thing we would have Pro-Choice advocates doing their thing at us. I do not believe that this environment is a good thing for women in a state of considering abortion should have to be exposed to. They are experiencing enough turmoil as it is and this can only make things worse. As far as I know (I was not actually participating in the vigil) we did not engage any of the people protesting our vigil, but the environment was still created. I can't figure out if it is worth it to go out there where we will inevitably create this environment in a damaging way or if our personal prayers at home wouldn't be more effective and constructive. But then, we have to get the word out there that we support these women and would like them not to make a decision they will most likely regret...

As a scientist, I look at the way science is progressing. In the worst case scenario (being that we don't get any laws passed and we follow scientific definitions as to when abortions are legal) I think that, as science progresses, it will get closer and closer to defining conception as the point when a Life exists. Genome science is becoming more prominent and an entire human genome is present in its entirety in the fertilized egg...

This is just a start to the debate, please respond to one of my points or bring up your own.

And PLEASE remember to be considerate of other peoples positions and feelings, thank you.