About abortion

For many people this election (and all elections) appears to come down to the issue of abortion.

I believe that life and people are too complex for single-issue voting anyway, but it is a real concern for people. I have had some thoughts on it, and I am going to propose something very radical.

Allow me to suggest that what is wrong about abortion is for the parents, not for the children.

If there is one thing that my faith is sure on, it's that God has a plan for all of us, including the ability to heal and resolve things that are done to us. I believe that any children that could have been born will not miss out on anything that they could have had. Maybe religions that believe unbaptized infants go to Hell have a picture of God where aborted children are erased or punished or something horrible, but that is not our our doctrine, and that is more fear than faith.

For adults to become like God, following His plan, then understanding the power to create life, and to not take that lightly, and to learn the value of chastity and fidelity, then yes, it makes sense that abortion would not be desired or needed for the most part. There might be times when the pregnancy is high risk and you still choose to proceed because of your value for that life, but you are choosing. There is no one forcing you to carry or forcing you to terminate, because it is your choice.

This mindset erases the need to crusade for the unborn, and puts us back to trying to create a better world through service and evangelism.

One friend posted an article recently about how abortions tend to go up during Republican administrations and decrease during Democrat administrations:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/hillary-clinton-is-the-best-choice-for-voters-against-abortion-170258/

That should be the opposite, based on policies, but in a world where you focus more on taking care of the living, and respecting their choices, you have a world that is more welcoming to children.

In a world that tells you "If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em", without working toward a living wage, a lot of people might feel unable to be parents, even if it had been something they wanted.

I often go back to the "fruit of the spirit" as my guide to whether something is right: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Do the following circumstances lead to those feelings?

A heartbroken woman, one child already dead, the other with no hope of survival, crying for twelve hours waiting for an ethics committee to decide whether she could end the pregnancy.

http://kutv.com/news/local/utah-womans-resonse-about-late-term-abortion-going-viral-after-presidential-debate

A woman dying in a hospital because her miscarrying was not enough to justify saving her life.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-20321741

Lawmakers saying that abortion in the case of rape isn't an issue because if it were really rape she wouldn't get pregnant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/19/todd-akin-abortion-legitimate-rape_n_1807381.html

It is not uncommon for those justifying anti-choice laws to start saying really twisted and horrible things, where it appears that they are more concerned with controlling a woman's sexuality than anything else.

Maybe the problem is really that they have chosen the wrong battle.