I don't think there really is a right answer to the abortion arguments. Obviously life is the important issue here, and one must decide when a person really starts life. If you believe that life does not begin until after birth then those people are mostly likely to be pro-choice however, if you believe that life begins at conception then they are more likely to be pro-life. But are those people really pro-life if mothers die during forced C-sections or blotched abortions by unqualified doctors.
Which life is more important? I don’t think there can ever be a right answer. You either are able to stop existing life or potential life. It is hard to be pro-choice because you are stopping all that potential life. But what if a girl was raped and got pregnant and she was only 14. What about then? What if she could not possibly look after that child? What if that child would grow up facing all sorts of terrible hardships, would you want to put someone through that? Is it really our choice? Would you want to put the girl through that? What if that girl could not physically carry the child and the girl will die? Is it more important to save the baby or the girl?
I personally life begins at conception but I do not think that a baby or person is conscious of life until birth. I think that abortions should not occur ‘just because’ or instead of contraception but I do think that under certain circumstances abortion should be allowed. I think it is not really our choice to choose who lives an who dies, and one life if not important than any other but regardless of what side you believe in, abortion hurts. By not allowing it you hurt those women who undergo forced C-sections or cannot have the child. But by allowing it, you are snuffing out all that potential life….
I just finished reading the blog http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/50911-who-anti-abortion-laws-really-hur... and I was going to comment on it but my answer was way too long! So I advise you to check out the blog as well as the video discussed in it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuC4gGSZ-yU !
There is no such thing as a comment is being way to long. In debates that is what happens and If you want your writting to be read, especially on such a dead topic, it would be good for you to post as a comment instead.
There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.~- Anais Nin
A real debate is so much better when colored with all the different views that people have. Starting a new thread about something that most people are already fixed in their opinions of is great if it brings to light some new information, or underdiscussed information. otherwise, comments bring blogs to life.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
I disagree with your 'conscience of life' theory...babies are active in the womb and move around (and the mother sure does feel it :P) and by the time they are born, they already recognize their mother's voice. Thus, they have reasoning before they are born. Dead things sure can't do that...
Also, I believe that if the doctor has to do a procedure or give the girl a drug in order to save her life where the death of the baby is an tragic result of the procedure/drug, then that's still morally correct, because the death of the child was not the PURPOSE. With abortion, death of the child is ALWAYS the purpose, and hence, morally incorrect.
Finally, abortions due to rape only occur 1% of the time, so even if abortions due to rape were the only ones that were legal (not that I'm saying any abortion should be legal, because I totally disagree with those, as well), then we'd be pretty well off. I actually know a kid who's alive because his mother (who was raped) decided to give him up for adoption instead of aborting him. His family is living testimony to the importance of life vs death. His (adopted) mother can't have kids, so she adopted two.
Oh, and one more side note. Gianna Molla (http://www.saintgianna.org/) died for her baby...she was a doctor and knew what she was doing and yet, she made her decision. "No greater love hath a man, than to lay down his life for another." Gianna showed the greatest love possible in giving everything for her children.
RESPECT LIFE
http://progressiveu.org/blog/respectlife
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa