Pro-life atheists

[*Deidre*]

True in that sense, but it is still the beginning components of human life. And thus, my opinion, unless there is a valid reason to destroy it, it isn't a good idea to me. And by "valid" of course that would differ from person to person. I'm for keeping abortion legal but being real about what it actually is and is not. That's really more my issue with the topic.

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I know but it is the way life is. No pun. The reason I lean pro life (and I hate that phrase because it implies I'm anti abortion which I'm not) is that I think it has a very dark side that comes with it. Not just for the woman who undergoes one but also for society. We don't believe a fetus has rights. It can't have rights technically because it can't live on its own, true. Or grow on its own. But that creates a slippery slope.

Where we start to view life in terms of only if someone can sustain it on their own.
When does life begin? I guess that becomes the question.

That's all I'm saying.

I've had friends who've had abortions who still struggle after over a decade of making their decisions. There is a dark side to it. For society as well

I guess we just feel the way we do about this topic.

I know what you mean. I am not pro-abortion. I am pro-choice. Sometimes for some people, abortion is the best option. Sometimes it's the only option. It isn't my place to tell someone what options are best for them. I know someone who had an abortion too. She never struggled with it and she never felt guilty. She doesn't think abortions are fun and she doesn't go around telling people to have them, but she does counsel people who struggle after abortion. I've talked with her a lot about it. She says she has no regrets because she knows what she did was right for herself, her family, and even her fetus.
Being anti choice is not the way to go about ending abortion. We could almost completely cut out all abortions that aren't medically necessary. The brick wall that is blocking our path is that the same people who are anti-choice are generally also anti-sexual education, anti-contraceptives, anti-women's health in general. Political figures who advocate against choice also advocate against sex ed that teaches anything but abstinence, they advocate huge cuts in what health insurance should have to cover for women, they advocate against birth control, they advocate against health care for newborn babies whose parents cannot afford it, they advocate against everything that we would need to reduce abortions. It pisses me off.

You say there is a dark side to abortion. Well if it comes to a child suffering because their parents cannot afford to feed them, buy them clothes, and give them proper health care, or because their parents don't want them and cannot be bothered to care for them properly, I see abortion as the lessor of two evils.

Birth control is an option and free for people who qualify.
That's a better option. But I hear you, I do Losty.