Why I'm a pro-life vegetarian. And you can't be anti-abortion and pro-choice sorry.

I'm with you on this one, but I think there's more of a grey area when it comes to fetuses. Pretty much, when it is still like a little lump on the side of the uterus then then it's justified, but the minute he/she starts to develop a nervous system and form a human shape they deserve the same respect we pay to other life forms. I'd say like the number 5 stage in the Alex Grey diagram. Whatever respect you decide to pay to life forms, that is. So I'm opposed to late term abortions especially. And yes, I like pointing out the hypocrisy of animal rights activists who support late-term abortion.

And, I should point out here that if you are truly being morally consistent then you shouldn't make exceptions for cases of rape. I mean, It's not the baby's fault that his/her father was a rapist.

So pretty much, women need to have abortions very soon after they get pregnant or not at all. It's really not that hard to check. Only the very late term abortions should be made illegal, or at least shunned by society, because there is still too much of a grey area elsewhere and there are extreme consequences to making abortion illegal across the board.

What interests me about all of this is the undercurrent in the act of abortion, and birth control for that matter. The undercurrent being that our faith in the divine to provide adequate life experience and love for the very thing we are most innately driven to create is under threat. I am personally no pro-lifer because I truly believe that no one can mandate what we do with our own bodies and creative powers. If we truly believe in a loving divine source, then it is also very likely that this source will handle any consequences we may accrue in divine loving ways. Where we might fear the punishment of a heavy-handed God, the divine might actually give us "payback" by later blessing us with many beautiful children. The way we learn from the divine is by experiences that soften the heart with love and joy, not harden it with judgment and punishment. It is not up to us to decide the experience of souls, its up to the divine. I also feel that aborted fetuses are divine messengers that choose to have such an experience to reach us on the Earth plane. Many women report that the fetuses they aborted actually saved or changed their lives for the better. Purpose is as purpose does. We must accept that death is part of life and nature, that there is beauty and grace on the other side of this physical realm, that death is truly the ultimate freedom, and that death is as vital as vitality.

Thank you for openly sharing your views everyone.

Myself being a secular humanist while fully appreciating the transpersonal and mystical dimensions of human experience, I would say that i deeply cringe when people give religious and metaphysical reasons to support certain social policies. Let's keep talk of "god" and such things out of the social sphere. Spirituality is a deeply personal matter, and when it infringes on society it becomes religion, an oppressive bureaucracy, a weapon of power.

What's very important to me is this: It is easy for us geeks who sit in front of laptops, mostly men in this case it seems, to pontificate about the religious moralizings on the issue of abortion. However let me ask you this, how many of you were born to deeply dysfunctional unloving parents who never wanted you in the first place? How many of you were born into poverty and violence? How many of you grew up in abusive foster homes?

I think that quality of life precedes quantity. If a potential parent sees that bringing a life into the world would only be a burden to both the mother and child and the world, then they should have the option of terminating that life, regardless of what you and i believe about what life is and isn't. I often hear all kinds of arguments for and against abortion, yet i rarely hear this taken into account, the suffering of a human being who was brought into unwanted and unloving circumstances.

I am also vegan by the way, and not because i am opposed to the killing of animals for food so much, i am opposed more to the treatment they receive while alive.

I don't pretend to have answers to questions such as what life is or isn't. But i do know what pain and suffering is. And if abortion is necessary to avoid pain and suffering, then i believe none of us have the right to the moral self-righteousness as to stop somebody. I believe the same for euthanasia and suicide. Our metaphysical bigotry is irrelevant in the issue. What we believe may or may not be true. However what truly matters to me is having the dignity to choose avoidance of pain and suffering, which beyond doubt is very very real, unlike the various "gods" and "cosmic energies" we may believe in.

So i ask you my fellow brothers and sisters to stop defending and forcing your metaphysical beliefs on real life people and situations, and letting people decide how they want to address their own lives and those of their potential unborn children.