Monday, October 13, 2008

A topic in my thoughts...

Since this is my blog, I guess I'm allowed to get up on my soapbox every once in a while.

Abortion is a topic that's been all over, from politics to local Branch discussions and I want to put in my two cents' worth.
People tend to make the case that abortion is a matter of privacy and choice. It's a woman's body and therefore it is her choice to do what she will with it. No one should be able to tell her what to do, and I get that. No one stops people from doing other things that I find revolting, like tongue rings and the like. That's fine.
My argument against abortion runs along two separate lines, but I think that they both have merit. When someone commits murder, they can't go back and plead that they should be able to choose the consequences of their actions. They used their body how they wanted to. A woman's right to use her body should not be taken from her, but after some three weeks, an abortion doesn't affect her body as much as the baby's. If it just dealt with her body, I could get behind that, but it doesn't. People try to bring agency into the argument, as if it has a place. Moral agency deals with the ability to choose righteousness over evil. Other than those rare situations in which the woman did not have the chance to choose whether or not to get pregnant, the decision to sin was already made when the baby was created. Agency has no bearing on the situation, because it is now gone. Whether or not there is a temporal law in place with regards to abortion, there is already a celestial law in place. If we really want to be helpful in this situation, the best thing we can do is point them toward righteousness again by not having an abortion.
I have made covenant to stand as a witness at all times and in all things, and in all places I may be in, physically or politically I might venture to add, and this is where I stand. God created a law and I have the choice to sustain that law by voting and declaring against abortion, or I can attempt to say that Congress should have power to decide right and wrong over God.
To me, that's the choice you're making. It's not about choice, because the choice will always be there, whether it's legal or illegal (feel free to reference alcohol consumption in Prohibition times). As feelings and desires count for righteousness as do actions, a woman who wants to have an abortion but doesn't, isn't in a much better place spiritually than one who did. At least they won't have to deal with death. Nevertheless, my choice is not to decide what is right or wrong, because God already decided that for me and I know His position.

2 comments:

GrowingRopers said...

this is a topic that i have been fired up about too! i read a talk that made it so clear...its on my blog. you do have agency...you get to choose to have sex or not! deciding if you want to kill or not is not a choice that should be given w/out consequence!!!

Paul said...

I've had such a problem with this issue. How can the church condone the limitation of choice when we feel so strongly about free agency? I've come to realize that the choice is and should be located at the sex or no-sex end of the process and not when there is a life that lies in the balance.
I go crazy too at the semantics the two sides have used to muddle the issues - Pro Choice and Pro Life - I mean, come on!! These are not opposites upon which to argue. Pro Lifers aren't necessarily against choice and Pro Choicers are not out to kill fetuses at every turn.
I will always support the church when asked to do so, but I remain Pro Choice AND Pro Life. Make the right choice BEFORE it becomes a matter of taking an unborn life!