Let's go to the Mailbag!

Now that we've had a brief hiatus after the elections and cleansed our political palettes with some mindless Minesweeper visuals, I thought I would answer a question that Andy posed:

Milkey, are you pro-life or pro-choice?

I'm going to stay away from the millions of hypothetical situations: rape, incest, crack whores racking up frequent abortion miles. I'm just looking at the big picture for now...

I have always been ardently pro-choice. At the same time, I have always ruled out abortion for me. But that decision is only applicable to me.

I can't think of a more difficult or personal decision to be made and no one should pretend they know what's best for someone else's individual situation.

That above statement isn't the only reason I am pro-choice. Most pro-life arguments center around their church's position on the matter. In my opinion, that should never be a viable basis for crafting public policy.

Anyway, I do have to admit that someone recently countered with a point that made me pause. That gentleman said to me,

"Forget the religious bullshit. You seem to be a strong supporter of individual rights and liberties. What about those that can't fight for their own rights? Are they to be denied? Should you not physically defend a 95 year old woman that's being beat on because she's too frail to defend herself?

Then what about the unborn? Why are their personal liberties worth less? You have to admit their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being infringed upon."

Ugh... Interesting...

Unfortunately, adopting this argument as my own necessitates a definitive answer to the question: "When does life begin?" That's certainly not something I feel comfortable tackling. I know that I support a prohibition on abortions a week before the due date. I also support legalizing The Morning After Pill. So I guess if I were making the rules, I'd have to arbitrarily pick some point in time between those two. How does one do that? As there doesn't seem to be a clear answer, does that mean it has to be all or nothing?

I don't know.

So there you go Andy. I am and have always been pro-choice, but am allowing myself to continue to think about it.

The comments section is officially open for business and I welcome any insights... or at least emotion-based rants.