Yes, I am Pro-Life, And Oppose Abortion Except Under The Most Extreme Circumstances

These are some of the tools used in later, and legal, abortions. 

In spite of my having written numerous pro-life posts, I'm sometimes accused of not speaking out strongly enough against abortion, or not denouncing it in the same way I do killing in warfare, for example, or protecting the already born from starvation or from lack of clean water or medical care. 

So let me repeat: I believe all life is precious, and that we should do all we can to preserve and enhance it at every stage from conception to natural death. Period. 

But as a male I want to be appropriately humble about how I weigh in on the issue, knowing I will never be the victim of incest or a rape that might result in my carrying an unwanted pregnancy. Nor will I ever have to carry a baby that is so seriously deformed that it  may have no chance of living more than a few painful hours after its birth. So I fully realize that it's easy for men like me to pontificate on what all women should do in every case, acknowledging that few of us would eagerly step up and offer to carry another's difficult pregnancy if that were even possible, which it isn't. So it can be all too easy for us to claim a cheap form of "higher-than-thou" moral ground on this issue.

Besides, it is men who directly cause pregnancies (except for cases of artificial insemination), and who should therefore accept a full share of blame for every abortion.

Having said that, in principle I remain very conservative about preserving life, and am not even comfortable with the use of a morning after pill (except in cases of rape or incest), much less supporting abortion generally as a convenient means of birth control. And as a father, grandfather and fellow member of the human family, I strongly oppose abortions based on a fear that a child may simply be physically or mentally impaired. All human life is precious and sacred.

In a recent Facebook conversation I followed, one that generated over 40 comments, I noted an interesting ratio of 8 men to 2 women expressing strongly held convictions. The men and the two women were equally divided in their positions, with one side equating even the use of an IUD with capital murder. Others, while not favoring terminating any form of human life, even at conception or when an embryo is still less than the size of a raison, nevertheless don't see that as equivalent to terminating the life of a more fully developed human fetus.

Certainly in principle we would all agree that each human person who dies should be given a name, be duly registered as a deceased member of some human family, and be provided a proper casket, funeral, burial and grave marker. Should we actually do all of those things whenever there is a miscarriage, either a natural one or an induced one, and whether during a very early stage of development or a later one? So far in human and Christian history we have not.

My point is that many who decry terminating a human life at any stage, nevertheless do some make distinctions regarding the nature and extent of personhood associated with prenatal human life.

Side note: Human life, far from simply beginning at conception, is actually a part of every male's sperm and each female's ovum, and so it continues at conception--continues in a sequence of forms and through various stages of human development.

I know some will severely criticize me for attempting to nuance the issue in this way, rather than insisting that any termination of a pregnancy is not only wrong (with which I agree except in the most serious of medical circumstances) but is exactly the same as murdering an already born member of the human family.    

Bottom line: I fully support the Mennonite Church's position on abortion, as follows: 

https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2016/10/until-recently-evangelicals-condoned.html