First things first: I believe in Pro Choice.
Wait!!!! Don't tune me out yet, it's not your mother's "I can kill my baby if I want too" pro choice. To me there's a lot more to the problem than just mothers killing or saving babies (if you look at it from the right perspective.)
To explore the matter, let us begin with a little thought experiment. I, as a single, sexually inactive male will not ever be subject to the circumstances where I would have to make the decision. In court, this would make me unable to file any kind of claims. So can I fairly make any claims to this matter? I would say no, but that doesn't prohibit me from analyzing the problem and coming up with what I believe; It just prohibits me from trying to force it onto someone else. So along those lines I'm going to discuss the matter at length, although we're going to assume that there's a need for abortion in some rare medical situations where even a planned pregnancy may endanger the life of the mother that is irrefutable (Which it isn't, but work with me here...)
First of all, let's take a glance at all the steps (And label the for future shorthand) involved in bringing a child from nothing through birth and into adulthood. Step 1 in the process, and by far the best place to control the matter, Conception. From conception we move into Step 2 the pregnancy, the most discussed part of the matter. Then Step 3 Birth. Then Step 4 early childhood, Step 5 The Teen Years, and lastly Step 6 adulthood.
Now, as with any problem, the best method for discussing it is to find the source and start there. Technically, this problem actually starts long before we even get to step 1, but complaining about character and upbringing and yelling at the parents of the adults today is pointless. So we'll just skip to conception. This is the place where choice is easiest. There are several options that are available at the level that prevent the need for abortion, like abstinence, contraception, and planning. Obviously, the best method for avoiding abortions is to not conceive, and the best way to not conceive is to not have sex. "Not have sex?! Blastphemy!!!" many say. Some people are just the kind of people who absolutely have to pleasure themselves, despite the consequences.
For those people there's a second, 99.5% effective way of preventing the need for abortion, contraception. Protected sex, although not ideal for birth control, and never perfectly reliable, reduces the risk of pregnancy (if used for such a purpose) and STDs (Again if used for such a purpose) in those people that just HAVE to have sex with people other than themselves (For the non catholic abstainers, masturbation is still a viable path to pleasure, and with proper technique is almost perfectly safe for everyone. ;) However, condoms, diaphrams, and contraceptive pills are not always effective, and there is a small cross section of people who absolutely HAVE to have sex who also have some religious concerns with contraceptives.
Which brings us to the final point of choice: planning. If you're going to have sex (protected or otherwise) then planning is required. Every time you have sex with someone else (obviously excluding same sex relationships in which case the whole abortion point is kind moot...) you have the risk of pregnancy. In some cases this is desirable (duh...) But before you just go off and do the dirty dance, you should sit down and discuss with your partner whether or not you are ready to have a child. Can you provide it a loving, caring, stable environment? Can you provide for it's monetary needs? Can you make the sacrifice to care for it when it's sick or sad? If you can't, then you're just going to have to take a cold shower and get over it. It's not like you can't live without sex. Once you make the choice to do the deed, then you full well accept the consequences of your actions. Your decision is made and you're just going to have to live with it.
But there are some exceptions, 2 big ones I can think of at the moment, Rape and 'Moment of uncontrolled passion'. For rape victims I would say that early process abortion is reasonable, as their choice has been removed. But if they don't report the crime and seek treatment, then they are making the choice that they feel capable of raising a bastard child. (Ya, this seems a bit harsh on the poor victims of rape, but part of the process of adulthood involves dealing with life as it comes to you, and not letting things get in the way of what needs to be done.)
As for people who find themselves in 'moment of uncontrolled passion' situations a bit of pre-planning is necessary. Since you can't anticipate these situations, then sexually active people need to take steps in advance to reduce their risk of pregnancy, and be ready to accept the consequences as they come. This means packing condoms and going on birth control. Both men and women should carry condoms, and ideally, both parties should also have diaphrams on hand, 'cause you never know if your partner did any advance planning. And since you're effectively play a game of Russian Roulette with your career, lifestyle, and just about everything else, you don't want to have more than one bullet in the gun if you don't have too. Also, have a plan laid out for what you're going to do if you become (or make someone else) pregnant. You're going to have to be ready to satisfy all of the normal planning concerns in 9 months or less, and women are going to need some mad cash for prenatal checkups in only three months. And if you seem to find yourself in a large number of these 'Moments' you may want to reassess your life. You're probably intentionally putting yourself in these situations, and should consider adjusting your activities to reduce the number of situations where you won't be able to control the outcome of your life.
*WARNING!!! STIFF OPINIONATED VIEWS FOLLOW*
But if you get to the level of pregnancy (Or got someone else there) then you've already made your choice. If you've been a responsible adult and planned ahead (like you should be doing with taxes, health care, auto insurance, etc) then you should not be surprised or unprepared for the challenges ahead of you. Killing off a new budding life because you thought that sex was fun and didn't feel like being ready for what comes of it is roughly equivalent to buying a puppy, playing with it for about an hour and a half, and then shooting it when you get bored and disposing the corpse in the dumpster in back (And with the "no new stem cells" thing, we can't even use the liver from that puppy to save another, but we'll save that discussion for another post.)
Um... I guess it's actually kinda pro life, but not in the traditional sense...
Mood: High and Mighty (Y? 'Cause I can be!)