I don’t usually write about politically charged issues such as abortion, but, today I will make an exception. I want to ask the question, ” Are you really pro-life if you take a life?”

For the record, I am pro-choice. However, I am not pro-abortion. I believe that it is a woman’s right to chose. As a mother of two, I can attest to the stress and trauma that a woman’s body endures during pregnancy. Any woman who says that, at some point it wasn’t hard, is just trying to get you to join the club. Don’t get me wrong, I love my children and I would not trade the experience for anything in the world, but it was hard.

Back to my original question. How can someone who claims to be pro-life not respect the sanctity of life just because the person is outside of their mother’s womb? I do not follow the abortion rights issue and I have never heard of George Tiller before today. I was not aware of the work that he has been doing. I just know that he is dead. Someone gunned him down in church. IN CHURCH!

How can that happen? Is there no place that is safe anymore? I don’t know why Scott Roeder did what he did. It could have been something completely unrelated to Dr. Tiller’s practice. However, the fact still remains that a man was killed in church while serving God and his community. That disgusts me most of all.

I am Catholic, but I do not follow the party line of most Catholics who seem to be pro-life or else excommunication. I believe that it is a woman’s right to choose.

I have always found it interesting that there are so many protests against abortion and rallies to protect unborn children, but the same vigilance is not shown for the children who have already been born. According to the Administration for Children and Families, in 2007, there were approximately 3.2 million referrals of child abuse and neglect for approximately 5.8 million children were made to CPS agencies. The ACF also reported that in September of 2007, there were 493,000 children in the foster care system across the U.S. Where are the pro-lifers? What are they really doing to protect children? Does their care and concern for children end once they are born?

I don’t usually get up on my soapbox, but it really pisses me off when people try to impose their beliefs on others. I am pissed off by the hypocrisy of pro-lifers who only care about unborn children and do little or nothing to help the ones who are already hear. I am pissed off by the hypocrisy of pro-lifers who march and protest kill for unborn children, but continue to cut funding for health care and education for the children that are already here. I am pissed off by the hypocrisy of pro-lifers who disgust us with images of mangled fetuses but, they want to deny services to families struggling to feed and clothe their children. What about the children who are already here? What about the families? What about the single mothers?

I do not like the idea of abortion, but who am I to judge another for choices that they make? Just as Hamlet says, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

To me, the pro-lifers have done nothing but fortify my resolve to remain pro-choice. I am pro-choice, but most importantly, I am pro-child and pro-family.

Tell it!