by Karon Brandt 

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Created on: November 11, 2007   Last Updated: May 27, 2010

According to Newsweek magazine, one woman is dying every minute because of childbirth or related complications. In the U.S., the numbers are one woman per 2500 births. There are risks to pregnancy and delivery.

Childbirth is not simply an "inconvenience"; it is a life-risking event that usually involves medical intervention. By comparison, few women have children at home without a professional in attendance.

Pro-lifers talk like a glob of cells is a human being before it's an inch long. It is hard for some to accept the fact that, in the very earlystages of pregnancy, you cannot tell the difference between a human and pig embryo.

The human fetus usually takes on human form during the 9-month incubation period, but some babies with multiple birth defects cannot be recognized as human even after they are born. No woman should have to bring such a pregnancy to term, when she realizes the birth will probably end in death in a very short time.

Pro-choice implies that any female should have the right to make a decision other than forced pregnancy and childbirth. Medical intervention can prevent unwanted outcomes.

Under what conditions are we allowed to "take a human life"? Those who profess to believe in pro-life can also accept sending children off to (morally wrong) wars and to allow the government to enforce the death penalty incapital punishment. Something is morally inconsistent about this.

Who decides when killing is OK and when it is not? Self-defense is considered acceptable, but what if a 100-pound pregnant woman is fighting off a drunken, abusive husband who is kicking her in the belly because he's sure she is not pregnant with "his" child, even though she is? He causes a miscarriage and she nearly kills him with a knife? Does he go to jail for "murder" or does she go for "attempted murder"?

From personal experience in child welfare work - before abortions were legalized - we had hundreds of cases in our small county. Among those were many pre-teen pregnancies: girls as young as 9, 10, and 12 years old. They were not pregnant because of "mistakes" or simple unprotected sex; they were often impregnated by their fathers, brothers, or uncles.

If a 10-year-old girl were pregnant because of an incestuous relationship (or rape, or sex with a 19-year-old whose name she knew), should she be forced to bring the pregnancy to term? She is as innocent as the newborn and yet her life could become a secondary consideration if all abortions were made illegal.

No female

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