Seen on a billboard..

"They call it abortion.
We call it murder."

I see semantics have yet to go out of style or become an archaic anachronism.

While the pro-life fanatics want to call abortion murder, does that mean that they'll also condemn a woman who miscarries for "murder"? After all, the proper medical term for a miscarriage is "spontaneous abortion," versus the more commonly referred to type of abortion: that is, an "induced abortion", medically speaking.

If they DO choose to lump the two together, it shows a complete lack of compassion and human empathy for the mother who is grieving the loss of her baby.

Even if they claim that there is a difference in their viewpoint for a spontaneous abortion vis a vis an induced abortion and that they only want to criminalize induced abortions, it still leaves us with additional quandries.

What about if the mother was raped, molested, a victim of incest, or in danger of dying if she carries the pregnancy to full term? Do we make exceptions for this or do we condemn all abortions as wrong?

If we make exceptions, it forces a "slippery slope" style of argument where it becomes hard to properly delineate where the cut off should be. If we don't, it agains turns to a complete lack of human empathy.

Not to mention: do we REALLY want to go back in time, to when people risked their lives in the back alleys of cities to have an abortion? Iceland was the first nation in modern history to legalize abortion, in 1928. It would be nearly 4 1/2 DECADES later for the United States, a supposedly "progressive" nation built on the idea of "individual liberties" to follow suit. What is wrong with this picture?

Some abortion foes would be unapologetic about this and say that if they are pregnant, that they have to deal with the ramifications of it, but again, we come back to a lack of compassion. Many (but not all, before anyone tries to put words into my mouth) of these foes see NOTHING hypocritical about killing an abortion doctor for propogating murder. Murder to stop murder, you gotta love it.

Semantics, indeed.

Ultimately, I'm pro-choice. I don't try to force my views on abortion on anyone else and I'd appreciate it if they'd do the same. We do NOT need silly-assed billboards or tacky church displays of rows of crosses. We need to realize that it ultimately comes down to each person's individual choice and we need to respect those choices, whether or not we like them.

Que sera, sera.

Quod etra demonstrata.