Abortion

Our Position

All life is sacred, including the lives of animals and plants. How we engage with life as individuals is our individual choice and our individual responsibility. That includes our own lives and our own bodies. I believe that the reason so many Americans are so strongly pro-life while so many Americans are so strongly pro-choice is that both of these perspectives are moral. Life is undeniably sacred, even when we choose to end it. Liberty is undeniably our right, even when we choose to limit our actions.

Although the most vehement supporters of the pro-life and pro-choice perspectives may believe that they are fundamentally at odds with each other, I believe they are not. In fact, they are merely two sides of the same coin. All living beings change form through conception, growth, diminishment, and death. Life is a process which both creates itself and consumes itself. Nearly everything you’ve ever eaten was alive at some point. Death is part of Life.

As a human being, you are a sovereign being. Sovereignty means that you have the ultimate authority to make your own choices and decisions. It also means that you have the ultimate responsibility for your choices and decisions. Whenever someone honors your sovereignty, they are honoring you. Whenever someone denies your sovereignty, they are abusing you.

To honor our inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness as Americans, we must honor both the lives of others as well as their sovereignty. If an American chooses to give birth to a child, honoring Life requires us to honor both the life of the mother as well as the life of the child. If an American chooses to end her pregnancy by having an abortion, honoring Liberty requires us to honor her sovereignty. Honoring Life and Liberty are not at odds with each other; in fact, they complement and balance each other.

The conflicts we have experienced as a country regarding the topic of abortion are not moral conflicts; they’re conflicts of identity. By choosing what we value more, Life over Liberty or Liberty over Life, we are defining and identifying ourselves. By demanding that others conform to the identity we choose for ourselves, we put ourselves in conflict with those making other choices. While I personally value Life over Liberty, I choose to honor the freedom of others to make their own choices and decide on their own values. As our rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness are inalienable, it is not anyone’s place to assert those rights for themselves yet refuse them for others.