ME: I abstain from expressing opinions on abortion, but I live in [state] and [state] has no respect for the rule of law. That leaves it to orgs like ACLU to keep the asshats in check.
Female 1: Thank you for your open mind, sir. You are so very appreciated!
Female 2: As you should! Women’s bodies are not anyone’s to govern, thank you for being an ally.
Me: [Female 2] I gotta say that your exclamation point strikes me rather militantly, but I strive for a pacifist stance. It’s kinda more like this: I don’t have a uterus so I can never understand crisis pregnancy dilemma any more than I can understand blindness or deafness. I presume that no woman *wants* to be faced with the choice of elective abortion and I imagine that elective abortion is the least-bad option in a no-win scenario (using “elective” in its clinical sense). I feel sadness for the whole situation and despite evangelical indoctrination of my youth, the mature faith of my adulthood brings me to an understanding that since I am not God, I cannot decree what is morally right or wrong. Each of us blindly ambles through this life. So many of us, though, find it so difficult to forgive ourselves that we genuinely seek to help others avoid those things for which we blame ourselves. The result is a one-size-fits-all legalism that loses sight of reality. I don’t accept that life “begins” at any arbitrary moment, but rather that life flows or continues. I think that all human life is valuable. That means the living, breathing mothers first. I also think that the value of human life means that the death penalty is unjustifiable. And I think that euthanasia is something that a person has to decide for her/his/their/self/selves. My point is, I don’t find judgment as a solution to anything. In a perfect world, there would be no crisis pregnancies, no gestational complications, and no congenital anomalies. But we don’t live in a perfect world so there is no perfect paradigm. If a woman in crisis asked my opinion, I like to think that I would listen entirely, speak minimally, and love unconditionally.