Below are some of the arguments I read in this thread and my comments:

"I think one issue is whether I should be forced through federal taxation to support abortion without a choice in the matter."

The money issue - should our taxes pay for abortions? Many of the pro-life people are memmbers of the same right wing parites that want to limit social welfare for unwed mothers. I hear it all the time from the conservatives with whom I work. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that same tired story about the welfare cadillacs.

Well, let me ask you this. If our tax money doesn't pay for abortions then shouldn't it pay to help raise the resulting children?

"How do we know that one of these babies that are aborted if were allowed to live might have been the one to find the cure for cancer or aides."

The unknown future issue - The aborted fetus might have turned out to be another Einstein. S/he could also have turned out to be another John Wayne Gacy! Or another Manson. Being born into the poverty, drugs, disease and other hardships it is more likely that the kid will turn out to be a problem than not. (And thank God for people like Spaw and Karen who care enough to open their homes for these kids.)

"I believe that women do have a choice - that choice is should I or should I not get pregnant."

The birth control choice issue - Very neat. Easily handled. Unfortunately you forget that birth control requires forethought and a willing partner. Try reading the condom thread to see how many of the enlightened members of our website would rather not go that route. Now, what does our drugged and drunk high school drop out do when his girlfriend insists on his using a condom? Does he acquiesce with a rueful grin. We would like to think so. More likely than not he sweet talks her into believing that it will be OK just this once. Or he beats her up and "rapes" her. And for any number of reasons she will accept his argument.

Have any of you women EVER been sweet talked into sex and felt (maybe later) you were being or had been forced? The women on this site strike me as being fairly level headed and strong enough to avoid that situation MOST of the time. But not always. Moonjen has spoken of her pregnancy. She is an intellegent and independent woman and she wound up in this predicament. What do you think the scared and lonely high school dropout is going to do?

Does anyone here really believe that women will always get their way in dealing with men and sex?

The killing a baby issue - Yes, maybe we are killing a baby. And maybe we aren't. This is the crux of the issue for so many people. Most on the pro-life side of the argument believe each abortion is the murder of a child. The murder of a child is so reprehensible a crime that it strkes at our very core (for all of us on both sides). The pro-life people have decided that abortion is equivalent to that crime. We will never argue that out of them. They will always believe that and for them it can not be negotiable.

What we have here is another of those arguments that cannot be settled. I have always thought that pro-lifers should register and each be issued a baby that results from banning abortions. And pro-choicers should be required to do community service teaching birth control and all of us should finance vasectomies!

But now you run into the argument....

There is no end.