Abortion as Murder

This was posted in an yahoo group I am a member of, and was told I should blog it. Again, my standard disclaimer: If you are easily offended, don't read any farther. If you have a weak heart, or a habit of yelling at the TV, read on, but remember; people in your house are probably sleeping.

First of all, let's look at the "abortion" topic from a logical viewpoint. And that is why so many people disagree on this topic. Something like abortion elicits an "emotional response" from most people, and emotions LIE. No matter how you FEEL about something, what you feel is based on the environment you were raised in, the people you were raised around, and what you allowed of those things to effect, and affect, you. And yes, there is a difference between those two words. So what YOU feel is YOURS alone, no-one else feels EXACTLY the same way. So let's move past the "emotional response" and try to look at it logically.

In order to look at abortion as murder, let's first define what murder is. (I include websites so that no claim can be made against ME defining murder; these definitions are widely accepted by the legal community.) Murder is defined as:

"at common law, murder was defined as the unlawful killing of another human being with 'malice aforethought.' In addition, a killing during the commission of an arson, kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, breaking and entering, escape from lawful custody, felony manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance, constitutes murder in the 1st degree."[http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/crimlaw/notes/introduction ]

So, now that we "know" the common definition of murder, can we accuse a woman that has a miscarriage after drinking and smoking of murder as well? Showing that she knows those things could be "included in the notion of intent to kill awareness that the death of another would result from one's actions, even if the actor had no particular desire to achieve such a consequence." (Dressler: 213). " Or would we simply charge her with Manslaughter, which does NOT include "intent" or " pre-meditation" and in some states, is excluded by mental state. And if we charge THAT woman with murder, can we then charge ANY woman that miscarries with "involuntary manslaughter", which has no intent and may be charged in cases where the death is caused purely by accidental means?
By THAT logic, we can then trace back an abortion as murder in any stage of the development of a fetus, and include manslaughter in cases of a male masturbating (no one can say which 1 of his MILLIONS of sperm might have went on to cure cancer) and any woman having a menstrual cycle (in which an unfertilized egg is discarded, along with the destrus of the uterine wall).

I cannot, ever, by God's wisdom, give birth to a child. I, personally, do not think anyone in the delivery room would survive. But I do know women that, when faced with a choice of carrying to term, decided to have an abortion. Some of them have lived with a sense of regret for as long as they live, some are glad the choice was available to them. There will always be circumstances in which NOT wanting to have a child from a union conceived from rape, incest, and sexual abuse will justify abortion. It is not up to those that WOULD not, to dictate to those that might someday need to make that decision. Just like those that are against a right to own a gun often change when they are mugged for the first time, a lot of "pro-lifer's" tend to tone down when suddenly faced with a child they cannot afford to support.

For the record, I am pro-choice. I am also of the firm belief that there are some people that would benefit from a retroactive abortion, but that is just me.