Are you for or against abortion?

Fundamentally, I'm against it and oppose elective late-term abortions.

However, I don't believe a woman wants to have an abortion either. A woman who is raped should have the right to make the decision whether or not she wants to raise the child. A girl who was molested by a family member should have the right to decide whether or not she wants to have the child born. A woman who finds out that her child is going to be born with life-debilitating illness should have the right to decide whether or not the child should be born for dying or if it's more merciful to commit the abortion. Finally, a woman whose own life is endangered by the child should have the right to sever the wicked hand (per se) instead of risking her own life.

There in lies our problem.

We have two major political factions that, in my honest opinion, do not have a pragmatic approach not just to abortion, but to the whole culture of life and sexuality as well. On one hand, we have a political faction that is looking to protect the unborn, but they also want the kids to "Just Say No" to sex instead of protecting themselves (thus driving up teenage pregnancy and STD rates), want to ensure gays cannot get married or unite freely (thus forcing "unwanted" children to remain in foster care instead of being members of loving families), support a public business's right to refuse emergency contraception if the person/pharmacist selling it has a moral objection (a Catholic hospital is one thing, but CVS?), and support kicking orphans out to the street once they've hit 18 years of age (though I guess that makes it easier to have recruits to go fight wars around the globe while their kids enjoy college.) On the other hand, we have a political party that supports sex education that focuses more on the act than how it applies to one's life, claims to support gay marriage during an election year, supports govt.-funded emergency contraceptives as a favor to the Big Pharma lobbyists who pay their bills, and feels it's a "choice" if a woman commits an elective abortion against a 7-month old fetus (I was born 2-months premature, so that last one hits close to home for me.)

The real answer lies somewhere in the middle.

- I think that kids should be taught comprehensive sex education, but also need to be taught the emotional ramifications of having sex too early as opposed to the physical ones (I don't care to admit how long it took me to get over the girl I lost my virginity to and I'm glad I was out of high school once we broke up.)

- I do believe that gay couples who adopt children should not have to worry about the government ripping these children away from their homes only for them to live in a foster home.

- I don't think we need any more interference for proactive contraceptives (you can get them from your local health service center or Planned Parenthood for free) but I do think emergency contraceptives should be price-controlled and any public or publicly-traded institution should not obstruct women from obtaining emergency contraceptives.

- Give the now-adult orphans a soft landing so they can be eased out of the foster care system between ages 21-25, which I should hope would include grants that would enable them to receive an education so they can go on to be productive members of society.

Once you start implementing that, you start taking away the reasons why abortion is necessary unless it's for an absolutely traumatic reason. I'd love to see us transform from an abortion-oriented society into an adoption-oriented one. However, all sides need to be realistic with themselves as to how to go about this instead of forcing their "one-size-fits-most" religious/political views upon the masses.