Yesterday marked the 34^th anniversary of Roe V. Wade. I meant to blog on the day of but, really, this issue is a constant. And I’m sad that it is still so hot on the front burner of today’s most controversial issues. Many of those that I love and care about don’t pay too much attention to politics. They won’t be turning on the State of the Union, and most of them didn’t even vote. They lack strong opinions on most governmental matters, but abortion is another issue--for even the laziest of political and social minds, its emotional for good reason. Abortion. Everyone seems to own an opinion, wavering back and forth between “depends on” and “if” and “I wouldn’t but…” To some, there are many details to solidify before staking out a firm stance.

But not for me. Ever since I was, I was glad to be. And life, and all the incredible things that entails, is quite short in the scheme of history, humanity, and forever. A measly 80 years if your lucky. Damn the hard and the unexpected things of life if you will…but celebrate because you can choose to make them better. It’s a different kind of choice.

Someone important once said, “Do what you can, where you are with what you’ve got.” A version of that quote is always floating around and its always relevant and its always good advice. I wholeheartedly believe that every single woman, be it the President of NARAL or a 15-year-old girl, knows that abortion is wrong. Everything that we’ve come from, the very essence of our beginnings and our souls, goes against it.

Choosing life can be the most selfless, gracious, heroic choice of YOUR life. By that I mean adoption.

One of my favorite quotes, pertinent to most every decision of character strengthening and life building I face, finds relevance here as well:

"Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor, and for the sake of living lose what makes life worth living."

-Decimus Juvenal

So often—this is what abortion comes down to: preferring LIFE--your life as you wish it to be, as you see fit or possible—to the honor that comes with dying to that which is the substance of REAL life. A short little blip we all hope to catch here on the radar screen of history and eternity. Don’t deny someone their shot. Consider the frame existence as a whole. A new perspective can be frighteningly revealing.

Mother Theresa said this: “Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign."

We are born with a moral compass called a conscious. We are born, ingrained with certain inaliable ties to the sanctity of life, to humanity. Human beings are different from every other animal because of our souls, because of our character, because of our emotions, because who we are is so much more than the bodies we inhabit. Killing our own kind is simply not human.

I’ll repeat this for what its worth: Abortion stops a beating heart. And you can’t argue with that. Abortion is an agonizing death for the unborn baby. Abortion deletes a name from the roster of someone’s second grade classroom. Abortion leaves one dateless for the prom. Abortion means you’ll never know even if you want to.

Nick Cannon made a music video about his mother, who had him when she was 17 years old. Click below to view this video, which speaks to choosing life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIrQ8z6_WJs