We can center the abortion conversation on womens rights, gender inequality, and toxic masculinity.

We can center the abortion conversation on lack of access to safe procedures and medical resources.

We can center the abortion conversation on the missteps and blinds spots of the “other side.”

We can center the abortion conversation on lack of adequate care and support once the child is born.

We can center the abortion conversation on religious views and beliefs.

We can center the abortion conversation on government overreach or the need for further specifications for exceptional circumstances in Senate Bill 8.

We can center the abortion conversation on the need for more accessible adoption.

Most applicable, in my opinion – we can center the abortion conversation on the pain, safety, fear, exceptional circumstances, regret, isolation, and lifelong impacts for mothers.

These all require necessary discourse and action. They are very legitimate issues to address.

However, here’s one thing that’s not a conversation: abortion is the murder of a defenseless human being.

This may feel untrue and unfair. It may feel inconvenient and nearly impossible to accept. Reading this may make your blood boil. But this is a both a spiritual and biological fact that we acknowledge in every other realm of life and pregnancy: If I were to miscarry, you would provide consolation, because my baby was alive inside me and now it is dead. If I were to be murdered while pregnant, it would be considered a double homicide, because my baby was alive inside me and now it is dead. Dead. And not just void of life. Torn apart at the seams in grotesque and painful ways. Yes, abortion is a choice – and it’s a choice that includes death to your child.

At the same time, I recognize that there are very complex and unimaginable reasons for abortion, such as the mother being in a life and death scenario, a victim of rape or incest, and more. I cannot imagine being in their shoes – painful, scary, and tormenting is a gross understatement. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we should recognize that these reasons for abortion are not typical, and that these reasons for abortion also deserve special consideration and services.

Most of all, I recognize that for many women who have undergone an abortion, it was an incredibly excruciating decision, one that may hover over their minds and hearts for a lifetime. These precious women deserve compassion, support, and absolutely zero judgement from any peanut gallery.

There are many gray areas here and many ancillary dysfunctions to resolve around this issue, but one fact remains, women: the children we are privileged to carry, they are not our body. They are their body living and growing within ours. These little, fragile humans with beating hearts – they’re not a kidney or a lung – they’re a person. A person completely reliant on us for survival. And their lives ought not to be up for debate because they don’t align with the plans we had for ourselves.

I’m not someone who is pro-life for the child and not for the mother. I believe that every human life is worthy of dignity because I believe that we are all created by God and uniquely crafted in His image. Women and men, children and the elderly, every race and socioeconomic status, all immigrants regardless of legal status, criminals and the upstanding, the able and disabled, and all genders and sexualities; every single individual ought to be regarded as dignified and worthy of respect. Likewise, the unborn also must be afforded the same level of dignity.