Pro-Life.

Listen, I know I'm miles behind the 8 ball with my views on abortion. I'm a Christian so I believe that babies have souls, they have a divine purpose from the moment of conception, and ending a life prematurely is wrong. I feel there are exceptions, rape, incest, birth defects etc. I agree that women have the right to their bodies, my view only changes when couples are irresponsible and the woman become pregnant, when she becomes pregnant a new life is created. I believe that the life exists when it is conceived and not at the moment of birth. I'm unsure how a life inside a womb can not be considered a life until it is outside the womb. That concepts lacks the logic to get me across the line. I feel that there are so many families that can't have children that couples have a solution for times they get pregnant by accident. That solution is adoption, not abortion. I believe abortion, in most cases, is murder.

We have birth control pills, we have condoms, there are plenty of "things" that can be put in place to avoid unwanted pregnancy. If something goes wrong, say the condom breaks or you missed a tablet, it's kind of bad luck. The consequence isn't that bad, you just have to carry a baby, Nobody will notice for the first 50% of the pregnancy, so its only three or four months that a woman will be showing and may have to explain herself. The explanation, "Condom broke, I'm giving it up for adoption because I'm not ready to have a child" or "None of your business" works . Nobody will care. A life is saved.

Times have changed. In the past there was a huge stigma about being pregnant outside of wedlock. Pregnant woman who weren't married were branded "sluts". Not anymore. It's perfectly acceptable for a woman to be pregnant outside of marriage. An old friend of mine just had a beautiful baby boy through IVF. She did it as a single parent. Everyone thinks she is a legend for it, nobody thinks anything ill of her. Pregnancy is no longer frowned upon, it is celebrated, and there is no reason why a couple who are planning an adoption will be treated any different than a couple planning a pregnancy. There is actually even more reason to celebrate them.

Image source: https://www.liveaction.org/news/pro-life-support-right-humans-preborn/

The pro-life debate globally falls a little short. The only thing worse than an irresponsible couple opting to end the life of an unborn child through abortion, is an irresponsible couple ending life after life through not following doctors orders. Now, I'm no Kendell Jenner, but I have a huge problem with fat people that, time and time again, fail to stay pregnant.

I had a business with a woman who was obese. She wasn't dump truck fat, just super cuddly. Anyway, she and her boyfriend decided to have a child. Good for them. The problem was, my business partner was too lazy to go for a run or do anything about her weight. Instead she had miscarriage after miscarriage. She ignored doctors advice and just kept getting pregnant and then acted shocked and sad when she killed the baby. She clocked up six miscarriages, all because she could get pregnant, just not stay pregnant, due to her excessive weight.

Now, it's not illegal to have a miscarriage anywhere in the world as far as I'm aware. You'd probably get beaten in Iraq, but that's beside the point, Fat people, like my old business partner, who get pregnant over and over again, people that ignore doctors orders to lose weight should be held responsible for the life they have ended. Some women name their miscarriages because they consider them a lost child. Yet others flush baby after baby down the toilet, and there is no recourse.

In Victoria and New South Wales, a life is considered to be created when a baby comes out of the womb. This is challenging for a number of reasons, there is a case where a pregnant woman was in a car accident and lost unborn twins. The police charged the driver with two counts of manslaughter as the driver killed the two adults in the car, yet the family called for four counts of manslaughter, wanting the unborn twins to also be accounted for in the charges,

The Conversation wrote a great piece a while back about this case and provided a great summary of the laws across Australia. In New South Wales, the “born alive rule” applies. This is a common law rule that states that a homicide can only be committed on a legally recognised person, and that a person is not legally recognised until they are “fully born in a living state”. That means they must have completely left their mother’s body and must show some indication of independent life. Under this definition, an unborn child killed in utero is not a legal person and cannot be the victim of a homicide.

They said that In New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT the loss of unborn children would be seen as part of the overall injuries sustained by the mother, rather than being reflected in separate charges, but everywhere else in Australia has specific laws that apply when a birth is imminent or has actually commenced. Queensland is the only exception where killing an unborn child carries a maximum life sentence.

In summary, I'm all about a woman's right to choose, as long as they choose life. Irresponsible acts often have consequences. Lucky for couples from this day and age, they have adoption as a consequence. Yes, for three or four months people may notice they are pregnant, but todays society doesn't judge women for being pregnant out of wedlock, that is a thing of the past. We have progressed past that, so winding back abortion laws is something that should be re-considered. What happened to Christian, family values. We follow our countries religion when it suits us, and that's not the way it's supposed to go.

Glenn Hall is a former advertising executive turned freelance communications consultant. Glenn has a fresh perspective on topical issues and a unique way of viewing the world.   With diverse interests, no topic is out of reach and Glenn will be sure to challenge your thinking.