Faith + Reason = Truth

This is filed under "Religion" rather than "Seeking," as opposed to most of my spiritual searching-type posts which are filed under "Seeking."  Why?  Because, for some reason, abortion seems to be associated with Catholicism in particular, rather than Christianity or other faiths in general.  Again I ask, why?  To this "why?", I don't have an answer.  Why is it that anti-abortion is a well-known Catholic stereotype (or at least it's supposed to be - there are some that go so far as to claim, from both sides, that if one isn't anti-abortion, then how could one consider him or herself to be Catholic?  However, there is far more to Catholicism than abortion, and that's all I have to say about that here), yet not so for other faiths?

It's an unanswerable question, in that it should not even BE a question of whether religious beliefs dictate support of choice or non-choice, regarding whatever "choice" is in question.  This is a question of life or death - not of when life begins, or when intelligent life begins, or when consciousness arises, or when the formation of a soul occurs, for these are also not knowable - at least not in the foreseeable future.  It is, quite simply, a question of whether one believes that a human being can decide to end the physical existence of another human being for the sake of economic or lifestyle convenience, or for the possibility of the avoidance of a non-conventional life to be led by an as yet unborn person that will have a physical makeup that is different from that of "normal" human beings.  It is also not a question of whether a person ought to be allowed to protect herself from the possibility of physical harm that may arise from carrying a pregnancy to term and giving birth; that point is readily conceded by all sides of the debate, and rightfully so.

Were primitive societies morally correct in their practice of discarding newborns who were deemed unfit to live and exist in their societies?  Were later societies morally correct when they decided that life didn't begin until the baby was born, allowing the unborn child to be killed at any time up until birth?  Are WE now morally correct in deciding that babies can be killed in the womb for any reason (or for no reason at all), provided that they haven't been alive long enough to really count as human being, say, just a few months?  That the timing or method of killing them is the real issue, rather than the actual act of killing?

The wording I choose to pose these questions, as well as the questions themselves, amply reveals my beliefs in this area.  I hope you agree with me, and if not, I hope you are offended or even angered by this post, because this is an issue that, clearly, people cannot "agree to disagree" on, as it is the issue of life itself.