Interesting post - I tend to agree with you, philosophically at least. I think that there are a lot of choices where abortion becomes a sane rational choice, although if I ever found myself in circumstances where I had an unexpected child that I wasn't going to be able to raise, I kow that I'd only feel comfortable chosing adpotion. I also think you are right about a lot of the things that would help reduce the need for abortions.

One things about tis topic, though, is that it is not something I've ever felt really close to, because I don't know a lot of people whose lives who have been directly affected, so while I know what I philosophically support, and what my own personal decisiopns would be, I don't like I really have a good understanding of why women actuall *do* chose or don't chose to have abortions (assuming that they actually *do* have a choice, one way or the other), so I'm not sure where I stand in the grey area between philosophy and the real world. What about women who do chose to have abortions for reasons I wouldn't support? Can I only support the 'choice' in certain circumstances? The idea of 'abortion-as-birth control' makes me very uncomfortable, but I don't know if that is something that exists at all, for real, or if it is just a facet of "pro-life" propaganda. That sort of thing. As other people have also said, the vehemence of some "pro-life" supporters also bothers me.

As to where I stand on the whole 'when does life really start' issue - I have no idea. I'm not convinced, for myself, that it matters. I probably don't value human life as much as I should.