Serious questions for the "pro-life" community

These are NOT rhetorical questions. I would actually like serious and thoughtful answers to these questions, preferably with LOGICAL responses that do not invoke religious beliefs.

1. Do you believe that people deserve the right to bodily autonomy? If so, how do you get around that basic right if you also believe that a woman must be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term?

2. If you think abortion is murder, then it logically follows that you would like abortion to be made illegal. About 800,000 abortions are performed in the US every year. What do you personally think should be done to women who choose abortion? If you think they should serve a jail sentence for murder, then do you realize that you will be imprisoning 40% of the entire population of American women? If you don't think they should be sent to prison, then you must not really think that abortion is murder, because in our country, people who are found guilty of murder are imprisoned. If you think that only the doctors performing abortions should be imprisoned, then you are saying that women do not actively make the choice to have an abortion on their own, and that idea basically negates all of your past efforts as a pro-life activist to persuade women to choose an option aside from abortion. Furthermore, even if you only wanted to imprison the doctors who perform abortions, women would still use abortafacient herbs that are found naturally in the environment. How would you regulate something like that?

3. There are millions of abandoned/hungry/poor/impoverished/abused/raped/war-ravaged/orphaned children out there in the world. Have you considered the fact that your time might be better spent advocating on their behalf than trying to convince people what they should do with their pregnancy and the fetus growing inside their body?

4. Do you advocate for better, more comprehensive sexual education for teenagers, knowing that teaching children about condoms, birth control, and any other form of contraception will prevent pregnancy, and therefore, prevent abortion?

5. Most people in the pro-life community are pro-life as a result of their religious beliefs. Of course, one person or one group's religious beliefs are not always compatible with another person's/group's religion. This is why we often do not see eye to eye. However, in our country, there is something that we all know about called the "separation of church and state." This is to prevent people from making laws based on religious beliefs. Do you realize that by making abortion illegal, then you would be violating the principle of chuch/state separation and violating someone's else religious beliefs? For instance, some religions believe that a fetus does not become a baby/person until it has taken its first breath. And before you say that the separation of church/state "doesn't matter, because abortion is the taking of a life," then please refer back to question #2.

6. Most fertilized eggs don't even make it to the uterus. Also, many women have miscarriages. So, if you think abortion is murder, then would you want to investigate all miscarriages to make sure that they weren't induced abortions? Or would you go so far as to investigate all miscarriages as negligent homicides/manslaughter? Do you realize that this would be a gross violation of privacy?

7. Suppose there were a fire in a fertility clinic and you could save either 100 embryos scheduled for implantation in 100 women -- or a two-year-old child. Which would you save and which would you let burn? If you believe that an embryo has the same right to life as any person, then by your logic, you would choose the 100 embryos, because this would be saving 99 more "lives" than the two-year-old child's life.

8. Thousands of women died before abortion was made legal. How do you come to terms with the fact that thousands more women will die if abortion is made illegal? Studies have shown that banning abortion does not make abortion less prevalent, it only makes it a lot more dangerous. How can you call yourself "pro-life" when you know that women die if they do not have safe & legal access to reproductive healthcare?

9. Do you believe that abortion is acceptable in cases of rape? If not, how do you come to terms with the knowledge that many women feel that by being forced to give birth to their rapist's baby, they are being raped and violated a 2nd time? Also, by being forced to give birth to their rapist's baby, many women also feel that it essentially "condones the act of rape" as a "legitimate sexual encounter." If you were raped, and became pregnant, would you give birth to your rapist's child, knowing that every day, you would be psychologically tormented and reminded of how you were violated?

10. Do you support the current war in Iraq/Afghanistan and/or do you also support the use of United States military force in general? If so, how do you rationalize supporting a military campaign that has taken thousands of innocent lives, while also calling yourself "pro-life"?

to be continued