In my lifetime, I have learned it’s reasonable to say we face difficult choices. I would argue that we have the right to choose in every situation in life, except when it’s not good.
Does every woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy truly have a clear conscience?
A person of good conscience would find it less difficult to make this choice.
Most would say that it’s mainly Protestant Christians of many denominations, oh, we can include Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, and many other faiths, and of course, those with no religion, find these decisions easier because their conscience tells them it’s not their right to decide, whether it’s because of nature’s way or God’s way, however they believe.
So we choose, fully aware that a positive pregnancy test means a baby is growing in the womb. We, with a good conscience, reason that we have no right to remove that baby, as life begins at conception (and ends at natural death). However, not all reasons for making choices stem from a good conscience or focus on the options available. Why is that?
In this context, the debate often revolves around taking responsibility for the life growing in the womb or the decision shaped by the conscience of parliamentarians, who may pass laws outside existing legal protections for human life, prioritising rights over responsibility under the guise of women’s rights.
A good conscience understands that certain things are not open for choice. For instance, taking a gun and killing another person is not a choice, it’s legally and morally settled, and we accept living by those laws.
The question then Is, knowing you’re carrying a child that the law will recognise once born, does a good conscience support choosing for or against the child before birth.
We acknowledge that reaching the point of birth involves great responsibility for parents. Reproductive health clinics help care for the mother and make pregnancy safer. This includes assistance with health issues during pregnancy, and it’s beneficial, except when laws that once protected unborn babies from harm are removed, and abortion is placed under ‘Reproductive Health.’
Now, regarding rights of choice, someone claiming to be pro-choice believes they have the right to decide anything. But is that truly a right, or just a matter of conscience?
The Bible says, “all things are permissible, but not all things are good.” This is where conscience comes into play. Those with a seared conscience might think it’s okay to choose because it’s available. They may say they can terminate a pregnancy if they don’t want the baby.
A person with a good conscience, recognising that life is at stake, would see that as a life. Most people, perhaps, haven’t thought deeply about this. At the moment of a positive pregnancy test, a woman will know she’s expecting a baby. Yet, shortly after, they might be persuaded otherwise because of what they have heard about choice or women’s rights, not conscience. They forget that ‘everything is permissible, but not everything is good,’ and they make their decision.
A conscience rooted in faith, be it Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or scientifically based, knows that life begins at conception. Beliefs from faith or science guide such a conscience.
What one’s conscience knows and believes influences their behaviour, because it’s impossible to consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with what you believe. Choosing against a good conscience leads to regret.
Knowing that the human body reproduces through a female who carries the child, and that after birth, the child depends on the mother’s nurture, ties into the understanding that life begins at conception, just as we came into being.
Without intervention, a new human being will be born. Reproductive health services aim to ensure the baby’s health at birth. Mothers and fathers rely on these services, even during difficult pregnancies, to get through health issues.
I say, there is no room in reproductive health for abortion, the termination of a pregnancy should not be considered a matter of choice, just a good conscience.
Passing laws through parliament to legalise abortion does not change this moral truth.
So my mission in life is to make sure that people are educated to the degree that it is known to be an unreasonable assumption that this part of life of bringing a new human being into the world has no right to a choice of intervention anytime from conception to birth it’s a matter of good conscience.
Alongside of the laws that says that a human being born into the world is protected from being killed by another human being.
Laws protect individuals from being harmed or killed once they are born, and they are compatible with the good conscience that recognises life begins at conception and should be protected from that point.
That it is reasonable for me to say, it is reasonable for everyone to take notice of, consider carefully, to make sure that the choice that you make is not because it is permissible but of good conscience.
