Right upfront - I was raised Catholic and my base values run according to that. Still, I believe that everyone has a right to their own opinion and that no one has the right to tell anyone else what to believe. Beyond that, this post is intended to be more of a discussion of the way language has been used to shape the debate.
The forces of the left are brilliant in the way they use language to gain leverage with every issue they engage. I do have to compliment them on the way they spin issues with words. In the case of the abortion debate, the use of the phrase "A woman's right to choose" was genius.
Americans love any concept that seems to support individual rights. Also notice that "A woman's right to choose" doesn't actually specify what is being chosen. That is left undefined on purpose. While it is literally the choice to get an abortion, it is usually interpreted more generally as the choice to be pregnant or not.
While I totally agree that a woman should have a choice about pregnancy, I also think they have a responsibility to make that choice before it happens. Personally, I see abortion more as not taking responsibility for ones actions than anything else. For me, if a man and a woman engage in activity that results in a pregnancy, then they BOTH should be responsible for the well-being of the life that has been created. To be sure, 99.9% of pregnancies are the result of consensual, if often irresponsible, behavior.
I understand that some people like to bring up the fringe instances of a pregnancy caused by illegal sexual contact in their arguments. For me, it makes no sense that a baby should get the death penalty when the person who assaulted the woman only gets a few years.
While it doesn't seem totally fair, I believe that babies of non-consent should be allowed to be born, but the woman should not be responsible for expenses involved. There should be a governmental agency that would cover those costs and, in turn, the agency should be reimbursed by the man involved. As I said earlier, I believe that men should be responsible for their children under any circumstance. There would be a lot less unwanted pregnancies, from both consensual and non-consent situations, if every male knew that there would be a financial consequence for getting a woman pregnant.