B    On What Can We Base Our Laws?

In order to honor religious freedom and personal liberty as well as abide by the United States Constitution, any legislation restricting a woman’s right of choice in motherhood must be based on factual evidence and not on personal religious beliefs.   Because we are not experts in all the aspects of this topic, we relied on the advice of biologists, historians, legal scholars, and religious scholars.   We asked the advice of clergy and lay people of several different religious persuasions.   And we asked the advice of ordinary people just like you and me.   Here’s a summary of what we learned.

C    The  "Real"  Truth  About  Abortion  Is:

      WE  DON'T  KNOW  THE  TRUTH!

   And we have no way to find the truth!

Why do we say that? 

Because the speculations about the meaning and consequences of abortion push us deeply into the age-old, still-unanswerable, religious questions.

The Evidence .         More Evidence .  

More Evidence .        More Evidence .  

D    Nobody Can Prove When 
         an Independent Human Life Begins!

The anti-abortionists have proclaimed that a separate, independent, individual, human life begins at conception,. BUT...

          NOBODY!

          Not even the United Sates Supreme Court, 
          could find even one lick of factual evidence 
          or any scientific research data 
          to support such a claim.

There is no scriptural support for such a claim.   It's directly contradicted by Genesis 2:7 . in the Christian Bible,  and its origin dates back into antiquity and comes to us from the same people who believed the Earth was flat. .

.

The Evidence .       More Evidence .       

More Evidence .      More Evidence .     

E    Other Religions Hold Different Beliefs:

In fact, we heard an abundance of very different religious beliefs.   Actually, several billion people hold beliefs that are in sharp contrast to those put forth by the anti-choice leaders.   Even the Christian Bible offers a conflicting belief.   It says that an individual’s life begins at first breath (Genesis 2:7)..   Here’s the truth we learned about the relationship between abortion and religion.

  The Evidence.      More Evidence.      

More Evidence.      More Evidence.      

F    To Avoid Religious Tyranny:

In order for anti-abortion laws to be moral and ethical, two, fundamental, underlying religious beliefs put forth by the anti-abortion promoters must be not only beliefs, they must also be provable facts.   These two beliefs form the foundation upon which the entire anti-abortion campaign is based.  

If either of the following two beliefs is not also a verifiable truth, then any secular law based on them is nothing short of religious tyranny, and enforcing that law constitutes a disguised form of religious persecution.   

Here’s the first one:

G    Supernatural Transcendental Magic:

Every time a human egg and sperm unite, God steps in and, by an act of instantaneous, supernatural, transcendental magic, transforms that egg and sperm into a brand new,  never-before-existing, separate, complete, eternal, sovereign, human being.   (For the full text on this belief)

According to this belief, that brand new being did not exist before the egg and sperm united.   In addition, the fertilized egg, itself is now declared to be a complete, separate, independent human being to be accorded full human rights:

Even though it has been an integral part of the woman’s body since her birth,

Even though it is still totally dependent upon her for its survival, and

Regardless of the wishes and desires of the woman in whose body the egg resides.

Also, according to this belief, each human being lives only once as a physical body on Earth and then goes to heaven or hell,  or is simply abandoned by God and sent to some undefined place. forever more.

.

There is the second religious belief that must also be absolute, provable fact.  See the next section below.

J    Another Question:

This raises still another major ethical and religious question:   Are we our physical bodies or are we something other than our physical bodies?   Again we turned to the scholars and were told:

1)   There is overwhelming circumstantial evidence and considerable scientific evidence to indicate that humans are something other than their physical bodies.    Here are two examples:

a)   Cells in the human body constantly reproduce and die.   The cells of some organs, such as the liver, replace themselves in only a matter of few weeks.   No cell in a human body is older that two years.   (Some older sources say seven years.)

b)   Physicists tell us that on the subatomic level, there is no such thing as physical matter.   Everything is energy — energy controlled by consciousness.

2)   There is abundant religious doctrine in every major faith which supports the belief humans are not simply physical bodies;  and

3)   There is absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever to back up the anti-abortion promoter’s claim that a human being is his or her physical body.

  The Evidence.     More Evidence.      

K    Billions of People Hold Different Beliefs:

In fact, the story that the no-choice promoters are peddling is in direct conflict with the religious beliefs of millions of Christians who believe the bible is accurate when, in several places (such as Ecclesiastes 11:5 RSV),. it clearly distinguishes between body and spirit, and when, in Genesis 2:7, it says that the breath of life (the spirit) comes into a fully formed human body at first breath (at birth).

The story being told by the anti-abortion leaders - - the story that we are our physical bodies is also in conflict with literally billions of non-Christians.   Devotees of Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Eastern religions believe that humans are spirit beings. who always were and always will be - - and who only temporarily inhabit physical bodies.

The Talmud (the Jewish sacred text) states that an individual human life begins at birth.   Native Americans also hold that an individual life begins at birth.   And verses 23.12-14 and 15.28ff of the Koran (the Moslem sacred text) express language similar in meaning to Genesis 2:7, which also indicates that life begins at first breath.

  The  Evidence.          

L    The Biologists’ Perspective:

From a scientific perspective, life on Earth began about several billion years ago and has continued uninterrupted ever since.   Life doesn’t begin from non-life anymore.   Existing life just keeps changing form.

When you consider the individual members of a life form such as humans, there are indeed beginnings and endings.   Given the context that life is made up of never-ending, ever-moving, ever-changing cycles of birth, life, and death, the question is:  “When does a life form become an independent unit of life separate from its parents.”   Placing that dividing line in the cycles of life can be done only by arbitrary choice.

Some life forms produce hundreds of thousand of copies of themselves so that one or two will survive to reach the adult stage.   It would be ludicrous to think that every copy survives to adulthood.   God/nature just doesn’t work that way.

M    Alive, Human, and Unique:

And, as if all that isn’t enough to open your mind to religious freedom, let us share with you a third commonly offered, false argument for restricting women’s reproductive rights.   The forced-motherhood promoters say,  “Because a fertilized egg is alive, human and unique, it should be accorded full human rights.”

Well, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that a woman’s mature egg, which has been stored and sustained among thousands of other eggs  in her body since her birth, always was, is now, and always will be both alive and human.   Eggs are, after all, the starting points from which almost all life forms (including humans) make living copies of themselves.   And, as for being unique, we all know that everything in the entire universe is unique.

N    One Equals Three Trillion:

Those who promote forced motherhood claim that one, single, incomplete, dependent, unsustainable cell (so small it’s almost invisible to the naked eye) is the same as a breathing, laughing, crying, 3,000,000,000,000 (three trillion) cell human baby.   That’s like saying a redwood tree seed (which is about the size of a grain of rice) is the same as a thousand- year-old, thirty-seven-ton redwood tree.

Each month, literally billions of these alive, human, unique eggs mature in female bodies (one per woman) and are naturally discarded to die with no outcry from the anti-abortion peddlers.   And, in every normal, human, male ejaculation, several million alive, human, unique sperm cells are expelled to their death.

So using alive, unique and human as a basis for arguing against women’s reproductive rights is like arguing that water is water because its wet and it’s wet because it’s water; therefore, abortion should be illegal.   This is hardly a legitimate reason to pass laws which directly, or indirectly, force unwilling women to bear unwanted children.

O    Still More Transcendental Magic:

Then we heard still another twist that makes the “I am my body” claim even harder to believe.   These same people who declare they are their physical bodies go on to proclaim that, at death, by another act of God’s transcendental magic, they suddenly become something other than their earthly bodies and go someplace above the clouds to live forever without their physical bodies.   Again, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support this transformation from “humans who are their bodies” into “beings who are something other than their bodies.”  

P    Reality Versus Beliefs About Reality:

All this leads us to some very fundamental questions:

    Which abortion-related statements are factual?

     Which statements are only religious beliefs?

     We know the anti-abortionists claim He does, but does God really create a brand new soul every time a human egg and sperm unite? What evidence is there to support such a claim?   Where did this story come from?

     How do we separate factual evidence from religious beliefs? 

     When does an independent human life begin?

     Are we our physical bodies?

     Are we eternal being who simply inhabit physical bodies?

     Are we a soul with a body, a body with a soul, or only a lump of dust that has somehow magically acquired consciousness?

     If we are our physical bodies, how do we get to heaven after our body dies?

     If we are not our physical bodies, then what's all the anti-abortion fuss about?

     Can there be life without spirit?

     What is this non-earthly “stuff” we call spirit, anyway?

     Was every human being created magically by God at conception?

     Are we eternal beings who always were and always will be?

     Where did we come from?

     Where are we going?

     What are we?

     What’s the purpose of human life?   Is life on Earth simply a ticket to heaven.   Is life on Earth a test we must pass in order to get into heaven?   Or does human life have some other purpose?

     What happens to “us” when our body dies?

.

These religious questions have been debated through the ages.   Each religion has its own set of answers to these questions.   Do their answers represent reality or are they beliefs about reality?   How can a human being  be all of the following three things all  at the same time:   1-an eternal being, 2)  a new being created at conception/or birth and 3)   only Earth matter that has magically acquired consciousness.

Given present levels of science and technology, we can only speculate about these questions because nobody has any definitive answers.   Nobody can say with certainty,  "I'm right and you are wrong."

Q    Several Conflicting Possibilities:

As examples, here are just some of the conflicting beliefs:

     The anti-abortions advocates claim that a God “out there somewhere” creates a brand new soul instantaneously every time a human sperm and egg unite.

     The Jewish Talmud states that life begins at birth.

     The Christian Bible (in Genesis 2:7) clearly states that life in a physical body begins at first breath.

     The Moslem Koran (23.12-14 and 15.28ff) indirectly states that life begins at first breath.

     The Eastern cultures hold that each being is a pre-existing aspect of God (an eternal soul) that enters a series of physical bodies.

     The atheists say there is no soul at all; that we are just physical bodies that have somehow acquired consciousness.

     The agnostics say nobody knows the answers to these philosophical questions.

R    Questions Without  Answers:

So who’s right?   Who can know?

Who can say he or she is right 
and everyone else is wrong? --

NOBODY!

When we hear politicians like Mr. Bush say,  “I believe life begins at conception; therefore, I favor the repeal of Roe v. Wade,” we are now aware that his statement is an expression of his personal religious belief.

And we have to ask ourselves,  “Is holding a personal religious belief about something sufficient justification to make that belief a government law and then use police power to force non-believers to practice someone else's religion?

Can we force someone else 
to practice our religion?” 

Maybe Mr. Bush and his fantasy peddling friends can, but we can’t.   

This brings up the question that must be asked about Mr. Bush:   

Does he actually believe the anti-abortion story or is he just playing politics. and paying off a debt to the anti-abortionists leaders who worked so diligently to get him into the White House?   If he actually believes the fairytale, we wonder what other fairytales are in the mind of this man controlling our government?   If he’s simply playing politics, humanity is paying an extremely heavy price for his personal gain.

  The Evidence.          More Evidence.          

More Evidence.          More Evidence.        More Evidence.        

S    Dishonoring a Trust:

Regarding the anti-abortion movement, we want to make a clear distinction between leaders and followers.   The vast majority of those who have worked diligently to deny others the right of reproductive choice have done so out of love of God and out of loving concern for others.   They have accepted the words of their leaders as though those words were the truth.   We honor and respect those people and are grateful to them for all their dedication, their kindness, generosity, and hard work.

As an analogy, we could make this same statement about the employees of Enron, the Arthur Anderson accounting firm and dozens of other major corporations which have recently (2002) gone bankrupt.  The employees placed their trust  (and in all too many cases, their life's savings)  in the hands of their corporate leaders, and what did they get in return?   These two-faced, so-called leaders not only financially raped their own employees, and the public at large,  but they also stole something else,  something of far greater value.  

When these trusted corporate leader told the world their companies were  financially sound while at the same time taking literally billions of dollars out of their companies and then walking away while the company crashed and everyone else lost, they stole our trust in truth and fairness.   They stole the sense of confidence we used to have  in our leaders.   They stole our faith in  justice and fairness.   They stole our dignity, our honor.   They stole a piece of our soul. 

Unfortunately, the same type of deception has occurred in the anti-abortion movement.  Thousands of dedicated men and women who have worked diligently to outlaw abortion have been misled by lies of omission,.  by twists upon the truth,  and by highly emotional rhetoric.   Anyone who studies this web site,  particularly the pages titled:

         Sixteen Reasons Why I'm Pro-Choice.   
         The Pro-Life Leaders are Not Pro-life.
         Understanding the Anti-abortionist Mentality.
 and  
         Book Excerpt # 2, Life Begins When?).  
will see:

There is a vast discrepancy between the factual evidence regarding abortion and the story about abortion  being peddled by the anti-abortion leaders.

Anyone who reads this author’s two books on abortion controversy

An Interview With "The Devil". ^®- - Exposing and Examining the Hidden and Previously Ignored Aspects of the Abortion Controversy, 

and 

Abortion --The  Secret  Religious War.^®   -- A View of Abortion Without the Illusions, the Unprovable Assumptions, or the Media Hype,

will see even more clearly how the abortion issue has been and still is being used for ungodly purposes..

We hold no grudge against these peddlers of deceptions.   Actually we pray that God shall forgive them, for if He doesn’t, and if the Christian Bible is accurate, then they’re facing some tough times.   Please remind them of God’s words in Mark 9:42

And whoever shall cause one of these little ones who believes in me to stumble, it is better for him that an ass’s millstone were hanged on his neck, and that he were thrown into the sea.

T    Church and State -- A proposal of Marriage:

A very vocal minority of adamant, narrow-thinking, no-choice leaders is attempting to use government laws to force everyone to practice ultra-conservative, fundamentalist Christianity.   The anti-abortion campaign is actually part of their openly proclaimed intention to dominate the Republican political structure and, in so doing, create what they call a “Christian America.”.   The present resident of the White House, George Bush, and former Attorney General, John Ashcroft, are two examples of their success.

When the promoters of forced motherhood speak in the halls of our government legislatures and propose making their personal religious beliefs (about abortion, sex, etc) the laws of the land, they are actually attempting to force all “non-believers” to practice someone else's religion.

.legacy.             .legacy.       ...

As anyone who has studied history can tell you, the marriage between the Christian church and secular governments has produced a 2000-year-long, bloody legacy of intolerance, intimidation and harassment, intentional deception,  lies of omission,  political and sexual repression,  heterosexual and homosexual hypocrisy,  religious and racial bigotry,  egocentric chauvinism, oppression of women, political tyranny and subjugation,  violence, vandalism, arson, and murder.      Over the centuries, they murdered millions and peddled repression and misery to millions more, all  in the name of God.  

And if that’s not enough, these people claim exclusive access to God,.  they base their entire anti—abortion campaign on an absolutely un-provable, Medieval fairytale about God doing a conception magic act,. and some of them even claim their leader to be infallible..

The evidence indicates that the fundamentalist Christian leaders who are spearheading the anti-abortion movement are keeping with their unethical, immoral, and criminal, traditions.

To escape this kind of religious tyranny is the very reason this country came into being as well as the reason our Constitution includes the guarantee of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

U    Sustainability:

Ask yourself this question:   If we, as a global community of human beings, continue our present course of action, where do you imagine we will be ten, thirty, and/or one hundred years form today?   When you follow present trends into the future, literally dozens of factors (all by themselves) spell global-scale disaster for humanity; overpopulation, environmental destruction, global warming, ozone destruction, just to name a few.   When you combine them together, disaster is imminent.   If we (collectively) continue or present behavior, it's only a question of when.

Let's "Talk Turkey" for a Moment:   All life forms  continue living because what they do within their existing environment  functions and their behavior is sustainable.   (Believe or not, this law applies to human beings, too.)    When a life form's environment changes, it has two choices, adapt or die.   Ninety-nine percent of all life forms that have existed on planet Earth are now extinct.   Why because they did not or could not adapt to the changes in their environment.

Are you willing to change?   Or would you rather join the other ninety-nine percent who didn't.   I'm talking to YOU!   Yes, YOU, not to your neighbor and not the government, but to YOU! 

Because of the shear numbers of human beings on the planet and because of what humans have done and continue to do, our Earthly environment has drastically changed in the past one hundred years.   Do you choose extinction, or are you willing to adapt to this new environment?

Now YOU ( yes, you personally)  are at another crossroads.   You have a choice to make.  You can stick your head in the sand.   You can shift your focus back to the really important questions like who won the ball game today.   You can let George do it..   

OR   

You ask how?   "What can I do about a global phenomenon?"   Well, for one thing,  you need to stop basing your personal behavior on antiquated fairytales. and start seriously considering what the present day evidence is telling us..

Doing more of the same or doing the same thing harder doesn't cut the mustard, any more.   Adaptability is the watch word;   change is the price;  now is time;.  and you are the key.

There are dozens of things we can each do.   Since my focus here today is the abortion issue, I'll answer that question in the context of abortion.   Examine the content of this web site..   If the answer isn't obvious to you within fifteen minutes, please just go back to whatever you were doing.

If that's your choice, I'll leave you with one final thought.   How would you feel if you were a passenger on the Titanic and you knew the ship was traveling at top speed in the dark in a ocean strewn with icebergs and the captain was asleep in his private cabin?

In case you haven't figured it out yet, that's exactly what is occurring right now on a cosmic scale.   Welcome to space ship Earth?   Or is it space ship Titanic?

   The Real Question in this Controversy Is:

When do we, as a society, grant a developing, human, life-form the status of a separate, sovereign, individual human being and accorded him or her full human rights?

What is the answer?   Well, there are many opinions, but nobody has the answer.   We’ll share our position with you, but before we do, let us say that our personal religious beliefs may be different from yours, and you are welcome to hold beliefs that differ from ours.   That is, after all, what freedom and this great country of ours are all about.

We must, however, distinguish between religious beliefs and the regulations we impose on people.   Our country’s laws must allow religious freedom for everyone, and, as long as we (the Pro-Truth Team)  are available, we will work diligently to see that everyone’s rights as a citizen are honored, regardless of his or her religious beliefs.

W    We Pledge to Honor God, Freedom, 
              and the Truth:

Here’s the Pro-Truth Team's position:

     If you honor freedom of religion,

     If you honor the United States Constitution,

     If you honor the Christian Bible which clearly states that an individual human life begins at first breath,

     If you honor the Moslem Koran that indirectly states that an individual human life begins at first breath.

     If you honor the Jewish Talmud which specifically states that an individual human life begins at birth,

     If you honor Native American religious rights that say an individual human life begins at birth,

     If you honor the Eastern religions which hold humans as spirit beings who always were and always will be,

     If you honor freedom from religion -- (the right to believe in and practice atheism)

     If you honor whatever God you profess to worship,

then

         the only reasonable option is to honor 
         the inalienable, God-granted rights 
         of all other human beings.   

This means that each one of us must allow all people the right to make their own religious decisions, not only about abortion, but also about everything else in their personal, private lives.

As we’ve already said, we honor religious freedom and respect our Constitution; therefore, we oppose any and all laws that directly or indirectly force or cause unwilling women to bear unwanted children.

______________________________

XYZ      The Bottom Line:

Exposing the public to the "real" truth about the abortion controversy will end this conflict.

Why?

   Because forcing unwilling women into motherhood is a very inefficient, rather ineffective and extremely expensive way of saving lives.   Actually it has devastating negative consequences.°    

.

   Because regarding abortion, when you know the "real" truth, the whole truth, and you disregard everything that is not the truth, the only reasonable choice is to honor choice.

Four "Position Statement" Related  Pages

The Real Truth about Abortion 

Why We Are Pro-Choice

We have heard so much controversy around the idea of forcing unwilling women to become mothers that we decided,  if we were going to take a stand on this issue,  we’d best be sure we were standing on the side of truth,  on the side of religious freedom,  and on the side of the people whom we love.   

In order to honor religious freedom and personal liberty as well as abide by the United States Constitution,  any legislation restricting a woman’s right of choice in motherhood must be based on factual evidence and not on personal religious beliefs.   Because we are not experts in all the aspects of this topic,  we asked the advice of biologists, historians, legal scholars, and religious scholars.   We asked clergy and lay people of several different religious persuasions.   And we asked ordinary people just like you and me.

And nobody,  not even the United Sates Supreme Court,  could offer even one lick of factual evidence to support the belief that a separate, independent, individual human life begins at conception.   In fact, we heard an abundance of opinions in total conflict to that belief.   Actually several billion people hold very different religious beliefs, and even the Christian Bible says that an individual’s life begins at first breath (Genesis 2:7). 

Here’s the truth we learned.   In order for anti-abortion laws to be ethical,  two religious beliefs must be not only beliefs,  they must also be provable facts.   If either of these beliefs is not a verifiable truth,  then any law based on them is nothing short of religious tyranny.   Here’s the first one:

1)   Every time a human egg and sperm unite,  God steps in and transforms that egg into an eternal, everlasting life-spirit called a human being.   According to this belief,  that brand new being did not exist the moment before.   In addition, the egg is now considered to be a complete, separate, independent human being to be accorded full human rights  even though it cannot subsist on its own.   (Also, according to this belief each human being lives only once as a physical body on Earth and then goes to heaven or hell forever more.)

Here’s the second belief that must also be absolute, provable fact:

2)   A human being is his or her earthly physical body.

If you’re like us,  we had to ask what’s important about being or not being our physical bodies.   Well, here’s the answer we received.   If a human being is his/her physical body  (in the form of a fertilized egg)  that God has magically transformed into a separate, sovereign, individual, human being at conception,  then doing anything to interrupt the life of that egg is an act of murder. On the other hand, if humans are something other than their physical bodies, then what happens to eggs becomes much less important. 

This raises a major ethical and religious question:   Are we our physical bodies or are we something other than our physical bodies?   Again we turned to the scholars and were told:  1) there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence and considerable, scientific evidence to indicate that humans are something other than their physical bodies; 
2) there is abundant religious doctrine which supports the belief humans are not simply physical bodies;   and 3) there is absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever to back up a claim that a human being is his or her physical body.  

In fact this belief is in direct conflict with the religious beliefs of literally billions of non-Christians who believe they are spirit beings who always were and always will be and who only temporarily inhabit physical bodies. 

Here’s a third commonly offered, false argument for restricting women’s reproductive rights:   “Because a fertilized egg is alive, human, and unique,  it should be accorded full human rights.”

Well, it doesn’t take Einstein or Sherlock Holmes to figure out that a woman’s mature egg, which has been stored among thousands of others in her body since her birth, always was, is now, and always will be alive, human, and unique. Eggs are, after all, the starting points where almost all life forms (including humans) make living copies of themselves. And, as for being unique, we all know that everything in the entire universe is unique.

Those proposing forced motherhood claim that one incomplete, dependent, unsustainable cell  (so small it’s almost invisible to the naked eye)  is the same as a breathing, laughing, crying, three-trillion cell, human baby.   That’s like saying the blueprints for a house are the same as the house  and should be treated as a house. 

Each month, literally billions of these alive, human, unique eggs mature in female bodies  (one per woman)  and are naturally discarded.   And, in every normal, human, male ejaculation,  several million alive, human, unique sperm cells are expelled to their death.   So using alive, unique and human as a basis for arguing against women’s reproductive rights is like arguing that water is water because its wet and it’s wet because it’s water.   This is hardly a legitimate reason to pass laws forcing unwilling women to bear unwanted children.  

Then we heard still another twist that makes this  “I am my body”  claim even harder to believe.   These same people who declare they are their physical bodies go on to proclaim that,  at death,  by another act of God’s magic,  they suddenly become something other than their earthly bodies and go somewhere else to live forever without their physical bodies.   Again, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support this transformation from  “humans who are their bodies”  into  “beings who are  something other than their bodies.”

All this leads us to some very fundamental questions:   Which abortion-related statements are facts? Which statements are only religious beliefs?   And how do we distinguish between the two?   Are we our bodies?   Are we something other than our bodies?   Can there be life without spirit?   What is spirit?   Were we created magically at conception?   Are we eternal beings who always were and always will be?   Where did we come from?   Where are we going?   What are we?   What happens to us when our bodies die?

These are religious questions that have been debated through the ages.   Given present levels of science and technology,  we can only speculate about these questions.   Nobody has any definitive answers.  

The Christian belief is that a God “out there somewhere” creates a brand new soul instantaneously and infuses it into every uniting sperm and egg.   The agnostics say nobody knows the answers to these philosophical questions.   The atheists say there is no soul at all,  and the Eastern cultures hold that each being is a pre-existing aspect of God,  an eternal soul that enters a series of physical bodies,  usually at first breath.  

So who’s right?   Who can know?   Who can say he or she is right and everyone else is wrong?—Nobody!   So when we hear politicians like Mr. Bush say, “I believe life begins at conception; therefore, I favor the repeal of Roe v. Wade,” we are now aware that his statement is an expression of his personal religious belief.   And we have to ask ourselves, “Is holding a personal religious belief about something, sufficient justification to pass it into secular law?   Can we force someone else to practice our religious belief?”   Maybe Mr. Bush can,  but we can’t.  

A very vocal minority is attempting to use government laws to force you and me to practice their religion.   We hear the supporters of forced motherhood in the halls of our government legislatures proposing to make one group’s religious beliefs the law of the land and thereby force all “non-believers” to practice someone else’s religion.   To escape this kind of religious tyranny is the very reason this country came into being  as well as the reason our Constitution includes the guarantee of religious freedom.  

This investigation led us to understand that the real question in this controversy is:  “When do we, as a society, grant the developing life form the status of a separate, sovereign, individual human being?”  

What is the answer?   Well, there are many opinions,  but nobody has a clear, definitive answer.   We’ll share our position with you,  but before we do,  let us say that our personal religious beliefs may be different from yours, and you are welcome to hold beliefs that differ from ours.   That is,  after all,  what freedom and this great country of ours are all about.   We must, however,  distinguish between religious beliefs and the regulations we impose on people.   Our country’s laws must allow religious freedom for everyone,  and, as long as we are available,  we will work diligently to see that everyone’s rights as a citizen are honored  regardless of his or her religious beliefs. 

Here’s the Men For Choice position:   If you honor freedom of religion,  if you honor the United States Constitution,  if you honor the Christian Bible which holds that life begins at first breath,  if you honor whatever God you profess to worship,  then the only reasonable option is to honor the God-granted rights of all other human beings.   This means to allow all people the right to make their own religious decisions,  not only about abortion,  but also about everything else in their personal, private lives.  

As we’ve already said,  we honor religious freedom and respect our Constitution;  therefore, we cannot support any laws that force unwilling women to bear unwanted children.

Thank  you