If I'm in a Religious Setting, that Doesn't Mean You Should Shock Me

Apparently, no one in the church thought to warn me that this month is Respect for Life month. Which means a bunch of post-menopausal women proclaiming that a woman's greatest role in life is that of mother. I call bullshit on that one. As a woman, my greatest role is that of writer. Anyway, needless to say, after listening to all these self-righteous old ladies going on and on about how through divine intervention and a series of cards upon which are written one of 600 names, numbers of women would choose to not go through their abortions. Once again, bullshit.

I have a number of problems with this: 1.) Out of the hundreds of thousands of names in the world, what is the probability that one of those 600 chosen names would be applicable to an unborn fetus; 2.) What if the woman can't afford the child? Will the church help pay for it?; 3.) What if all those children are placed into the social services system? That's a lot of kids needed to be placed into homes; 4.) Why does Respect for Life only apply to fetuses? What about the soldiers fighting over seas, the sick, the poverty-stricken? Same-sex couples trying to get married even though the church says they're sinful? What about people in general? Respect for Life should mean that the church encourages its members to respect everyone in this world no matter how they look, what their sexual orientation is, what their religious beliefs are, etc. That's Respect for Life. Not this stupid anti-abortion movement. I can't even bring myself to say Pro-Life anymore because it's such a misdirected phrase. Pro-Life should mean just that. Pro-Everyone. No matter what.

I wrote a lot of stuff about that. I just don't get why an entire religion is up in arms about hypothetical fetuses. Granted, I don't think that people should be going around having abortions just for fun but if the woman in question has a good reason to not go through with her pregnancy, who's to tell her she's wrong? Not to get all into the history of Catholicism, but considering all the people who have died in the name of the church since it became a religion, how can Catholics even justify their right to judge anyone else? 

The only thing I know is this: when writing about something that I'm passionate about (pro-choice movement, animal rights, etc), I have a hard time attacking the theme because there is so much I want to say at once. It's a problem.