Slate had an interesting article on abortion today. One paragraph that caught my eye:

Abortion is the most important issue in American politics. It shouldn't be. Others have as big an impact on the lives of individuals and a far bigger cumulative effect on society. No other nation obsesses about abortion the way we do. But many Americans believe that legalized abortion
is government-sanctioned murder or something close to it. And many others (including me) believe that forcing a woman to go through an unwanted pregnancy and childbirth is the most extreme unjustified government intrusion on personal freedom short of sanctioning murder. For many in these groups, abortion is almost by definition an issue that overwhelms all others, or comes close, when they are deciding how (and whether) to vote. It is also, on both sides, a reliable issue for opening wallets.

What I don't understand is this, how can "forcing a woman to go through an unwanted pregnancy" be the most "unjustified government intrusion on personal freedom"? This almost makes me sick! Except in the case of incest or rape, no one is forcing anyone to go through this, the choice was made at the time of the act. Of course, my moral and religious beliefs affect my view of this, I believe that life begins at conception,and even modern scientific evidence could hardly rebuke that a child is alive (although I'm sure there is debate on what it means to be
"alive") and has feeling while in the mother's womb. Abortion is murder in my mind.

One more interesting note, last summer I was paging through some second and third century Church articles in my Church History class and found some interesting statements against abortion. I didn't realize it was such a problem at that time. I know socially it can be more than a black and white issue with health of the mother, incest, rape, etc., but morally there can be no question that it is wrong and something the Lord abhors.