Reply #89: or perhaps recognizing the right to personal discretion regarding

[Bluerthanblue]

reproductive decisions?

Sounds like mouth full, but there ARE those who not only would seek to take away a womans choice to terminate a pregnancy, but to have access to adequate birth control, which would, hopefully lessen the need to make a decision regarding abortion.

And, while i'm here, i personally feel VERY strongly about the need to ensure that every child born into this nation is adequately provided for without STIGMA or DERISION.
If 'pro-life' people hold the life of a potential child of great importance, than they NEED to be willing to do more than 'talk'. That position requires financial and social services that will COST- And, as a former welfare recipient, i can tell you quite sincerely, from my humbling, and humiliating experiences, the notion of 'welfare queens' or women having babies to 'get rich' is a cruel lie, or at best an outrageous exaggeration of the tiniest minority of people.

I admit to having a strong revulsion for those who scream 'pro-life' on the one hand, and then refuse to put their wallet, life, or energy into the life they have 'fought' to 'protect' AFTER he or she is BORN.

I really appreciate your OP- Wonder if, as i read it, you might expand on the 'need' for military defense being related to the actions WE take in our 'desire' to have it all- When people are not desperate, they are FAR less likely to be an 'enemy'. And treating ALL people with the respect we desire for ourselves should be an unnecessary given. Our flaunting of the Geneva Convention, and exempting ourselves from the very rules we hold others to is destroying our credibility, and creating friction with our fellow humans.