For Jesse

If you'd have asked me a year ago, or five years ago, or ten, what my stand on abortion was, I'd have said that while I personally would never do it, I believed it should be an option for some women in certain situations. Women have the right to choose what happens with their bodies, right? But what I didn't understand fully before is how real a baby is from conception onward. That little tiny peanut already had all of the genetic makeup that would make him the person he'd grow to be. His heart beat as surely as my own. Looking at the photos of Jesse, how can anyone say that he was not yet a person? Yes, I still believe women have a right to choose, but don't their babies have the right to live? There are so many people who long for a child and yet can't conceive or can't carry a baby to term, and yet there are people who can just throw a life to the wind, willy-nilly. Maybe there are better choices. (How ironic that the ad popping up at the side of my screen is for the Morning After Pill.)