At least, I do not believe in your consequences.
You and I, we could have had a conversation last night. I don't remember how the subject of abortion came up, but it did, and for the first time since I have met you, you actually voiced your opinion. I should have given that opinion more respect, respect that you deserve, but I could not tolerate the dangerous thoughts that you voiced.
I do not like slippery slope arguments. When I hear them coming from people who think even the slightest restriction on our Second Amendment rights will lead to confiscation, I reject it out of hand. Slippery slopes exist, but to prove your argument based on that, you must provide evidence. You must prove the slippery slope to prove your conclusion, and in doing so waste a lot of logic on a premise that is not given.
When it comes to forcing your morality on someone else, to punish another person for violating your particular morality, just to say actions have consequences, the angle of that slope is steep indeed, and that I cannot abide.
People make mistakes. Circumstances change. Birth control sometimes fails. Your religion is not everyone's religion, get over it, people have sex. Yet despite that, forced birthers feel that having a child is the proper consequence for what they call immoral behavior. You had sex and weren't married. No abortion for you.
Then again, maybe you are married. You are pregnant, you are happy about that fact. You and your husband are finally going to have a baby! Except your husband has other ideas. He doesn't want a baby. Perhaps he's not such a good husband and you catch him cheating. Your life gets turned upside down. You kick your husband out, you're on your own. Suddenly, having that baby isn't so exciting. Suddenly, you face the prospect of poverty, having to raise a child as a single mother while dealing with the stress of a messy divorce just to get child support so you don't starve to death.
What does your morality say the proper punishment is for the husband's moral failings, here? Oh, right, just be a good wife and forgive his philandering ways.
Abortion is not an easy choice. It is a heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching decision to terminate a pregnancy for any reason, whether the pregnancy was intended or not. It is a punishment in and of itself to have to make that choice, and even that is not fair.
For you, though, that somehow isn't enough. Women must suffer, in your mind, because they are not perfect. They must continue to suffer for as long as it takes to... to what? When is enough suffering enough for you?
The gay man has HIV. That is God's punishment for his sexual deviancy. For what you consider a moral failing, a single trait in what may otherwise be a wonderful human being, that gay man deserves to suffer for the rest of his life. That gay man deserves to die an excruciating, ugly death. You say God is benevolent, a forgiving god, a god of mercy. Unless you are a woman. Unless you are gay.
Unless you are black. The young black boy in New York City likes to smoke weed. He's got a joint in his pocket. He hasn't smoked it yet, but maybe he plans to when he's on his way home from picking up milk from the corner store for his mom. His new baby brother needs formula too. Just another short walk down the block... until the police officer notices him and starts to approach.
Stopped, questioned, and frisked for little more reason than he is a young black boy walking down the street, the officer finds the joint in his pocket. The young black boy goes to jail for the night, is charged with a misdemeanor that goes on his permanent criminal record, and his family has no milk or formula for the baby for the night. Mom gave what cash she had on hand to the boy.
Is it the mom's fault that she is impoverished? Is it the baby's fault for being born in that family? Is their going hungry that night justified by a need to punish the boy for being black in New York City and smoking pot? In this twisted little world, your benevolent, merciful God spreads his punishment around. Why stop there? Mom obviously didn't raise that kid right. Must be something wrong with her, too.
Actions have consequences.
I do not believe in your consequences. We all suffer, in one way or another. No one needs suffer more under your moralizing judgments of people who aren't like you. I will not stand by and let any of my brothers and sisters suffer any more than they have to. I will forgive them and love them and protect them. I will protect them from people like you.
That includes you.