A principal reason why women terminate pregnancies is that they feel children are a very important responsibility, because they feel a strong obligation to give their children a proper upbringing.
Let me repeat. One of the main reasons that abortion exists -- has existed for thousands of years -- is that women think children are a very important responsibility, and many women have felt that it is right and proper to abort a pregnancy if they do not have the necessary resources to properly rear a child.
To be responsible citizens, pro-lifers should think long and hard about this fact. It is very very important for children to be properly cared for, and deeply irresponsible to bring unwanted children into this world.
The emotional core of the pro-life belief system is the notion that a fetus is a baby. All decent human beings have a strong protective instinct about babies. This is the main emotional draw of the pro-life movement, generated through repeatedly visualizing the fetus as a baby, eliciting powerful protective instincts.
Pro-life people need to realize that in several very important respects a fetus is not like a child.
First of all, the termination of an unwanted pregnancy causes no damage to the community and is a relief to the mother, while the deliberate killing of a child is usually devastating to parents, and often creates widespread panic and fear in the community, and is extremely disruptive to social order.
On the other hand, the termination of an unwanted pregnancy and preventing the birth of an unwanted child may actually make a positive contribution to social order, and make life easier and more livable for the pregnant woman, and increase the availability of resources for her living children, who will not have a new sibling to compete with for money and emotional support. True, a new sibling may be very welcome, but this is unlikely if the family has insufficient income, or the mother already has difficulty coping with her existing children.
Second, a properly reared child has received a vast day by day expenditure of emotion, money, and teaching by parents and the community, while an unwanted fetus has received none. In cold financial terms, an unwanted fetus has no value to its mother, while a successful adult child is worth the moon and stars.
So, in two very important ways, a fetus is not like a child. And of course, by definition, a fetus is not a child and it is not a baby. It is a fetus, that at conception looks like an amoeba, that slowly morphs into a being that becomes more and more like a human baby, to the extent that we feel more and more protective as it grows, because it resembles us more.
To conclude, I know that the pro life community is composed mostly of sincere believers, along with a few cynical political strategists whose goal is to elect Republicans. My problem with the pro-life belief system is that it gives far too much weight to the interests of an unborn fetus in whom there has been no investment of money or love and that it gives far too little weight to the interests of women and of their living children, who have received a great deal of investment, both emotional and financial, and whose interests may be negatively impacted by the addition of another family member.
Afterthought #1: I have not mentioned fetuses who are diagnosed as having severe disabilities. It is monstrously cruel and stupid to compel parents to have a disabled child.
Afterthought #2: The above discussion assumes women who already have children. The education of girls in high school is likely to be disrupted by the birth of a child and their long run future is likely to be negatively impacted. Childless adult women may lose their jobs or have their careers negatively impacted by an unwanted birth.
Afterthought #3: Some women may feel okay with bearing a pregnancy to term and then giving the baby up for adoption. Clearly, however, many women have a strong instinct that this is not an option - the fetus is part of them and cannot be given to a stranger who might mistreat the child. For other women, having a pregnancy coming to term and then having it adopted would be a disastrous social stigma.
Afterthought #4: I have great contempt and loathing for politicians who want to force women to have unwanted children, yet close family planning clinics that would help prevent unwanted births, and then who cut benefits to poor families.