There was once a man, a rich man, who loved his work almost as much as life itself. He also had a wife whom he loved even more than work. As happens with many married people, this couple had a baby. The man made enough money to support it, and all the wife really wanted was to stay at home and raise the baby. However, when this child was three years old, the mother died in a tragic car accident. The man had no idea what to do.

Some said adoption, but he saw that as too much hassle, and he killed the child. He was not put on trial or even arrested. It was realized that this child was an inconvenience and that was an accepted thing.

This story is not true, but in essence it happens every day. Unwanted children are murdered every day in the form of legalized abortion. Before the pro-choicers reading this get ticked, stop reading and write an angry response, I would like for them to just consider the heart of the issue here.

There are basically two sides — pro-choice and pro-life. Both are for something, and both of these strike deep at the heart of what an American is. The right to choose how I am going to live. That is how most Americans would describe our country.

Now I’d like for you to imagine for a moment that I am a fetus. Remember that I have the same genetic make-up of a full-grown adult. If I were O.J. my DNA could be used in a court of law as evidence. My parents are both Americans; hence, I am an American citizen by law, with a right to choose how I am going to live. My mother aborts me.

Now let’s shift back and say that I am the 20-year-old college student that I am. On my way home from class today, some putz drives up and shoots me in the back of the head, killing me, taking away my right to choose how I live.

The reason for prison and punishment is for discipline of those who steal away the rights of others to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Or another way of saying it is that my rights end where yours begin.

So to bring this all together, if you want to make the issues into a debate of rights, abortion looses. Mothers choose to have sex, which leads to pregnancy. (Rape accounts for a small percentage of pregnancies that end in abortion, not to mention that studies show carrying a rape-induced pregnancy through full term helps the woman to cope with the trauma.) If you wish to make it a moral debate, that fetus is an individual with an identity. At least that is by using its DNA as a proof of identity, which by the way, holds up in a court of law.

So in response to Judith Rutledge who was quoted in the Daily article “Women Remember Day of ‘Back-Alley Abortions'” saying “It’s time for the nation and the state of Iowa to move beyond the relentless battle over abortion,” I will not roll over and give up, the unborn need a voice, and I want to be part of it. This debate is not over and will not move on until truth and justice are upheld. In order for that to be done abortion must be recognized for what it is, malicious murder. No more, no less.

Brian Shirley

Sophomore

Forestry