I have always been a bit ambivalent on this issue; maybe it has something to do with being adopted. My birth-mother was 16 when she became pregnant with me-- abortions weren't  easily available or safe at the time, and it wasn't something she considered in any event. She wanted to marry my birth-father, who was a year older than her, and keep me, but was prevented from doing so by her father, who insisted I be put up for adoption. Catholics have always been consistent when it comes to abortion-- my paternal grandmother, who was Catholic, told my birth-mother way back then, "We'll support you all the way in any way we can, just so long as you're not considering abortion." Conservative Protestants have taken up the issue of abortion as a political cudgel only in the last 30 or so years. I find the fanatical intensity and shrillness of these people disconcerting-- why not direct some of that passion to helping all the very-much-alive-and-viable children in this country and this world who lead miserable lives, often having little to eat, substandard housing, no adequate medical care, inadequate schooling, etc.? Easier to profess concern for some abstract notion of the cell mass in a woman's vagina. Then again, looking at it from the other side, I sometimes think it's a bit disingenuous to declare a line of demarcation for the beginning of life. Six months? Three? Five weeks? In a certain sense, life does begin when the sperm and the egg connect, although I also think its absurd to look upon a fetus as a viable human being (comedian Bill Hicks once said, "You're not a viable human being until your name appears in my phone book."). While I can't come down firmly on either side of the fence, I do think abortion must remain legal, and ultimately I have to side with those who are pro-Choice. Much of the anti-abortion sentiment comes from old men who feel they should have the authority to tell young women who don't feel or think as they do what they must do with their bodies. Too, the same people who are against abortion are also against sex eduction. The reality is we have far too many children in the world who are unwanted, abused, tortured, starved, exploited, murdered, cast aside, etc.. Our prisons and our Death Rows (another glaring contradiction; some of the most adamant anti-abortionists are very much pro-capital punishment) are filled with those unwanted children grown to adulthood. Until these anti-abortion zealots are as equally concerned with all living people as they are with the matter in a woman's womb, I just can't buy their arguments or support their position.