Hmm. That's why I asked for the clarification after the original post, but it seems people took it differently... it sounded like you wanted another pro-lifer to answer.
I really hate abortion, it really bothers me; and the only reason I accept it at all is because I'm also a realist... I'm capable of seeing that in some situations, there are competing goods -- it's not "good" vs "bad" -- and so it makes sense to permit something that personally offends me because it's the only fair thing to do in the situation, there are other evils at play that I consider very bad as well.
So, in the end, I have to rationally call myself "pro-choice"... but I'm definitely at the end that believes abortion should be rare and avoided if at all possible. I don't like it on a personal level... and I mean, I really -don't- like it.
As far as attaching personal values to people who might abort or might support abortion rights, I tend to make personal judgments of others based on their motivations (as best I can determine them) and not necessarily their decision.
If someone willfully got abortions and seemed to not care in the least, I'd probably feel like they were "evil."
If someone got abortions out of ignorance and immaturity, I would feel like they were immature and grieve over the decision but not that they were necessarily "evil."
If someone agonized over an abortion and got one after a long-thought-out decision process, there would be little stigma I would automatically attach to them even if I would grieve over their decision while thinking it makes sense and I would be extremely supportive of them.
That's just me; while intellectually there's a lot of ambiguity over "beginning of life" and a lot of the distinctions were make seems irrational, there's also just the emotional part that sees abortion as a violating process, an abrupt break in the natural unfolding of life that could have often been handled in other ways; and since the unborn baby is recognizably human, emotionally I read it as human as a born child even if a case can be made for that status being ambiguous; and having three children of my own, I've watched that whole process unfold and see and love the results and thus see the great loss of potential life and value.
I guess the difference here is that I do not attach hatred to people who get abortions or support abortion rights if I see that their position is based on trying to do the overall "best thing" in the situation and it's merely a difference of opinion, NOT that they're trying to be evil and selfish and destructive.
Great post, as per usual.
I'm of very similar thinking. I'm very pro-choice for intellectualized reasons, though the only time I would consider abortion myself would be if I were to be pregnant by rape--though even then, now that I'm 23 and feel less like a child and more like an adult who can deal with a broken world, my standard for myself would be to carry and then put the baby up for adoption.
To expand on something you mentioned, people with different worldviews and notions of what a fetus is are going to approach the abortion issue through a different lens. I'd have far less trouble supporting someone's choice if they were not at all religious and had a legitimate reason to abort through their lens of life and so long as they don't, you know, make a habit out of it.
I think my worldview includes the belief that there is one true right way with regard to moral decisions, but yet this is impossible to impose upon others (not to mention a bad idea all around) so I have these categories for morals:
(1) my search after the one true moral way (which I will of course never find and properly delineate, but that does not remove the importance the search); this is what I uphold for myself
(2) moral violations that I (quietly) judge in others, because not abiding by them distinctly violates my belief of the one true right moral way--but "violations" that I intellectually
affirm others choosing because they do not share my worldview
(3) stuff that I believe every human should be upheld to (treating people with dignity, not killing unless in a legal war as a solider or as consequence of a fair murder trial, etc.)