What God intends.

I believe that a human life begins at conception. That is a staple of the Pro-Life position. It is also a scientific truth. But it is not the end of the story. Nearly half of all fertilized eggs die before reaching the birth stage. Either they fail to implant or spontaneous abortion occurs. If you believe that God intended every conception to lead to birth then your God has a lot to answer for.

Life can certainly be unfair, but it is a human trait to try to overcome an ill fate if possible. So why have we wasted so much time speculating about what God intends? If you believe that God intended rape to produce a child then logically you also believe that in some cases God intended that a pregnancy be aborted. We don't know what God intended until it happens.

I have been trying to figure out how the belief that life begins at conception trumps a woman's right to decide whether to let her body be a baby factory. Even a woman who takes reasonable precautions can find herself in that unplanned condition. It seems unfair both to the woman and to the fetus. An unwanted child is likely to have a hard life.

Did God not intend that humans develop the ability to build complex machinery? We now possess the capability to remove and freeze human ova and spermatozoa that can later be unfrozen and combined to generate a fetus that can then be implanted in a uterus. Did God not intend all of that? At least I don't hear any complaint that we should stop artificial insemination.

All we need is an artificial uterus to complete the job. A bit of upgrading of the incubator ought to do it. Then women can finally cry "Free at last, free at last, thank God we are free at last!"