I am not pro-life or pro-choice.

The more I study politics the more I see that picking a side is nearly impossible without taking on attributes we do not agree with. Sadly we come up with boxes and we put everyone in them. Either people are pro-life or pro-choice, there is no other categories.

This is not true despite what people would believe. We can have our own ideas and we do not have to agree with the labels people put on us. By the time I finish this article though, I can guarantee that the pro-lifers will say I am pro-choice and the pro-choicers will say I am pro-life. If that is the case then I feel I have done my job well.

I have self identified as pro-life for a very long time, but there are things about the pro-life movement that just does not make sense to me. I do believe life begins at conception. I believe that deliberately ending that life is murder. However, I am not against sex education and I am not against contraceptives. I am also pro-welfare (which is some how oddly related).

The pro-life movement has taken on this banner of abstinence in a very Pharisee style move. Though as Christians we are instructed not to judge those outside the church (1 Corinthians 5:12-13). It is not our job to try and make all sins illegal. And trying to make the outside world stop having sex is about as useful as holding out your hand to stop a freight train.

What is your goal?

At this point in my life, I have a very specific political goal. To reduce the number of abortions to as small as possible. This, strangely enough, does not seem to be the goal of either pro-life or pro-choice.

I know because I have asked pro-lifers if they could reduce the number of abortions by 42%, would they vote for a pro-choice candidate. The answer, every single time, is "no." And is followed by some answer about not liking the idea of teenagers having sex or not liking contraceptives at all.

So there it is. Reducing the number of abortions is clearly not a pro-life goal, or if it is, it is not at the top of the list of priorities.

It is certainly not a pro-choicer's goal as asking the same question with roles reversed is obviously "no" as a pro-choicer's goal is to have choice where a pro-life candidate would take that choice away.

Pro-Life political agenda will not reduce the abortion rate.

The abortion rate, whether illegal or legal remains about the same.The New York Times discusses a rather global study that was done and the legal status of abortion has very little impact on abortion rates. And in some cases, making it legal actually reduces the abortion rate.

Why is this? Because illegal abortion is usually coupled with low access to birth control.

So what are you going to do about it?

I am going to vote for Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is very pro-choice and while I do not agree with the ideology that a fetus is not life or a person, Senator Sander's idea of Universal Health Care has the potential to reduce the number abortions about 40%.

With Universal Health Care, women could have unrestricted access to birth control that could last years. And how do we know that will reduce the abortion rate so dramatically? Well, they have performed this experiment right here in my own back yard.

In Colorado they began and very long experiment where they offered poor women and teenagers free long term birth control. And yeah, they found they were able to reduce the number of abortions by 42%! That is phenomenal!

If you are reading this article and your goal is to reduce the number of abortions drastically, the only candidate who has the potential to even make a dent in the rate is Bernie Sanders.

Concessions

Is this solution without its moral implications? No. I will concede that premarital sex will abound with such policies. But we live in a fallen world and if it means abortion rates are reduced by 40% then those outside the church can do as they please. God will judge them, not me. If almost half of abortions are avoided, that many babies are not killed. That is more important to me than attempting to impose Christian morals on non-Christians.

I will continue to preach nothing but abstinence prior to marriage to the youth who attend the church I am at. God clearly designed sex for marriage and the abortion rate existing at all is evidence of that. But I am not going to make the world perfect. We can only do our best until Jesus returns and reduces the abortion rate to zero.

What are you?

Ask yourself why you identify with whatever label you have placed on yourself. Really ask yourself what your goal is with that label and then make sure that label is really trying to accomplish the same goal you have. In my case, I do not fit into either label.