After reading a discussion on abortion in an LDS discussion group, I realized I wanted to define, for myself if for no other reason, exactly why I was so against abortion. There are many, even in the church I'm finding, that don't see embryos and fetuses as human life - one kid went so far as to ascribe the mourning and loss a mother feels over a miscarriage as the same sense of disappointment any "organism" would feel over the loss of a potential offspring (though he's in high school, so I can't hold too much against him, due to lack of experience). This was my response to that remark:
So that's all we are, huh? "Organisms"? Just meat sacks that feel bummed when our offspring doesn't survive? We are fundamentally different from all other life - we are spirit offspring of God, everything else is His creation. That puts our thoughts and emotions on a very different level than a cat or an elephant or something. And as a parent I can tell you that children in the womb are VERY MUCH alive. I've seen them move, suck their thumbs, play with their toes, all while still developing in the womb. They even get hiccups in there. They are just as much human and alive as you and I. Any attempts to define them as otherwise are, in my opinion, misguided notions that come from the adversary. Who else would want us to deny spirits the right to life? Who else delights as much in the destruction of human life, regardless of the stage of development it's in?
Now in saying this, I know there are some cases where abortion is allowed in the church - if the mother's life is deemed to be in severe jeopardy by competent medical authorities, or if the pregnancy is due to rape or incest. I can understand why those pregnancies would be terminated. But it's the "this pregnancy is inconvenient" or "I was irresponsible" abortions that I'm talking about above. Satan knows that if he can convince us that human life isn't human until it's born (not that everyone one in the world is on board with even that idea), if he can sidetrack us from remembering the value that God places on the lives of His children (D&C 18 says the worth of souls is great in the sight of God), then things like abortion become acceptable in the eyes of the world. I hope one day the world will see what a great error of judgment they are making in allowing abortions like this to happen.