I believe everyone should be responsible for their actions. I also believe in abortion under certain well defined circumstances. Those circumstances are rape, incest and the physical health of the mother. I believe in the sanctity of life largely because I believe in taking responsibility for your actions and that life is too precious to throw away because of carelessness.

The prevalence of a large array of birth control methods available should preclude any unwanted pregnancy if you have responsible sex. Responsible sex means understanding the likelihood of becoming pregnant depending on your chosen form of birth control. For example, if your chosen form of birth control is a male condom, you need to know that is it only effective in preventing pregnancy 98% of the time. This means that if you have sex only once per week, the odds are that you will get pregnant sometime during the course of a year. Obviously, if you have sex more often than once a week your odds of getting pregnant rise proportionately. Another example, using the birth control pill is about 99% effective if used perfectly, meaning everyday. Since people are not perfect and occasionally forget to take the pill, the real effective rate of the pill is about 91%. There are also certain medications that lower the effectiveness of the pill. Even though there is a plethora of birth control methods available for both men and women, there is no 100% guaranteed method other than abstinence. Since that is the case, the use of two different methods at the same time will reduce the likelihood of unwanted pregnancy to a near infinitesimal level.

The CDC reports that in the year 2018, 619,591 legal induced abortions were reported for the U.S. The abortion rate was 11.3 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years and the abortion ratio was 189 abortions per 1,000 live births. Abominable, because almost all of these abortions could have been prevented by responsible people.

Every life lost due to this carelessness is a tragedy. Had they not been aborted, would any have saved humanity by their contributions?

It is time to take responsibility for our actions, and, not just as regards responsible sex, but for everything we do in our lives.