http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27778146/

... are ones I actually can live with. Instead of simply slamming the doors on those pressed by economic or emotional circumstances to seek abortions, some abortion foes are actually thinking about providing support for mothers-to-be with programs for health care and education opportunities.

Unless downsides such as conditions on the monies or other tricks come into play, I find myself surprisingly in favour of this change in direction. An example of a possible trick is to use this as some carrot in a carrot-and-stick gambit to still deny women their right to choose.

I will not ever have to face the choice of an abortion, but I do not feel I have any right to deny any woman their right to one. I may think they are wrong for doing so (and have, in two cases because of the circumstances) but I will still support their right to that decision.

There are those who see abortion as some alternative to contraception (that's one case.) Back in my college daays, one sister-of-a-friend said quite matter-of-factly, "Yes, I had an accident, but I'm going to take care of it on Monday." That's morally wrong, but I will not fight fire with fire by committing what I feel to be another wrong.

One more recent (still half a decade ago) and closer to home, my brother-in-law (SpouseKitty's brother) made a rather unfortunate choice in his spouse. Rumored to be what drove the final wedge was her aborting their zygote (and my nephew/niece) without his knowledge. Ugh.

I will say "I support a woman's right to chose" even after that, but with quite a bitter tang in my mouth.

There are those who are pregnant by way of rape or incest. I cannot see how anyone would want to deny them a means to handle their tragedy, how anyone would want to inflict on them a permanent emotional scar like this.

And then there are the ones who conceive, by accident, ignorance, or other innocent (or not) mistake, but are in no circumstance to handle parenthood. These programs, if presented as a true choice are what we should be doing anyhow as a society for those in these straits.

It's one thing to deny a woman her right to choose. It's another to give her an incentive to one choice over the other.

And, in this case, it is looking after "the least of these."