I keep seeing this picture on Facebook.  And I have to respond.  I'm tired of seeing this on Facebook.  I saw it once from a Women's for Obama Facebook page.  I'll get to the actual issue in a moment but I have a few comments to make about it in general.  For one I think it's ridiculous how people and this picture are saying woman's health care when we really know what it being talked about here is abortion.  Are people really that stupid to not realize what is being stated here?  That or this is nothing but a lame attempt to disguise the real meaning in a attempt to gain votes.  Of course women's health care is her own choice.  That sounds so obvious and would make women jump on the Obama bandwagon, women who may or may not vote for Obama if this picture clearly stated it's meaning.  A second point I would like to make is that I do agree partially with this picture.  I believe that health care is an individuals choice, and not a politician.  But under Obamacare we are aren't taking politicians out of health care,  we are adding them in.  And I believe this idea should extend to everyone's health care not just women.

Now as to the point, the real point of this picture.  I agree that women do have a choice to have an abortion. But I also have the choice to steal money from my job or kill some guy cause he looked at me funny.  I have the choice to go out and do anything I wish.  But that doesn't mean what I'm doing is right.  From the minute of conception, that "fetus" is a baby, a living human being.  And abortion is nothing but murder with a different name.

The heart starts to beat at day 18, at 42 days, there are brain waves recorded, and a complete skeleton and reflexes.  At eight weeks, all body systems are there  and the baby can hear.  At 11 weeks the baby breathes, and all the body systems are working.  And at 12 weeks the baby can feel pain and suck its thumb.  The baby can cry at 18 weeks.  A baby dreams at 17 weeks.  I once said this to someone and they countered that it didn't look like a baby.  That was and still is the stupidest argument I have ever heard.  The Nazi's killed Jews because they looked different, slavery existed on the basis that the people from Africa looked different and were treated as cattle.  Genocide has happened many times all over the world because someone was different from someone else.  I think we can all agree that what the Nazi's did was wrong, genocide wherever it has happened is generally condemned  but we continue to kill babies every day.  It is estimated that six million Jews were killed during the Nazi holocaust.  The number of abortions form 1967-2011, 54,900,000.

Think about some of the things people are always striving for.  The great things we always want to accomplish.  We want to find the cure for AIDS, for cancer, for these terrible diseases that plague mankind.  We want to end world hunger, and create lasting peace.  As a society we want to accomplish all these wonderful goals.  What if one of those babies that was aborted would have grown up to find the cure to cancer?  Or solve world hunger, or create lasting peace?  We can't know what people will turn out to be, or the great things they might go on to do.  And now we will never know because we never gave those babies a chance to grow up and become something great.

And here is another fact that isn't generally known or told to people.  The suicide rate for women who have a live birth is 5.9 per 100,000.  For women who have an abortion the suicide rate is 34.7 per 100,000.  That's an increased rate of 488.8 percent.  Women who have abortions often suffer from terrible depression, and regret from what they have done.  And many unfortunately take their own life's from the guilt.

Abortion is treated like a tiny fix for when people mess up and make mistakes.  When the mistake people made is a living human being.  People make mistakes, we have accidents we mess up.  But sometimes these mistakes, these bumps in the road can be the greatest things to happen in our life's   We should teach people to embrace the miracle of life instead of tossing it aside like garbage.

Sources

• http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fetaldevelopment.html
• http://www.movementforabetteramerica.org/abortionindex.html

Ayn Rand Vs. Christianity

One of the biggest blocks people have to Ayn Rand's philosophy is that she doesn't believe in altruism.  Christianity on the other hand teaches that we should take care of others and help those less fortunate.  Many people argue that Rand's ideas and Christianity don't and can't go together.  But I think Rand's ideas and Christianity can work together. Rand might disagree with me, she certainly would about religion, I'm a christian and she was an atheist. 

"I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet." -Anthem

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” -Atlas Shrugged

Both of these quotes are from two different books both written by Ayn Rand. They both convey the same idea. The idea is that we are all responsible for our own lifes, that we life for ourselves and for no one else. What we do and create, our ideas, our goals are all ours, and not to be used to further someone else. The money ones makes is to be used as they see fit, because they earned it. You say you have read Atlas Shrugged, it's why Rearden refused to sell the rights to his metal, and refused to sell any of his metal to the State Science Institute. He refused to sell because it was his, he thought of it, he worked 10 years to create it, and he has the ability to do with it what he sees fit. 

As an individual we choose to help others, I volunteer at my mom's elementary school because I choose to. No one forces me to volunteer. Because I choose to give time and money to help her school, I would say that I'm not living for anyone because at any time I can stop volunteering at my discretion. Helping others becomes a form of slavery as Rand says when we as individuals are forced to help others. Sorry but I'm going to use an example from Atlas Shrugged again! When James and Dagny argue over the trains on the San Sebastian line, James said that the Mexicans needed the trains, regardless of the fact that they had nothing to put on them. This is how helping someone becomes slavery. In order to help the Mexicans, Taggart Transcontinental ran trains to mexico and were losing money to run the trains, the money that they earned, Dagny was forced to run trains to Mexico at a loss because her brother said the Mexicans needed help. When helping people is forced upon individuals it becomes slavery, when my money, my life, are forced to be spent to help other people, when my goals and what I want to do with my life are set aside so I can help others, then helping others becomes slavery because I cannot do what I wish. I cannot live my own life. 

In Matthew 25:31-46, it says “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ So Jesus is telling people to help those who are in need, but he is telling the individual, Jesus never walked around telling people to pay their taxes to Rome so they government could help people in need. I think to often we are willing to sit around and not help because we know that the government will help people.

The world in Atlas Shrugged is crazy, but I believe what Rand was trying to do was show people the future we are making for ourselves if we continue on the road we are on. I help people because I choose to, in Atlas Shrugged, pressure is put on business to industrialists to be socially conscious even if it means to loss money, in fact in Atlas Shrugged, making money is considered evil. What I believe Ayn Rand was trying to say what that helping others cannot be involuntary, cannot be forced onto an individual, and by no means should come at the cost of their lives or their goals, and if it does, then it is slavery.