Because my parents were active in the pro-life movement, I was introduced to the topic of abortion at a very young age-like, at the age of 4. Lucky for me, my parents were geniuses, and handled it very well. I don’t remember ever not knowing what abortion is, and I don’t remember the first time it was explained to me, but I do remember a phase that I went through for a few days or a few weeks after learning about it. Once I grasped the whole pro-life/ pro-choice thing and came to understand that my parents were on the pro-life side, I started asking my Dad about every single person we knew and what their position on abortion was. At first, my father humored me and gave straight answers to the question, but one day, when he and I were out and about, after he had just run into someone he knew, we were back in the car, and I asked of the man he had just been chatting with, “Daddy, is he pro-life?” It was the millionth time I had asked that question about someone, and my long suffering father responded differently that time. He just sighed, and was silent for a moment. Then he looked me straight in the eye, and he said, “Judy, there are people who are pro-choice whom I would trust with my children’s lives, and there are people who are pro-life whom I would not trust with five dollars.” And then he just turned his eyes to the road, started driving, and didn’t say anything more. He didn’t need to say anything more. I didn’t say anything either: I knew instinctively that he was right, and I was in total awe of him. That was the moment when I realized that my father was a brilliant man.
After that, I never again asked my Dad what someone’s position on abortion was.
ST UnWoke! 
Your Dad knew it was about individual people, in personal circumstances, not just labels. It’s sad that we’re still in label mode – except here, of course….
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Thanks, Nanda, totally agree.
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Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to know the answer.
May your recently departed WWII (MOS: Educated Grunt/ Combat Engineer) combat in the Pacific vet father RIP.
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I know that my Dad is, at this moment, on a sailboat in heaven, having the time of his life, and reveling in the fact that he is young again. I am sad for me, but happy for him.
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I am almost done reading a book on the battle of Peleliu, and will be writing about my Dad and WWII very shortly.
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You go GF!
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What Nanda said.
Also, Jac, my parents who were pro-choice often commented about pro-lifers that “They do have a point and a valid one so we would never disparage their argument.”
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Thank you, Liz. Most of those in our parent’s generation seem to just naturally understand how to disagree without being totally disagreeable, how to at least try to see things from someone’s else’s perspective, and how to be charitable with those whom they believe are tragically mistaken. We are losing that: too many young people-not most of them, probably, but too many of them-ascribe to the “punch a Nazi” mentality, a Nazi being anyone who disagrees with them about anything. They are exhibiting a form of religious fundamentalism, and it is scary.
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I’m so sorry to hear your father passed away, Judy. I love my Dad & miss him every day. I remember how for a while I felt cut adrift on a lonely sea when he passed. Your dad sounded wise indeed.
I myself am pro-life but I feel I could not condemn someone who had an abortion, not knowing what distress in their lives directed them to that act. But I do want our culture to have a stronger bent towards life and its value – I feel progressivism had diminished in recent years. I was very happy to hear, for instance, the President’s speech to the March for Life ralliers – to have pro-life sentiments expressed publicly from the White House is a positive move.
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smaller edit for comment above – “I feel progressivism had diminished that culture of life in recent years.”
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Thank you, Pat. I am so sorry that you lost your Dad. It’s a tough thing.
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The very crux of your writing while appearing agreeable initially, did not really work perfectly with me after some time. Somewhere throughout the sentences you were able to make me a believer but just for a short while. I nevertheless have got a problem with your jumps in assumptions and you would do nicely to fill in all those gaps. In the event that you actually can accomplish that, I will certainly end up being amazed.
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