Like some of you reading this, I once thought that abortion was health care choice that should be left to the woman and her doctor. When I questioned when life became self-sustaining and when it was no longer self-sustaining, I began to see things differently. And yes, social media did play a role in that.

You see, the claim that abortion is a woman’s choice rest solely on the assumption that the pre-born child is not an individual with rights protected by the Constitution.

So when does it get those rights if not from conception? Is it on birth? A newborn child cannot sustain itself.

And how about a person who is comatose and on life-support? Clearly, that person isn’t self-sustaining. And what if the prognosis is an infinitesimally small chance of recovery? How can we recognize such a person as an individual with rights protected by the constitution when the likelihood that person will ever be self-sustaining is effectively zero?

We don’t condone stripping a newborn child of its right to life because of the PROMISE it will become self-sustaining. We don’t condone stripping a person in a vegetative state of its right to life because somewhere inside that heap of cells is a soul. So, how can we condone stripping a pre-born child, a heap of cells that can someday as long as nature takes it course be a self-sustaining individual, of its right to life?

When I had this revelation, it also occurred to me that in some instances for a pre-born child to live, it may attempt to rob its mother of her right to life. In this context, abortion is more akin to self-defense. Self-defense is a right. This, I resolved, is the situation in where abortion is a right.

We all have three rights protected by the Constitution; the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They are in that order for a reason. Your right to liberty does not supersede someone else’s right to life.

Abortion ends the life of the pre-born child. Sometimes, it is by chemical. Sometimes, it is by ripping the limbs and head off the child. Either way, abortion is not simply removing the pre-born child from a place it is not welcome. Instead, it is a death sentence for the pre-born child for nothing more than the act of misdemeanor trespass and petty theft.

THIS is how I changed my mind.

However, banning abortion is a band-aid solution to a problem with much deeper roots than the government can fix. If we ban abortion, what do we do with the children born to parents that don’t want it? Are we willing to rob someone of their right to happiness (property) to feed the newborn child. It has no more right to another person’s property than another person does to its. And if we accept that feeding it is stealing from someone else, are we willing to allow thousands of children to be born only to starve to death?

Fixing the problem is something we do everyday by discussing it. Since Roe v Wade, abortion is at an all time low. Abortion is also, according to Guttmacher, something that is largely practiced because of choice, not medical necessity. That means by discussing it, we are changing minds. More people are making more responsible choices and/or taking responsibility for their poor ones.

So, keep engaging people on the abortion issue. Do it in social media. Be civil and courteous. Because even though you may not change the mind of the person you are dealing with, someone else is watching and you may just change theirs.