This is also a chance to respond to the argument by some others that we should "let each state decide" what abortion law should be. Whether or not abortion is legal should and must be decided at the federal level. If abortion is murder of a human individual, then the federal government is obligated to step in and protect fetuses in states that refuse to do so, just as the federal government would be obligated to step in and protect blacks from lynching if a state decided they had no civil rights. If abortion is not murder, then forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will is a violation of her own civil rights, and the federal government is obligated to step in and protect her just as much as it would be obligated to protect someone from slavery in a state that ruled slavery legal.

Ethics are, basically, the way we figure we have to act in order to get the world we want to live in. Most of us want to live in a world where our lives and property are safe from violence; where we can live as we wish, limited only by respect for others' rights to live as they wish; where we have access to the resources to live; where life is to some extent predictable and promises and agreements will be honored; where we are not excluded from social institutions, but are a participant, with a voice in decisions that affect our lives that is equal to that of anyone else. Out of this, we have created a body of human rights precepts and civil law.

Some people believe that granting the legal right to abort a fetus makes it easier for society to accept violence toward others, besides fetuses. First abortion, then euthanasia, then horror on Earth.

I do not agree. I do not believe that the "right to life" of a fetus is a necessary consequence or a necessary foundation for other human rights. I do believe that the right of a woman to choose whether to continue or to terminate her own pregnancy is a necessary consequence and foundation for other human rights.

Human society is a great example of the second law of thermodynamics: any closed system will run down. Human rights don't just happen. Unless each generation has people who actively push the boundaries, human rights don't grow, they erode.

Protecting human rights and expanding human rights does not mean extending rights to the fetus. That is over-riding the rights of people who can speak for themselves, by people who claim to speak for others who can't say one way or the other.

Protecting human rights and expanding human rights means defending the right of a woman to choose abortion, and her access to safe, medical abortion, which includes public financing for abortions for women who cannot otherwise afford them.

Yes, that means that people who do not believe abortions are ethical will be taxed to pay for them. My taxes have been used to support things I disagreed with, too. That's the price I pay for living in a society where other people get an equal voice in decisions, and I am occasionally outnumbered by people who disagree with me. Democracy does not mean that you always get your own way.

I do believe that a few people can be right when the majority is wrong, and should remain vocally working to advance their views. That is how we ended slavery and child labor and got the vote for women and made other social progress. People who believe that abortion is murder are right in trying to convince other people that abortion is murder. I hope that they will listen to arguments to the contrary, but they are free to act according to their own beliefs. People who believe that abortion is murder are not right, in my opinion, in forcing that decision upon others who do not agree. This does violence to the rights of women, without doing anything effective to actually protect any embryos.

As I see it personally, lots of embryos begin and fail to come to term, for lots of reasons. Some babies are stillborn. Some babies fail to thrive, die in infancy. I do want passionately to save more of those lives. Making abortion illegal does not save more embryos from death. Improving the lives of women does. Improving the lives of women has to begin with respecting the self-determination of women. Then, instead of trying to prevent them from choosing to have an abortion, we can improve access to birth control, medical care, food, housing, and safety from violence, so that they have other real choices.

That is "creating a culture of life."