I am opposed to abortion being used as a form of birth control. I am, however, not opposed to abortion for health reasons or products of incest or rape.

When there are so many other options for birth control, abortion should never be one of those options. It’s all part of being responsible. If you can’t have sex responsibly, you shouldn’t be having sex.

I was 23 when I left my first husband who was abusive and addicted to meth. I had three small children and found out a fourth was on the way. Someone suggested that I get an abortion. There was no way that was going to happen. To me, it was the equivalent of putting a gun up to one of my other kids’ heads and pulling the trigger. It’s murder.

My daughter was born, on my birthday, no less, reminding me what a gift a child is. Never once have I regretted my decision to keep her. Even though being a single mom was hard, having to live with a decision like that would have been much harder.

Fourteen years later, that same daughter came to me and told me she was pregnant. As hard as it was to go against what I firmly believe in, I told her whatever she decided to do I would stand by her — even if she wanted an abortion. She decided to keep the baby, and I was thankful that her beliefs were the same as mine.

In all honesty, I am not sure how I would have dealt with it mentally had she chosen to abort the baby. I look at my sweet, handsome, smart grandson and feel so blessed to have him, though the situation was far from ideal.

One girl I knew asked me for a ride to get an abortion. She was in her second trimester and had already had two other abortions in the short time I had known her and who knows how many more before I met her. I adamantly refused to take her. She would have to find someone else. Of course she was mad at me, but I didn’t care.

There are some circumstances that some women cannot control, and abortion is the only moral answer.

My cousin became pregnant and found out through tests that her baby had developed brain cancer and would not live but a few hours, if that, after birth. Faced with a moral dilemma such as that, she aborted the baby. She desperately wanted a child but didn’t want the baby to be born to know nothing but suffering only to die within a few hours.

The day she went for the abortion, as she was walking into the clinic, she was harassed by anti-abortionists. She said she couldn’t remember a time when she felt so bad.

“They didn’t know my story. They didn’t know that I really wanted to be a mother or the reason I was there,” she said.

If the mother’s life or the baby’s life would be endangered, it is only right to end the pregnancy.

Although I have never known anyone who has been pregnant as the result of incest or rape, but I believe that in either of those instances, the woman should have the right to choose to keep the baby or abort it.

In the case of incest, the baby could be born with many problems. If a child is the product of a rape, the woman may see the child as a source of resentment or a constant reminder of the rape, which could lead to child abuse or neglect.

I don’t consider myself pro-life or pro-choice. I am not quite sure what I would call my stance on abortion.

Thankfully we live in a country where we can voice our opinions.