I believe in abortion rights. I march, contribute to NARAL. I put my name and face - and vote - where my beliefs are.

But the legitimacy of my positon does not hinge on the 'is a fetus a baby' question. I fully accept that when the egg and sperm successfully fuse, the result is the beginnings of a child. A 'fetus' isn't something less than a baby - - it's just a baby at a certain point in the inevitable process of zygote-becoming-person.

The legitimacy of the pro-abortion position lies in women's right to privacy, in her right to control the destiny of her own body. Lawmakers and religious leaders have no right to stand between my legs and tell me what to do based on what's going on in my womb, any more than they have the right to garnish a man's wages every time he has sex against the eventuality that the sex might produce a child.

The debate of if/when a fetus becomes a child is a red herring. I became accidentally pregnant two years ago. I beat Irish sweepstakes odds to do it - 18 years on the pill, never missed one, over 40...and pregnant. Also divorced with no job at the time. From the moment I saw the stripe I knew I'd be having a *baby* -- not a fetus. The fact that it was unplanned and unwelcome didn't change how I thought about it, or what it was. And I firmly believed in my right to abort it, based on what was going on in my life and my head at the time. The religious right always invokes God in the debate, but seems to presume God takes the side of the fetus over the woman. I think God, if He's out there, has already taken my side - by giving me the womb and free will. It's up to me - not Billy Graham, not Rush Limbaugh, not Ralph Reed, not George Bush - to decide what the right thing to do is (It's up to the Supreme Court to ensure that decision stays mine).

This is why pro lifers have gained so much ground in the abortion debate. Those who are for abortion can't get themselves to back the judiciary point of view that passed Roe v. Wade. They wafffle, not wanting to concede the moral high ground the religious right has seized/defined as the battlefield. Well, the moral high ground isnot the battlefield, the womb, which resides *in the woman's body* is. And that's enough.