I'm pro-life, but...

(source)

We've talked before about how you cannot be a "Christian, but..." What about being pro-life, with exceptions? This is a touchy, touchy gray area that most people don't like to wade into. But, you're in luck, because I am not most people! I have been pro-choice, and I have been "pro-life, but..." now I am pro-life, period. I urge you to think about what I about to say, and really consider it. I want to look at the two biggest reasons people are "pro-life, but..." those are, of course, in cases of rape/incest, and in the case of health of the mother. First, we're going to look at rape, and I will do a separate post later about health of the mother.

I have shared with you before the very touching story of  mother faced with BOTH of these choices before (you can find that here) 

I have had this debate...oh, probably at least eighty times. And, everyone always uses the same tactic on me "You honestly think that a woman that has been RAPED should be FORCED to carry the RAPISTS child? Jerk." to which I respond, "You honestly believe that a CHILD should be MURDERED for the crimes of their father? Jerk." Which causes them to pause and be all, "Wait, what?" To which I can then open it up and explain to them what I mean by that.

By saying that you believe a child should be aborted because they are conceived in rape, you are saying that because of what the father did, the child should not be able to live. Therefore you are saying it's okay to give a child, an innocent baby, that had no choice in the matter the death penalty because their father was a bad dude. So, if my dad goes around and starts raping people, should I get the death penalty because I am his child? Because that's exactly what you're saying.

Remember, we are talking about people that have already established that they are pro-life, thus, already admitted that the baby IS a human life, and that it's not okay to kill them, but then they turn around and say "oh, wait, they aren't a human life if...and they are okay to murder when..." Do you see where that puts you in a position where you are no longer pro-life?

This alone is often enough to get people to think and realize their own hypocrisy, but if you're super stubborn, let's move on to your next point of argument: "Well, I see your point, but I think it's justifiable homicide because she shouldn't have to carry HIS child." Really? It's JUST his child? That child  JUST has HIS DNA? Is that child's DNA not half it's mother's? Is that child not hers as well? That child is not just his, it's hers as well.

For some people it stops here, others still press forth with, "But she's just going to be living in agony for NINE whole months being forced to carry a child that she doesn't want, and then has to raise a baby that reminds her of what he did to her, for nine months she has to live with that." No. She has to live with that for the rest of her entire life, no matter the choice she makes. Even when you don't become pregnant as a result of rape, you are still effected by the rape daily. An abortion after a rape adds a trauma on top of a trauma, it is not a "quick fix" and it doesn't eliminate the problem. (Read Victims and Victors if you don't believe me.) It just creates a bigger one. See, instead of dealing with the rape, instead of consoling her, and loving her through it, we convince her to just "get rid of it" and never address the actual issue. After the reading Victims and Victors I realized that many women actually feel TRIUMPHANT after the birth of the child. They feel like they beat him! What you don't realize is that in these cases that rapist takes so much from her. He takes her innocence, her choice, her life as she knows it, her security, her comfort, her trust, and her peace of mind. Then you also want to take away the child that is also part of her?

We all know I am pro-adoption, so of course that's an option, but what if she wants to parent the child? I am cool with that, it's her baby, she has that right. But what about everyone else? Women have been shamed, ostracized and even told they were liars when they chose to keep a child conceived in rape. It seems to me that it's more about YOUR discomfort with the issue than with the mother's right to choose. You're all "choice, choice, choice" until a rape victim CHOOSES to raise her baby, and then you make HER feel like crap...what exactly did she do wrong? You are chill with punishing women and babies for the crimes of another if it keeps you from having to be uncomfortable. Tell me again how pro-life you are.

This is the point that people either say, "Whoa, never thought of it like that" or slink away and don't talk to me about it any further.

When a woman has an abortion after a rape she not only has to deal with the ramifications of the rape, but those of the abortion as well, the regret, the loss, the shame, the guilt, and what some describe as "medical rape". Many women are pressured into abortions, and it is not their choice at all. This is not healing to a woman, this is damaging. I would like to leave you with a couple of quote from women that have lived it. From Victims and Victors:

"Abortion does not help or solve a problem—it only compounds and creates another trauma for the already grieving victim by taking away the one thing that can bring joy." —Helene

"I, having lived through rape, and also having raised a child 'conceived in rape,' feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape or incest. I feel that we're being used to further the abortion issue, even though we've not been asked to tell our side of the story." —Kathleen

"The effects of the abortion are much more far reaching than the effects of the rape in my life." —Patricia

"I'm a Christian, but..."

Oh, the times I have heard this sentence, ending in so many different ways; "I'm a Christian, but I don't have to go to church." "I'm a Christian, but I don't have to believe everything the Bible says." "I'm a Christian, but I support abortion." "I'm a Christian, but I support homosexual marriage." "I'm a Christian, but..."

I'm a Christian, but...NOTHING. I am a Christian, AND I believe I go to church each week to receive the fresh infilling of Christ's love, lift up and pray for and with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and to prepare myself to more fully serve Him. I am a Christian, AND I believe the Bible is the true, living, and inspired word of God. I am a Christian, AND I believe that all children born, and unborn, old, and young, sick, and well are precious in His sight, as we were all made in His image and likeness, I believe murder is a sin, and I believe it is our job to protect those that cannot protect themselves. I am a Christian, AND I believe that marriage is a wonderful covenant,  a precious gift from God through which we honor Him, and that it is meant to be cherished, and respected.

I am a Christian, and I support, uphold, and defend the Word of God, no matter what the world thinks of me, because I answer to a higher judge.

My problem with the "I'm a Christian, but.." or, also, "I believe in God, but..." is this, by whose authority do you believe in God, but not His word? By whose authority do you believe in God, but don't agree with His teachings? Who says this is okay? God certainly didn't say this was okay, so on whose authority are you basing your belief system? Your own? In which case you are putting YOU and your "authority" above GOD and His authority, and I think  the first commandment may have a little to say about that. Your parents, or grandparents? Again, let me reference you to the first commandment. If your ideas on what you can believe and how you can believe are centered around, and come from anything other than God's authority, and His word, then you're doing it wrong. Then you are gravely mistaken, and headed down a bad, bad path.

What page does your belief start? For those of you that say, "well, I don't agree with ALL  of the Bible..." at what point do you then say, "okay, now I believe starting here"? Either you believe, or you don't. I know I'm being rather harsh, but sometimes that's what it takes. I am far from perfect, I sin daily. We are all works in progress and we all struggle, but if we aren't striving to live in accordance with His law, then we are setting ourselves up for failure. The Bible is not a bag of trail mix that you can pick the M&Ms out of and leave the hard stuff for someone else to deal with. You must take the easy, fluffy, loving stuff right along with the harder stuff.

The second we stop following God's law is the same second we fall. Hard.

A Mother's Love: Choices.

I had the honor and privilege to sit down and have quite an interesting conversation with a woman I have known for many years. This is her story. Her very true, very sobering story. I did change the names and some identifying features to protect the identity of the family. This is the story of a single mom who finds out that she's pregnant, her daughter has been sexually abused, and her baby will not likely make it to term, and the choices she was faced with, and how she handled them.

I was a recently divorced, single mom to one beautiful, 18 month old little girl, Casey Jo. I just found out I was about four weeks pregnant with my second child, it wasn't the ideal situation, I wasn't married, or in a very stable place, this new baby's dad was also my daughter, Casey's baby sitter. It was a complete shock to my system to find out I was pregnant, I had been told for years, even before I had Casey that I would never be able to have children. I had an incredibly rough pregnancy and delivery with Casey, and was told I would never have another child, and so when I found out I was pregnant again I was absolutely shocked. Two days after I found out I was pregnant again I was in the bathroom with Casey, who was potty training at the time, she was sitting on the potty, and chatting away, as she always did. She had only ever been around adults, and always been spoken to like one, so for an eighteen month old had quite the vocabulary. As she was chatting away, playfully and happily, she suddenly asked a question that I will never forget for as long as I live, a question that completely flipped my world upside down. 

"Why do boys pee white?" she asked, innocently, in her broken toddler language, as she looked at the color of her own, I was completely stunned by this question, and no idea where it came from. "What do you mean?" I asked, trying my hardest to maintain composure and a calm, collected demeanor for her. "They pee boogers in your mouth" the universe fell in around me at that moment, their was only one man she had ever been left alone with, her baby sitter, the father of the child I was now carrying. I didn't know what to do, or where to turn. I called my mother immediately and we contacted the police and went from there. It was a long process, and one I hated to have to watch my baby go through. She saw doctor after doctor, and therapist after therapist. I thought I could trust him, he was recommended to me by several people, and very well respected, I had no idea. 

I felt like the worst mother ever, what kind of a parent doesn't realize what is going on in their home? To their baby? This was worse than if he had done it to me. You can ask any mother, we never want to see our child go through any kind of hurt, and will move heaven and earth to protect them. I prayed to God so many times in the weeks and months, and even years after to wake me up from that horrible nightmare, to take away the pain that little girl had gone through, I would take that pain and suffering a hundred times over if I could, I would do anything to spare her that hurt. 

Here I am, single, alone, scared, the mother of a child that has been hurt beyond imagine, and pregnant by the one that inflicted that pain on her. People all around were pressuring me to abort that baby, telling me that "this child will be evil like it's father"  and "do you want to be reminded of what he did to Casey every day?" I didn't know where to turn, I didn't know which way was up. I just wished it would all go away. I decided that I would not abort this child, after all it was just as much me as it was him, I couldn't kill this child anymore than I could  kill Casey. I still didn't know if I would keep the baby, but I had made up my mind not to kill him or her. 

As the pregnancy progressed the doctors told me that I should have an abortion, they told me that IF this baby made it to term, it would be severely brain damaged, and would not live long after birth, and if it did, would have a poor quality of life. They told me that carrying and delivering this baby could kill me, and take away the only parent Casey had.  I thought about abortion a little more, how could I leave my little girl without a mommy? After she had been through so much? But, what would she think of me, as her mother if I killed her sibling? Could I even look at her after murdering her brother or sister? 

No, I couldn't. This baby, though conceived out of wedlock, and with a man that I believe to be pure evil, was still a baby. A baby that didn't ask to be conceived  a baby that did nothing wrong, I couldn't punish this baby. Against the advisement of my doctors and everyone around me, I decided to carry the baby, and deliver it.   Even though we were going through so much with Casey, I knew that it was the right thing to do, I decided not only to let the baby live, but to raise it. 

Three weeks before my due date I went into labor, the baby was breech, and they had to do an emergency C-section. I expected the baby to be born dead, or severely disabled,  but to my amazement my little boy, Micheal Anthony was born screaming his little lungs out, with not a problem to be found, other than of course being born early, he was otherwise healthy.

I fell in love with him immediately, and hoped Casey could too. I let her pick out his name, she wasn't very excited about him, we tried all we could to get her used to the idea, but she would just continue to say that he was bad because his dad was bad. Even at her very young age she recognized that this baby, her brother was a part of the very bad man that had done things to hurt her. She knew that part of him was in her brother. I wondered if I had made the wrong choice for Casey. Not allowing him to live, I have never questioned that choice, but not finding a better family for him. Did I hurt Casey more by keeping Michael? Was it harder on her to have him around? Was I being selfish?

I thought this for a long time, I saw how affected Casey was, I beat myself up over it for the first few years of his life. Then, I noticed as Casey got older she was able to love Michael, she was able to separate him from the evils of his father. She will always have the lasting scars of what that man did to her, even though she is all grown up, and has a family of her own now, I can see that in many ways it still haunts her. I still wish I could take away the pain, the hurt and the tears, I still hold that what he did to her was far worse than if he had done it to me. She is my child, it was my job to protect her. 

I hear so many people say that abortion should be okay for rape and health of the mother. If I had used either of those excuses, and I could have, I know that I wasn't raped, but that pervert hurt my daughter, and Michael is a result of him, that I wouldn't have my beautiful, charismatic  funny, challenging, intelligent son that I adore, and the grandchildren that he has given me. If I would have used either of those excuses, I would have to live with more than the guilt of allowing something awful to happen to my daughter, I would also have to live with the guilt of murdering my child. 

This story brings tears to my eyes. I know this entire family personally, and that makes it even more difficult for me to write this, but I feel it is a story that needed to be written. I think we need more first hand accounts of struggles with choice. So often (and I am guilty as well) we just say "that couldn't happen to me" or "it would be an easy choice, I wouldn't struggle" that's not true. We would struggle, we would wonder, and it would be hard. The thing I think we can all learn from this story is that no matter how bad a situation may seem, God can turn it around. I really think He did, she thought she would die, her child would die, and her daughter would be left without a mom. She and her daughter had to overcome a lot, and they did, and beautifully. The love and the bond of this family is awe-inspiring.

Being Pro-Human

Feminist, radical feminist,anti-feminist, counter-feminist, new feminist...and I'm sure plenty of other terms that I'm not familiar with. You may not be familiar with all of these terms, but I'm pretty sure we're at least all familiar with the feminist movement. Now, before we get into this, and start talking about why I am closer to the support of "new feminism" than any of these other terms, though I really don't like the idea of labeling everyone and separating people into groups. I think that's strange, and not very loving. So, I like to think of myself as simply me, a super awesome person, who is pro-human. I don't think that any group of humans is any better than any other group. That's right folks, the Bible thumping Jesus freak thinks that she is no better, and no less than men, homosexuals, bisexuals, pan or omnisexuals, transgender people, Muslims, Jewish, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, Agnostic, Atheist, African, British, Mexican, Canadian, Chinese, Japanese, Maharishi, Baptist, Methodist, rich, poor, young, old, sick, healthy, tall, short, fat, thin, unborn baby humans, and the myriad of other "groups"  I failed to mention. I know that God loves all His children equally, and we are ALL His children, even those that turn from Him, He still loves you, He'll still welcome you into His house, all you gotta do is repent and ask Him into your heart, and trust me, your world will be rocked. So, as a daughter of Christ, it is my duty to love every one of God's creations, period, and I do. Now, just because I love you does that mean I am going to indulge your sinful behavior, and be like "it's cool, man, I love you, but not enough to care if you go to Hell or not." Heck no, I love you so much that I don't want you to go to Hell, I love you so much that, as lovingly as I can, I'm going to try and point out what the Bible says about the behavior you are engaging in. I expect the exact same from you, it's not easy, I've had my faults pointed out, and I'm glad they did it, we all need someone to hold us accountable. Listen, if I saw someone breaking the law, stealing, killing, beating someone, kidnapping, doing drugs, etc. would you expect me to turn a blind eye, or stand up and say something. I would want you to stand up and say something, and the same goes with God's law. I love you, and I love you enough to be able to still love you, but maybe not agree with all of your choices.

Now, stop getting me off track, this post is supposed to be about women, well, feminism to be exact.  In fact, according to my research, the "founding mothers" of feminism were also very pro-human as a whole. In fact, most of them were against abortion and would probably have a fit if they saw how perverted and twisted the feminine movement has become. Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were completely against abortion because (like me) they saw the value in human life. Ironically, the anti-abortion laws that feminists of today are so against, were a result of advocacy efforts by FEMINISTS! They saw that abortion was not just a "right that all women should have a choice in" but something that  women were pressured  into doing, they didn't see it as a freeing thing, like women of today do, they saw it as oppression. 

Feminists of today are NOT the feminists of the past that sought for equal treatment and respect of women. I feel like today feminism has gone so far beyond the right to vote, and work, and be seen as an equal in society, to more of a feeling of superiority, that women are better than men, and deserve, not equal, but better rights. That men are these horrible, evil creations that should be talked down to, trained, and molded into what women want them to be. That, as women, we have the right to "wear the pants" in our relationships, and any woman who "submits" to her husband is a horribly oppressed person, and men are evil, did I mention that?  Now, I am not at all saying that their aren't women out there who are being oppressed, and abused. And I'm not saying that's okay. Not at all. No person, man, woman, child, or unborn baby deserves to be thought of as less than, abused, forced into something, or have their basic rights stripped away. 

I was a born and raised feminist, I consider myself a "recovering feminist" I was taught to believe that women were superior, that we did not need men to raise children, that all men were exactly alike, users and abusers, and that women were created entirely equal to men. No, women and men, while of equal value and worth, deserving of equal treatment, are created entirely different. Biologically speaking we are very different, even our general nature is different. I see it all the time even in young children, the boys like to protect, while the girls like to seek out help and protection. I'm sure you understand the basic biological differences in men and women, and that I don't have to go into the birds and the bees for you. See, we are not the same as men, we are different. That doesn't make us better, or worse. Just not exactly the same. 

Being a woman is not a bad thing, it's a super awesome, amazing thing! Do you know what our bodies are capable of? We can grow life inside of us, our bodies adjust and change in accordance with what our children need, even after they are born. We are all (men too) such amazing creations, just being created in and of itself is an amazing thing, so many things have to go just perfectly in order for a person to be conceived, it's completely mind blowing when you think about it. I can't even put into words how awesome we are, amazing, it's simply amazing! Just think of the transformation we go through between conception and birth, we start out as forty six chromosomes that contain a mesh of information about who we will be (hair color, eye color, gender and even basic personality traits) at that point we are teeny, tiny, microscopic. In just nine short months we go through all of the "fine tuning" the changes that take us from microscopic to a baby! Even after we're born, the rest of our lives are spent fine tuning who we are, and the amount of growth one human goes through (physical and emotional) from conception to death is just spectacular and amazing. 

I think feminists today seem to miss the amazing wonder that is simply being human. Sometimes I think we are blinded by a cause, and this elitist mentality. Sometimes the things that feminists fight for just boggle my mind. I think that they miss how demeaning and oppressive some of the things they fight for are to women. 

Birth control, first of all, is not a "healthcare" need. Pregnancy is not a disease, and sex is not a requirement. I completely confused by this whole "stay out of my uterus" when it comes to abortion...but, buy me stuff for it type of argument. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Anyway, besides that the fact that it's a group one carcinogen, it has aided in the objectification of women. Seriously. You're on birth control, therefore you can have sex with whomever you want and not worry about the natural consequence of it, and if it fails, that's all on you. Instead of men honoring and respecting our bodies as the amazing things that they are we tell them it's okay not to...and then yell that they don't? Don't worry, I'm just as confused as you are.We've made it the woman's responsibility to make sure SHE doesn't get herself pregnant, what the heck happened to men's accountability? If you are mature enough to have sex, then you are also, by default saying that you are mature enough to live with the consequences. With natural birth control methods (NFP) both parties are involved, and both parties are responsible for the creation, or prevention of a new life.  With hormonal birth control  it's all on the woman, she has to make the appointments, she has to remember to take the pill, or schedule her shot, she has to make sure she's using it correctly, etc. I don't know about you, but that sounds awfully anti-feminist to me.

Abortion, same deal. Most women are pressured into them, whether directly, or indirectly. When I say indirectly I mean with things like "he won't help" "I'll be a single mom" "he's not ready to be a dad" "this isn't what he wants" and the list goes on. I guess I just don't see how these things have become huge feminist platforms when they both seem quite the opposite to me. Fair pay, rights to work, and anti discrimination platforms, I get. This, I don't get. I don't get how you can say that everyone is created equal and then say that you are above someone else, I don't get how you can say that being a housewife is oppressive, but be totally chill with being objectified in these [and other] ways. 

When babies are aborted because of their gender, what gender do you think gets aborted most often? That's right, females, and what do females become? WOMEN! So, let me get this straight, you are all about women's rights, except, of course the women that can't speak for themselves...um, okay? I always hear the question "what if that baby you saved is a future terrorist?" so, let me be the devil's advocate here and turn this around on you, what if that baby girl you just murdered was the future leader of the feminist movement? This is a cause I can see feminists getting behind, no gender based abortions. 

Then we have this whole treat men like crap and then whine when they suck thing going on, what the heck is up with THAT? This is so illogical...and I should know, I did it the first few months of my marriage (see here for a confession of my idiocy) I am lucky that I have a husband who was raised to honor and cherish his wife, period. Even if the woman divorces him, he is still faithful to her (true story about his dad, I may tell it some day) Anyway, I am lucky that I married a man who will put up with my feminist better than him crap, not all men are that awesome. Here's the deal, we're taught that men are wrong and stupid, and that they are of less value than women, I'm not sure why...maybe because we have vaginas and can have babies? Maybe because they've allowed us to treat them that way, and have started acting in accordance with the way we expect them to act? I really don't know, but that's how I was raised, and that's what the media feeds us. It's not true, we've done this to ourselves, as women. 

We've told men they don't have to open doors, so they don't. We've told men we can pay for dinner, so they stop offering. We've told men we don't value our bodies, so they don't either. We've told men we don't need them to raise children, so they don't stick around. Now, I know that we have exceptions to every rule, I know several, and I married one. For the vast majority, this is true. See, we send the message that we don't need these things, and then expect them, and complain when we don't get them. Now, I'm not at all saying that because of the way women act they deserve to be raped or beaten, or treated like crap.

No, those men will always, and have always existed. The difference is they used to be the exception, and are now becoming the rule. I'm saying that if you stand up and say "I value my body, I am worth more than sex, I am a catch, and I deserve a good guy" and then act accordingly, then chances are you are going to attract a man that values your body, a man that wants you for more than sex, a man that know how fantastic you are and a man that will do anything to continue being with you, because you rock. 

But, on the flip side, if you project that you don't care about yourself, if you project that all you are worth is sex, because it's your body and you can have sex with who you want, when you want...then you are going to attract men that want to have sex with you..and, well, that's pretty much it, and then find someone else that wants to do the same as soon as you get boring or figure out that he's an idiot. 

I just don't get it. So, I'll just keep being awesome, and pro-human, I'll keep telling you what I think, and I'll keep being treated awesome by husband, and doing the same for him. To me, saying I am pro-human says that I believe that men, women, children and unborn babies all deserve to be loved and valued, no matter their race, age, gender, religious standing, or political beliefs. I think we should all be more pro-human...that is of course, if you are human, and think you should be treated with respect and dignity and that other humans should be too. 

Why, as pro-lifers we have to say that life begins at conception.

Source

The issue of where life actually begins is hugely debatable, everyone seems to have a line somewhere, but as pro-lifers  where is our line? I've heard a few pro-lifers say comments to the effect of "well, I'm not actually sure where life begins..." in discussions about some birth control causing mothers to self abort without any knowledge of it (also, see that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says "the lining of the uterus thins, making it less likely that a fertilized egg can attach to it." (emphasis added) in their description of how birth control works)  and also while discussing  emergency contraceptive. These comments scare me to death, but I was too much of a chicken to make a stand and say anything, and I feel awful for being such a coward. Hopefully, those people will read this, and at least think about it some more.

We have to draw the line at conception because if we don't, then we are on a very slippery slope...right where the devil wants us...and that's exactly how our country ended up in a place where some people say it isn't a life until up to a few DAYS after it's born  I think that most pro-abortion people would also agree that that is totally unacceptable, but yet, because we've allowed ourselves to believe that life begins somewhere other than conception, we've gotten ourselves to this place. How do you define where life begins?

Conception: Day 1, the egg is fertilized and the "genetic makeup is complete, including the sex of the baby". all the "stuff" that will make up you will become, who that tiny little baby will become, is already their, right from the beginning, people are made of up 46 chromosomes, and at conception, we have them, all 46 of them, making us people...all of our genetic makeup is complete. 

If not there, then where? 

Implantation? When it attaches to the uterine wall, around nine days after conception. If you're against emergency contraceptive, but down with hormonal birth control, you may want to delve further into this (I have provided links to both) because emergency contraceptive works within seventy two hours of INTERCOURSE, but IF you are on hormonal birth control, and an egg was fertilized (conception) then it may not be able to attach to the wall of the uterus, because hormonal birth control thins the lining of the uterus,  the baby would be aborted without the mother's knowledge. I encourage you to look into this further. (and no, this doesn't ALWAYS happen, with ALL birth control, to ALL women, but it can and does happen)

Those are the most common places to draw lines (for pro-lifers) but if you have no clue, then where do you draw the line?

When it has a heartbeat? 5 weeks

When facial features begin to form? 6 weeks

When fingers and toes are present? 8 weeks

When they begin looking more like a human and his/her eyes are fully formed, along with all of their "essential body parts"? 9 weeks

When they begin swallowing and kicking, and all of the vital organs are formed, and functioning? 10 weeks

When he/she looks undeniably human? 12 weeks

When they can urinate, suck their thumb, and make facial expressions? 14 weeks

When they can sense light? 15 weeks

When they could live outside the womb? 27 weeks

When they take their first breath?

When they cry for the first time?

When they are deemed "healthy" and "likely t live a life of value" (see link above to article about after birth abortions)

Where does it stop? When they are a productive member of society? When they are able to make moral choices?

And then, when does their life stop mattering? When they are no longer a productive member of society? When they can no longer function in the every day world, and need to be moved to a care facility?

If you don't stand firm in the belief that life absolutely begins at conception, then you are taking the first steps onto a very, very slippery slope that is super easy to slide down, as seen with the current state of abortion.

I was told once that we can't start drawing lines in the sand, no we certainly cannot, they will get washed away by the tide, or scattered by the wind. I say, draw your lines, draw them in concrete, and etch them in stone, while we're at it, let's take off our shoes and socks, and plant our feet in the concrete as well, and stand firm on our beliefs, and not let wind nor tide deter us.

Life begins at conception, on day one. Otherwise, we're opening ourselves up to a whole world of slippery slopes.