I am woman. (The Right Perspective).

Roughly four months after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, I was born. The youngest of three sisters, I grew up in a female dominated household at a time when women were being taught that they could achieve anything they put their minds to. It was an age of female empowerment, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't greatly contribute to who I am today.

Wonder Woman, Charlie's Angels, The Bionic Woman--even Daisy Duke from the Dukes of Hazard--these were the television heroines I idolized. Madonna's Material Girl served as the musical backdrop as I set my high school goals to be the best basketball player/horse trainer/writer ever. Women, I was conditioned to believe, could have it all. Power, respect, sex appeal, love, and, of course, the ability to become a mom, all wrapped up in the super-neat package called Today's New Woman. Men were just an accessory to be chosen--placed just so--and, if they didn't work out, discarded.

"We have the right to do anything we want!" was the familiar collective chant, and it was seductive. Every fiber of my being strained for recognition as a powerful societal force, ready to take on the world--a strong, independent female! This meant that no one--especially a man--was going to tell me what to do, what my career should be, or how to live my life. I had the power to choose, you see, and society was backing me one hundred percent.

I have the right to go to college! I have the right to run a corporation! I have the right to be president! I have the right to get rid of my baby in the event that I get pregnant and don't want to be! I have the right to choose! I have the....

Then something made me pause, made me lower my clenched fist and fall silent. A jolt of shame rushed through me as I realized that I could never bring myself to believe that I had the right to destroy my baby. And in a moment of hesitation, I lifted my eyes skyward and caught a glimpse of what God has been trying to tell humans all along.

My life was a gift that I did not choose and neither did my mother. And what society viewed as my right to exercise control over my body--cloaked as it was in a flag of personal freedom--was nothing more than a morbid excuse to justify eliminating innocent life.

The power of choice can never be unleashed without restraint if a society is to remain civilized and free. If a murder is committed, the offender must suffer at the hands of the law for misusing the power of choice. The same ...