How I can vote democrat and be anti-abortion

Ok, first things first. I am not "pro-life," and you aren't "pro-choice." There is nothing more insane to me than an argument where each side claims to be "pro" something, as if that gives them some sort of moral prerogative over the opposition. Actually, there is one thing that is more insane: being pro or con something other than what you're talking about. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who isn't for "life." Or "choice" for that matter. The sides in this argument are actually "pro-abortion" and "anti-abortion." I'm anti-abortion.

The problem with abortion is that people on both sides of the aisle have very deep convictions on the subject. People like myself, who believe the fetus becomes a living person at some point in the womb, feel that it's murder. Others, who don't believe the fetus is a living person until it is born, feel that preventing abortion is basically forcing a woman to suffer a medical condition--pregnancy--for 9 long months. All for something that isn't even a living thing.

And so we come to the great American impasse. Pro-abortion people will never back down, ever, no matter what, and anti-abortion people will never back down, ever, no matter what.

***

Having just outlined the problem, here's where the politicians have turned the whole situation into a catastrophe. We, as Americans, live in a two-party system. You either vote Republican, vote Democrat, or "waste" your vote (because independents are rarely able to muster the funds needed to run a successful campaign).

Politicians are smart. They've latched onto the abortion issue, knowing that there is a significant group of people out there who will vote on a candidate based solely on his or her position regarding abortion. Lets pretend I make it onto the ballot as the republican senate candidate from my state. All I have to do is say that I am "pro-life" and I will get a guaranteed set of votes. The democrat running against me will say that he is "pro-choice" and he will get a guaranteed set of votes. Those voters are now a given; my opponent and I will spend the rest of our campaigns attempting to woo everyone else.

This is, in my opinion, tragic. If you base your vote solely on someone's position on abortion, you are marginalizing yourself. You have given your vote away, basically abdicating on all other issues. Going back to my example, I, as the republican candidate, could betray my Moral Majority voters (who are more or less guaranteed to vote for me) in all other areas--the budget, the economy, global politics, porkbarrell spending, etc--and they'd still vote for me because, the way the problem has been set up, they do not have a valid alternative.

The worst part is that, in most cases, the elections you vote in have little to nothing to do with the legality of abortion. Abortion was upheld as legal (or, more accurately, anti-abortion laws were held as unconstitutional) in the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade, in a 7-2 decision. Given the current make up of the supreme court, including George W. Bush's replacement of two justices, Roe v Wade could be overturned today with a likely 5-4 decision. But, the supreme court has chosen not to hear a case that would call the controversial decision into question.

The problem, then, is that the only other way to outlaw abortion is by a constitutional amendment. To do this, the proposed amendment would need to pass by a 2/3rds majority in both houses of congress, and then would need to be ratified by the state legislatures of 3/4ths of the states. Talk about something that isn't gonna happen!!

So I don't even worry about abortion when I vote. It's a non-issue. Just isn't going to go away. I wish it would, but with the divide on the issue being what it is, a constitutional amendment isn't going to happen, and with our very conservative (and very young) chief justice refusing to hear a case that would overturn the original decision, I don't expect it on the docket any time soon.

Stop letting politicians take you for granted. Hold their feet to the fire, and if they don't perform, vote for the other guy, no matter how he feels about abortion.

Edit:
I realized after the fact that I might not have been clear about how I feel about abortion. I hate it. It is a social evil and a form of violence that has no place in our civilization. If it were up to me, I'd wave a magic wand and make the whole stinkin' mess go away.

I mean, if you're not married, you aren't supposed to be having sex at all, but if you do, there are 80 gazillion forms of birth control: IUDs, condoms, diaphragms, "the pill," morning after pills (which are a whole other story), injectable hormone treatments, etc. We can't be held responsible to use at least one of them when engaging in sexual activity? Its no wonder that STDs are spreading at such an alarming rate.

As an interesting ending note, Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe" from the landmark Roe v Wade case) is actually anti-abortion. The basis of her case was that she was impregnated due to rape, and as such, had extenuating circumstances and deserved the right to choose whether or not to terminate the pregnancy. The following was taken from the Roe v Wade page on wikipedia:

It was my pseudonym, Jane Roe, which had been used to create the "right" to abortion out of legal thin air. But Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee never told me that what I was signing would allow women to come up to me 15, 20 years later and say, "Thank you for allowing me to have my five or six abortions. Without you, it wouldn't have been possible." Sarah never mentioned women using abortions as a form of birth control. We talked about truly desperate and needy women, not women already wearing maternity clothes.