Once only once

This will be my only post about abortion issues for the next year. The current discussion about the "morning-after pill" (see for example here and here) remind us that this issue is still live. Unpleasant and alive!
As a fairly orthodox Christian I feel defeated by the issue of abortion, there seems little doubt to me that most Christians are not "in favour" of abortion per se; indeed I think that is true of most people irrespective of religious faith. No one thinks abortion is a "good idea".
As a man I understand why many women say this affects them in a way that requires them to be able to be free to choose, and that I can never have that same degree of involvement. I understand it, but am not comfortable with it.
What I think gets overlooked is that abortion is not just an individual decision it is a corporate one. Indeed that is true of most important decisions, what I do as an individual affects other people. Some things more, some things less.

The community effects for me, centre around the dehumanising of society.

• What sort of society do we create when we say of difficult problems (eg. getting pregnant) we will just screw the consequences up and throw them away? That's maybe OK if you are talking about a few cancer cells on the skin, but hardly when the cells you are talking about will develop into a human life?
• I am not convinced that pregnancy is the concern of the woman alone. Was I just curious when I used to say "We are pregnant"? (People often looked at me as though I was!) And shouldn't we be encouraging mutual responsibility.
• With the particular issue of whether Minister Abbott should be allowed to decide whether RU486 is permitted in his own right, and when it is clear that he is particularly partisan on this issue, I would generally agree that the moves to allow this to be shifted to arm's length from the Minister are sensible. Ministerial discretion is one thing, but Ministerial whim is quite another